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Forums - Gaming - Molyneux: 'Enjoy the indie craze, because it won't last'

the_dengle on 25 March 2014
Mr Khan said:
the_dengle said:

Man, did he pick a bad time to say this. We're in the middle of a phase where a lot of talented directors are leaving the big companies to start their own projects. Not only will this lead to a more bustling indie scene than we've ever seen before, it leaves Capcom high and dry without Inafune or Mikami. It leaves Konami without Igarashi. And yeah, it leaves Activision without Infinity Ward/"Respawn".

Resident Evil and Castlevania are in the can, Mega Man hasn't made a proper appearance in years and Call of Duty is in decline while Titanfall is the hot new shooter (granted, Titanfall is not exactly an indie game, but EA doesn't own Respawn).

Even if I was willing to entertain the notion that he had any awareness of what's really happening in the industry, Molyneux is a compulsive liar. I wouldn't put any stock in what he has to say.

The trouble with that is that more or less all of these guys are having one HELL of a time finding funding.

Are they? Mikami hooked up with Bethesda, Respawn with EA. Inafune got $4 million through Kickstarter with a couple conceptual sketches, and apparently he didn't even need anything like that for Gunvolt. Igarashi only just left and hasn't even announced anything yet. But even if he does nothing, Konami has lost a major asset.



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bubblegamer on 25 March 2014

This guy can't stop showing us all just how brainless he is.



VanceIX on 25 March 2014
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Considering how many bad indie games steam has, I wouldn't doubt it... Out of every awesome indie game on steam, there are many more bad ones and I hate the concept of Early Access that indies seem to have cause since most of the time, they don't furfill what they promised and you already paid for it


Early access is one thing that I hope really does die. A terrible way to develop a game, imo.

Crowd-funded indie games as well. Some are good, but most are just terrible. 


What is wrong with crowd funded indie games? I really don't get it, it is way for games to exist.

You take money from a person with lofty promises and limited information. People get on board because of flashy incentives, and then usually the project doesn't pan out completely. Crowd-funding usually doesn't raise enough money to develop a full sized game anyway, which is what a lot of the people advertise. Most projects raise what, $100,000-200,000? A lot of that cash goes to paying salaries, and then the bit that is left over is used to make a game that is a shell of what people expected. 

Um can you name examples, because I have yet to see someone feeling that what they paid didn't live up to some expectations. Ya Double Fine might be of an example where they got way too much money and most of it did most likely go into somewhats pocket, but the game still is excellent peace of work.


7 Days to Die is Early Access, $35, and not near truly playable form right now. Unsung Story is a kickstarter project that I was thinking of funding, but I backed out because the dev still hasn't really released any indication of what the game really will be. Planetary Annihalation on Steam is $50 for an unfinished, early-access game. Wasteland 2 players complained for a long time about the early-access. Most Kickstarter games are yet to come out, as the funding craze happened more recently, but as time goes on and developers remain silent about the proceeding of many of the projects, people get suspicous. It's basically gambling, you pay a discounted price for a game still in development, but you may get burned if the game turns out to be a mess or doesn't match your expectations. Unlike a pre-order, you can't cancel once you've paid up. The developer can pocket your money and release a half-baked product and there would be nothing you could do about it.



                                                                                                               You're Gonna Carry That Weight.

Xbox One - PS4 - Wii U - PC

Mr Khan on 25 March 2014
the_dengle said:
Mr Khan said:
the_dengle said:

Man, did he pick a bad time to say this. We're in the middle of a phase where a lot of talented directors are leaving the big companies to start their own projects. Not only will this lead to a more bustling indie scene than we've ever seen before, it leaves Capcom high and dry without Inafune or Mikami. It leaves Konami without Igarashi. And yeah, it leaves Activision without Infinity Ward/"Respawn".

Resident Evil and Castlevania are in the can, Mega Man hasn't made a proper appearance in years and Call of Duty is in decline while Titanfall is the hot new shooter (granted, Titanfall is not exactly an indie game, but EA doesn't own Respawn).

Even if I was willing to entertain the notion that he had any awareness of what's really happening in the industry, Molyneux is a compulsive liar. I wouldn't put any stock in what he has to say.

The trouble with that is that more or less all of these guys are having one HELL of a time finding funding.

Are they? Mikami hooked up with Bethesda, Respawn with EA. Inafune got $4 million through Kickstarter with a couple conceptual sketches, and apparently he didn't even need anything like that for Gunvolt. Igarashi only just left and hasn't even announced anything yet. But even if he does nothing, Konami has lost a major asset.

That's the key, though. Either you cozy up with major publishers (and if you aren't closely affiliated, they'll drop you quick when things turn sour, like Sega and Platinum), or you've just gone right around the horn again to another major publisher. Capcom becomes Zenimax, Activision becomes EA.



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Soleron on 25 March 2014
Mr Khan said:
Soleron said:
...

It's not like they haven't always existed, just that distribution was a huge issue, though i'm sure you could always find fan-games and self made or self-published games even back to the earliest days of UseNet floating around.

The fad really started just because there was a hunger for smaller games that the big guys just weren't filling for the most part. There still is such a hunger on consoles, though with proliferation of services like Virtual Console and rival means of distributing older games, as well as the explosion of games that are smaller still on mobile, this need is rapidly getting crowded out.

As you say, distribution is the reason.

What I mean by "indie" going away is the mentality that i) all those games are automatically better/more artistic than other types of games, doing something truly new and visionary, and iii) developers can do whatever they want, or even not do anything and just get money for a slick idea (Kickstarter)

The VC and Kickstarter money will become more selective, and the market will demand higher standards than the current glitchy messes on Steam Early Access. It will not be fun for the kind of indies who spend more time on Twitter than actually developing, but those who remain will do well.



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the_dengle on 25 March 2014
Mr Khan said:

That's the key, though. Either you cozy up with major publishers (and if you aren't closely affiliated, they'll drop you quick when things turn sour, like Sega and Platinum), or you've just gone right around the horn again to another major publisher. Capcom becomes Zenimax, Activision becomes EA.

An independent developer working with a major publisher still has more creative freedom than a studio owned by a major publisher. You used Sega & Platinum as an example, but when Sega dropped them, Platinum just wound up with Nintendo. It seems Capcom wouldn't let them make Bayonetta, so they found a publisher (or two) who would.

Inafune bypassed the publisher problem, and he's been encouraging others to follow in his footsteps.



bananaking21 on 25 March 2014

usually i love characters related to the gaming industry that say extremely stupid stuff. but this guy is just annoying as fuck. just go away Molyneux, just go away!



Acevil on 25 March 2014
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Considering how many bad indie games steam has, I wouldn't doubt it... Out of every awesome indie game on steam, there are many more bad ones and I hate the concept of Early Access that indies seem to have cause since most of the time, they don't furfill what they promised and you already paid for it


Early access is one thing that I hope really does die. A terrible way to develop a game, imo.

Crowd-funded indie games as well. Some are good, but most are just terrible. 


What is wrong with crowd funded indie games? I really don't get it, it is way for games to exist.

You take money from a person with lofty promises and limited information. People get on board because of flashy incentives, and then usually the project doesn't pan out completely. Crowd-funding usually doesn't raise enough money to develop a full sized game anyway, which is what a lot of the people advertise. Most projects raise what, $100,000-200,000? A lot of that cash goes to paying salaries, and then the bit that is left over is used to make a game that is a shell of what people expected. 

Um can you name examples, because I have yet to see someone feeling that what they paid didn't live up to some expectations. Ya Double Fine might be of an example where they got way too much money and most of it did most likely go into somewhats pocket, but the game still is excellent peace of work.


7 Days to Die is Early Access, $35, and not near truly playable form right now. Unsung Story is a kickstarter project that I was thinking of funding, but I backed out because the dev still hasn't really released any indication of what the game really will be. Planetary Annihalation on Steam is $50 for an unfinished, early-access game. Wasteland 2 players complained for a long time about the early-access. Most Kickstarter games are yet to come out, as the funding craze happened more recently, but as time goes on and developers remain silent about the proceeding of many of the projects, people get suspicous. It's basically gambling, you pay a discounted price for a game still in development, but you may get burned if the game turns out to be a mess or doesn't match your expectations. Unlike a pre-order, you can't cancel once you've paid up. The developer can pocket your money and release a half-baked product and there would be nothing you could do about it.


I wasn't talking about early access stuff (I agree that it isn't the great), I was more talking about Kickstarter projects. I find the games that have been released to be very nice. Double Fine recently released Broken Age, and another awsome kickstarter project is Banner Project. It takes awhile for game to be released, it can't be done within just one year. 



 

Porcupine_I on 25 March 2014
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Considering how many bad indie games steam has, I wouldn't doubt it... Out of every awesome indie game on steam, there are many more bad ones and I hate the concept of Early Access that indies seem to have cause since most of the time, they don't furfill what they promised and you already paid for it


Early access is one thing that I hope really does die. A terrible way to develop a game, imo.

Crowd-funded indie games as well. Some are good, but most are just terrible. 


What is wrong with crowd funded indie games? I really don't get it, it is way for games to exist.

You take money from a person with lofty promises and limited information. People get on board because of flashy incentives, and then usually the project doesn't pan out completely. Crowd-funding usually doesn't raise enough money to develop a full sized game anyway, which is what a lot of the people advertise. Most projects raise what, $100,000-200,000? A lot of that cash goes to paying salaries, and then the bit that is left over is used to make a game that is a shell of what people expected. 

ALL money goes into paying salaries in some form or another. That's what money does. 



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

VanceIX on 25 March 2014
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Acevil said:
VanceIX said:
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

Considering how many bad indie games steam has, I wouldn't doubt it... Out of every awesome indie game on steam, there are many more bad ones and I hate the concept of Early Access that indies seem to have cause since most of the time, they don't furfill what they promised and you already paid for it


Early access is one thing that I hope really does die. A terrible way to develop a game, imo.

Crowd-funded indie games as well. Some are good, but most are just terrible. 


What is wrong with crowd funded indie games? I really don't get it, it is way for games to exist.

You take money from a person with lofty promises and limited information. People get on board because of flashy incentives, and then usually the project doesn't pan out completely. Crowd-funding usually doesn't raise enough money to develop a full sized game anyway, which is what a lot of the people advertise. Most projects raise what, $100,000-200,000? A lot of that cash goes to paying salaries, and then the bit that is left over is used to make a game that is a shell of what people expected. 

Um can you name examples, because I have yet to see someone feeling that what they paid didn't live up to some expectations. Ya Double Fine might be of an example where they got way too much money and most of it did most likely go into somewhats pocket, but the game still is excellent peace of work.


7 Days to Die is Early Access, $35, and not near truly playable form right now. Unsung Story is a kickstarter project that I was thinking of funding, but I backed out because the dev still hasn't really released any indication of what the game really will be. Planetary Annihalation on Steam is $50 for an unfinished, early-access game. Wasteland 2 players complained for a long time about the early-access. Most Kickstarter games are yet to come out, as the funding craze happened more recently, but as time goes on and developers remain silent about the proceeding of many of the projects, people get suspicous. It's basically gambling, you pay a discounted price for a game still in development, but you may get burned if the game turns out to be a mess or doesn't match your expectations. Unlike a pre-order, you can't cancel once you've paid up. The developer can pocket your money and release a half-baked product and there would be nothing you could do about it.


I wasn't talking about early access stuff (I agree that it isn't the great), I was more talking about Kickstarter projects. I find the games that have been released to be very nice. Double Fine recently released Broken Age, and another awsome kickstarter project is Banner Project. It takes awhile for game to be released, it can't be done within just one year. 

A lot of Kickstarter projects are good, especially the well funded ones. There are many smaller funded games though that I am more than dubious about. 



                                                                                                               You're Gonna Carry That Weight.

Xbox One - PS4 - Wii U - PC