AA's like Ratchet and Clank.

Oh so wonderful 101 is a B-tier game right? And I am guessing this classification is based off a game being made with an average budget... anything smaler will put them into indie territory. 

So that should means that games like, Infamous, child of light, alien isolation, sunset overdrive, transistor (indy), murdered:soul suspect, demon souls, vanquish, ratchet series, tekken series, sf series...... i could go on and on and on.

Point however is that  those b-tier games are still there, but just because they lack the marketing budget behind the CODs means they aren't as in your face. That doesn't mean they aren't successful either. 

And in every entertainment industry out there, there are always more failures than their are successes. So that point is invalid. Thats they way the world works. Do you have any idea how many games are made each year? If they were all the best things ever then we all would be bankrupt. Better way to look at it, teher are a lot of people that can make games, not everyone makes great games. The great devs should be rewarded, and thats what happens. If you make a great game, it will sell. 

Ummm...

N64 > Saturn and in some ways N64 > PSOne

Gamecube > PS2 > Dreamcast

It's not steam's, sony's, microsoft's, or nintendo's job to market your game. These store owners need to do everything they can to keep it clean and fair unlike app stores, but they shouldn't be "expected" by devs to make your game stand out.


I'm really really really worried about oversaturation of the indie scene, but imo as a dev it's my responsibility to handle the situation. In the past on pc and for the moment on consoles every indie game recieves a considerable amount of attention just by being on the store. Moving forward, lots more indies will fail but the ones who bother marketing their game should still be able to find success.

Wonderful 101 does not fit the B-tier mold in any way (unless you believe Bayonetta is B-tier or lower). We know it had a very high budget.

disagree completely.

more games released per week in the ps2 era than they are now. people need software to play and they need diversity in gameplay. the two AAA games a month release cycle is far more dangerous to consoles than a flood of indies. not every indie will be a success and it shouldn't be either. only the good, unique, fun, and bug free games should be turning a good profit.

indies are here to stay or console are extinct. consumers will never be satisfied with a pitiful library of 20 games a year to choose from.

He's right but so what? This happens with every industry when there is a boom. The situation with the gaming industry is just that there are too many people who want to be a part of it, too many people trying to break in for them all to succeed.

We're already seeing the filtering take place. Successful "indie" developers are transforming into the new middle. Their studios will still be small but they will have made a name for themselves that gamers will recognize. Transistor is an example of the new second tier.

It seems like a better model that we saw at the start of last gen, where top games cost $60 and mid-level games cost--that's right--$60.

Our new middle is downloadable games from small, established studios. I'm perfectly fine with that. It's a refining process that will take time but I'm optimistic about it. I also think that why a lot of big name developers are leaving their massive studios to create smaller studios.

More sustainable than the AAA model.

I really like this point about how smaller budgeted games have moved away from the set retail price, and instead, are being priced according to what the developers feel is more right for their work.  For example, many of the smaller titles from lesser known developers often get pricing within the $10 to $15 range, while bigger games from more established developers set their prices maybe a bit higher like between $20 to $30.

On topic, I think it's pretty obvious that in a market with a lot of competition, there is also going to be a lot of people who don't make it.  Ultimately, I think independent game development is great for this industry, as it can often inject creativity that the bigger development studios and publishers might be too afraid to do.

Hasn't Nintendo / Iwata been saying this for a while now? Its obvious. You collectively devalue your product to the point of oblivion. Its primal why Nintendo needs to keep its software to sell its hardware.