from now on i only play indie games

The reader is frustrated with the state of triple-tier games and the behavior of the big publishers and decides to switch exclusively to indie games.

We’ve all seen the collapse of the past few months, with Xbox and PlayStation, and endless job cuts at every publisher, big and small. This is as confusing as it is annoying, especially since there seems to be nothing we can do about it. But I feel that there is. As regular gamers, we have a lot of influence over what companies do, as evidenced by the many reversals that happen every year.

Obviously no one is going to turn around for all those lost jobs, but I’m almost done supporting big budget triple A games from western publishers. There was a very good Reader’s Feature last week about this whole circus, which ended with the suggestion that soon only Nintendo, a few other Japanese companies, and indie games would be left with games.

What they meant was that it would be an improvement on what we have now, and I would certainly agree with that. A gaming industry dominated by Nintendo will probably cause their worst traits to come to the fore, so I’m not going to pretend they’re being charitable, but for me, these are the only western games I can see myself playing in the future indie games.

I’m not going to get on my high horse and pretend that if something really good comes out of a terrible company like Take-Two, I’m going to deny it (and no, I’m not thinking about GTA 6), but as a general rule , I’m done with triple-A games.

Apart from everything else, indie games are just better. They are definitely less dependent on sequels, to the point where indie sequels are notorious for always selling mysteriously poorly. I don’t know why, but in a way I’m glad because it should scare others away and make them realize that people are interested in their games because they’re new and original, not made purely to make money.

This year alone I have bought, 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 were really great (Balathra is my favorite), but none of them were too long and bloated, and none of them were very expensive compared to the triple-A games – that’s why I could afford them all.

None of these games are similar to each other, none of them are sequels, and aside from No Rest For The Wicked and maybe Another Crab’s Treasure, none of them are similar to what a major publisher has called would triple A and charge full price , and that’s what makes them so good.

Obviously, big business is killing video games. It’s probably not even Phil Spencer making the decisions at Xbox now, it’s people above him – now he’s wasted all their money on Activision Blizzard. Sony doesn’t even pretend that someone with an interest in gaming runs the PlayStation. Jim Ryan clearly didn’t care and they didn’t even have a proper boss for months.

The reasons for this is that these companies need to show growth and the easiest way to do that is to lay off people and stick to the most reliable bets in terms of games. I’m not interested in that. A small business will be providing my games from now on and I expect it to be cheaper and more interesting. Also, I won’t need to know that I’m supporting horrible companies that do horrible things.

The Septon Reader

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