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Comment by MichaelZuo | Hacker News Reader

The default assumption is that the studio is not particularly different from the norm of the industry, unless proven to be otherwise.

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Colossal Order has about 40 employees, even though they are AAA. Here - proven otherwise.

> even though they are AAA

Says who?

They have a large publisher (Paradox Interactive) who prescribes their schedules. They also made bet bookings from Cities: Skylines that put them quite evidently in AAA. Finally, they release the games for all major platforms. All together, this describes a AAA game developer.

In contrast, an AA developer would work with publishers like Annapurna Interactive, Devolver Digital or Team 17, while a III game would have a much smaller scope - like The Witness, The Stanley Parable, or Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. It is clear that Colossal Order doesn’t work with a small publisher or make games of indie scope.

If you were just sealioning, don’t do that please.

I think going by eg https://www.gameopedia.com/indie-aaa-aa-games-comparison/ they are "AA".

That’s a very good resource, nice find! I think we can agree CO is between AA and AAA. I think it leans much more on the AAA side from my industry experience, but arguments could be made that it’s not all the way there and that therefore it’s AA. But this is a bit semantic. They make AAA money and have AAA standards and marketing. And that’s a bit unusual for 40 people, of which 10 are probably admin and 30 are dev.

Those don't seem to be strong reasons for categorizing Colossal Order as a AAA studio?

And what is 'sealioning'?

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