AAA vs Indie Games: Why $20 Can Beat a $70 Blockbusters
Big-budget games keep getting pricier, and publisher meddling often kill the fun. But Indie games avoids that toxic trend.
Triple-A Games Are Expensive, But Are They Worth It?
It’s no surprise that, in our society, expensive things are usually praised as “luxury” or being of good value, just because of their cost. Have you heard anyone say, “If it’s this expensive, it must be good.” But as a person who eats off-brand Frosted Flakes, I can tell you they taste the same.
As time passes, and games become more and more expensive—although 2K’s latest game, Mafia: The Old Country, costs $49.99—it’s because companies are spending more on games, games are getting bigger, the endless chase for infinite wealth, inflation, and many other factors.
But if you’re buying a triple-A game, expect it to cost $70, not to mention the extra “Ultimate Super Duper Mega Deluxe Bundle” that lets you play it two minutes before launch and comes with digital clothing for $100.
But does price equal quality? Of course not, we’ve seen plenty of examples of that throughout the years. Do all big companies make excellent games? No, and it will never be guaranteed as long as making money is the top priority.
Games like Metal Gear Survive, XDefiant, Watch Dogs, Marvel’s Avengers, and Suicide Squad, have many reasons why they failed.
Publisher Interference Is Why Big Games Fail
Good direction is needed for a game to flourish, as it’s a team effort of many small moving pieces. I’ve spent a good amount of time watching videos on what messed up a game’s development, and let me tell you, many, many, many of the times, it wasn’t on the developers.
Rocksteady, of Arkham Knight fame, was forced by Warner Bros. Games to make the live-service looter shooter Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Although it’s very complicated and highly recommend this video here.
Crystal Dynamics was pushed by publisher Square Enix with Marvel’s Avengers to follow a live-service model, with all the good grinding and monetization, and let us not forget the console-exclusive Spider-Man.
Visceral Games had to add co-op to Dead Space 3, as recommended by EA, and it was $10 dollars to play co-op (when launched if you were buying a used copy).
Battlefront II (2017) had heroes locked behind a loot box system, EA again, with the craziest monetization I’ve seen on a triple-A game.
Metal Gear Solid, known for its espionage narrative, stealth, and eccentric characters, was turned by Konami into a zombie survival game with Metal Gear Survive.
Rare, the company behind my favorite game, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, was pushed by Microsoft to focus on Kinect games. How do you buy the studio behind Golden Eye, Banjo-Kazooie, and many other icons and make them do motion-control games? Not to mention what they did to Conker with Project Spark. On the brightside, Sea of Thieves is nice.
These weren’t just bad games; but they were compromised by the publishers. Whether it’s the publishers pushing to add something last second, something that doesn’t fit into the narrative, crunch so it can be announced with their numbers, or to follow trends and appease the investors.
Many times, triple-A games fail, I believe, because of the people funding the project, not necessarily the developers, who love money. Which is why when you go into the indie pit, you get plenty of oddballs, for either good or bad.
The best part is that games of this scope are very varied. They aren’t mostly third-person shooters, first-person shooters, open-world action adventures, or live-service games.
So, at a time where the economy is at an imbalance—I live in the U.S., mind you—why spend 70+ dollars on a hyper-realistic game, when I can spend less than $20 on a goofy game that I can sink hundreds of hours in?
But the Indie Market Is Overflowing
Are indie games great? Of course! Are they super varied and satisfy many different tastes? Yes! Are they super risky, stressful, and not many make it out alive or become a success? Oh… Uh… Yeah?
A quick look at SteamDB release chart, which tracks how many games are published through Steam, shows that in June alone, 1,635 games were published on Steam. It’s an insane amount.
While we all know our indie darlings, and the rise of friend-slop means that small teams have another route into success, a lot of games are published monthly.
And as a person who likes to explore games and talk to people about said games, I get lost easily. Imagine a person who isn’t actively looking for a game, and imagine a small team that doesn’t have marketing money, which is why Critical Reflex, 2 Left Thumbs, and DreadXP, among others, are pretty dope.
Indie games are great because, most of the time, they’re a passion project. Many times, it’s something a team believes in, driven by the joy of gaming, not money. Just something fun that people can enjoy, and best of all, it’s much cheaper than triple-A games! So, let me take a minute to recommend some.
PAGER
Developer/publisher: bilge
A first-person Kafkaesque psychological horror, where you have to obey a pager. I recently got this game because it looks very pretty, and as a fan of horror, I have to support horror projects. Also, Kafka was a dope writer.
Dice A Million
Developer: countlessnights
Publisher: 2 Left Thumbs
Rolling dice always feels nice, so imagine if you rolled them and they flashed numbers? Well in this roguelike deckbuilder, you need to get to a million points rolling different dice with different combinations.
GONE Fishing
Developer/publisher: GONE Studios
You know what’s dope in video games? Fishing. You know what’s also dope? Horror and playing with friends. Put them together, and you get this game.
A Few Quick Matches
Developer/publisher: Studio Bidou
If you love Smash, or platform fighters, there’s literally no reason why you shouldn’t check this. It has sauce, although a little bit floaty, but hopefully the developers can fix it.
MINDWAVE
Developer/publisher: HoloHammer
I played tons of WarioWare growing up, and I’m surprised many developers don’t go for the minigame type of games. Which is why I happily gave this game my cash. A stylistic microgame frenzy like WarioWare!
Support Vision, Not Just Hype
As gaming is the biggest form of entertainment, it doesn’t surprise me that the bigwigs want a piece of it, no matter what. But I don’t think it’s the developer's fault, at least not always.
Next time you’re tempted to buy an expensive game, look at the publisher to know what to expect, as some are known for their practices. And while not every indie game is amazing, you never really know what you’re going to get. You can find your next addictive gem, or a pile of garbage, both for the price of a fast-food meal.
Also, can someone add a Jigglypuff character to their platform fighters?! Please?!
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Loved this post Kevin! It’s one of the reasons for GGL. I got sick of sinking tons of cash into a AAA title I never finished and when I moved to mostly indie I realized how many hidden gems get released.
Also, PEAK is a great example of this exactly. Studio loses publishing, gets screwed, decides to partner with friends, makes a hit game of the year, and now sells millions of copies. AND it’s such an awesome game.
Totally. A big company releasing a game is not a guarantee it will be amazing. Likewise, an indie developer is not a lock to release a “bad” game. Explore all, and play what you like everyone!
That’s for writing this!