Do You Think We’ll Ever Get A Mainstream, Triple-A Porn Game?

[SOLDIER]

Not too long ago, the Castle Superbeast podcast made a joke about the idea of Overwatch 2 being sponsored by Pornhub.

That joke, as well as recent discussions regarding trending videogame characters on that site as well as the continued rise of SFM/Blender vids got me wondering about the possibility of an actual big budget/AAA game that was entirely funded by Pornhub or another major adult business.

While it's highly unlikely any of the big consoles would ever accept a game like that (well maybe Switch, they might be cool with it), I don't doubt such a game would still be a huge financial success even if it was PC exclusive.

There was also a couple comments from another thread about how the DOA series has hit an arguable low-point due to its scummy microtransactions and other factors. Suppose Team Ninja dropped all pretenses and accepted that their main cast was regarded as little more than fap fuel, and used that Pornhub backing to make it a F2P game instead? Plus, the floodgates would be open in regards to all the steamy costumes, accessories and scenarios imaginable that could be added through updates and DLC. It would also probably get a better netcode too.

I personally think we're not far off from porn studios going the big budget gaming route, especially in regards to recent trends like Project Melody and the allowance of LPs/Streaming of games through certain cam-sites. It's something that's been joked about forever, but it now feels inevitable.

 

[Shelbyville Milhouse]

No

 

[Dio]

never.

 

[Acquiescence]

We can only hope.

 

[Helloween]

I mean honestly why not? I would be shocked if there wasn't an audience for it. Indie Porn games are doing alright on steam and other digital shop fronts.

 

[HiLife]

The quarantine got you feeling like that huh.

 

[Valcrist]

Never, because AAA development costs too much to aim for such a small potential userbase.

 

[rsfour]

When better VR headsets are cheaper

 

[WestEgg]

I'm not sure if the investment would be worth it when there are so many free or cheap alternatives that do the job just fine.

Edit: VR may prove me wrong though

 

[Manmademan]

Retailers (including the platform holders' digital stores) would refuse to sell it, much as they refuse to sell adult material currently. Would be a non-starter.

 

[signal]

People's horny and deviant levels are increasingly rising and out of control so maybe. Hopefully the pendulum swings back towards purity before then!!

 

[Viken]

I wanted a bigger budget porn game, thats why I backed subverse lol

 

[Deleted member 4212]

I think eventually a Patreon will hit critical mass and there will be very high quality big budget one made by a crowdfunded studio.

 

[Jroc]

I think there's potential for a high-end VR porn MMO similar to VR Chat.

If they could actually implement some sort of progression system or cash shop then it could be even more successful. Maybe base the core loop on something like Gmod RP?

 

[Deleted member 4034]

Frankie says relax.

 

[Dio]

I mean honestly why not? I would be shocked if there wasn't an audience for it. Indie Porn games are doing alright on steam and other digital shop fronts.

Click to shrink...

there absolutely is an audience, but that wasn't OP's question. there's never going to be a mainstream AAA porn game, never. too niche, already cuts your userbase a lot because of ratings, etc.
the close we'll get is a kickstarter for a very niche public.

 

[DailyCalmSpirit]

Hahaha no.

Why put millions of dollars into a game that just needs titties for dudes to jerk off to? Same reason real porn is so cheap to make, man.

 

[808s & Villainy]

no

 

[Araujo]

Mainstream

Porn

Video Game


If we do that, what's next? Those Foot Freaks get their own game now too?

Nah! We must only Blue Ball ! Waifu and DLC Costumes forever!

 

[Homura]

Wasn't Huniepop one of the most popular games on Twitch when it released?
The mainstream part is already possible.

 

[packy17]

No, but only because console platform holders (Sony, MS, Nintendo) refuse to certify AO-rated titles.

We *might* get there one day, but this is the big hurdle stopping big budget stuff from getting made as of now.

 

[Hzsn724]

The quarantine got you feeling like that huh.

Click to shrink...

Lmfao. Social distancing got ppl going crazy.

 

[samred]

if they did, its players wouldn't last 40 seconds

 

[Viken]

the close we'll get is a kickstarter for a very niche public.

Click to shrink...

Yup, Subverse did £1.6 million on kickstarter, so it's possible

 

[Chivalry]

One can hope, for sure.

 

[Richietto]

When VR becomes commonplace you bet your ass someone's gonna come rolling with an AAA porn game.

 

[MillionIII]

Nah never
unless...

 

[robot]

Not without large changes to current game culture.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Second sex thread today SOLDIER ... quarantine having an effect on you? lol

 

[LazyLain]

Probably not, but if we did... I get the feeling that the speedrunning scene would be highly competitive.

 

[Chaserjoey]

Maybe one day <3

In VR would be best.

 

[Luigi87]

Triple-A
That just seems like way too much budget for something that would never get the investment return.
People seemingly hardly pay for porn as is, so a $60 USD video game of the subject seems like a bigger no.

 

[mopinks]

TTT and AAA

 

[Jayembi]

It's likely that someday it will be in VR and that the controller is one incorporated into the body with a motion sensor.

The only problem I see is that some may finish the game before others, so it would be a problem for developers to say an approximate number of playable hours.

The MP would be similar to the Splatoon but without paint.

 

[Hzsn724]

There's no way in hell video games will ever embrace porn. Sex scenes in games are one thing, but sex for entertainment is a whole other thing.

 

[Saturday]

Mainstream? no.

AAA? no.

But I believe the barrier has already been broken for games with a far higher budget than your average indie. Granted, the only example I can think of is a kickstarter game still in early development, but that got around like what, 2 million?

 

[NZerker12]

No porn is evil and work of the devil you heathen . Now excuse me while I go back to my wholesome game of blasting people to bits with a shotgun.

Spoiler

/jk

Seriously though I don't think we ever will. Well not in the forseeable future anyway.

 

[lovecatt]

AAA? probably not

I think there is a growing market for those kind of games though

 

[Deleted member 8861]

Would be cool but I don't think it would happen. No large publisher wants "spent millions on a porn game" on their resume if a game goes mainstream.

Making games about endless gun violence and games glorifying actual wars should be a more hardline audience, but alas.

Also, it's hard to figure out what kind of game that would be. Something to do with videos of actual actors? Fiction? If the latter, who'd be creating it? I think it's fair to say erotica can be a very niche/personal/intimate thing so it's hard to figure out if that would jive well with an AAA game.

 

[Karlinel]

Probably not, but if we did... I get the feeling that the speedrunning scene would be highly competitive.

Click to shrink...

At least a game in which I can compete!

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Triple-A
That just seems like way too much budget for something that would never get the investment return.
People seemingly hardly pay for porn as is, so a $60 USD video game of the subject seems like a bigger no.

Click to shrink...

Lots of people pay for porn games though. I know of a good number of patreon games that get thousands of dollars a month to make games. Wouldn't fund a AAA game obviously but if the quality was higher and a game was being sold as a one time purchase I could see it making a profit.

 

[catboy]

there will never be a $40m-$60m+ porn game unless the dollar slides to about 1/10th of it's current value

porn games may be lucrative but they are niche.

 

[Ogodei]

It would need to be funded by the industry, is the thing. There's very much a "never the twain shall meet" between "legitimate" businesses and porn businesses. Some of Silicon Valley was the exception to that, but you see from Tumblr that that can't last. My guess is that in the next two years Twitter will also heavily curtail adult content

But I bet a company like Pornhub could foot the bill for it, yeah.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

no i don't imagine any publisher would want to spend millions and hire 100s of people to work on such a game for years.

 

[Arm Van Dam]

The AO rating would've killed it instantly plus console platforms and retailers wouldn't carry it

 

[Remark]

I wish but it'll never happen.

AO rating will kill it right out the gate.

 

[rsfour]

if they did, its players wouldn't last 40 seconds

Click to shrink...

speedrunners unite

 

[Siggy-P]

Can you think of any actual porn matching the budget of a triple A game, let alone games itself?

I do remember though the bioware Devs describing in a panel once how each romance storyline costs over a million to produce.

 

[Mesoian]

Not too long ago, the Castle Superbeast podcast made a joke about the idea of Overwatch 2 being sponsored by Pornhub.

That joke, as well as recent discussions regarding trending videogame characters on that site as well as the continued rise of SFM/Blender vids got me wondering about the possibility of an actual big budget/AAA game that was entirely funded by Pornhub or another major adult business.

While it's highly unlikely any of the big consoles would ever accept a game like that (well maybe Switch, they might be cool with it), I don't doubt such a game would still be a huge financial success even if it was PC exclusive.

There was also a couple comments from another thread about how the DOA series has hit an arguable low-point due to its scummy microtransactions and other factors. Suppose Team Ninja dropped all pretenses and accepted that their main cast was regarded as little more than fap fuel, and used that Pornhub backing to make it a F2P game instead? Plus, the floodgates would be open in regards to all the steamy costumes, accessories and scenarios imaginable that could be added through updates and DLC. It would also probably get a better netcode too.

I personally think we're not far off from porn studios going the big budget gaming route, especially in regards to recent trends like Project Melody and the allowance of LPs/Streaming of games through certain cam-sites. It's something that's been joked about forever, but it now feels inevitable.

Click to shrink...

No, mostly because we, as a society, consider pornography to be something that is cheap.

The highest budgeted pornographic film of all time had a budget of 1 million dollars, a infinitesimal amount of money compared to even the smallest budgeted indie films. Pornography as a genre in any medium simply doesn't have enough appeal for people to spend large amounts of money or time on individual works. The "hit and run" nature of porn will always keep it from reaching something artistically challenging, and if all you want is to have a few animations of sexual acts strung together by something of little to no effort, there are 1000 blender projects that will fit your fancy.

So no.

On top of which, games treat sex like an icky subject. Gaming has a problem with the sexualization of women, often making the default characteristics of female characters how big their chests are or how little clothing they wear, but when the actual subject of sexuality comes up, real conversations about sex, the act of sex, the act of enjoying or disliking sex or, gasp, the concept of having sex, games run away kicking and screaming.

The games industry, both AAA and indie, are not interested in discussing sex. Most of the industry conflates sex with titillation. To them, "Sex" is the pinup poster of Jenny McCarthy dressed in a string bikini laying on the hood of a car when you were 12 and hung on your bedroom wall. It begins and ends there. I can count on one hand the amount of real, meaningful sex scenes I've seen in video games across the past 40 years. So until games stop giggling at the notion of "tits and hogs" and actually decide to tell a story about sex that's meaningful, you'll never get more than some boobs and some blender loops cheaply cobbled together.

 

[Elfgore]

Probably not. An A rating is pretty much a death sentence for a game on anything besides Steam. I've seen some attempts to make porn games have legit gameplay and not just be a visual novel. In one case the sequel cut all of the gameplay out and just went standard visual novel. Other times, the gameplay ranges from tedious and not well thought out to legit awful. Subverse may have the best chance since it's just trying to be a mix of bullethell and new X-COM.