The AAA model in increasingly developing into a market in which only the biggest companies can survive – and even then the design of these titles will become more stagnant.

That’s according to Boss Key Productions founder and Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski. Speaking to attendees at Reboot Develop today, the veteran games developer discussed the “really, really weird spot” blockbuster games have found themselves in, and pondered potential solutions.

“AAA is starting to feel like the American restaurant scene,” he said, referring to how increasing globalisation means every major city usually has the exact same chains and franchises when you’re looking for a place to eat. “They’re not bad, they’re not great, they’re just there.”

It’s the same with AAA, which he says has become a “category of eight games that are getting repeated over and over again”. He brought up a slide depicting best-sellers such as Uncharted 4 and the Call of Duty games, stressing that these are “great games” but cost hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and market.

He added that it doesn’t help most consumers view many blockbuster franchises as “the name you know” and are “too scared to take the risk on new IP”.

“$60 is still a lot of money to ask people for,” he said. “And to ask them to make that bet multiple times per year? Gamers are picky, they’re smart.

“This is a nearly unsustainable model, unless you’re an Activision, 2K or a Sony.”

His advice to developers still looking to make their mark is to aim for what he referred to as “Double A”, which he considers to be “games that look and play great but pick their battles in terms of budget and marketing”. Examples he offered included Warframe, Rocket League and Rust, with Bleszinski noting that most successful ‘Double A’ games are digital and/or free-to-play.

In terms of finding funding for such games, he pointed out that “there’s a lot of money in Asia” – his own studio, Boss Key Productions, has partnered with Nexon for its debut game, LawBreakers. This title is also designed to be ‘Double A’, and won’t have a full $60 price tag.

Bleszinski also warned that developers only have one shot to make a new IP, referring to the team at Raven Software: “They made a great game in Singularity, but it ultimately didn’t do well because of the marketing, even though the ratings were great. And now they’re one of the multi-headed hydras behind the Call of Duty series.”

He recognised that the collaborative model used to create titles like Call of Duty and many Ubisoft games, combining the efforts of teams from around the world, is effective but not one he’d ever want to be a part of.

His talk later branched into virtual reality, which he likened to lucid dreaming – something he has apparently spent years trying to master. In fact, VR has helped him hone this elusive skill: “I’m a better lucid dreamer when I wear a sleep mask because I think I’m wearing a headset.”

He stressed that high-quality graphics are the key to immersion in VR, adding that “the best VR looking experiences I’ve had are built in Unreal Engine 4”.

“I’ve not paid to say that by my former employers,” he laughed. “Unity is a good engine but when it comes down to it, you can’t beat Unreal for visual fidelity.”

The issue, as he puts it, is great graphics cost money. Bleszinski is currently pitching a VR project but struggling to get the investment required to make the finished product look as good as it needs to. He observed that shareholders are “only giving out a little money”, which is why the industry is seeing a lot of tech demos coming from the VR space.

He also likened the current trend of wave-based shooting games – such as Raw Data and Robo Recall – as the equivalent of ’80s arcade games such as Galaga and Robotron, adding that he’s confident VR will expand beyond this just as the arcades did.

Bleszinski acknowledged that there are plenty of barriers to overcome before virtual reality is adopted by the masses. Complicated setups, especially for room-scale VR, are particularly off-putting. He referred to his parents that didn’t even set the clock on their VCR – they just wired it into the TV and plugged it in – adding: “Why would they set up VR?”

He continued: “If I were Oculus, Facebook or Vive, I would have kiosks at every major retail location, and a tech team that comes round to set it all up properly”.

“But like all technologies, it’s get better, it’ll get faster. But give it a little bit of time.”

From the stage of F8, Joaquin Quinonero, Facebook’s Director of Applied Machine Learning, described a new technique the company is using to improve the watching experience for 360 videos. The format is challenging to deliver because of its size, but Facebook is using machine learning to reduce the number of pixels that have to be rendered at any one time. By predicting where a viewer will look next, rendering priority can be given to that location  — particularly helpful for users with lower quality internet access.

The status quo for 360 videos is reactive rather than proactive rendering. Mike Coward, engineering director for Facebook’s VR video team echoed the frustration of users to me when he described the unpleasantness of turning your head in VR only to see a blurry scene.

One partial fix is to optimize compression. But teams at the company are already using machine learning to select across the thousand-plus compression techniques for individual snippets of video. The other way to reduce the streaming load is to just cut down on what you’re rendering. And rather than reduce quality across the board, Facebook’s approach improves resolution for exactly what you’re most likely to look at next.

Mike Coward, engineering director for Facebook’s VR video teamStep one was to use the resources of the company to monitor where people actually do look when watching 360 videos. Facebook’s VR video team created a heat-map that highlighted the most popular spots that users looked at within videos. From there, Facebook built a generative saliency map using a deep neural network. This model makes it possible to perform predictions on new videos that haven’t previously been watched or studied.

If a human were to be given the task of predicting where someone might look, they might study their natural environment and look for anomalies that could catch one’s interest — think birds or a car driving by.

Abstracting away to the neural net, the physical cars and birds cease to matter. Facebook’s model was trained on a massive corpus of videos to identify interesting subsets of a video frame. Coward told me that the model, when faced with a surfer in the ocean, is capable of picking selecting the surfer as most interesting, despite the fact that both are fast moving entities.

After implementing the prediction model, Facebook was able to increase resolution by 39 percent on VR devices. Aside from improving resolution and making 360 videos accessible to people without great network connections, the technology could some day make it possible to offer preemptive suggestions to creators on how to make videos more engaging.

There’s no doubt that virtual and augmented reality are quickly gaining in popularity. From expensive options like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift to more affordable options like Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR, virtual reality really is accessible to everyone. With devices starting to ship with AR capabilities and Microsoft’s Hololens on the horizon, augmented reality is gaining steam as well.

CVR 2017 is Canada’s biggest virtual and augmented reality conference and will be in Vancouver from May 5th through 7th. The three-day conference will showcase the latest and include presentations and hands-on demonstrations from the likes of NASA, Ford, and Microsoft.

Check out the full press release below and let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook if you’re planning on attending.

CVR 2017, Canada’s Biggest Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Conference is Coming to Vancouver from May 5th-7th

Three-Day VR/AR/MR Convention Featuring the Latest in Cutting-Edge Entertainment and Presentations from Tech Giants Including NASA and Ford

VANCOUVER, April 11, 2017: The Virtual and Augmented Reality community will descend on Vancouver during the month of May as today Archiact announced CVR 2017. The three-day event, which goes from May 5-7, will showcase a world-class selection of top industry experts, the latest technologies, and hands-on demonstrations of the latest products. The event will be open to industry professionals on Friday and the general public for two days over the weekend.

“We are excited to bring back CVR to Vancouver for another fantastic virtual reality show,” said Anne-Marie Enns, Executive Producer of CVR. “This really is a collection of the best and the brightest products in virtual, augmented and mixed reality – all under one roof. CVR is the biggest AR/VR conference in the Pacific Northwest and it will allow the general public to try out the newest, cutting-edge products right here in Vancouver.”

CVR 2017 is sponsored by BCLC, Creative BC, VEC, Microsoft, YDeams and Cloudhead Games among others, and will feature speakers from some of the biggest companies in the world including NASA, Ford, Delta Airlines and Super Ventures. Representatives from these companies will speak about topics such as solving problems in outer space with VR, designing the future of Virtual Humans, and featuring the latest evolution in entertainment.

“I’m very excited to be presenting at the CVR 2017, the Canadian’s premier VR/AR/MR conference,” said Evelyn Miralles, Lead VR Innovator, NASA, “VR’s a technology that has been with us at NASA for several decades used for astronaut space training. But the technology has now come of age and it’ll be changing the way we interact with people and the environment around us.”

In addition to the VR/AR companies participating, the industry event will be kicked off by welcome remarks from Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson.

CVR 2017 will be held May 5-7th, 2017 in West Exhibition Hall A of the Vancouver Convention Centre. The show hours are as follows:

• Friday, May 5 (Industry Only): 9:00am-6:00pm


• Saturday, May 6 (Expo Days): 10:00am-6:00pm


• Sunday, May 7 (Expo Days): 10:00am-4:00pm

For more information on CVR 2017, such as ticket or specific show programming information, please visit: www.cvr2017.com.

About Archiact
Archiact is a premium virtual and augmented reality studio headquartered in Vancouver, Canada with an additional office located in Shanghai, China. Archiact specializes in virtual reality game development, publishing, and custom business solutions. As the host of CVR, North America’s first consumer-facing VR/AR/MR conference and expo, Archiact actively powers the growth of the virtual reality industry for both businesses and customers alike. Founded in 2013, Archiact is now one of the world’s largest dedicated immersive reality studios.