I was really uncomfortable with this as well. And not just because the math doesn’t math.

One dev plus nine friends working with him is 10 people… not one.

Expedition 33 is a triumph, but it wasn’t made by 30 people. Contractors provided vital labor.

This is a dangerous path we’re walking.

[image or embed]

— Mike Futter (TMNT: Tactical Takedown Out Now!) (@futterish.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 11:45

The sentiment I'm seeing brewing is "if 1 person can make this good game that I like, then how come 300 hundred people made a game that I dislike?"

It's the same sentiment that made hat guy feel like the killer move was going on stage to talk shit about other devs. It's gross and weird.

— Gary J Kings - Trailer making guy (@garyjkings.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 02:19

“[insert company] should be ashamed!” is the new reactionary catchphrase: and it’s often coupled with how a dev made a game on their own, or how a mod team who didn’t have to build an engine are better than the game’s original developers.

— Joe Baxter-Webb (@indiegameclinic.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 08:14

Fuck.. when did the #Solodev discourse go from damaged folks retreating into their own artistic bubble to "look what we can do with no people!,start firing everyone" vibes.

I am not gonna shoulder this, fuck all that. it's gross.

— Tomas Sala (@falconeerdev.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 09:30

People and media often say Balatro was made by 'one guy'. I feel like that unfortunately may be stoking the flames of this David vs. Goliath narrative a tiny bit

No it was not 'one guy', look at the dang in-game credits

[image or embed]

— localthunk (@localthunk.com) 7 June 2025 at 07:49

Even a lot of indie developers are calling it out, Lol.

Geoff calling that dude a solo developer when there was 10 other people. 😂

Part of me kind of appreciates that there's more focus on smaller dev teams. The industry has an unhealthy obsession with these $200 million games that are made by 300 people over 6+ years, and I'm glad to see some pushback on that. 

But it is far more frustrating that it's now being used to weaponize game politics by people who are extremely clueless.  

Even then there are some games which are exactly that, such as Baldur's Gate 3, well, not $200m but around $100m with a core development team of 300+ and thousands in total in the credits, which is also used as a weapon against other developers, Lol. I think my issue is the dishonesty surrounding a lot of these conversations and the attempts of weaponizing developers against each other.

I don't like this new trend of trying to invent some war between "AA" vs "AAA" or "Independent" vs "Major Publisher", especially when misinformation is spread and examples are exaggerated. There's also this dangerous trend of pretending like AA and Indie are doing perfectly fine and it's only AAA and major publishers having issues, but for every successful independent or AA, there are literally dozens of failing AA videogames or independent studios. I've saw dozens of indie developers and industry folk saying that the industry isn't good for independent or AA studios either and there's a lot of struggle to get funding lately for anyone.

The way people spoke about Baldur's Gate 3, like it was some Tony Stark thing, it was often "Yeah! Suck it AAA/Major Publishers! (BG3 is AAA, Lol) Look at Larian! They made Baldur's Gate 3 with a box of scraps in a cave! If they can do it then anyone can do it!" when it couldn't possibly be further from the truth and Larian themselves will say this, Lol. Larian has 7 studios across the globe, BG3 was developed by a core team of 300+ in Larian and thousands in total, across 6-7 years of development. There was nothing small about BG3 and not everyone could do it, it was an expensive and huge project in every scale.

Then we have Expedition 33 now, another amazing title which is being used to attack other developers with, Lol. It is spoken about like it was a bunch of homeless people plucked off the streets who decided to stick it to the AAA industry. It was not developed by 30 people, it has 400+ professionals listed in the credits, the game had a whole ass orchestra as well, Lol. 

I've legit seen people say it succeeded because it doesn't have extra baggage other studios have like marketing teams (it does, Lol) and it was featured heavily at multiple major Xbox showcases, including the Developer Direct and received a bag of cash to launch into Game Pass where it was heavily marketed alongside. I've seen people say they don't have HR (they do, Lol). They also had a publisher (Kepler) who in the past has received $120m+ from major publisher NetEase who are a minority shareholder, Lol.

I'm not diminishing anyone's achievements because these games are absolutely amazing and yes they did punch above their weight and do better than most but it's not as simple as many are making out, all so they can attack other developers they dislike, it's not as simple as any random ass dude deciding they want to make a videogame and giving a middle finger to the entire industry, Lol. And now we're at the point of outright lies about solo developers, Lmao. The CEO of Sandfall even said in a podcast that he hates people weaponizing him and his studio.

Also almost all developers are trying their best and want to make the best thing possible, it's almost always executives who fuck that up.

Come on, Chris. That’s not at all what I said. I’m talking about ensuring that all labor is recognized, including valuable contract labor.

This isn’t about not praising teams who punch above their weight. It’s about being honest about what it DOES take to get games made.

You’re better than this.

— Mike Futter (TMNT: Tactical Takedown Out Now!) (@futterish.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 14:46

It’s incredibly noticeable how often ‘and an army of outsourcers outside America and Western Europe’ is left out of these team sizes. That’s the part I find real uncomfortable.

[image or embed]

— Mike Bithell (@mikebithell.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 08:36

Fwiw, I think it’s absolutely cool to talk simply about team size as ‘number of people my company directly employees’.. it’s when that becomes a key marketing point I get uncomfortable.

— Mike Bithell (@mikebithell.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 08:57

Nintendo is my favorite solo dev.

— Zeboyd Digital Entertainment (@zeboydgames.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 00:14

This could backfire too, the money grubbing executives will take note and use it to justify laying off thousands so they can outsource all the work to some underpaid and overworked studio elsewhere in the world, all so they can say "Our game was made by 10 people! If you ignore the hundreds of outsourced employees!"

But it wouldn't be a Geoff event without some controversy, haha.

Tune into the Xbox showcase on Sunday where they'll reveal the next Call of Duty, made by a solo dev and 2,999 of his friends

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier.bsky.social) 7 June 2025 at 00:09

Big corps. "People like it when fewer people make a game as it seems more like a passion project. let's fire more people so the fewer people and secretly higher crunch time people will love this game!" Geoff is such a shill pile of shit cuntwad.

Yep. Such a simple thing someone like him with a foot in the industry should have thought about.

Execs were probably salivating at the marketing potential, Lmfao.

Like you said, they just provided a "justification" for firing hundreds of people, heavily crunching the rest and outsourcing to some poor overworked/underpaid external studio because by Geoff's logic they can now say "It was developed by a small passionate group of developers" and people will cheer without looking too deeply into it.

It'll be used to justify layoffs, push AI taking jobs, and the industry already has a problem with not crediting people and hiding outsourcing.

No Summer Game Fest thread on here.

So I'm just gonna post all the announcements in what priority I have for them between that show and all the other mini shows that happened in the last 24 hours.

High Priority
-Atomic Heart II
-Code Vein II
-Resident Evil Requiem
-Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds

Medium Priority
-Acts of Blood
-Atelier Resleriana: The Red Alchemist & the White Guardian
-Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles 2
-Game of Thrones: War for Westeros
-Jurassic World Evolution 3
-MARVEL Cosmic Invasion
-Milano’s Odd Job Collection
-Mina the Hollower
-MOUSE: P.I. for Hire
-Neptunia Game Maker R:Evolution
-Onimusha: Way of the Sword
-Reverie in the Moonlight
-STRANGER THAN HEAVEN
-Street Fighter 6 (DLC)
-Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree

Low Priority
-Black Myth: Wukong
-Blighted
-Chronicles: Medieval
-Dying Light: The Beast
-End of Abyss
-Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School
-Felt That: Boxing
-Fractured Blooms
-ILL
-LEGO Party!
-LEGO Voyagers
-Mafia: The Old Country
-Monument Valley III
-Mortal Shell II
-Nicktoons & the Dice of Destiny
-Scott Pilgrim EX
-Snap & Grab
-Unwell
-Wildgate
-WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers
-Wu-Tang: Rise of the Deceiver

No Priority
-ARC Raiders
-Blade & Soul Heroes
-Deadpool VR
-KILLER INN
-SCUM
-The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin

Finally got around to watching SoP and SGF highlights. End of Abyss and Mixtape were the highlights of SGF. SoP tho, Nioh 3 announcement! . Tried the alpha demo earlier, was good. I’d consider Nioh 2 one of the greatest games ever released and only true Souls killer out there so I have high high hopes to Nioh 3.