Non-RPG General News - Indie Conquered the PC

[Silver]

PCGamer has an interesting article on how indie gaming conquered the pc.

From shareware superstars to the Steam gold rush: How indie conquered the PC

By Richard Cobbett
We look back at the history of indie gaming, from bedroom coders through crowd-funding to the current crowded scene.

Last week, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds smashed the Steam peak player records. The previous record-holder, Dota 2, while admittedly made by one of the world's biggest and most powerful games companies, began as a Warcraft mod. These days, we barely blink an eye at the idea that a game can come from nowhere and shake through word-of-mouth, clever concepts, a bit of cool technology like Portal's... well, portals... or simply by hooking into some reservoir of good feeling, and accomplish more than any marketing budget can dream of. Minecraft is this generation's Lego. Undertale is one of its most beloved RPGs.

Indeed, the world of indie development is now so important that it's hard to remember that it's only really a decade or so old. That's not to say that there weren't indie games before then, as we'll see, but it was only really with the launch of Steam on PC and services like Xbox Live Arcade that the systems were in place to both get games in front of a mainstream audience, and provide the necessary ecosystem for them to quickly and confidently pay for new games.

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More information.

 

[forgottenlor]

With AAA publishers focusing on consoles, where they make the majority of their money, and often producing lousy ports, and the ease which indie developers can market their games, its not surprising that many successful games on the pc are coming from indie or mid sized developers. While not everyone can stomache games like Battle Brothers, the Legend of Grimrock, or Stardew Valley, they have given players like me, who care for gameplay and variety over presentation and tried and tested formular, a lot of pleasure. Before 2013 I replayed most of my games, even some of the less good ones 2-3 times. Now I have so many options I can only play a fraction of the interesting games that come out each year.

 

[Stingray]

Cyberpunk 2077 is the only currently-announced AAA title that even interests me. Can't remember any other time in my >30 year gaming career where there were so few big-budget titles on the horizon that I cared about. Deus Ex is dead again, BioWare RPGs may be dead. Maybe there'll be an XCOM 3…?

 

[TomRon]

Cyberpunk 2077 is the only currently-announced AAA title that even interests me. Can't remember any other time in my >30 year gaming career where there were so few big-budget titles on the horizon that I cared about. Deus Ex is dead again, BioWare RPGs may be dead. Maybe there'll be an XCOM 3…?

Agreed. I'm pretty sure I'll cave and buy TES VI too, but I can't say I have much anticipation for it. I'm looking forward much more to games like PoE2, WL3, Battletech, Phoenix Point, Bard's tale 4 and maybe Divinity OS3...

Fallout 5? Haven't even tried 4 yet...
Mass Effect Andromeda 2? Haven't even played ME3, not even considering Andromeda. (And a sequel maybe isn't very likely anyway after the debacle of the release or has it sold well?)
Dark Souls 3, Diablo 4, *Other big budget action RPG titles*. Not my genre.