'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs
'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs
It's not easy to get funding for a new game right now.
I mean it's a play as old as time; "we give great deals to the sellers and the buyers, until we own the market"
Does Epic have any market share past free games and fortnight?
Developers. UE5 is chalking up to be the defacto standard for modern titles that don't have budgets large enough to make their own engine.
EGS, on the other hand, is still an abysmal failure beyond the lure of free (and increasingly shittier) games and a yearly 25% off discount coupon that people fall for.
Steam is largely driven by Valve's own games and freebies as well. 1.5M currently playing Dota 2 and CS 2, with the next best being F2P games: PUBG with 370K online, Apex Legends, and Naraka.
Rocket League and Fall Guys are also on there. Not sure how much paid games sell there though.
Exclusive deals suck ass. So good.
They are anti-consumer, but for smaller devs in particular, they can mean the difference between between canceling and releasing a game, between bankruptcy and the studio's continued existence.
Yeah, game publishers are in their "cash out" phase after realizing there's no competing against steam.
There is if they're interested in competing with Steam. Epic made some very competitive offerings for the supply side of things and then provided very little reason for customers to ever shop there, which it turns out is just as, if not more important.
I really wonder how the palworld devs feel about being gamepass day 1. I have no idea what the payouts look like for them. It probably got a lot more people to try their game, but would they have done better selling it only on steam? They probably weren't in a position to negotiate a very favorable contract with Microsoft.
Because craftopia and palworld have a social aspect getting a big seed of players who only played it because it was free (for them) was I think a catalyst in making palworld blow up like it did. There are too many games out there for people to look through so it probably helps get word out effectively to sell out cheap for a big initial audience like gamepass when you're a small dev. I only knew of craftopia or palworld because of gamepass at least
The flip side is Microsoft is 100% giving the above as a sales pitch to devs why they should put their game on gamepass for peanuts (paid in exposure!). That's probably some of what drives the shittier deal devs get now
Their previous game Craftopia was also on GamePass and somewhat successful. They probably had some leverage for negotiations.
Maybe... just not make exclusive deals? Especially not on mediocre game distribution platforms.
"I talked to at least five small teams, like 35 [members] and under, during GDC, and they're like: Cuts, cuts, cuts, funding canceled, talks that were going on for a year, canceled," said Casey Yano, the co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. "It sounds like it's shit. We're definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I'd be very, very, very scared right now."
If these deals didn't exist, lots of games simply wouldn't get made. You can hate on the platforms all you like but the deals are one of the only sources of funding for small & solo developers.
Remember DARQ? Taking a stance against third-party exclusivity pays off.
Hawkish monetary policy has a way of making it hard to turn a profit on long horizon projects.
I really don’t get what this journalist is trying to say. What is described here has little to do with epic and gamepass. The music momentarily stopped. There is no free cash anymore, not even from the gender crowd. That is the reason there are so many layoffs. You can be happy if you are not working in gaming atm.
They way this piece is written makes you think the journalist believes epic and MS will give you x amount of their own money if you sign a deal. That is total nonsense, they obviously want to push their platform but they run into the same problem every publisher runs into. They are no longer able to refinance this projects consistently.
For the people who think Paleworld devs and other would be sad about being on gamepass. That is mostly false. Most devs are happy to get this deals because it takes a huge burden of them. Getting the money to even start or finish their project. Making a game is risky and difficult. Even a really good product does not guarantee good sales numbers or any attention from the masses. Gamepass gives you some form of stability which ,especially for small studios, is really important and very difficult to archive.
What is the gender crowd and how do I get their free cash you speak of?
The woke / gender / diversity crowd is every ngo , government agency or government project around the world that gave you some sort of funding for incorporating some of their their ideals or following certain guidelines. Basically how a company like sweet baby inc. got a lot of their work. The services of a company like this were often required for that sort of funding.
That crowd was a vital part of game development for a while since they offered really good funding and didn‘t ask for too much. That’s why certain things like selecting pronouns is now common in gaming, they literally paid for it. The beauty of it was that it was very low risk money.
In the end it was easy to get money so a lot of developer went for it, as they should.
How do you get that money? Same as every other funding, you have to apply for it. But today you more or less need to pitch an idea that more closely aligns with their ideals.
unknown indie games aren't selling shitty platforms? you don't say.
Just because you only know three games, it doesn't mean the rest of us do too. Slay The Spire, and Darkest Dungeon, are a couple of really well known and community loved indie games. Both excellent examples of what can be done with limited resources
These are enormous classics, made by small studio is not the same as unknown game. Sold much more than many triple a games, this is a very dry weak take