Publishers overestimate their necessity.

[Kresnik]

I've long been arguing that "the middle" of gaming is falling out and no-one seems to care, so I wholeheartedly agree with this article. Which is the second Jim Sterling-related thing I've agreed with in recent memory (alongside a Jimquisition).

I appreciate high production values and effort going into a game. But not every title needs to be like that. And at the other end of the scale, titles which aren't AAA don't need to be indie. There's a middle ground of "in-between" stuff that we need to preserve.

If Compile Heart, someone I should never have to bring into a discussion, can make a JRPG of moderate production values which can more than break even at ~100k physical copies sold plus whatever royalties are paid for licencing it to XSeed or similar; while a third person shooter needs 5 million sales to be a viable investment, then there's something fundamentally wrong with the second option.

Games don't have to be everything. You don't have to be open world, shooter, action with light platforming and puzzle elements. Lots of games should be encouraged to do this, and they should be carefully crafted with big investments to be the best games they can be. But equally, there should be a place in gaming for titles doing only one of those things. Look at EDF, it just focuses on shooting and nothing else and just makes it really, really fun.

I think having a separate price point for titles which aren't AAA but aren't indie would help, too. £25 or so, then build your expectations around selling at that price point, would be good.