What would you consider to be the first AAA game?

[Morgana Veil]

Well, it says it right in the thread title or whatever. "What would you consider to be the first AAA game?" So I'm going to guess that's the question. And I am going to say Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two, but I'm a bit of a smartass sometimes to

 

[Darzhgrod]

Final Fantasy 7 is a good contender. The biggest games before that had a couple dozen staff at most, I think FF7 broke the triple-digit staff barrier first, and had the biggest budget ever for the time by a large margin. It was a monster. That combined with the insane marketing push and blockbuster sales align with what's expected from modern AAA.

From Wikipedia: "Final Fantasy VII was at the time one of the most expensive video game projects ever, costing an estimated US$40 million, which adjusted for inflation came to $61 million in 2017. Development of the final version took a staff of between 100 and 150 people just over a year to complete. As video game development teams were usually only 20 people, the game had what was described as the largest development team of any game up to that point."

 

[DjQuick2008]

Super mario world definitely up there.

 

[Frickinfrik]

Pac-Man

 

[Jediuser]

super mario bros 1.

That game may have single handedly saved the videogame industry.

 

[parmee]

first triple A for japan, maybe FF7, but i'm sure there's something that came before that had a lot of revenue pumped into it. for the west? the 3DO lol.

 

[NotReallyHere]

Great responses all around

I gave a little more thought to the media side of things, trying to pinpoint the earliest time I could remember a non-stop media blitz for a game. And while it's a bit of a stretch, the hype surrounding the Mortal Kombat franchise in the Summer of 1995 was impossible to ignore.

MK3 hit arcades in April, though my local one didn't get a machine until a month or two later. The Mortal Kombat movie came out in August - along with its soundtrack, which received heavy airplay and sold a ton of copies. Heck, the movie even had a cheat code for MK3 buried in the end credits! So there was this "holy trinity" of Kombat throughout the Summer, and MK just seemed to be everywhere I looked - and listened.

Then the home versions of MK3 dropped in October - on Friday the 13th, no less! What a time to be alive

According to Wikipedia, MK3 - at the time - held the title of "largest promotional campaign for a videogame." The same article also says that Sony paid the developers $12 million for timed 32-Bit console exclusivity through the end of 1995. And if you consider the MK movie nothing but a glorified ad for MK3 (though, admittedly, it was quite a bit better than that label would suggest) then it's hard to argue that there wasn't some serious cash and marketing involved for the release of that game.

It's fair to say that entertainment media in the Summer 1995 was dominated by Mortal Kombat as a franchise - not just MK3. But the release of MK3 was a major, major part of it.

 

[Hunek8326]

I define a AAA game as an ambitious game with a lot of budget, with a "wow" effect

No doubt, the wing commander Saga. I had wing commander 4, it was massive, several CDs, real actors cutscenes ! MARK HAMMIL !
"The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance"
ahah still give me the chills. so epic

Also im french and it was the very first game dubbed in french (yes even the cutscenes, with the official french voices of the actors if i remember well) that i played. I played other games in english and the 14yo me didn't understand the story. Not for this title

Check this intro :

here is what wikipedia says :
Chris Crawford said of Wing Commander that it "raised the bar for the whole industry", as the game was five times more expensive to create than most of its contemporaries. Because the game was highly successful, other publishers had to match its production value in order to compete."

Can't be more AAA than that

 

[NotReallyHere]

I define a AAA game as an ambitious game with a lot of budget, with a "wow" effect

No doubt, the wing commander Saga. I had wing commander 4, it was massive, several CDs, real actors cutscenes ! MARK HAMMIL !
"The Price of Freedom is Eternal Vigilance"
ahah still give me the chills. so epic

Also im french and it was the very first game dubbed in french (yes even the cutscenes, with the official french voices of the actors if i remember well) that i played. I played other games in english and the 14yo me didn't understand the story. Not for this title

Check this intro :

here is what wikipedia says :
Chris Crawford said of Wing Commander that it "raised the bar for the whole industry", as the game was five times more expensive to create than most of its contemporaries. Because the game was highly successful, other publishers had to match its production value in order to compete."

Can't be more AAA than that

I mentioned WC3 in a previous post... and WC4 is absolutely cut from the same cloth

 

[soulsas]

Dragon Quest