Balatro
Hades & Hades II
Dead Cells
Astro Bot
Hollow Knight & Silksong
Stardew Valley
Plenty of evidence of mid-budget games that are hugely successful. “Indie” is now a pretty large and unhelpful term. Supergiant is a fairly large company, not just “a single guy” like in the case of Stardew Valley. Even Concerned Ape hired on a team for ongoing support and ports for Stardew. And Team Cherry may be small, but also not actually just 2 people like is the common understanding. And Astro Bot may be made by a fairly large studio owned by the biggest console platform owner but you couldn’t seriously call last year’s GOTY a “quadruple A game”. Hell, even Triple is generous.
I get the malaise and disappointment around the top 5 games all being like a decade old live service games that all make up ,ore than like 80% of the industry’s play time and revenue, but I’m pretty sure LocalThunk is feeling pretty good about their success right now. There are plenty of really great games that are not just bargain bin junk while also not being massive industry stompers like Fortnite.
Balatro Hades & Hades II Dead Cells Astro Bot Hollow Knight & Silksong Stardew Valley
Plenty of evidence of mid-budget games that are hugely successful. “Indie” is now a pretty large and unhelpful term. Supergiant is a fairly large company, not just “a single guy” like in the case of Stardew Valley. Even Concerned Ape hired on a team for ongoing support and ports for Stardew. And Team Cherry may be small, but also not actually just 2 people like is the common understanding. And Astro Bot may be made by a fairly large studio owned by the biggest console platform owner but you couldn’t seriously call last year’s GOTY a “quadruple A game”. Hell, even Triple is generous.
I get the malaise and disappointment around the top 5 games all being like a decade old live service games that all make up ,ore than like 80% of the industry’s play time and revenue, but I’m pretty sure LocalThunk is feeling pretty good about their success right now. There are plenty of really great games that are not just bargain bin junk while also not being massive industry stompers like Fortnite.
So yeah, that was a WILD take.