Thief Designer Says Immersive Sims Should Stop Chasing AAA Budgets

Randy Smith Evergreen, a designer on Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2, says the immersive sim genre keeps building games for an audience that doesn't exist at AAA scale.

The argument

Smith's credits run through the genre's early years and its awkward growth spurt, Thief: The Dark Project, Thief 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, System Shock 2, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. His complaint is that studios keep pricing immersive sims to compete with open-world blockbusters instead of with each other. Rough estimates on his preferred alternative put a workable budget at $3 million to $10 million. "The way to do it is be III or AA," not enough to launch alongside GTA 6, enough to make a Thief game feel like a Thief game.

The evidence

Dishonored 2 and Prey are genre landmarks that missed Bethesda's sales targets regardless. Microsoft shut down Arkane Austin in 2024, a year after Redfall's launch. Arkane Lyon is still standing, mostly because French labor law makes it hard to close a studio outright, not because Microsoft wants it around, and it sits on a list of Xbox studios that have spent this year finding out which ones survive the next round.

Polish over budget

A good AA game beats a mediocre AAA one, easy call. The III label is the part that doesn't earn its keep. Indie, AA, and AAA already cover the range. Bolting a third acronym onto "expensive indie" just renames a budget tier that already had a name.

The timing

Smith's own game is getting the treatment he's describing. Thief: The Dark Project Remastered ships this winter from Nightdive, a small team working off Looking Glass's original assets rather than a publisher-funded reboot budgeted to compete with anything at retail this holiday season.