MSN put together a list of the 10 best AA games of the 2020s so far, and I wish more people would pay attention to it. The "AA" label gets thrown around loosely, but what we're really talking about is the sweet spot. Games with real budgets and production values that haven't been focus-tested into oblivion by a publisher with 14 stakeholders weighing in on every menu screen.

I've been gaming long enough to remember when this tier didn't have a name. You had big releases and you had everything else. The PS1 and PS2 eras were practically built on mid-budget games that took creative risks AAA titles wouldn't touch. Think about how many weird, wonderful titles came out of that space. Vagrant Story, Odin Sphere, Disgaea, games that existed because a studio could spend reasonable money on a focused idea and still turn a profit. I want to say I picked up Vagrant Story at a Funcoland in maybe '98, '99, not even knowing what it was, just that the cover looked cool.

Somewhere in the HD era that middle ground nearly disappeared. Everything was either a blockbuster with a 200-person team or a downloadable title running on a shoestring. The 2020s brought that tier back hard. Some of the most interesting games of the generation are sitting right there in it.

The MSN list covers the standouts. I won't spoil every pick, but the games that tend to define this space share a couple qualities. They're ambitious enough to feel substantial. They take mechanical or narrative risks that a 300-million-dollar blockbuster simply cannot. And they respect your time. A 15-hour game that gets in, does something interesting, and gets out is a beautiful thing.

Nina and I were talking about this the other day. She pointed out that a lot of the games people praise as "indie darlings" in 2026 are really AA productions with publishing backing and teams of 30 or 40 people. The line between indie and AA has blurred and that's fine. What matters is whether the game has something to say.

If you've been feeling like the big releases this year are all starting to blur together, the same open-world checklist, the same progression systems, the same live-service hooks dressed up in different costumes, do yourself a favor and dig into that list. Some of the best gaming experiences of the last six years didn't come with a massive marketing budget. They came from teams that had just enough resources to build something weird and the freedom to actually ship it.

Go read the full piece. Then go play something you haven't heard of.