AAAA isn't dumb like Ubisoft

We use words to convey ideas.

Sometimes we confuse and combine two ideas.

Commonly we confuse and combine price with quality. We believe the more it costs, the better it must be.

Some people think of AAA as meaning a video game has high production quality.

But that is the wrong idea. A, AA, AAA, isn't a weird buzz word created for gamers. Marketing and Advertising may steal the word and use it in an improper way, but these are typically financial terms.

In terms of bonds, it signifies that the party paying the bond back has a track history of making their bond payments as scheduled. Sim City or Cities players will know that bond rating doesn't necessarily reflect a certain quality of city outside of the budget being balanced. Sometimes services are lacking, crime is high, pollution is high, and in general there are a lot of angry mobs. But even angry mobs need jobs, so if you have jobs then you have a tax base, in spite of a low quality city.

In terms of Major League Baseball, the cost of a team is directly related to whether it is Rookie, A, AA, AAA, or Major League. This doesn't necessarily reflect individual player quality or quality of the customer experience. In fact, it is not uncommon for a player on AA to advance directly into the Major League. Going further into independent league baseball, the quality can vary wildly, but costs remain below AAA baseball team costs.

The idea that a game is AA, or AAA, or AAAA isn't communicating quality. These are ratings of cost. Ubisoft saying they are making AAAA experiences is really Ubisoft saying "Skull & Bones costed more to make than the first few Assassin's Creed games". 

It is pretty brave of Ubisoft to start stamping a new, higher cost on things. Publishers tend to hide project costs as much as they can. It keeps their relationship with shareholders simple. Ubisoft still has about $2 of stock value to lose. Muddying the EBIT waters by drawing attention to high-cost projects is a weird move, unless it is a move towards investor transparency. Sometimes hinting at cost is a great way to drive investors to expect it from other companies.

That is really why AAAA isn't dumb, but Ubisoft is. AAAA prices should scare most people away from the Major League of video games, and those that are ready have done their research. The transparency is necessary for the industry to keep investor confidence and be sustainable. If the investors do their research, I doubt Ubisoft will be what they invest in.