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Yes but it's undeniable that the industry has changed recently. It used to be, someone would make a game to express themselves, it would be picked up by a major

Yes but it's undeniable that the industry has changed recently. It used to be, someone would make a game to express themselves, it would be picked up by a major studio, it would be expanded and polished until it had mass appeal, and became the next "blockbuster" game. Now, it's, someone makes a game to express themselves, and they eke by on a trickly of income, they fight for placement among the sea of shovelware on the game store sites, and they never get picked up by a big publisher. Meanwhile, the big 3 game companies are creating the same formulaic game over and over and, through massive advertising campaigns, have captured all of the customers.

sarchertech 1y ago
>expanded and polished until it had mass appeal, and became the next “blockbuster”. I’m not going to say that never happened. But I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. The fortunes of small independent teams have certainly risen and fallen multiple times over the years.
- phendrenad2 1y ago
  Blizzard fits this model. They didn't go from Warcraft to WC3 to WoW without outside investment.
  - sarchertech 1y ago
    Blizzard certainly doesn’t fit the model of >someone would make a game to express themselves, it would be picked up by a major studio, it would be expanded and polished until it had mass appeal, and became the next "blockbuster" game. Warcraft was a big success and Warcraft 2 was a huge success. Both of those games were published by Blizzard themselves. They were purchased by Vivendi a few years later. I can’t think of a single game where a major studio picked up a small game then expanded and polished it into a blockbuster. The closest I can think of is maybe DOTA. Where the creator of a mod was hired by valve to make a stand alone game. But that definitely wasn’t normal.
    - phendrenad2 1y ago
      That's just wrong though. "Warcraft" was a "success" but it didn't reach a wide audience. They took on investment money and were able to get each subsequent game to a wider audience. Know anyone investing in indie games in 2025?
- krapp 1y ago
  I can only think of examples where famous streamers made indie games go viral.

sarchertech 1y ago

>expanded and polished until it had mass appeal, and became the next “blockbuster”. I’m not going to say that never happened. But I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head. The fortunes of small independent teams have certainly risen and fallen multiple times over the years.

phendrenad2 1y ago
Blizzard fits this model. They didn't go from Warcraft to WC3 to WoW without outside investment.
- sarchertech 1y ago
  Blizzard certainly doesn’t fit the model of >someone would make a game to express themselves, it would be picked up by a major studio, it would be expanded and polished until it had mass appeal, and became the next "blockbuster" game. Warcraft was a big success and Warcraft 2 was a huge success. Both of those games were published by Blizzard themselves. They were purchased by Vivendi a few years later. I can’t think of a single game where a major studio picked up a small game then expanded and polished it into a blockbuster. The closest I can think of is maybe DOTA. Where the creator of a mod was hired by valve to make a stand alone game. But that definitely wasn’t normal.
  - phendrenad2 1y ago
    That's just wrong though. "Warcraft" was a "success" but it didn't reach a wide audience. They took on investment money and were able to get each subsequent game to a wider audience. Know anyone investing in indie games in 2025?
krapp 1y ago
I can only think of examples where famous streamers made indie games go viral.