Why Is No One Making AAA Horror Games Anymore?

Saif from eXputer inquires, "Despite the everlasting popularity of the genre, why hasn't there been a good AAA horror game in a while now?"

[Jin_Sakai]

Because the gaming industry is obsessed with live service games.

[Cacabunga]

Even FPS are rare nowadays

[jeromeface]

exactly, thank DBD

[Rynxie]

Because he touches himself at night to characters like lady Dimitrescu.

[Crows90]

You're the one still thinking about her

[Rynxie]

@crow

Did I give away your secret? It's okay, if you sit on your hand and numb it, you can pretend it's her playing with your little stick.

[Fonsecap]

You're absolutely right 👍

[MaximusPrime_]

Good for me, I have no interests in horror games

[Huey_My_D_Long]

Bro why even comment

[-Foxtrot]

Even when they do it's first person trying to copy Outlast, Five Nights, P.T etc

I think the Dead Space / RE2 / RE4 Remake and the Evil Within 2 showed you can have a good story based, third person survival horror game.

[jeromeface]

remakes is another good reason

[thesoftware730]

Calisto Protocol was also fun with fantastic presentation.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I feel like we haven't had much in the way of horror games for years, I think it became rare after the PS2/PS3 gen. Maybe i'll pick up that Crow Country that recently came out, that looks good.

[Venoxn4g]

Crow Country needs some more love.. and more exposure

[Redemption-64]

Because outside of a fee games, most don't sell that well

[Crows90]

So in other words...AAA publishers don't have creativity or passion for games.

[CrimsonWing69]

Didn’t we have Dead Space Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake last year?

[thorstein]

Among others

And isn't Dying Light 2 a horror game?

[Scissorman]

And Alan Wake 2 and Alone in the Dark.

[on_line_forever]

I like Alone in the dark but it's not AAA game

[richardmmorales]

We also had The Quarry and The Dark Pictures The Devil In Me.

[RNTody]

I guess if you ignore Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Village, Dead Space Remake, Dying Light 2 and Alan Wake 2 on the triple A side and Amnesia: The Bunker, Outlast Trials, Sons of the Forest and the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake on the smaller side then yeah there are no horror games. /s

[Glemt]

Exactly this. Ridiculous article premise.

[jeromeface]

toss out the remakes and what do you have...

[RNTody]

Yes let's just toss out any games we feel like to make lists suit our unsupported opinions, who cares about facts.

[Notellin]

Well then you have all the other games listed. Simple. Any other questions?

[Petebloodyonion]

LOL, really why?
Simple! because they don't sell enough to generate the risk
See:
Alan Wake 1 and 2
Dead Space Remake
Alien Isolation
Evil Within1 and 2
Prey

See also that Resident Evil always goes back to action horror and TLOU part 2 went from survival horror to action platformer with horror.

[ROCKY28]

Evil Within 1 is the best horror game to come out in years !

[Armyofdarkness]

Author says the “decline” in AAA horror games is because of lack of innovation.. Meanwhile RE’s, SH2, Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, and probably stalker 2 are horror games either recently out or coming soon. There’s no decline, tf he talking about, lack of innovation doesn’t mean they make fewer horror games!

[Puty]

Because you cannot shove mtx in them organically.
And apparently Alan Wake 2 and DS remake didn't sell that well unfortunately.

[Goodguy01]

Silent hills...what could've been. The PT demo was the only horror game I've actually liked that wasn't resident evil. I'd like to see a revival to F.E.A.R. as well someday. Those games really freaked me out as a kid lol. A AAA Corpse Party game would be unreal.

[Demetrius]

They're too busy making copy&paste souls like games in every corner nowadays and then going on about online only bs

[purple101]

people say once you go Resident evil on psvr2 you can't go back, hehe

[Venoxn4g]

Even RE7 in PSVR changed everything..was amazing

[gleepot]

We had one last year.

[Miacosa]

If we mean non-RE type games when we say AAA Horror then the answer is easy the ROI is too risky and at 100-200 million budget its not worth the gamble as the pool of potential buyers is not enough to justify production.

[Inverno]

Same reason why we don't get any actual RPG's. Third person Action/Adventure games with Marvel movie levels of writing attract casuals more than games that require a bit more thought and effort and games that scare their fragile minds.

[Notellin]

Because it's difficult to sell microtransactions or battle passes in those types of games.

That was a simple question.

[Deeeeznuuuts]

I think a lot of it is because there's been so many good indie horror games, so many bad ones too...

I wish a new condemned was made, I'd even like a good remaster/remake of the first, never actually played the second one

[gold_drake]

eh... what ?
we had tons of AAA horror games in the last few years. lol

[blanka4545]

Microsoft is killing companies like Tango Gameworks who made Evil within 1 and 2 it's so sad! :"( damn ms!

[cthulhucultist]

2023 and 2024 were great years for horror games.

Dead Space, RE 4 Remake, Alan Wake 2, Alone in the Dark, Calisto Protocol , Dying Light 2 to name but a few.

In 2024 and beyond we also have Still Wakes the Deep, Until Dawn Remake, Stalker 2, Silent Hill 2, the Casting of Frank Stone

We also had an increasing quality and quantity of indie horror games which sometimes blur the lines between an AAA game and indie visual wise.

The production values are of course different as voice acting and supporting cast animations can not be supported by smaller studios (or even music soundtracks for that matter), but many horror games released by smaller studios have actually managed to succeed in conveying an amazing atmosphere and offer a genuine horror like experience.

System Shock remake, Sherlock Holmes the Awakened, Amnesia the bunker, Outlast Trials, Sons of Forest, Dead Island 2 etc

The reason that not so many triple A horror games are released, is that this genre does not usually generate enough profit to justify pouring many resources to those games.

However I have really enjoyed the resurgence of horror games the last two gens judging by the hundreds of releases

[Jingsing]

Wouldn't mind a new Forbidden Siren game.

[cthulhucultist]

I second that! Great game, it left a lasting impression on me back in the day,

[anast]

I love the genre. The problem is that every time a great IP is given to someone, they make a Dead by Daylight clone. It happened with Evil Dead, TCM, Killer Clowns, Friday the 13th, and so on.

[cthulhucultist]

That is an interesting take. I believe you are right. Even Outlast went with Outlast Trails and Maid of Sker went with co op shooter formula (Sker Ritual, played it but did not like it a bit).

Good thing though is that there are so many quality indie/AA horror games releasing, that can fill the gap.

[anast]

Cool name. I really like Call of Cthulhu TTRPG.

I would love to see a proper Nightmare on Elm St. game indie or otherwise.

[Asuka]

*stealth genre*: Am I a joke to you???

[DefaultComment]

I think the main problem here is that the whole industry has no idea what to do, is in chaos. Studios shut down, some studios get bought out of the blue. There is the woke agenda because something is too sexy, etc Right now there is no telling what trend is sellling for them...ironically we the consumers just want to play good games...is it so much to ask?

[DivineHand125]

Didn't the RE4 and Dead space remake release last year? There are even rumors of a possible RE1 remake in development. What you should be asking is why no one is making arcade racers on the level of burnout and split second.

[OneLove]

Horror games dont sell as well. Much smaller audience to work with.

[Taero]

Could be that the idea of playing horror games do not 'click' for the majority. I don't really like getting scared/tense when playing video games so I don't buy them. Compare this to all the other genres where the emotions they focus on are more positive/neutral or external to the player (comedy, drama, puzzles, sadness via empathy for other characters if they die etc.) but horror focuses on making you, the person sat on your couch, actively feel negative emotions like fear, suspense, and dread. It's harder to externalize/rationalize away ("It's just my character getting chased by this body horror thing not me"). Just have to look at people who play horror in VR to see how much it can viscerally effect some people, this is lessened in non VR but can still be too low a threshold for people to play comfortably.

All this adds together to mean that for something to be a big commercial success it has to appeal to the niche of people who enjoy being scared like that, and to get the millions of sales a big budget needs you'd better have a damn good game that a large percent of your audience will buy.

A game that's less niche has a much larger audience so being a 6-7 might still get a return on investment while a horror game might need to be a 9-10 and to appeal to people who are just 'okay' with horror and push through it to play a masterpiece. Just thoughts.