This past year, 2016, has proven to provide a mass amount of independently developed games. The spike of games on Steam for the PC alone had brought the number of games drastically up, creating roughly 40% of the overall games on the software today. Does this mean that majority of the games are going to be rip offs or no fun? For many games, yes.
At the current rate, games are being produced in a completely run down way and the saturation of indie games filling the Steam software has increased. PC gamers will have a vast selection of games to choose from, but the problem will be that the developers themselves are more interested in publishing a game than they are making a game properly, so the selection isn't great.
There is going to be the obvious AAA games published and the continuation of a few popular indie groups, as well as a good amount of games in the horror genre published as well. While I look forward to games like Outlast 2, Dreadful, Resident Evil 7 and Pulang Insanity, I wish I could also say that I am looking forward to the kinds of games random indie developers are going to publish.
While it is great to get a game published for the public to play, it is bad, as a consumer, to have to choose between so many titles with the chances of getting a game that was developed by a team without care and was halfheartedly done being raised. This already making players hesitant about new games being published and I can only imagine it getting worse.
I do think there will be a good mix of games inspired by popular indie games as well. I have heard of many games like Limbo and others like No Man's Sky that are aiming to make a game with similar game mechanics and properties, but with their own personal twists on the games. This should prove to provide a few good choices; based on the inspiration, at least.
What I Expect
A downfall of the indie game franchise, outside of the mobile community, and an uproar from consumers to publishers demanding that games be made the way they were.
This does not mean that people want retro games again, but rather that players put money and time towards a game and in return all they want is a game that was made with care and concern. The saturation of games to choose from grows more each week, and the amount of players that are consumers dwindles down.
Wrap Up
- Indie developers will continue to publish a mass amount of games, most of which were not made with the consumer in mind and only published so that they could get their name out there.
- An upset in consumers purchases, causing a lack of care to get new indie titles and losing potential indie fans to games with advertisement and popularity.
- Saturation in the PC gaming market; mostly in the Steam software.
- Fun, great games that are inspired by recently popular games.
- AAA titles maintaining a stronger audience built on trust in game development quality.
Feel free to give me your thoughts on this matter, as this is my opinion based on my observations, discussions with other developers and experience in the game field.
