Microsoft's mega-deal worries small video game makers
Indie games developers are nervous they will be squeezed out if the big firms' dominance grows.
www.bbc.co.uk
Interesting article from the indie perspective
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BBC: Microsoft’s mega-deal worries small video game developers
- Thread starter Typhon
- Start date
Interesting article from the indie perspective
Not specifically about indies, but I have wondered if there'll be a backlash from third party publishers towards Game Pass. I love Game Pass, but could see how it growing could be severely damaging to third party pubs. I imagine this will also affect indies.
The NPD reports consistently show that Gamepass has not had a negative effect on game sales, if anything they increase visibility.
As long as Steam and Nintendo exist it's hard for anyone to corner the market on small, innovative games that no one has tried to do before. By their nature acquisitions are always LTTP transactions.
User warned: platform warring, drive-by posting
Oh boy, here come the 8-9 usual suspects ready to recycle the same talking points at each other in bad faith until the next one of these threads pops up
I agree. The first party catalog of titles owned by Microsoft now can fulfill the Game Pass catalog on its own. Microsoft has been really supportive of indies in cutting deals for Game Pass, to the extent it's kept a few of them afloat when they may not have had that security otherwise. Will Microsoft be less motivated to continue such deals now that it feasibly doesn't need to anymore?
Maybe, but wouldn't that just leave an opening for Sony? I feel like the market for indie titles is pretty well established at this point. MS would just be costing themselves customers who have enjoyed Deaths Door and Outer Wilds and Hades and all the other great indies.
In fact wasn't boyfriend dungeon itself on game pass?
The lowering barrier of entry and ease of making games is probably hurting small developers more. Pretty easy to drown in a sea of shit when a million games come out each week. I don't know if microsoft owning more developers will make them pickier with allowing games onto xbox. Seems like a fairly random leap.
"deeply concerned, for instance, that if the Microsoft-owned, Game Pass subscription service, increasingly becomes the only means through which many people access games"
This is already happening with or without MS buying publishers. Indies have been pushed aside by AAA games for like the past 20 years.
Does she mean that Microsoft might spread out their increased newly purchased IPs through out the year, instead of their usual release windows, just to fill out Game Pass?
Yeah that can happen.
The problem I found in this narrative is they seems to think the business somewhat dictates how consumer behaves, not the other way around. if a scenario of subscription service increasingly becomes the only means through which many people access games become reality, then that's only because the customer believe that is the better way for them, they have multiple options to consume the content and they collectively choose one of which, what's wrong with that?
At the very least Xbox can't cut deals for every indie game and if Game Pass grows to the point it's the main way most people play games like Netflix, an indie game isn't going to sell if it's not part it or another service.
The video game industry doesn't have theatrical runs to build hype, everything is essentially straight to video, and I don't get the impression that a lot of people are buying / renting indie movies all that much compared to if the same movie was put on Netflix. There also isn't a influential video game award show that's gone out of it's way to highlight indie games as the best of the year. So I definitely get the concern if you're an indie dev, you basically live and die by getting a pitch meeting with one of these store front's to get marketing.
exept steam says otherwise steam has sevral major, million+ sellers, out of nowhere every year. I dont think this changes that.
I've seen arguments that Game Pass actually helps those small studios, but the main point of the article seems to be about funding which while MS is not directly involved they have been funding multiple games from all sizes (like Tell Me Why and As Dusk Falls) so if something Game Pass should actually make Xbox fund all kind of games despite their first party studios.
Even with ID@Xbox and similar initiatives reaching out to small creators all around the globe, it's going to be inevitably difficult to be in a Netflix-style environment where you're competing for the publics attention in addition to making sure you're making a living. This has always been a cause for concern before Game Pass came to fruition. But now a whole other conversation is emerging because it genuinely looks like the industry is going to wholly embrace subscription-based gaming distribution.
The odd thing is, at least to me, is that I had never heard of Boyfriend Dungeon until it appeared on Game Pass and then downloaded, played it, and enjoyed it. If anything, the mega corporate structure of Xbox, Microsoft, and their billions in acquisitions of AAA games, allows MS to cut checks to smaller developers to diversify their offerings and give the more quirky games an audience and marketing on Game Pass that they would have never received otherwise.
Game Pass isn't also the be all and end all of small indie games being successful. It's just one of many. AAA games have been around forever and there's indies that outsell AAA games easily. Not every AAA game is a success and not indie is a success. Their premise is slightly confusing me. Unless I'm reading this wrong.
Game Pass isn't also the be all and end all of small indie games being successful. It's just one of many. AAA games have been around forever and there's indies that outsell AAA games easily. Not every AAA game is a success and not indie is a success. Their premise is slightly confusing me. Unless I'm reading this wrong.
Won't be the only choice but I can see why the dev would worry if people's main focus is on GP
I'm honestly a bit puzzled by some of the responses in this article. I'm just not sure how Microsoft purchasing ABK moves this particular needle on its own. Call of Duty and other AAA games have always been holiday behemoths. That wouldn't have changed had ABK not been purchased.
Don't think that's true at all. Just a random example from a early access game:
Valheim has now sold 7.9 million copies
1.1 million copies were shifted between April and June
www.pcgamesn.com
It's been noted that having your game on GamePass is an absolute boon for both sales and growing an audience base.
But this also makes some people ignore games not on GP, which is not healthy for the industry
But some of those developers are deeply concerned, for instance, that if the Microsoft-owned, Game Pass subscription service, increasingly becomes the only means through which many people access games, small studios could be left competing for funding and promotion via that platform.
If this is the actual premise, then I don't think they need to be concerned. MS is not even close to being the market leader, let alone "The only means throiugh which many people access games". Mobile is 100x the market size of Game Pass. Maybe 300x. Maybe if Microsfot buys Apple and Google, I'll be ready to entertain that kind of argument, but I don't see this being a concern in my lifetime.
If this is the actual premise, then I don't think they need to be concerned. MS is not even close to being the market leader, let alone "The only means throiugh which many people access games". Mobile is 100x the market size of Game Pass. Maybe 300x. Maybe if Microsfot buys Apple and Google, I'll be ready to entertain that kind of argument, but I don't see this being a concern in my lifetime.
Valheim released in the same month as great AAA games like Persona 5 Strikers and Retromania Wrestling.Don't think that's true at all. Just a random example from a early access game:
Valheim has now sold 7.9 million copies
1.1 million copies were shifted between April and June
Most indies have been avoiding releasing near AAA games like the plague for 20 years.
That's an interesting point. Just on Era there's a number of comments saying "I'll wait until it hits Game Pass" whenever a new indie game is revealed. I know this is a bubble, but that attitude isn't very beneficial for developers.
This doesn't help if these devs aren't making mobile games though
But I think that while Steam exists people will be buying small games
Exactly. I get people love the service but indies deserve more than "I'll maybe give it a chance if it's free"
I mean, is that attitude much different then saying "I'll wait for a sale"?
Conversely, it encourages people to try indie games they might not that are on GP (thus them becoming a buyer of that studios' future games), but also allows them to spend the money they are saving with GP on other games.
I've actually spent more money on games (mostly indie titles), that I saved from not having to buy MS first party titles. Certainly, some people won't buy any additional games, but there is a strong likelihood those people weren't buying additional games outside of a main franchise anyway.
Yeah, that's just the nature of consumers expecting indies to be inherently cheap despite them often not being cheap to produce. It would be commercially unviable to sell an indie game for over $30, even if that offers developers a higher ratio of revenue. It's a tricky situation, but paradigmatic shifts in the industry are not without consequence. Also for Game Pass, you don't need to spend money on the game to play it, whereas sales are at least an individual transaction. Indies just have to hope Microsoft or Sony or Epic gives them a good paycheck to have it on their services for free and even that sometimes isn't enough. Game dev is expensive.
People buy tons of indie games on XBOX, PS5, and Switch as well. Death's Door did very well on XBOX, is my understanding, and then they also put it on Game Pass 6 months later. I know I bought it on there. There is never going to be a situation in which Game Pass is your only means for accessing games on XBOX or any other platform.
Regardless...Game Pass is only on the lowest selling console and PC (essentially). It's not even in the ballpark of being the only place that people can get games.
What do you mean by becoming n 1? I don't think MS goal is to win a console war, but have a service everyone wants to use on devices they already have (phones, laptops, TVs...)
Sony and Nintendo aren't trying this at the moment
Yeah, that belief is confirmed in a later quote:
It makes sense, but it's not JUST about filling Game Pass. If MS has potentially, idk, 8 big releases in a year, they're going to want to space them out so they don't compete with each other. So Indies, even outside of Gamepass could be competing with large titles throughout the year. But, who knows, maybe that then makes the holiday season less competitive too. It's hard to tell what's going to happen, but I understand their unease about the situation.
I'm have bad news for them so, they definitely want to have the entire year full of releases. Although I don't think that's big problem because I think indies have the appeal of being indies. People don't need a drought of AAA games to buy and play indies.
Great summary.
I'd also mention that at a certain point, things will flip from "MS needs your game on GP!" to "You need MS to let your game on GP!" and that is way easier for a big game dev/pub to deal with than a crowdfunded indie title. Reminds me of (kinda like you said) movies and music- at a certain point things flipped heavily towards digital and the benefits didn't exactly pour all over artists, it just added convenience for the consumer, who were blind to any of the downsides to artists.
Of course it's not different, people just don't want to admit it.
The "wait for a sale" or "PS+" crowd existed long before Game Pass and indies are still doing better than ever.
Not No. 1 in hardware sales but the go to platform for gaming. So everyone gets their games through Game Pass.
I do think that businesses can influence consumer behavior though. Especially if the strategy right now is to keep the cost of Gamepass so low right now that it hardly makes sense from a consumer perspective to not subscribe, only to increase the price to profitable levels after games-by-subscription feels like the new normal.
Honestly for me, that's because of the absolute flood of shovelware that comes out weekly from the indie scene. Boyfriend Dungeon was great, but if it wasn't on GP, I'm pretty sure I never would've touched it. Steam has a billion games with titles like that that are shit. The market is buried with that stuff.
I don't hear much criticism of these "games" from the people making the good ones, but maybe I'm also not looking in the right place for them
And how a single company controlling this isn't concerning? lol
Indies are indies because they don't depend on big corps
That's why Steam reviews are great, traditional media doesn't cover indies unless they blow up like Undertale but every Steam game has reviews unless it's a very, very obscure title
If Game Pass is the only way people play games almost nothing will change for indie games.
Thousands of indie games come out every year and 99% of them dont recieve any media attention or promotion from platforms. This bleak landscape they are talking about is already happening but they dont care because they are in the 1% that is getting media attention and platform deals at this time.
Look at the games nominated for best indie at this years TGAs. 3 of them are published by the billion dollar company Devolver, one is publisher by Annapurna a media company that's makes hundreds of millions and the last nominee got platform deals and marketing from Sony and Epic.
Thousands of indie games come out every year and 99% of them dont recieve any media attention or promotion from platforms. This bleak landscape they are talking about is already happening but they dont care because they are in the 1% that is getting media attention and platform deals at this time.
Look at the games nominated for best indie at this years TGAs. 3 of them are published by the billion dollar company Devolver, one is publisher by Annapurna a media company that's makes hundreds of millions and the last nominee got platform deals and marketing from Sony and Epic.
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