Video game development has come a long way from the days of Pong. With video games becoming more ambitious by the day, video games like Cyberpunk 2077 have highlighted the need for more development time. Game developers need time to work on these projects or the gaming community is going to keep getting unfinished, bug-riddled games. This leads to the question: Why does game development take so long? 

Games referred to as “AAA titles” are games released by big-budget companies and are usually the most popular games to come out. When the time comes to make a game of that notoriety, gamers can usually expect a 3-5 year wait for the final product. The developers have to go through trial and error with everything and manage multiple studios tasked with making the game, the de-bugging process, and code revisions. That’s just a few things they have to do in game development too, to list everything, one would need to write a book. All of these things they have to do contribute to how long a video game will take to make, and with the development process becoming more advanced, all of these steps are going to take longer. Even if video games take longer to release, it’s important to recognize all the work these game developers are putting into their products to make the consumer happy. These games are passion projects for many, and to rush them into being done through crunch hours is what leads to getting unfinished games. Games like Elder Scrolls 6 and GTA 6 have been in the making for 11 and 9 years respectively, with no word on when either game will release. As a consumer, it may be annoying having to wait for video games to release. If development teams are allowed to work at their own pace, these games will come out just as they’re intended.