People were using Sony's amount of indie games vs Microsoft's to make the case that the PS4 is better than the Xbox One.

Nintendo made a complete 180 in regards to their view to indie developers this Gen.

Both Nintendo and Sony are working VERY hard to make indie developers be as comfortable as possible with their consoles. Right now, their lineup would be even more atrocious if there were no indie games.

Indie developer's games are getting more ambitious and expensive, and all around better that before. It's not just 50 million 8bit rpg's and platformers. Though those are still good.

Indie games include Project CARS, Hover, Revolt of Gamers (fusuion of Mirror's Edge and Jet Set Radio), Mighty Number 9, Shovel Knight, FEZ, Minecraft (at first at least), etc. Many of them are very well known and high profile.

In a gaming worl where it's become too risky for the major developers to do something more unique, the indie game scene has become VERY essential to seeing unique, different experiences in gaming. Innovation often comes from here.

Both Portal and Portal 2 came from Valve hiring the developers of two small, free games.

I get not /liking/ indie games, but saying they arent important now is foolish.

They're okay. I don't really play them but some are good and popular.

Essential and the savior of gaming.

I don't think people realize how great some indie games are, or that some indies get bought out and made into things like Portal. Also, a lot of the better indie studios consist of proffessionals who broke away from larger companies and aren't just basement dwellers tweaking their nerdy homebrew.

We should get a list of recent awesome indie titles going somewhere if there isn't one already.

They are the future of gaming

very very very important, please support and/or share my project :')  http://igg.me/at/multibit/x

Not important at all. I like indie games, but the industry would be largely the same without them.

If your thinking short-term, then they're not hugely important. They're a nice additions to your PC or console.

Mid to long-term however, they're essential to the survival of the industry.

AAA budget games are becoming too risky to innovate. We have publishers like Ubisoft re-using mechanical formulas in all their games and development of AAA games has become an exercise in ticking all the right boxes to fulfil current mainstream desires.

The industry needs indie developers to innovate, for some to grow and become mid-level, mid-budget developers and some of them to further develop into the AAA studios of tomorrow. We're already beginning to see some indie titles hyped as much as AAA titles e.g. Project CARS, Minecraft (OK, it's already huge) and No Man's Sky.

Without indie games and devs this industry would die.

I can really enjoy Indie (and small games). Hotline Miami, Resogun, Strider and Minecraft, and seeing a game like No Man's Sky gets me excited.
I think indie games are important, and they'll only get more important.

OT: I would recommend trying:

FTL- It's a great little 2D space sim that's great in short bursts and difficult but somehow addictive.
Trine & Trine 2- Superb 2D platformers with incredible visuals
Outlast- Genuinely scary FP horror.
Paper's Please- You play a border patrol officer... errr... you need to play it to see how it messes with your emotions!