From now on I’ll only play indie games

A reader becomes disillusioned with the state of triple-A gaming and the behavior of major publishers and decides to switch to indie games exclusively.

We’ve all seen the collapse of Xbox and PlayStation over the last few months and the endless job cuts across all publishers, big and small. It’s as confusing as it is annoying, especially because it seems like there’s nothing we can do about it. But I feel like it is. As regular gamers, we have a lot of influence over what companies do, as evidenced by the numerous U-turns that occur every year.

Of course no one is going to do a U-turn because of all the lost jobs, but I’m almost tired of supporting big-budget triple-A games from Western publishers. There was a very good reader’s post recently about this whole circus, which ended with the suggestion that gaming will soon be all that’s left of Nintendo, a few other Japanese companies, and indie games.

You’ve suggested that this would be an improvement over what we have now and I would definitely agree with that. A games industry dominated by Nintendo would probably result in their most negative qualities coming to the fore, so I’m not going to pretend they’re a charity or anything, but for me they’re the only western games I can think of to play in the future are indie games.

I’m not going to sit on my high horse and act like I’m depriving myself when something really good comes out from a terrible company like Take-Two (and no, I’m not thinking about that). GTA 6), but in general I’m done with triple-A games.

Other than that, indie games are just better. They’re definitely less reliant on sequels, to the point where indie sequels are notorious for always mysteriously underselling. I’m not sure why, but in a way I’m glad because it must discourage others and make them realize that the reason people are interested in their games is because they are new and original and not just for that be made to make money.

Just this year I purchased, played and enjoyed Pacific Drive, Balatro, Pepper Grinder, Minishoot’ Adventures, No Rest For The Wicked, Another Crab’s Treasure and Animal Well. Not only were they all good and some really great (Balatro is my favorite), but none of them were overly long and bloated and none of them were very expensive compared to triple-A games – which is why I was able to afford them all.

None of these games are the same, none of them are sequels, and aside from No Rest For The Wicked and perhaps Another Crab’s Treasure, none of them are even close to what a major publisher would call triple-A and charge full price for it , and that’s what she does so well.

It’s clear that big companies are killing video games. It’s probably not even Phil Spencer who’s making the decisions at Xbox now, but people higher up than him – now he’s wasted all their money on Activision Blizzard. Sony doesn’t even pretend that anyone who cares about games is responsible for the PlayStation. Jim Ryan obviously didn’t care, and they hadn’t even had a real boss for months.

The reason for this is that these companies need to show growth and the easiest way to do that is to fire people and stick to the safest bets possible when it comes to gaming. I’m not interested. From now on, a small company will offer my games, and I expect they will be cheaper and more fun. Plus, I don’t need to know that I’m supporting terrible companies that do terrible things.

By reader Septon

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