The Tragic Death of AA media

So, I'm a bit of an idiot, and quite often miss out on blindingly good bits of Tv/film/games etc. Also I'm very contrarian, but enough about me - what was I even on about today? (get to the point -ed)

Oh right, so., missing out on media. Persona 5, slept on it for years. To Kill a Mocking bird, thought it would be a slog of a read, but was pleasantly surprised. Then, there is Band of Brothers. For years I thought it would just be Saving Private Ryan, but the TV version. And I didn't like Saving Private Ryan, so I let it pass me by. Oh what a fool I was, brilliant, one of my top 10 TV shows. A whose who of every powerhouse current actor you can think of, gripping story, well shot and tightly edited. Also, it doesn't outstay its welcome, being a mini series of 8 episodes, rather than the usual 20 or so of mainline TV.

However it was also the starting shot of the migration to TV for a whole segment of Film, and the death of a whole mid-section of media as we know it. Suddenly, there was an understanding that you could produce a few hours of a well put together story longer than a film, but also cheaper than a movie, or a trilogy of movies. There was a transition of sorts with high brow tv such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and The Wire, which still retained the double figure episode entries, but nowadays you are likely to find a 'series' that can be just 8 episodes long (Reacher, Fallout, Chernobyl, The Last of Us etc.)

New and upcoming directors can cut their teeth on TV entries, and established hands were able to partake with the smaller screen without it feeling a step down. Stars who would normally not touch TV would start considering this a valid medium, and so the money poured in for all angles.

However, the downside of this, is that it has led to to the concept of go big or go home - Go blockbuster or go indie. Movies either have to be multi-million affairs with a billion profit or be considers a failure, or indie on a shoestring. Well, a million dollar budget shoe string. And other industries have cottoned on to the concept in the worst possible way.

Publishers used to have a couple of tentpole series, then a smattering of mid-tier new titles. Some would be hits, some would miss, but there would be innovation, fresh ideas, big swings. And they would also be priced lower than the big landmark games of the year. With the spiraling costs of game development, the mid-tier of gaming has almost completely disappeared, now you have a choice of indie hits, or whatever the blockbuster sausage AAA factory has shat out this month.

So no more middle titles. No more prince of Persia, no more beyond good and evil. No more f-zero. And if they ever make a comeback. It will be stretched into a AAA outfit. Rammed to the gills with micro transactions pre order bonuses and then the execs will announce a month later that it has failed to meet expectations, after a failing to make up a bloated budget and released as a shadow of it's former self, or after having gone through multiple genre changes

The mini and maxi model is utter drek, even the big media companies have noticed and started to course correct, seeing the interest in smaller and cheaper projects (as well as several high level disasters in film and gaming). But it may be too late, as the various genius leads in industry are addicted to more and more profit.

So until the industry at large understands the appeal (and sees the bottom line benefit), the movie house and the game store (yeah, neither of those are a thing anymore - ed) will be filled only with blockbusters or indie darlings. which is a shame, as some of the medium entries were cultural milestones, and I for one would rather have 20 mid-sized projects than one monster release, but that's not the way the bean counters see it. At least for the moment, anyway.