Immersive simulators are not the most mainstream category of games, so their developers should not aim for the AAA niche. This is the opinion of game designer Randy Smith, who in the past contributed to various parts of the Thief series.
Thief: The Dark Project Remastered
Smith shared his opinion in an interview with PC Gamer. During the conversation, he stated that studios currently working on immersive sims often make the same mistake. They try to create a big-budget game capable of competing not only with other immersive sims but also with large-scale projects like GTA VI. However, with this approach, Smith believes there are significant risks of not recovering the costs.
The game designer suggests that when creating an immersive sim, it is better to choose the AA game niche or even III games — high-quality indie titles.
“This entails a budget of $3-10 million and a team of enthusiasts led either by people with experience in immersive sims or by newcomers who have played these types of games extensively and truly understand them. This approach allows for something a bit smaller in scale but more heartfelt and quicker to implement,” Smith explained.
Smith also mentioned that the budget for Thief: The Dark Project was exactly $3 million — in current terms, adjusted for inflation, that would be about $6 million.