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You might have heard the term AAA or Triple-A video games before. These are big-budget titles that you see commercials for on TV. Here’s what they are, and how they shape the gaming industry.

您可能以前听说过AAA或Triple-A电子游戏。 这些是您可以在电视上看到广告的大型预算标题。 它们是什么，以及它们如何塑造游戏行业。

轰动一时的电影，但用于游戏 (Blockbuster Movies, But for Games)

You’ve probably watched a blockbuster movie before. Blockbusters typically have large budgets, production teams of thousands of people, big-name actors, and recognizable film studios producing them. Also, they tend to make tons of money, with more and more movies crossing the billion-dollar mark every year. AAA (or Triple-A) video games are to the gaming world what blockbusters are for the film industry.

您可能以前看过一部大片。 大片通常预算庞大，制作团队有数千人，知名演员和知名电影制片厂来制作。 而且，他们倾向于赚大钱，每年有越来越多的电影突破十亿美元大关。 AAA(或Triple-A)电子游戏对游戏界而言是电影行业的重磅炸弹。

Just like blockbusters, they usually involve huge teams working for months to years to make a finished product, employed by a major studio. This is normally followed by a big marketing campaign with ads that show up everywhere, as well as a long preorder so people can get the game as soon as it comes out. These games are then distributed by a large well-known publisher, such as Nintendo, Sony, Activision, or Electronic Arts.

就像大片一样，他们通常需要庞大的团队工作数月至数年才能制作成品，并由一家大型工作室雇用。 通常情况下，这是紧随其后的大型营销活动，广告随处可见，而且订购时间很长，因此人们可以在游戏问世后立即获得它。 这些游戏然后由诸如Nintendo ，Sony，Activision或Electronic Arts的大型知名发行商发行。

Many Triple-A titles are also part of popular franchises. Much like the way a studio like Disney or Warner Bros. creates movies with their significant properties every year, there are some game series that release titles every few years or even yearly. Call of Duty, Battlefield, Mario, and FIFA are all series with regular new installments that frequently beat their own sales records.

许多Triple-A冠军头衔也很受欢迎。 就像迪士尼或华纳兄弟(Warner Bros.)这样的制片厂每年制作具有重要属性的电影的方式一样，有些游戏系列每隔几年甚至每年都会发行电影。 《使命召唤》，《战地风云》，《马里奥》和《 FIFA》都是定期发行新唱片的系列，经常刷新自己的销售记录。

Triple-A游戏与其他游戏 (Triple-A Games Versus Other Games)

So, how do you tell if a game counts as Triple-A? Without even knowing the game’s studio, the first identifier is its launch price. Nowadays, a standard major title is sold both digitally and physically at $60 upon launch in the United States, with that amount varying between different regions and countries. While this price will certainly go down over time due to sales and bundles, nearly all major releases start at this amount. This doesn’t even include things like a season pass or launch day downloadable content (DLC), which can add to its price upon purchase.

那么，您如何判断游戏是否算作AAA？ 甚至不知道游戏的工作室，第一个标识符就是游戏的发行价格。 如今，标准的主要标题在美国发行时以数字和物理方式出售，价格为60美元，该金额因地区和国家/地区而异。 尽管由于销售和捆绑销售，这个价格肯定会随着时间下降，但是几乎所有主要发行版本都以这个价格开始。 这甚至不包括季票或发布日可下载内容(DLC)之类的内容，这些内容在购买时可能会增加价格。

Next is the game’s scale. While there are undoubtedly many ambitious and expansive non-AAA titles out there, the limited budget often becomes a hindering factor for smaller games. Many Triple-A games such as Red Dead Redemption, The Witcher, and Grand Theft Auto have thousands of hours of content and open maps that emphasize exploration. They also frequently have boundary-pushing graphical quality and animation.

接下来是游戏的规模。 尽管毫无疑问，有很多雄心勃勃且范围广泛的非AAA游戏，但有限的预算常常成为小型游戏的阻碍因素。 《 Red Dead Redemption》，《 The Witcher》和《 The Grand Theft Auto》等许多Triple-A游戏都有数千小时的内容和开放地图，着重于探索。 它们还经常具有推动边界的图形质量和动画效果。

Another visible indicator is the size of the team. If a game’s credits have thousands of people and multiple gaming companies working on it, it’s very likely to be a major studio release. Due to the scale and intensity, game publishers often outsource certain aspects of the game, such as 3D animation, modeling, sound design, and online connectivity to third-party contractors.

另一个可见的指标是团队的规模。 如果一个游戏的信誉有成千上万的人，并且有多家游戏公司在工作，那么它很可能是主要的工作室发行版。 由于规模和强度，游戏发行商通常将游戏的某些方面外包，例如3D动画，建模，声音设计以及与第三方承包商的在线连接。

On the opposite side of the coin are independent games, colloquially known as indie games, which are independently financed and made by small teams. Some famous indie games, such as Minecraft and Stardew Valley, were made almost entirely by one person. They usually are shorter, less graphically intensive, and are priced much lower than Triple-A titles, with many of them being sold between $10 to $40. Many of them also don’t have a physical release, opting for pure digital distribution.

硬币的另一面是独立游戏，俗称独立游戏，由小团队独立资助和制作。 一些著名的独立游戏，例如Minecraft和Stardew Valley，几乎都是由一个人制作的。 它们通常更短，图形强度更低，并且价格远远低于Triple-A产品，其中许多产品的售价在10到40美元之间。 他们中的许多人也没有实际发行，而是选择纯数字发行。

A subset of these games, known as III or Triple-I titles, are large-scale productions with expansive concepts that are made by an independent studio. Games such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, No Man’s Sky, and The Witness are all high-quality titles developed by indie game studios.

这些游戏的子集，称为III或Triple-I游戏，是由独立工作室制作的具有广泛概念的大型作品。 诸如《 地狱之刃：塞努阿的牺牲》 ，《 无人的天空 》和《见证》等游戏都是独立游戏工作室开发的高质量游戏。

什么是“ Triple-A Plus”游戏？ (What Are “Triple-A Plus” Games?)

In recent years, game journalists have also coined the term AAA+ or Triple-A plus. These are titles with especially large budgets that are sold at a premium price, and often have additional monetization inside the game. Examples of these include season passes, DLC, and microtransactions.

近年来，游戏记者还创造了AAA +或Triple-A plus的称呼。 这些是预算特别大的游戏，以高价出售，并且通常在游戏内部具有额外的获利能力。 这些示例包括季票，DLC和微交易 。

Yearly game franchises, like FIFA and Call of Duty, are often explicitly designed to have additional purchases built-in. Call of Duty is sold with a season pass that players have to buy to play new campaigns that are distributed throughout the year.

像FIFA和《 使命召唤》这样的年度游戏专营权通常经过明确设计，可以内置更多购买功能。 使命召唤是随季票一起出售的，玩家必须购买季票才能播放全年分发的新广告系列。

FIFA, on the other hand, has a microtransaction system where you can open loot boxes to unlock various versions of football players to assemble a team. They recently announced that they’d made over a billion dollars in total microtransaction revenues.

另一方面， FIFA具有微交易系统，您可以在其中打开战利品箱以解锁各种版本的足球运动员以组建一支球队。 他们最近宣布，他们的微交易总收入超过10亿美元。

游戏的未来 (The Future of Gaming)

As the gaming community continues to grow, so will the gaming industry. More and more major franchise games are being released every year, and while many of them are great, there are some causes for concern. These include the pervasiveness of additional monetization to already expensive games, as well as the tendency of studios to release very similar games every year.

随着游戏社区的持续增长，游戏行业也将不断发展。 每年都会发布越来越多的主要特许经营游戏，尽管其中许多都是很棒的，但也有一些令人担忧的原因。 其中包括对已经很昂贵的游戏进行额外货币化的普遍性，以及各工作室每年发行非常相似的游戏的趋势。

Fortunately, indie gaming enterprises are also growing. The most popular game in the world, Minecraft, was made by a small gaming studio set up by one person. The ubiquity of digital downloading and the rise of platforms like Steam and GOG have made great affordable titles more accessible than ever.

幸运的是，独立游戏企业也在增长。 Minecraft是世界上最受欢迎的游戏，由一个人成立的小型游戏工作室制作。 数字下载的无处不在以及Steam和GOG等平台的兴起使得负担得起的优质游戏比以往任何时候都更容易获得。

翻译自: https://www.howtogeek.com/659948/what-are-aaa-triple-a-video-games/

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