4 ms·

The gaming industry is so fucked. On one hand, you've got huge conglomerates like EA that release shitty game after shitty game with invasive DRM that would mak

by dvt 13y ago

The gaming industry is so fucked. On one hand, you've got huge conglomerates like EA that release shitty game after shitty game with invasive DRM that would make Orwell cringe, and on the other you've got 2300+ people working on Farmville. I just feel bad for indie developers that release progressive and inventive games competition after competition with tiny teams of 1-2 and live on shoestring/student budgets. Steam Greenlight ended up being more of a failure than a success, next-gen consoles won't even give a shit about indies, and we wonder why this industry is so screwed up. Don't even get me started on the lack of proper infrastructure for competitive games, etc (at least in the West). The whole thing is just depressing.

MartinCron 13y ago
next-gen consoles won't even give a shit about indies Indies were given a disproportionate amount of attention at the PlayStation4 reveal.
TillE 13y ago
There's never been a better time to be an indie developer, particularly on the PC. Marketing remains difficult, but now there are virtually no barriers. Digital distribution and engines like Unity have changed everything. Steam has its problems, and I wish they'd just shift to an Apple-style app store model with a curated storefront. But in general, they've been a huge boon to independent developers.
- mehrzad 13y ago
  >I wish they'd just shift to an Apple-style app store model If they lowered the minimum prices too, I wouldn't mind. But right now Steam has a lot of third-rate "side-project" games that are lower quality than free flash games online charging the price of a very good iOS/Android game and it's getting annoying. Now, I'm not one to think saturation with lower quality/more indie stuff is always bad (especially with music, for example) but it seems with the ubiquity of PC game development as a hobby, a decent amount of crap is a byproduct.
- deleted 13y ago
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johnjlocke 13y ago
Zynga's fatal flaw was depending on a platform that they don't control (Facebook) in order to make money. Twitter third-party developers got burned by this not that long ago in the past.
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  [deleted]
- ttrreeww 13y ago
  What fatal flaw? It make the VC and founders billions, it's a huge success in pump and dump.
jonny_eh 13y ago
That's why I'm excited about OUYA. Our whole goal is to reduce the barriers between developers and gamers. Disclaimer: I work for OUYA.
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andypants 13y ago
Supercell, a small studio with just 2 games, has higher revenue in the app store than all of EA's 900+ mobile games combined. The mobile games market is still young.
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by dvt 13y ago

MartinCron 13y ago

next-gen consoles won't even give a shit about indies Indies were given a disproportionate amount of attention at the PlayStation4 reveal.

TillE 13y ago

There's never been a better time to be an indie developer, particularly on the PC. Marketing remains difficult, but now there are virtually no barriers. Digital distribution and engines like Unity have changed everything. Steam has its problems, and I wish they'd just shift to an Apple-style app store model with a curated storefront. But in general, they've been a huge boon to independent developers.

mehrzad 13y ago
>I wish they'd just shift to an Apple-style app store model If they lowered the minimum prices too, I wouldn't mind. But right now Steam has a lot of third-rate "side-project" games that are lower quality than free flash games online charging the price of a very good iOS/Android game and it's getting annoying. Now, I'm not one to think saturation with lower quality/more indie stuff is always bad (especially with music, for example) but it seems with the ubiquity of PC game development as a hobby, a decent amount of crap is a byproduct.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

johnjlocke 13y ago

Zynga's fatal flaw was depending on a platform that they don't control (Facebook) in order to make money. Twitter third-party developers got burned by this not that long ago in the past.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
ttrreeww 13y ago
What fatal flaw? It make the VC and founders billions, it's a huge success in pump and dump.

jonny_eh 13y ago

That's why I'm excited about OUYA. Our whole goal is to reduce the barriers between developers and gamers. Disclaimer: I work for OUYA.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

andypants 13y ago

Supercell, a small studio with just 2 games, has higher revenue in the app store than all of EA's 900+ mobile games combined. The mobile games market is still young.

deleted 13y ago

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