Indie games are independent games created often without the financial support of a publisher. They are a phenomenal way of showing off a game developer’s creativity through unique game mechanics, art, and storytelling. Several games like No Man’s Sky and Cuphead have been supported widely through AAA publishers like Sony, while other games like Super Meat Boy and Dead Cells are developed on their own until a publisher decides to fund it. Indie games are a staple to the gaming community because of the variety. Because of their uniqueness and generally lower prices it’s no wonder that indie game developers are seeing success.
Knowing all of this, what would happen if indie games were to no longer exist? What would happen to the game industry?
Less Games?
Let’s say that, for whatever reason, all indie game developers decided to not make games anymore. Let’s just say indie games died in 2018 and think of what would happen after. The Nindies Showcase on March 20 would not have happened. That’s right; all of the games that were shown off during the showcase are now gone and aren’t being released in 2019. That means Cuphead would never reach the Nintendo Switch.
Cuphead has gotten a big following since its release as an indie title.
The world seems a bit smaller, right? No more Minecraft updates, no more Dead Cells updates, no more of My Friend Pedro. Many game companies would be bound to fail unless they work for the main Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo platforms.
Downfall of Game Companies
There would be other repercussions for the mysterious purge of indie games. Let’s look at Devolver Digital, for example. They publish many independent games including Absolver, Hotline Miami, and Enter the Gungeon. For the most part, Devolver Digital has supported many independent games during their time. But if those games were to go, what would happen to them? Their options would likely be to help publish games for a bigger company, or disband. They would have no games to support if indies were to go. I just wouldn’t see it possible.
Devolver Digital is a famous publishing company known for several of its indie games they’ve supported.
Unless they were a major gaming company like EA, Activision, or Blizzard they would not survive. If this were the case than that means that newer game developers would have a hard time surviving in the industry.
Companies Will Fall
Let’s look at it in a different way. If indie games were to not exist anymore, that can be assumed that any new game ideas are brought to the leading companies, like Rockstar or Bethesda. It can be seen as a sort of shift between indie companies taking new games to AAA companies taking new games to publish. So this would mean that the “indie” part of the gaming industry would be taken care of.
Games Becoming Expensive
What else would the disappearance of indie titles mean? Since indie developers generally want their games to be seen, some games like PikuNiku release for under $20. What if a game company chose to make the game over $20? Then that would be ridiculous. Imagine if every game on Steam were to be over $30. Steam would probably be more expensive in the end wouldn’t it?
Conclusion
Indies leaving the market would mean completely different world for games. A more expensive and dismal world with less games. I don’t want to live in a world without indies; I just want to chill out, play Hotline Miami, and not stress out about such a world.
