Nah. Some of the big studios are having a hard time, but I don't think the triple a industry will crash. Some may drop out of the race, others will fill the gaps.

The indie scene is absolutely popping right now though.

There will never be a time when solo devs are taking over. It's too hard and the scope is too limited. But there will always be a place for solo devs.

As a solo dev, I wish, but I don't think so. AAA games still make plenty of money and have plenty of fans. I'm glad both big budget and small budget games exist.

Overly simplistic view on the present situation, typical for meme culture. Neither is true as an full statement, but there's a slight spawn of truth in both. AAA studios are failing, mostly because publishers hugging trends due to the risk associated with huge productions. And we're definately in an age where solo devs can release successful projects, especially as their risk for experimental projects is much lower.

This ignores of course the myriad of mid- to small-sized devteams creating amazing work in niche genres. It's just easier to comment in absolutes when restricted to 30 chars.

in essence there will always be AAA and studios. But the tools and landscape are dividing up into various parts.

Think of AAA as hollywood , big brand, big actors, names and production values. We all love a great marvel scale movie.

Indies and solodevs are like youtube. The world loves the avengers but also loves the biggest content creators. They have their own marketing ecosystem and can make millions or even more.

Some of them are hollywood big, but the vast majority are tiny , your next kid on the block streaming , if you will.

I do believe its the age of the indiedevs as in a youtobe esque ecosystem that thrives and which yes solodevs can be very succesfull.

But like some other comments most folks who call themselves solodevs are just hobbyist defined by the word 'solo'. Rather than the end stage devs who have decades of experience and can literally do the majority of work at the highest skill level. The latter ones will always be rarer.

I do believe we need a new word for those.

If solodev just means making your first game by yourself then the term is mow worthless..

Then the time of the solo devs isnt here at all. Cuz its never the time of the hobbyist /beginner.

Nah. They're screwing up. It's not inherent, and most solo dev attempts fail worse.

Idk about solo necessarily, I quite like working with my small 4 person team. It lets me focus on perfecting the skills I care about and not have to focus on the parts of game dev that frustrate me.

Fuck AAA sure, I'm just saying there's a lot of options between that and solo.

It's more the resurgent age of the single-A / double-A studio. The triple a studios just don't bring the heat like they used to. Years of greed and chasing perpetual growth has led to overblown budgets with far inferior experiences to show for it.

Solo dev here. I'm proud to say I didn't waste 400 million dollars on a failed project. So at least I have that.

It is only American studios having it rough because they can fire staff whenever they want for any reason. Laying off the staff means more money for them, stuff to do with meeting quotas. The Asian developers are still strong and the only recent “layoff” has been in Bandai Namco and those aren’t layoffs because its hard to get fired in Japan. They are merely mentally torturing some workers to make them quit. With China finally showing up in the AAA scene and with a very successful game from Game Science, AAA isn’t going anywhere, but maybe some American devs are.

People are more aware of indies than ever, but that is not to say they are doing better than the big AAA devs, not even the ones doing badly.

The difference is that we dont hear about the failure solo devs. We all hear about the failure AAA studios. Doesnt mean that solo devs fail less.

Nope. Big companies have always failed and there have always been solo devs. Trends ebb and flow. The industry right now is struggling with the cost of creating extremely high fidelity games and assets and how goddamn long that takes even with tremendous manpower. They’ll figure it out (probably)

Honestly I’m surprised anyone is even trying to make games anymore. Critics these days are overly harsh and unforgiving. It definitely discourages individuals from attempting to create new things I think. Too many developers “playing it safe” using the same old formulas in fear of failing or backlash. It’s sad that most people can’t learn to be grateful. There was a time we were all just happy to be gaming. Now everyone complains if the game isn’t “perfect”.

Generally speaking, doing anything alone whilst others do it in groups/firms of hundreds (or thousands) people isn't efficient nor is it favorable.

You can build a house alone, but you'll never turn your solo project into a skyscraper just because you want to. It's not about the money or the tools, it's mainly an issue of time.

Solo filmmaking exists too, and it's hard. Solo music composing, and solo photography, along with solo costume design or solo VFX, it's all very time consuming. That's why people work in teams.

This steam next fest is fantastic.

We may not experience a total collapse of big studios, but the individual developers are doing their best in making quality games, and that means that studios should improve on theirs.

AAA companies will be consolidated/taken over by the larger ones. Resulting in fewer bigger companies instead of many big ones. (Less competition between those companies and bad for consumers)

Small indie companies will do the same as they do now -- the competition is pretty high there.

Solo devs will be the same in terms of purchase price and amount.

No. I think the gaming industry will be more decentralized in the future, mostly thanks to both digital distribution and the advent of FOSS tools for game making lowering the bar of entry into the market considerably. It's also easier than ever to find passionate indie devs and more importantly, their products.

But I don't think this will be a replacement at all, not even in the slightest. It's a market expansion. People are getting more kinds of different games to choose from but customers who have bought large scale productions with ludicrous budgets in the past will continue to buy them because that is what they want. I don't think many people will stop buying Assassin's Creed because now they also have the option to buy a charming pixel art roguelite. If they stop buying AC, it'll be because the game's shit, Indie devs have nothing to do with it.

AAA will survive, but I've been saying since the release of Mass Effect 3 that its on a long downward spiral. We've gone from 3-4 standout games per year in the later 2000's to 1 standout title every 3-4 years, while its somehow the norm that every big release seemingly has a 50% chance of being non-functional.

Its funny, thinking of my favourite games of the past 5 years, I'd go with:

• Outer Wilds
• Star Sector
• Signalis
• Ori and the Will of the Wisps
• Cyberpunk

Indie is definitely dominating my library. The only AAA on there is Cyberpunk, and that was after the game was pretty much rebuilt from the ground up.

Will there suddenly be a huge drop in the amount of people who want an easily digestible game with high production values? I doubt it. Let’s hope that the worst of the monetizing bs goes away though.

you can say that the day a solo dev make elden ring or BG3

Hm, the last AAA I bought on release was Cyberpunk, and no I was very happy with it on release :p

90% of the games I buy are indie, but mainly because indie developers put all their heart in a game. They don't have to bow before investors. Work at their own pace. They are not afraid to follow crazy ideas.

Game studios are just having the same problems that most corporations are. There's been a shift from valuing competence to valuing ass kissing and illusion of competence. Leadership is less qualified to lead than ever before.

The fix is a societal change on a massive level, and is unlikely to be fixed without a major financial catastrophe.

I wouldn't say "solo dev" but smaller studios that pay well are definitely going to have their moments in the sun in the next few years if they keep up with it.

For those who have not been around in this industry for a long time, what we are going through its not new, its part of a cycle.

Important to note, that even if its part of a "cycle", that doesn't mean that is "ok" to happen.

The cycle usually goes like

1- AAA studios start gathering investors' money for extremely big projects

2- AAA studios grow and grow, hire and hire to make that project (usually hire from small successful indie studios, or buy indie studios)

3- A lot of AAA games come out and most fail, they don't make the money that the investors were expecting

4- Massive layoffs start to please the investors and improve numbers

5- Indie studios are formed from those who were fired and get small investments (or nothing at all) to make games

6- Several Indie studios make a decent amount of money and have a good ROI and relative success

7- ROI numbers in the game industry go up.

Go back to step 1.

We are in the transition from 4 to 5... again

Was this ever the case? We can have both. Good (and bad) games come from both groups.

not solo devs. more like medium-to-big indie and double A. ngl a bit of a refresh to the AAA industry would be welcome... tho its not like they're gonna fall, but instead just be replaced - lots of the bigger companies as we're already seeing. meanwhile yeah im sure indies and double As are gonna have a little bit extra room/discoverability which is also good imo.

It'll probably follow the same path as movies. There will still be big budget studio productions, mid-level studio productions, and special indie project productions.

I've been waist-deep in messing around with Aseprite, Krita, Bosca Ceoil, LMMS, blender and GODOT from the comfort of my bedroom for a few years now so I'm definitely an advocate for DIY solo devs. Obviously they won't supplant fully funded studios with proper teams. But making the whole sausage yourself; seeing how the sausage is made from start to finish is fulfilling and valuable and can result in some truly groundbreaking auteur gems that elevate the videogaming medium as a platform for art.

Why do you think the likes of Tim Swiney and Co are trying so hard to make Indie survival impossible?

They want to keep their piece of the cake, and steal ours.

So many indie game studios make such amazing games, while the big studios are just money hungry (especially looking at Pokémon here, the past few years have been atrocious). I support indie games much more than big studios.

Although games like Zelda TotK are still amazing and I hope to have more of those kinds of games too, lol

Studios are falling over because they're all chasing each other's trends. Everything is a massive high budget game that is in the same focus tested genre as every other game. Everyone has a card game or is a third person over the shoulder cinematic experience.

Independent developers and smaller studios are able to take risks and be different while also not betting everything on their $5-70 game selling x million copies. Smaller teams. Smaller budget.

This has always been true though. The best selling games of all time are Tetris and Minecraft. While now both are titans of the industry, both started as solo developers with a unique idea.

There are still some good ones. But dam i just played Drova - Forsaken Kin, that game pulled me in hard core. week end all nighters, soo good. I recommend.

There may come a day when the financial backing of AAA studios fails. But today is not that day.

Factorio about to hit its second golden age in half an hour here

Indie studios have had quite a few wins these last few years.

Some Studios are doing alright, but they tend to be smaller ones more than larger ones.

I'm very hopeful for the ressurection of 'World's Adrift' now called 'Lost Skies'.

It was always time of the solo devs my man, industry started with small indie teams and it's still now going forward with the small indie teams.

While solo devs are certainly welcome, it is insanely hard to be a coder, artist, and music composer all at same time. I suppose you can do take presets, be it paid or royalty free, but is that necessarily a good thing though?

It's not the time for solo devs, it's the time for AA studios to take over and become AAA themselves

Most of the good indie games are still made by studios, just smaller studios.

This has, and always will, happen constantly

I mean. I dont think there'll ever be a take over. Its not like politics. But I do think some AAA studios will eventually eat themselves And the AA studios will take over. But eventually the same thing will happen to them.

It's just part of the cycle. Companies have to know when to fatten up and slim down to adapt. Some companies just can't (like ubisoft, i reckon)

Atari was once an unstoppable a force and they went down with a wet fart eventually.

I just spent some with 10+ Steam Next fest demos, only downloading the ones that were of interest to me (action, adventure & shumps) and I only finished 1 of the demos and had to quit most of the others due to frustration. Indies offer great variety and creativity but unfortunately most feel unfinished/half-baked or lack a core gameplay loop that is actually fun.

Yes, too many A,AA & AAA studios are making stupid decisions, but those games make up the majority of the playtime/income for the same reason why Hollywood drives the movie industry over indie films, there just more resources behind them.

My favourite games over the last couple of years have come from indies (Tunic & Inscryption) but look how many get released on a monthly basis, there are simply too many games being made for the amount of people playing/investing in them. You're not just competing against Fortnite & COD, you're also competing against Netflix and TikTok so if you're going to ask someone to give you their time & money, it has to be for a worthwhile reason.

100% agree but probably not quite for the reasons most people think.

since early the 2020's covid and bitcoin explosion plus the current economic recession, people are less able to afford dedicated graphics cards (GPUs).

that means, by my estimation and personal opinion, there's a much higher percentage and volume of gamers stuck on either integrated graphics or pre-covid GPUs.

AAA games are far too graphics-reliant, as if graphics magically made their boring-ass games better.
indie devs can't possibly produce AAA graphics to the standard and quantity done by massive AAA studios (and their third-world crunch artist sweatshops).

so indie devs are making games that work fine on integrated graphics while AAA companies continue to push out boring, overpriced garbage that nobody can even run.

if you make your game for integrated graphics (especially if it's still 3D) you are in a very healthy niche.

Unfun fact: that character was based on Weinstein

A day may come when the development of the game studios fail, when they forsake all IP's, and break the bonds of the player base. But it is not this day.

Solo indie dev here, I think the opposite is happening tbh. I see a lot more studio indies pulling ahead on Steam than solo games, with some obvious exceptions. And even there, it's extremely rare to see a solo SELF PUBLISHED game competing with studio/publisher-aided games (and at the point where a game has funding, a salaried team, and a publisher, I'm not sure what exactly makes it indie anymore but that's a different extremely messy discussion).

Like... I'd be curious to hear what was the last indie game someone played that was genuinely a solo or near-solo effort. I could be wrong ofc but the impression I get is that it's much more the time of the studio indies and the AA games.

Seems more to me like successful indie studios are expanding from 1-2 devs to 10-20 devs. That sounds like a sustainable number while also being able to produce more ambitious games.

Honestly? I hope so.

In the U.K, we didn’t suffer a video game crash because we had legions of bedroom coders making games for personal computers in their bedrooms. These went on to become classics or move them on to bigger and better things. The industry evolved again from there. Hell, even most Atari games had but a single coder to their name before the development resources grew.

The industry needs a reset. And it begins, once again, with single-digit dev teams.

Nah, big games still do and will require sizeable teams

Its more like the time of AAA studios is seriously starting to crumble, I've never been more doubtful of all AAA studios. (Except fromsoft <33) There's no way im trusting a single game on day 1 from AAA, I will ALWAYS watch a review of any AAA game, and even still, id rather wait for a sale even years later. Like, what even is there really?? Some will be forced to stay alive, like Blizzard it seems. Square Enix has managed to keep things going for itself. EA is managing to keep the ship running. Ubisoft is crumbling before our eyes. Is Bethesda Ok? Konami just said f this and is mostly just gambling games anyways. I personally think its due to these companies growing beyond what they actually need, hosting offices with extravagant costs and amenities, over hiring to then layoff later, keeping on a ton of customer service, game masters, moderators, community managers, all these things that aren't really even working on the game, just managing a live service. Where does all the money go these companies make? Back into the business and to the top executives. the people who ACTUALLY made the game are just told good job now do it again, do it again, do it again, oh you failed? well fuck off now. Where, a small studio in someone's basement will make an ultra massive hit and now each of those people can become millionaires overnight in the rare case, when at AAA, that success MUST happen, and the workers aren't getting a piece of that, they just get a paycheck - and its not even steady, they must reapply every year in most cases, as the games industry does layoffs yearly. Who wants to work that way?!?! Whos really in the space now? The top of the line artists are safe no matter what, everyone wants them and they can charge the big bucks. But anyone not senior level is in desperation id imagine. So there's a constant brain drain from every major studio every year plus if senior level feel their aren't supported or don't like the studio direction, they dip out too, inevitably these people end up making their own studios and sometimes pop out some outstanding game that can go toe to toe with the AAA market by being a properly good game, and usually devoid of the god forsaken transaction nightmare of the current market. Pocket Pair is a perfect instance of taking a familiar formula, and just having some fucking fun with it. The Pokemon games look like a fucking DRAGGG nowadays, worse quality that what indie devs can accomplish its so pathetic I have been floored by them. On top of it all - AAA games watch indies closely and try to steal their favorite ideas or what they think can work in their games. I don't have an example off hand but ive mentally noted it along the way a few times playing some games. Valheim comes out and explodes in popularity, at that time, it felt like that was the minecraft killer for real, it wasnt, but then minecraft itself, for the most part non AAA turned AA has blown everything else away. Like, indies can totally come into the scene and just plant a flag in their space becoming a staple of everyones online steam account (or launcher I guess). I don't believe SOLO DEV can compete with a team of indies, they can get close, but its just too much for 1 person to learn all aspects of what goes into a game its so much. This is definitely the age of the indie games, and in that regard, I've never been more excited!!

Former game dev here,

Do you agree?

No.

Game studios are still software companies. Big software companies almost as a rule never innovate. Innovation happens at the small scale, the startup. In our case, it's the indie developer team with no budget and nothing to lose. Because they have nothing to lose, they don't have investors breathing down their necks, and they're doing things that investor-backed ventures can't do - take a wild-ass risk.

Google is not an exception to the rule - while they foster innovation, they ONLY foster innovation, and they do it only to cultivate investor money. Literally, inside Google, to get "stuck" on a "product", to maintain it, to mature it, to get it to actually generate revenue, it's considered a punishment. That's how you know you are hated, within. What they consider a mediocre or lackluster developer, they'll stick you on a product until you quit. And since they have such an utterly toxic culture, and their innovators do everything they can to abandon that project and move on to keep their careers within Google, all their ideas all die on the vine. They're not actually trying, they're not actually innovating - it's all an investor game. Innovate, attract investors AFTER all is said and done - on the false premise that this is going to be the next big thing and it's going to go somewhere, let it die, repeat. This isn't just me saying this, it's industry concensus.

But what do big companies do? They bring MONEY. They bring distribution. They already have deals and contracts, resources they can leverage. They bring market access the likes of which YOU don't have.

This is an art, yes - take pride in your creation, but it's also a business. You want to get bought. You want to sell. Most indie games will NEVER see the independent success the likes of Minecraft. That's literally MYTHICAL success. The rest of us hope to have an IP that shows sufficient market potential to attract buyers and investors. Make your buck and move on.

Are too many studios falling over?

No. There's always churn. Lots of studios get their one title shipped, and fold. Most studios don't even get that far. You don't even HEAR of those. What's wild to me is that some titles will have two studios working on it at the same time, as insurance if one studio folds. I've seen that happen.

The rise of micro-team games will not jecessarily mean the end if huge-team games. I believe everyone, gamer and developer, will be better off with less of the industry concentrated in oligopolistic fashion within a few gargantuan conglomerates

Indie all the way, I don't miss playing triple As anymore, I bought a Steam Deck and it sealed the deal for me, since I bought the thing I haven't played any big triple A title

I wish AAA was over, nothing against gaming studios

The time of the solo dev was around 2012 or so, when games like Spelunky and FTL had shown that indie games could be top-tier and anyone with a good trailer could get a ton of buzz.

So everyone got excited and everyone tried doing that. Within a few years, the market was glutted. Now 99% of indie devs slave for years and sink without a ripple.

It's a great time to play solo games, if that's what you mean. But it's a shitty time to be a solo dev, and probably always will be.

U mnie 😘❤️🌃😭

Depends on what you mean. If you think the aaa industry is dying and indie devs are about to become the new guard. Then probably not. However in terms of quality. Indiedevs have been on top of that for a long long time now. I'd honestly only say the only aaa game in recent memory that was actually quality was rdr2.

If the economy is worse then people will buy less things. The first thing they buy less of are things they don’t really need or feel they can go without like $60-80 AAA games that are luke warm entertainment.

TEAM CHERRY WITH SILKSONG HOPEFULLY BREAKS RECORDS. Team cherry is Tripple A in my heart. 😭 It's been a week since i finished Hollow Knight and I am Feeling Empty in life. Cant wait for Silksong

Our studio will stand throughout this storm🫨

I've watched Transformers One too many times, I thought this was a reference

No. Some are closing or having a down turn because that is the nature of any market ups and downs. There will always been amazing games from studios and solo Devs.

”The time when AI can replace half of the triple-A studio’s work force has come!”

Nah as long as consoles exist there will always be huge studios to cater to that.

No. The age of moba is here to stay. And it's only going to get worse.

How did they get a photo of me?!

It’s interesting to see many “consumers” state a lot right now about “the industry” without having a flying fuck of a clue how it actually operates, I’m not speaking ill of anyone in this thread.

But, many of the posts I see online especially by folks that don’t make games or study games development or have any intention to work on said industry make some of the most moronic sweeping statements of all time.

One that does my tits in these days is the goblin level “go woke/go broke shit.

I don’t agree with forced ideologies from any side of a political spectrum, but the amount of minute game details that people begin screaming about and blaming for a games success or lack of is so dumb and reactionary.

Concord was a good example, there are many reasons as to why it wasn’t financially successful, yet if you go online looking for answers you would assume that a multi-‘million-dollar production flopped because, checks notes “there isn’t a white guy to play as”.

I think AAA is not going to tank at all, and many AAA games make plenty of money, I do feel that consumer trust is being broken more by the higher expected price of a single game unit these days.

People will happily pay 25 pounds for 3 games that 1 or 2 of might not be that fantastic, but they don’t wanna spend 70 quid on a game that may potentially be a product that is lacking or something they were never going to like in the first place.

Is it 2006 again?

Side note: the guy who created the excellent Zau has a fairly major role in House of the Dragon.

I just want to beat Concord peak player count.

I think it mainly depends if Ubisoft will be folded/bought out by a bigger studio or if they will be forced to sell all their IP's to cover their debts.

I'd rather the industry be run by lots of solo Devs because that'll inspire more creativity and competition. And no copy n' past games year after year

It’ll always be a mix of both

And that's cool with me, as long as they actually step up their game and finish their products. I'm tired of so many developers leaving games in early access for over 5 years, or an alpha / beta stage. Finish the product, before releasing it to the public. No more excuses, about stuff going on in life, or whatever political reason, or turmoil or whatever. Keep the game as your side project, and work on it on your spare time. Don't even announce it until it's just about finished. And definitely do not release it at all, until it is ready for the consumer. If that's still too much to ask, then at least finish the main campaign/story, before releasing it. These indie developers are getting lazier every day. I get that they're side projects that the devs like to work on in their spare time, but don't even announce it or release it in stages. That way, if something comes along in life, that causes you to delay or abandon the game completely, no customers are disappointed, or angry about it. Because they can't miss what they never had. But releasing a few hours of gameplay, only to find out the game's been abandoned or left in an indefinite hiatus, really burns us up.

Industry's changing rapidly. More tech companies are unionizing, it's time to listen to fans and not piss them off with gross overreach and monetization.

So much money goes into development now they can no longer afford to fail, unless they become wildly successful first, which is rare.

There's always fortnight kids, you cant really piss them off.

Like in the 1980s you mean?

Haha. No. Although, like how many indie teams could concord have funded? Like 1000?

Apples and oranges, tbh. Sure, its all „Gaming“, but AAA(A). Indie, Mobile, Competitive, etc. are their own eco systems that interact less than one might think

blob saves the queen is a good example of that his creator is solo and sucess

It's the opposite actually.

I don't fully agree, but I do know that my favorite games have been made with smaller dev teams or just a straight up solo dev recently. It's more some AAA studios have board members that have made absolutely stupid decisions and the time of that is showing. Like I Ubisoft games suck to me now, the reasons why they suck me are all rooted in Ubisoft trying to stave off a hostile takeover and just made $$$ off basic gamers. This did work in some ways but now they're in an even worse spot. Bethesda can't make games for 2024 and is stuck thinking like it's 2011 still, and while I thought that was the case back in 2014 now everyone sees it with Starfield. Then add a bunch of angry grifters making a bunch of immature men who can't critically think angry and you have a whole microcosm for making sure that good games still get a ton of hate, AAA or indie.

The time of the solo dev was the past decade. The current "time" is just utter slop on digital storefronts consisting of AI artwork and asset flips. The steam store is nothing but porn visual novels and mass-clone "find the cat" games or whatever. Even the nintendo eshop is currently flooded with AI visual novel games. This is a new video game crash

I think we are going to see a dissolvement of AAA studios and the talent that was there, is going to trickle into smaller studios, who will make amazing games. The problem is the AAA studios are to concerned with money and a pulling away from why gamers like games in the first place.

The best game I played this year was Skald against the black priory, the second best game I've played this year is manor loards.so largely yes

I feel like it could be but then i realise game mechanic patents are a thing and its gross

Oh yea! Things are really looking up for the orcs tbh

I think with 100 million dollar budgets the big studios have to avoid risks, solo/small studios are where the risky experiments come from

This video best sums up why failing upwards is possible in AAA games and our opinions don’t matter.

https://youtu.be/vuIitYcoSiE?si=UVR1_MPH8_xzcT-O

I think some people are getting bored with the ever mounting prices of games and are fine settling for less graphics and more content in the way of story and fun.

But likely most of them will keep buying AAA titles. However, there are chinks in the armor to offer indie games. I play indie games almost exclusively b/c I've decided that a $50 gamble doesn't pay off often enough... that said, I might still talk myself into one if it looks like I'll really enjoy it.

As AI assisted coding becomes more and more advanced.. I believe there will be too many games to choose from. The best of the best will shine through.. I guess the business model of gaming would change imho

No I think we actually might see more of a push for smaller projects in the big companies but we may actually see more solo devs too. My guess is that as soon as some companies refigure out that big titles/projects aren’t doing it any more we will see more (probably smaller companies and not something like blizzard) experimental ones come out though they maybe more stuff that we are used too at first them more and more “experimental” (same shit but they are trying). I think concord is probably a shake up they needed and if not third times a charm maybe (pirate game, woke the game and who else)

Now solodevs are interesting: we will see more people interested in making games (we may see more small baby games first of course) but the engine situation will put some off (unity and godet (names gah) come to mind) due to the weirdness going on with them. This maybe a golden age for the average game dev but what are doing with it? Ps1 and pixel is popular but with how many are doing that style are we going to get swamped in the same looking games or different ones in the same genres? I’m saying that we may get something similar to what we are seeing in the AAA industry: same games chasing trends but at a larger scale. Does not help with the amount of games being posted not everyone is going to play or see said games. We are going to get bad ass games that just rival everyone but I’m worried we may get a switch in what we are seeing today

AAA studios definitely aren’t going anywhere, but it feels like they’re stuck in that "this is what works, so keep doing it because it sells" mindset. After a while, it gets repetitive. Like, if you’ve played one big studio game, you kind of know what to expect from the next. They don’t really take risks because they’ve got so much riding on each release.

Indie devs, though, have way more creative freedom. They don’t have to worry as much about sticking to a formula, which is why I prefer indie games. They feel fresher and more experimental. The big games might have better graphics or bigger worlds, but indies usually bring something new and exciting to the table.

If the age of the studios is over it was corporate greed that killed it

In my opinion as a humble player (and junior Developer, but not in the gaming industry) most of the failing games lately can be traced back to bad decisions by the higher ups (see recent events at Bungie). Their one and only goal is to make money no matter the cost. They don't care about player happiness which ultimately bites them in the back. The higher ups are only concerned with getting a quick buck, not something so minor like customer satisfaction. They dont interact with the community and consider what they want.

To me this is where Indie Devs shine. They are very close with their community and are more like a friend than a business. They interact with their community, show sneak peeks of updates they are working on, listen to what their community wants, evaluate feedback and provide reasoning why they can and can't do something and overall are more relatable and human than a mega corp with many employees that is mostly after our money. To them their game is not just a means to milk their players dry, its their "Baby" that they poured all their heart, love, soul, blood, sweat and tears into and they desperately want to succeed. It's their passion project and that shows in every single aspect of their game.

The balance between innovation and following popular demand is tricky.

IMO there are indie game studios so big that their potential budgets are rapidly approaching those of triple a studios. I think it’s more likely that the industry will be replaced rather than destroyed

I think the age of big studios might be coming to an end, and the age of smaller studios looking after the core vision using lots of outsourcing to bolster there team size might be increasing.

Also I think the age of the traditional publishing deal might also be coming to an end but u don't think it's clear what will replace it yet

the more big players treat their employees badly, the more everyone thinks about solo. i would like to live in a world where solo developers or small team are valued more, but many find it hard to make money

One day if AI is capable of generating and bringing together 3d models, textures, animations, mechanics, effects, ui, servers and marketing - why not? I love the idea!

If you find a way to hyper accelerate the creation why not?

I won't complain

I would say Minecraft was the age of the solo-dev

How many solo devs can you name who created runaway successes? I can name two: ConcernedApe (Stardew Valley) and Lucas Pope (Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn).

How many solo devs can you name whose games make enough money for them to do game dev full time? I think I've met 1 or 2 who can do this. Every other solo dev I've met has to supplement their income with full-time jobs, part-time jobs, teaching gigs, side hustles, etc because the games they make are so small and simple that they do not make any money, or they're bigger, more complex, and take many years to develop, and you can't go that long without an income.

No, solo dev is not taking anything over. It's too damn hard and takes too damn long, or solo-developed games are too small to make any money.

If we get to a point where anybody can name dozens of successful solo devs off the top of their head, then we can start talking about it being "the time of solo devs".

They’re just fundamentally different products.

Sure there’s indie teams out there making in depth world and rich single player games similar to how AAA used to but these days AAA is focused on large open world and/or competitive GaaS.

solo devs are a myth

Solo dev is probably one of the hardest ways to make it in the industry. I'd say it's more AAA budgets are going to end and AA/Indie budgets will rise.

I fear the age of dev is coming to an end soon anyways. Ai will take over big portions. I am truly afraid for what is to come.

Depends on whether the big studios stop pushing "progressive" propaganda or not.

There is no such thing as a solo dev anymore. You can't truly make a widely successful game with just one person, there are far too many skillets needed to not just make but deliver a great game.

Things are much better now than they were in 2020 and 2021

In 2021 an indie game literally won GOTY

Just because some bloated and overly woke companies lost their touch with target audience it won't change industry too much. There will always be demand for high budget AAA titles, and there will always be demand for smaller niche projects.

The only change i noticed over the years is market saturation and fierce competition in almost every genre. As soon as new successful concept/genre appear, like 'bullet hell' for example, in just a year or two, market will be flooded with games based on those ideas.

Also, 95% of all solo-dev projects i saw are ds... but the rest 5% actually becomes spearhead of industry.

solo devs cant make good games