Last week, a couple of indie developers attracted attention with their comments after they suggested (amongst other things) that Xbox Game Pass deals had "come down in scope" since the service first began.
Darkest Dungeon director Chris Bourassa also stated in that interview that the "gold rush is over" in relation to indie funding, mentioning that the team secured their Epic Games deal at the right time. Now, in a follow-up interview this week, Bourassa told Gamer Social Club that the "gold rush" comment was aimed far beyond just Xbox Game Pass:
"My gold rush comment was meant as an overall appraisal of the indie funding situation – as I said, deals are more difficult to line up, their average size has diminished, and many companies are facing layoffs."
Someone else who was involved in the interview was Casey Yano, co-founder of Slay The Spire studio Mega Crit Games, who clarified this week that his comments were mainly focused on Epic Games rather than Xbox Game Pass:
"[Epic] deals have dropped in value. Game Pass deals are a bit more nebulous as there’s little data out there, a lot more hush hush. I know of two studios who locked great deals though (last year)."
"It’s not that there is NO money, or that funding is an impossibility, but publishers and platform holders are being much more conservative."
Yano went on to mention that many developers he's spoken to recently are seeking funds from different sources in 2024, and from his perspective, a lot of smaller teams are struggling to secure that funding right now.
Ultimately, this situation clearly extends far beyond the boundaries of Xbox Game Pass. The good news is that XGP is still providing us with plenty of exciting indies this year, including the likes of Harold Halibut and Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes later this month. Let's hope that continues well into the future!
What are your thoughts about this indie funding situation? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source gamersocialclub.ca]
Comments 9
publishers has become way more conservative? Microsoft a trillions dollar company being conservative is quite not a good look.
I see why, because if companies said yes to everything, then it would end up like Steam
There are many good games right now out there and Xbox has the luxury to filter out some bad ones or some shovelware and add some more good games instead of everything. There are many good indie games already on GP, plus soon ABK games are coming to the service, plus some other of their games, plus some AA or AAA third party titles. It's good to say no sometimes, and add some good quality indie titles instead of everything. I don't see a problem on that.
I think most reasonable people took it as it would mean Epic/Xbox/Sony and so forth.
Indies have some great gems in amongst them. But service providers will have a lot of information on them now to see play levels etc.
And most gamers aren’t signing up to subscription services for indie games
He should consider that this isn't necessarily permanent. The global economy and games industry are not in the best state right now. Gamepass and Epic could reinvest more in indie games in a year or two if/when things turn around.
I would bet that a lot of funding in general for games are not what it was recently. I don't think this is unique to indies or gamepass, epic type deals. It is probably everywhere.
@Kalele When their customers are demanding they 'invest' in their own games, studios etc why would you 'invest' in indies that won't bring in Customers, won't sell Game Pass Subs etc.
Yes they do add to the service and can bring more variety, but then MS isn't going out of their way to fill Game Pass with Indies when the vast majority won't help them recoup that investment by bringing in more Subs, more sales etc.
If the projects look interesting enough, fill a 'hole' that they can't fill with their own studios or projects, then MS will invest - but with more choice and now a MUCH larger portfolio of their OWN studios and OWN projects (inc smaller games like Pentiment for example) to invest in, why invest in 3rd Party devs just for the sake of it?
@Kalele Theres tens of thousands of indie games. Why wouldn't publishers be more careful about what games they fund?
I disagree with you both in all respect what you are saying go against the xbox philosophy and what phil spencer said the last fews years THEY DON'T KNOW what could be the next BIG HIT.
I will say as a fan of both DD and slay the spire. I think the director of darkest dungeon kinda screwed the pooch with his statement, along with the director of slay the spire.
Because in the original interview they stated they had their games on one(gamepass) or other (epic) at launch and both slay the spire and darkest dungeon we're not launch titles on either dd2 was on epic and was early access on there only til launch. And slay the spire was also put on steam at launch. And all and all a lot of indie games get a huge pay out if there's traction. Like look at how square/Capcom/genshins publisher and devs/etc are with their publishings and the dlc and micro transactions for full price games (not saying their the only one but yeah) seeing how the game pass model is and how interviews with other devs have came out and stated that because of game pass their 40$ game turned into a 70$ game easily by recognition and darkest dungeon had a huge pay out because it's sequel sold well on early access on epic. I kinda see theres some flaws on this whole interview and they wish they got more money or it's a hit piece
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