Gaming Is there an exodus from indie back to AAA?

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Despite a clutch of enviable awards, many concluded that the 2012 film Indie Game: The Movie, a documentary that followed a handful of thoughtful, industrious game developers working in near-poverty on video games that eventually made them rich, gave an unhelpful account of independent game-making.

As in most creative ventures, financial success is the exception. Moreover, the film’s implication that major game studios were holding their staff back from fame and wealth, if only these game-makers could be courageous enough to strike out alone, was misleading.

The narrative proved effective. Many were inspired to leave the relative security of a job in mainstream game-development to launch independent projects, with varying degrees of success.

It would be too much of a stretch to imply that, five years after the explosion of indie game development, we’re witnessing a widespread return back to large studio development. It is, however, undeniably true that, for every indie success story, there are scores of independently produced games that have failed to make a mark or to provide, for their creators, a viable new career. And as such, many are returning to more orthodox roles within established studios.

Likewise, with the democratization of game-making tools during the past decade, major studios increasingly receive applications from young developers whose first experience of making and releasing software was as individuals. Indie game-makers are increasingly occupying roles at major studios.

“After the chaos of releasing a game with an small independent team, there’s something soothing about the routine of going into the same office and seeing the same people day in and day out,” says Noah Sasso, creator of BaraBariBall, a competitive game that featured on the PlayStation 4 collection of absurdist athletic minigames, Sportsfriends.

Read more here. (Gamasutra)
 
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