Why Indie is taking over gaming

[@profesoreniram820]

Im calling BS on the statement that people will see a lower pricetag as lower quality. Show us some gameplay, let people a demo or something. If the game is good it will hold its own, even at the 70$price. But lets be hones, if a game is really really good. It will sell more at a lower pricetag. People want games that are games, an addicting gameplay loop. Do that and your game will do well. The suits are just looking for reasons to make it more profitable for them.

[@ekcman]

Before 2024 (personally 2022) many gamers may think the same, however it's 2024 and everyone is helldiving.

[@Elastoplasty]

Try and imagine if helldivers was 1$. I sure as hell would still buy it. A good game will sell period, I believe.

[@pimsbury5155]

Naw, that's not how humans work. Look at restaurants. People are willing to shell out more money for the perceived value. Of course, smart people are fine with a cheaper game or even grabbing titles that are a few years old. I know way too many people that have to buy the new $70 single player hame at release instead of waiting a few months for the inevitable price drop.

[@stevenl5751]

It depends on what kind of lower price you're talking about. I'm a ps5 user and Playstation recently started putting in a whole bunch of cheaper games that are mostly $6.99 or less. I won't even look at them if I see the price first because I know I think most of those games are trash. I think the $15 mark is where I'll actually look at a game and not just turn a blind eye to it. It would have to be a $15 (or more) game on sale for $1, for me to be willing to even look at it with that price.

[@drekwilliamton5830]

My favorite game to just play every so often for a match or 2 has been Atomicrops. An indie game that I bought for, what, $5? Lol I've probably sunk 50+ hours in it and I can see myself playing a lot more. It has a solid gameplay loop with a lot of replayability. I don't care I bought it for super cheap, that gives it more value to me

[@George_M_]

The publicly traded, investor enslaved industry has completely failed to innovate for so long, due to players not being their customers. Their customers are shareholders and their product is the promise of exponential growth. Advances in tech have reduced non-AAA development and publishing costs to the point that an indie or indie-esque studio can legitimately compete. This isn't a collapse, this is a new Golden Age. Also, cost is being inflated by being cheap. Rushing AAA games out to save money on QA and impress shareholders means paying tons of OT for crunch then lowers quality to the point that it doesnt sale. Investor pleasing CEOs are letting down everyone, including the investors.

[@arjandikhoff5201]

Customer interest hasn't shifted, it has always been the same. Remember how crappy the graphics and sound were on earlier machines. Yet people still played those games. Because fundamentally it's gameplay that counts when it comes to games. I'm not saying that beautiful graphics and soundtracks don't mean anything, because they obviously attract buyers (including me). But if the game doesn't play well or does the exact same thing another game already did, it doesn't matter if it looks pretty.

[@Elastoplasty]

Agreed. This isn't a catastrophe to me, it's a rearrangement to the proper players. The quality of a game is being respected fully again.

[@emceeunderdogrising]

Capitalism sucks at art. It's not just video games. Visual art and music are also going through the same problems. It all started in the 90s when corpos like Universal started buying up indie labels. Buying them because they make better art. Then reducing them to factories. Music went through the same thing.

[@simonm1233]

CEO is also a overpaid bs job too.

[@LeMicronaut]

@@emceeunderdogrising We need more government funded video games. If only Microsoft never acquired Bungie, games might still be great.

[@pilouuuu]

The AAA industry has abandoned the gamers. They even despise gamers. They think we just have to consume their games even though their games are simply not fun and a cashgrab. Luckily there are still people with real talent that is not part of that industry, and those people really make video games with passion and dedication. Those are the developers we have to support.

[@MrStoltverd]

The videogame industry is healthy. What is sick, is those "publicly traded" companies. The drive for infinite growth is what is killing STUDIOS and not gaming.

[@Kazrel]

I'm not gonna lie boss man, if 343 made a ODST game that was like Helldivers 2 I'm fairly certain it would have been shit regardless, full of ridiculous micro transaction prices and probably not working for the first year of release.

[@xstonedsoberx]

343 have zero clue on anything at all to do with halo and yet for some reason they are not only allowed to still exist (I would have shut them down after halo 4) but they are STILL allowed to continue to destroy halo. It's insane that they are still here yet more deserving studios have been shut down without a moments thoughts. If 343 shutdown tomorrow absolutely nothing of value would be lost but microsoft are kings at stepping on rakes repeatedly it's not even funny anymore it's just really sad how pathetic the xbox has become and it's just going to get worse unfortunately. Such a fucking shame.

[@CodyCombat]

These $40 games and under have got us eating good. The sudden rise of indie games being mainstream over their AAA counterparts is something truly beautiful to see. I have had more fun in helldivers and palworld then I have in any other game in recent memory for at least the last 5 if not 10 years aside from elden Ring.

[@ekcman]

Once you shifted from AAA to Indie you would ask yourself frequently, am I robbing the Devs?

[@CodyCombat]

@@ekcman Since the games are actually affordable, I can buy copies for my friends which gives the devs more sales and players and word of mouth travels fast about these good games

[@asumax8]

So true on eating good. I have hardly bought any games the past couple years. Most that I have bought were massively on sale, with only like 2 being full price. But with these great indie games with great prices, I have been buying left and right the past 6 months and enjoying them so much

[@shoopypit4884]

it's a bit of a stretch to refer to helldiver's 2 as an indie game. Like sure, the studio is independent. But the production cost is estimated to be up to 100 million

[@ekcman]

@@shoopypit4884 indie or AA

[@ZeroXSEED]

AAAslop: "Cheaper games are worse" Indies: "Are you sure about that?"

[@marvin8559]

Wait for sale has been my motto for a long time now. Most big devs overinflated budgets and it doesn't reflect in quality. Devs making games like helldivers 2, Balatro and other smaller titles need to be prioritized. They won't learn unless we make them with our wallets

[@formes2388]

And lets be clear: A big place that has been bloated THE MOST, is ultimately marketing. Marketing departments need to be cleared out more than about any other part of the industry - every industry really. Marketing does not create value - it spreads the message, and if you don't have a good product to start with: You fail.

[@solomani5959]

Spot on. With few exceptions (for me someone like From) don’t buy games at full price. If you wait you get a better game - cheaper and patched.

[@AgentZ1011]

You mentioned Balatro in a video I watched last week. I checked it out and now I’m 50+ hours in and two copies purchased. Even used it to teach my fifth grade son some math concepts and now he gets up early before school to get a few antes in.

[@SacredBloodful]

Right at the end of the Video, i had the steam pop up that tell me, a friend is playing Balatro. Thats a sign.

[@Dubtoy94]

6:27 this part. I’m coming to realize I can’t/shouldn’t be spending money on games like I used too. Inflation is so bad right now that I genuinely can only buy one full priced title once a year.

[@emceeunderdogrising]

Same here. I can't afford $60 games anymore. I still haven't played most of the games from last year. I would love to check out Armored Core. But I can't. Inflation is killing me. I've lost weight because I can't afford food. 6 years ago I was buying a game every other month.

[@umizumiokolele]

@@emceeunderdogrisingif youre really craving to play something and cant afford it resort to cracking brother

[@mikerochburns4104]

Hey AAA game companies, games don't have to all be open world, 3rd person shooters with survival and stealth elements. Heck, you can still call it a game even if it doesn't have guns in it.

[@Twentyand1]

I personally LOVE that the mainstream game industry is getting a monthly wake up call at this point 😄

[@shadowkhan422]

Which they probably wont get . Lets face it , most AAA publishers are so delusional they might as well be Martians .

[@Twentyand1]

@@shadowkhan422 If theres one thing they see though, its money. And they are 100% watchin that money go to unproven indie titles while their releases flop out the gate. They might be martians, but theres no doubt theyre watching that trail of green and wondering why its not flowing their way 😆

[@shadowkhan422]

@@Twentyand1 Problem is , they can explain it more then one way . The truth of cause , is they create sub par garbage with MTs and sell it for 70$ . But admitting that takes self awareness and smarts (which they seems to be lacking) So they'l just blame it on "gamers been unreasonable" , "Single player games are unpopular" or any other pointless and wrong BS they usually use to save face . And continue as per usual . What do they care ? The executives still get their nice bonus whether the company succeeds or not . Thats just how capitalism works nowadays.

[@endlessmatt]

I've had a renaissance game year as well. It started with getting a Steam Deck for Christmas, playing Valheim with my friends, then going crazy when Palworld and Last Epoch dropped. Now I'm looking at the new V Rising and Grim Dawn expansions, No Rest for the Wicked, Torchlight, Enshrouded, and many more coming this year. Previously I only had a Switch, and Tears of the Kingdom was a great game, but I'm glad to be out under the gigantic paw of "BIG N", and into the cozy lap of Indies.

[@Konfide4043]

Necrosmith 1 and 2. Go...now!

[@nmairsoft12]

S tier video. Thanks for talking about the real issues in the industry.

[@elained.8240]

Absolutely spitting facts about how the marketing is the headline that's being missed. Well put, LD!

[@TheTraveler980]

There's a reason why indie and AA games are thriving right now; lower purchase entry, less publisher pressure, less complications with development (graphics and mechanics mostly), and little to no MTX / Season Pass BS (plus more freedom with actual passion behind the game). Baldur's Gate 3 is a rare example of Triple-A development also falling into this category despite the $70 tag, because it actually meets the standard quality to match (for the most part, no game releases in a finished state anymore). It's not a live-service either.

[@Luci-pz8xx]

Indie games have to make enough money to pay the developers. AAA games have to make enough money to pay the developers, managers, executives, stockholders, and random investors. Maybe they should start cutting some costs.

[@kizunadragon9]

the second coming of Tetris

[@Mewseeker]

To help put thing in perspective, for 130$ you could get an AAA game or then on Steam for the same price you could get Hollow Knight, Vampire Survivors, HoloCure - Save the Fans!, Hades, Undertale, Terraria, Lethal Company, Stardew Valley, Pizza Tower and Valheim and that's before accounting for any discount meaning you could easily halve the prices. There's an absurd amount of low price quality games available, you only need to know about their existence and if needed wait for sales.

[@CYI3ERPUNK]

17:40 related to your WF video u made the other day , there are some great interviews with Steve Sinclair and others from the DEvteam&staff about how they tried to pitch the idea for Warframe [then going by the title of Dark Sectors] and they were resoundingly told NO by every publisher and platform [which is insane considering the popularity of Halo at the time] , they eventually folded and converted some of their ideas into the Dark Sector game , which obvs WF has a lot in common with , afterwards they just wanted to actually bring their baby to life , so they made the call and the sacrifice and pooled all of the studios resources to alpha/beta this hail-mary/haymaker , asking for early supporters to be the og WF founders and such , the rest is WF history , currently one of if not the most successful title in its genre , having outlasted all the other 'killers'/competitors

[@micheljolicoeur6094]

AAA studios have priced themselves out of the market. Costs to make games has skyrocketed and as a result AAA studios need to up the price and nickel and dime it's playerbase for every last cent for less and less product. The vast majority of people cannot afford $70 games and those that can have to be real picky on which one they buy since they cannot buy them all.

[@koltonkulis4763]

I very rarely buy any games at full price. I typically wait for discounts and play them a year or more after they release. The only exceptions are some Nintendo properties. Nintendo games take forever to get any discounts and I trust Nintendo to make a good quality product. I pre-ordered Smash Ultimate, Tears of the Kingdom, and Metroid Dread. I'll be pre-ordering Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Whereas all my Steam games I've bought over the last couple of years have required at least a 25% discount for me to grab them.

[@purgeutopia8696]

"Cheap games are making the industry worse!" Hades 2: "Are you sure about that?"

[@infestedpotatoes]

11:14 CEOs taking pay cuts. BAHAHAHAHA you're funny. If that ever happened I'd eat my underwear

[@AoABlodhgarm]

At this point every game that seems to come out that isn't a AAA is "a wake up call" as of late.

[@maxwellbrown7802]

Pricing is a terrible measure of quality. Nowadays, the lower the price is tends to be indicitive of not needing to please a publisher or investors monetarily and simply providing a solid product thats REFLECTIVE of its price.

[@ekcman]

A new through on the success of Indie/AA games is their system, not the price tag (yes, it makes it more accessible, but the system) What makes Indie/AA games, especially like Balatro, Vampire Surivor, or Stacklands (i bet not many people heard of it) stand out is their system. Have you ever play a mini game, which is so well made, in GTA or RDR2 or any other AAA titles and think: man, I wish it would be a stand alone game, it must be fun. (Not you, Skull and Bones)? Indie developers have added depth to the experience and perfected the game loop. You simply cannot stop playing it without being " distracted" from the main game. With the current Indie price tag ($5-15), it seems like a steal. It is a wake up call to the new generation of developers: "Make a good game, make it fun and perfect it. You will success regardless of the scope of the game."

[@Heeroneko]

Mod friendly indie games are gonna rule on the market for a long time.

[@tagg218]

I must've missed when the talk of upping the price of games from $60 to $70 became reality. The way these companies talk you'd think the past 20 years never happened. Honestly I'm just astounded anyone still even pays attention to the AAA studios. They dont make good games and haven't for years, so why do we need to talk about them at all? They don't matter.

[@suakeli]

7:20 The game really makes you _feel_ like a white cube

[@MrCollyT]

Never heard of Balatro before this video but it's had that feeling that only indie games can give you where you see a game and think, 'This game was made specifically for me'. Buying it now

[@rensten4893]

This coincides with what I watched with FF7 Rebirth... Had a streamer beat that in 107 hours and once he got to the ending, he deleted the game and Remake off his hard drive. The game (and I watched) had great highs and disappointing lows and a lot of bloat. Great music and combat but frustrating quests. Overall, the question I asked was why did Square make this over a smaller game that could do everything better? The response that we came to is that they banked on the Square name over making something new that involved risk or remaking games that were less known. It's a shame.

[@Alaitoc1422]

To me it's not necessarily the price per say as I can afford a full-priced game purchase every month or so. It's that: 1. My games backlog is massive. 2. There are many games that are cheaper and give me a great experience (Helldivers 2 is a prime exemple). 3. Plenty of great older games that I haven't played yet that are now cheap to buy. (In short the new games are being outcompeted) And last, but not least: 4. The state in which new games are released, especially on PC which is my main platform. Games are worse on release than if I would wait for even a few months. Add to that DLCs and whatnot. Perfect example: last year's Jedi Survivor. The PC version was reportedly really bad at lunch. I waited until Christmas, got the Epic GS coupon and bought the game on sale for like 30$. The game ran alright on my PC given the numerous patches and it was a lot of fun.

[@Kawlinz]

As someone who was looking for a new roguelike deck builder I completely wrote off Balatro, thinking to myself "how good could a poker deck builder be?" I bought it three days ago, and how wrong I was. What a simple but fantastic game

[@Milliondollarloser]

Everything vital is more expensive. Sad to say, games are luxuries and when essentials take a bigger cut; that entertainment budget has to tighten the belt. Which means whatever they select has to be more narrow than whim when the budget was looser. You can’t raise the price when people are struggling and think milking them dry will work. Then they will find cheaper and more entertaining modes of excitement.

[@kylep8183]

Funny thing is I play a ton of roguelikes and quite a few RLDBs but Balatro just never grabbed me. It’s great so many people are loving it though.

[@ferrite1707]

For me, it's the poker theme. It's great that others can enjoy this though. Games don't have to be made for everyone.

[@cheshiredragon7752]

Just listening to you video with on line repeating in the back of my head… “Wake up tenno”

[@Brakiri]

I would be able to afford these AAA titles, i just don't want to. I have a ton of great indy games in my steam account, all below 20 bucks, and i have games in there that i have played hundreds of hours which i bought for 10 bucks on sale! Why the hell would i destroy my gaming experience with MTX, bugs and a price tag I'm just unwilling to pay? In the last 5 years i have bought 2 AAA games for below 30 bucks, Hogwarts Legacy and Cyberpunk 2077. The rest, all indy games.

[@Skynet5885]

What I'd like to know is WHAT all that money goes into? Just looks? Graphics? Scrap it and put focus on art style, look at elden ring, you don't need to set a GPU on fire to have a good looking game.

[@ubulayne_]

we need these titles like elden ring, helldivers 2, balatro, etc.. the way i see it, we should view those games as benchmarks, they give us everything we love about video games without the monetization, “day one early access” all that bs. never thought i’d be boycotting part of my favorite hobby, but im sick and tired of being nickel and dimed by multimillion/billion dollar companies that are making me pay for their poor budgeting.

[@3OHT.]

Indie games aren't killing gaming. Gaming industry is killing indie games.

[@Dubtoy94]

Love these discussion video man keep it up

[@Silencewalker]

IIRC publishers used to have a "shotgun" approach to products both in video and tabletop gaming industries. Over time they started to reduce the number of active developments in favour of more predictable outcomes. Eventually they started to engineer their profit with marketing and press instead of hoping that 1 in 12 products will recoup financial loss on the rest of attempts. Nobody like risks. While we see success of some AA and indie games, nobody covers the failure rate across the entire indie industry. So, it's not a wake up call unless every well-made indie game reaches a half of Balatro profits.

[@seanleis4812]

Bungie. 343. Activision. Blizzard. EA. These are just some of the studios that have chased me from AAA titles. I can't even remember the last time i spent money on a major studio. I've completely converted to an anti-AAA consumer. Even a 75% off sale isn't enough for me, as I almost don't buy their content just to stick it to them for ruining what used to be some of my favorite games and universes as I grew up. I'm talking with my wallet, and letting them know I'm done with their BS. One purchase may not mean a lot, but I'm done being taken advantage of by these massive studios spitting out expensive garbage that does nothing for me, especially when these smaller studios and indie developers have been creating (in my opinion) some amazing games.

[@Panyc333]

More money does not translate into better games. This is true for developer and the consumer. In my 40 years of gaming I’ve found the best games come from a passionate team or person with a vision, and talented studio executing on that vision. As soon as you start trying to shoehorn things into a game that don’t support the vision, you get where we are at today. Publishers need to just let artists make their art.

[@digitalsublime]

20:05 Dude I was jaded with gaming to. Last game that hooked me was DOS2, and then for those few years of the C it was disappointment and flat. The streak ended with BG3, it remind me how much I love games as a hobby, then Balatro, that with pure gameplay reminded me of the wider scope, like FTL or Slay the Spire. It's a shame that we don't have more of prime meat on the regular, but I can feel a shift given the wild successes of the last few months..

[@Spanishflea.]

Fromsoftware isnt afraid of the ImPeNdInG D0Oo00mm because they make good games. Not all AAA companies will go under, only the bad ones, and im happy about it.

[@MossOwnsYouYT]

From Software isn't afraid because they retain the entire staff between productions so they can consistently make good content with a steady vibe. The goodness of the games they make is the cause, not the result. They made a good game, therefore they kept the same team and were able to do it again, and again.

[@Gharon]

About 80% of the MANY games i've played over the last 5+ years have been indies. I can hardly keep up with all the great stuff that's coming out all the time. I LOVE pixel art so i'm naturally drawn to those games, but even outside that there's so much to play that i'd barely even notice if traditional "Triple-A" just stopped to exist.

[@eldenbling2615]

"we can't make money while being lazy corrupt assholes, waaaaaaaaaaaah" "bro just make a good game and we'll buy the shit out of it" "That's too hard, gamers are terrible people for not giving us their money"

[@mobil565]

I fully agree, really good take on todays games industry.

[@solomani5959]

It’s another reasons people are playing old games. With old Games, we know are good and are either cheap or free. The value proposition is very high.

[@Splincir]

If this game had been priced higher than 15 bucks, I doubt anyone would've given it a shot regardless of how many hours you can log into it. It's a card game developed by one guy for a portfolio project. From a business perspective, pricing a game like dragons dogma at 15 bucks wouldn't be fiscally possible or responsible for the dev time and cost sunk to make the game. If you want to complain about dlc, microtransactions, and other predatory practices, etc. That is fair and join the club, many of us have been shouting about the direction the industry was heading for years now. I think there is a place for big budget games, but they just can't be done now because publishers and their share holders are too concerned with "the message" and maximized profits, that they forget the very essence of games in the first place. It's why we are seeing medium sized independent studios, like the blizzards and biowares of old before they were bought out by publishers starting to succeed. These smaller studios not beholden the social credit scores and milking of the consumer and craft titles they actually want to play.

[@Retribution8]

This is a great video. All I have to say is that I've spent $100 on a steak before and it has far outdone anything I've ever been able to do in the kitchen and took me to heaven, haha. That being said, I get your analogy. Little Ceasar's Pizza is in my top 3 pizza places. Why? Because for $6 I'm happy with the product that I receive. I feel like the quality of pizza is satisfactory for a $6 pizza and I know what I'm getting into, so my expectations are reasonably managed, yet I'm still spending only $6, whereas ,for me, if I spent $15+ on a Pizza Hut pizza, I feel like I'm spending twice as much for a product that's probably only marginally better than the $6 pizza, so the value proposition just isn't there. UPDATE: Adding to this after finishing the video. Why the heck would publishers or GAMEPASS, the majority of the time, spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a product that has a higher chance to NOT recoup its cost while they could spend $1-10 million dollars (give or take) on funding an indie-game, or middle-market game that could potentially bring much higher returns on investment, and if they fail, they've only lost 1/10th or 1/20th of the money that they spent on a failing over bloated AAA game?

[@Northwind82]

I am glad you mentioned dragon's dogma 2. The reason I loved dragon's dogma one so much is that I only spent $8 on it. I avoided buying dragon's dogma 2. It didn't look like a $100 game to me. Baldy's Gate 3. On the other hand, I bought it on PC and on Xbox. I didn't mind spending $160 on that game because it was worth it

[@RobStevens64]

Something I think you don't touch on quite enough here is that costs do not scale linearly with the time it takes to produce a game. It took one person two years to make this game. But it's not necessarily the case where two people will make this game twice as fast. This is the AAA trap. The more the game increases in scope and complexity, the more resources you need to add to do those things, and it needs to be the right resources, and also account for the additional overhead of the meetings necessary to ensure alignment between teams and all those other knock-on effects. Plus, some things are just naturally more expensive. Voice acting, motion capture, performance capture (with Hollywood-caliber talent) ... those costs are not proportional. It's a runaway train of costs. This is why VC companies make lots of bets on companies they invest in. They know a lot of them will fail, and they don't know which ones, but they know when one hits, it'll hit for 20x or better. So they make lots of little, early bets to spread the risk and increase the chances of that hit. For whatever reason, this is something the big publishers keep failing to recognize. For example, in the live service genre, each of the major hits in that space started off as smaller, riskier bets. But now that they are entrenched and dominating their respective spaces, you can't get into that area in the same way. In chasing the "sure thing" of a live service money printing machine, they practically ensure it will fail because they can't replicate the same circumstances that led to those earlier successes. First mover advantage is gone, low customer acquisition cost is gone, and now you need to throw massive amounts of money at the problem just to compete, but if you can't get a customer base or immediate compete against games that already have hundreds of hours of content tuned over years, you WILL fail. Making smaller bets on smaller games just makes so much more sense, but these big publishers are addicted to the big payday and the glamour of AAA titles (or, JFC, a AAAA game because Ubisoft doesn't know what a sunk cost is), that these smaller games use end up looking like rounding errors in a publisher's budget ... not worth the time to bother with.

[@SamOrthodoxy]

Excellent video man and I can see the effort.

[@dethdelr9574]

You are not wrong. The expectation of higher prices while releasing inferior product

[@sanc3375]

AAA game industry have been pushing their limits WAY too much, now they see that their tactics are not working, they'll try to choke us in for another business model. Now that alot of Indies have taken off, we can be assure that quality is affordable.

[@OniMochi]

I feel like we are entering into a golden age for indi games. The market is right for the lower prices and the tools available make it easier than ever to make great games.

[@analogGigabyte]

The industry is not collapsing. It is booming. The triple AAA makers that ask more for less are shown out the door. The great innovative and addictive gameplay coming from indie 20-40 dollar games is the new Golden Age of gaming. The birth of so many new IPs that people start to care about is bringing gaming back to its root and away from fat-cat CEOs that cater to shareholders and market boring souless overpriced trash to their victims (edit: customers)

[@Elastoplasty]

I predict a bigger crash as we continue on. I don't think AAA's can stay afloat with the recent fails and would not be surprised to see yet another lay off wave.

[@digitalsublime]

It's a highly competitive arena, and for a big ship to be viable it has to be state of the art, meaning in tune with the times, i.e. Larrian, CDPR, and that's it. Nothing prevents big studios/developers to support smaller vessels, but they need to have a good zeitgeist that they lack obviously, if they had it, they would change their mega ship for the better. There is a huge hole in the "adult" narrative driven action, adventure, arpg, rpg, single player. The markets eats up all that comes even close, but till now the only ones that "get it" is Larrian, CDPR, and I'm worried about CDPR.

[@KingKamor2]

As long as we're discussing recent indie (and AA) releases, I wanted to give a shoutout to Reverse Collapse, which hasn't received the attention I think it deserves. It's a 2D turn-based tactics sci-fi game that plays like a combination of XCOM, Advance Wars, and Fire Emblem, with a lengthy visual novel-style story and a buttload of mechanics to sink your teeth into. Unfortunately, RC released on the exact same day as Dragon's Dogma 2, and even got review-bombed in the first 24 hours for basically no reason. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm 30+ hours in and feel like I've only scratched the surface of the story, which other players have spent 80-100 hours on, according to Steam, and it's only $25. It's a really well-made labor of love kind of game that pulls from a wide variety of inspirations, it being an XCOM-esque game developed by a Chinese studio with Japanese voice acting and a story inspired by S.T.A.L.K.E.R taking place in post-apocalyptic Russia. Highly recommend you check it out.

[@ferrite1707]

I was on board with checking it out until I saw Chinese.

[@KingKamor2]

​@@ferrite1707 I get it, but Reverse Collapse is a far cry from shit like Genshin Impact. For one, it's a true single-player game with no gacha elements, and the only DLCs are for the OST and a Deluxe Edition that gives you a set of alternate costumes for the playable characters. Reverse Collapse is basically the lead developer's baby, and he's known as a very self-aware and relatable guy. He and his team have spent the better part of a decade on this one setting, and the levels of sci-fi and military equipment autism are off the charts. I highly doubt he would mind someone deciding to yo-ho-ho RC if they weren't sure about it.

[@smokinjoeblues]

Given the state of the AAA gaming space (microtransactions, mass layoffs, overpriced products), it's becoming almost morally indefensible to buy games from some of these large studios. As this channel (and your influence) grows, I hope you continue to put a spotlight on indie games.

[@JamestheKilljoy]

The first time i made a 5 of a kind play, the next planet pack had "Planet X" which buffs your 5 of a kinds points. That is some awesome game design! The only criticism i have of this game is that i wish you could carry over your decks to new games. It's so sad spending all this time building a deck and then having to start over due to a bad boss matchup or bad RNG

[@sleepwellmychild]

I'm waiting for Balatro mobile with baited breath. Literally cannot wait to have a good mobile card game that doesn't extrort the player for money at every turn.

[@Olorin-gc8zo]

It's not helping that AAA companies largely choose to, or "have" to, follow "consultancy services." Perhaps not in all cases, but in some, this is also driving up costs.

[@NighttimeLibrary]

I've never looked at a game's price and thought "yeah this one's expensive, so it MUST be good", that's absolutely ridiculous. I bought Terraria for like $5 during a sale and it's been one of the best games I've every played.

[@ubulayne_]

i wanna preface by saying i dont want anybody to lose their jobs, but i do want these big triple a companies to feel some type of consequence for stupidly investing hundreds of millions of dollars into a project (more than likely a live service), and than getting surprised when they don’t make back that $300+ million. almost every triple a studio needs to scale back a bunch, and reduce their scope if they don’t want to be overshadowed by all the great indie games.

[@aaronbarkley539]

Hey man this is my first video I've seen of yours but I agree with you. I wanted to shine a light on two games that I played the demo of recently on Steam that I also think could be a breakout games if it had enough attention. It's called victory heat rally and it's an arcade racing game that's styled in the late 80's/early 90s. Think OG sonic style and outrun style gameplay. The other one is bears in space. It's an FPS that people say remind them of ratchet and clank but for some reason it reminds of me putt putt games? I know very odd but both of these games are great and you can try the demos for them for free. Bears in space is out already and I'm not sure when victory heat rally will be out but they are worth checking out and the price is reasonable unlike "AAAA" supposed nonsense.

[@asumax8]

The whole "video game prices haven't changed in X years" is fairly bogus. Namely since publishers have cut costs by primarily going digital. This not only cuts material costs but it can cut costs on contracts for selling them out of brick and mortar stores. Also microtransactions add to the price tag indirectly. These are minimum effort and cost addons that are then sold for exorbitant amounts most of the time. This helps incease their profit margins thus earning them more money. The argument for wanting to increase the price tag is for the sake of achieving that immense growth that most companies are obsessed with these days. Part of that obsession is due to the higher ups wanting to keep their bank accounts overly stuffed and the other part is to take care of the self imposed costs they now have.

[@ItzYaBoiTheBoi]

love the shirt BTW. One of my favorite bands

[@angeemmanuelassassindri8090]

Warhammer should take note on Helldivers 2 because it's the new tight.

[@jordirapper]

I just wishlist anything and only buy on sale. The only games I buy full price are the ones I deem worthy of that price. That's how free market works.

[@templarcrow6577]

out of ideas? next video BALATRO CHANGED MY LIFE. p.s. i do love your shit

[@Nirro84]

Thank you!!

[@drunksupportcharacter]

Told my dad to buy it like 2 weeks after release coz he will like it, he did, still playing it, and considering he would typically be playing some gacha simp game, its an improvement. Ill never forget the review "The rogue-like casino must grow" i mean i think everyone can get behind that, why pay real money to gamble when you can lose it all on the toilet.

[@infestedpotatoes]

2:39 game looks dope

[@valgilson6504]

The future of gaming is in small studio, indy and community content games. AI will remove a lot of busy work in development, increasing quality and shorting time to market with less people.

[@ceno10101]

i love deck builder games, but don't really like poker or black jack. So I have stayed away from this game.

[@regalx1]

Yes so the reason why both the indie game and the AAA industry is shrinking despite the successes of the genre is that the newer generation is only interested in games like Minecraft, Genshin Impact, and Fortnite, which as you mentioned have infinite content. The more people who live services games means less people around to buy a new indie or AAA game. So the gaming industry isn't growing as much because the supply for these game releases outweigh the ever shrinking demand for new titles.

[@timjfads]

Absolutely perfect video

[@SpItFiRe_clips]

Good thing i kept all my systems as far back as the nes. I will go back to the classics.

[@jimjones9631]

the problem is AAA has become so bloated with live services, cash shops and development times with huge teams its going to burst. Indie teams are slender, more cost efficient and can pivot quicker. Its not gaming that is failing and falling apart, its the top heavy massive companies basing everything on engagement metrics and going all in on live services that are canabalizing each other.

[@timjfads]

Wait are you telling me I shouldn't listen to a CEO who's getting 50 mil+ bonuses when he says games cost to much to make?! Crazy

[@boristhespider9487]

Hello, recently discovered your channel and your videos are great! I see you stream on Twitch, but it's mostly discussions. Do you plan on streaming your "subjects" like Balatro or Warframe? Would be really cool.

[@ArlindoBuriti]

70 dollars is crazy... there is no fucking way i'm going to buy a game for 70 dollars

[@unluckyrican]

Its like if you make fun games people will buy it. You dont need a 1000 man team to make a great game the aaa is bloated af and focuses to much on squezing out profits instead of delivering a good product.

[@kidelloco]

Baldur's gate 3 scared the shit out the bug wigz

[@kenshi1985br]

Even the prices in steam are dropping. Last year I saw little to no worthy sales on steam, now I'm struggling to keep my wallet close!

[@razor-wing-1582]

I live in canada saskatchewan. A full priced standard edition game is 99.89 after tax.. fuck that I only buy games that are on sale

[@sergioezquerro]

I haven't bought a game over 20€ in many years, and most of the games I own were actually around 5€ after discounts. I just don't see the point on even considering expensive games when better games exist for much cheaper

[@Mr_Putts]

Take a shot every time Leg Drop says he loves Dragons Dogma 2 lol

[@TheOneGreat]

😂

[@ekcman]

It's personal

[@LeakysTV]

One night a friend told me to try it out, that i may like it. i just wanted to try one game. it was morning before i notice.

[@Panopticon14]

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor has been my moment of clarity. $10 for endless satisfying fun.

[@Dwesk]

I feel like there's a genuine consumer burnout with AAA titles, they're becoming more and more homogenized, overscaled for the sake of it (Starfied, most Ubisoft slop, etc) and don't offer much fresh value as opposed to what a 10-40 eur indie/AA game can (see Balatro itself or Helldivers 2). God forbid I start talking about cookie cutter SaaS slop like Suicide Squad, that game was DOA and everyone saw it even two years ago. There's also resurgences in relatively unique/niche games like Monster Hunter World where a +5 year old game ends up back as a top charter on steam with +100k players because why not?

[@slimeloe]

great video great take

[@ex0stasis72]

The video game shrinkage I predict will only affect the traditional AAA game industry. There's not enough risk taking happening in AAA game development these days.

[@BlackNomad1]

I can’t believe no one is saying this but I’m gonna say this (legendary drop, I expect you’ll entertain this idea more in a future video): The publisher is going extinct. There’s no need for them anymore and that’s why they are so worried.