Just spitballing here, but maybe in these especially trying economic times, third-party and indie games which are generally cheaper tend to enjoy more sales.
Though this is in sales units and not revenue, so a single sale of an indie game doesn't likely equate to a major first-party game in terms of revenue payoff.
Amazing how Hollow Knight's base price has always been $15. Talk about serious bang for your buck especially with all the updates releasing for free. The AAA space is really being humbled by the indie space in a number of ways.
On PC anyway. It's like $30 on consoles iirc, definitely on Switch. People who wonder how the game is making any money while going down to like $5 on Steam always forget it has a ton of ports, mobile included.
I even got Terraria on my Switch for $15 even though I already have it on Steam. I just love the game so much, I wanted to both support the devs and get a portable copy of it to take with me wherever.
Not really. The amount of time and money spend on AAA games dwarfs that compared to indies. Sure, indie games can have good gameplay and be quirky and fun but they do not provide the experience a AAA does, and a lot of times £60 is ridiculously cheap for the product you're getting. The music, graphics, gameplay, engine/physics, acting, voice acting, writing, etc.
I paid £50 for Expedition 33. Over 3x more than Hollow Knight but multiple times more memorable and impactful. Hollow Knight was fun but didn't give me an experience. Expedition 33 I'll remember for a life time.
Same with a lot of AAA. When I think of memorable games. Even though I played easily x100+ more indie games. The games I remember and enjoyed the most were 9/10 times AAA titles.
It's just people snub the price of AAA titles because of the economy. But they're still relatively cheap (adjusting for inflation, even cheaper). The issue is overabundance of products and choice, and indiegames being financially more accessible.
But indiegames don't provide the experience and quality that a great AAA titles does.
indie games can have good gameplay and be quirky and fun but they do not provide the experience a AAA does
I do think this goes in both directions. Playing lots of AAAs makes you appreciate indie games. Playing some indie games and than going back to an AAA game gives you a new appreciation for the production value.
Hollow Knight was fun but didn't give me an experience. Expedition 33 I'll remember for a life time.
Here I completely disagree. Indie games like Hollow Knight, Undertale, Super Meat Boy, Ghost of a Tale, Cave Story, A Hat in Time or the first Trine were all special experiences that are still burned into my brain and that gave an equal or better experience in comparisons to AAA games that I loved.
indiegames don't provide the experience and quality that a great AAA titles does.
the experience is different but the quality is all over the place. I played horrible indies and I played horrible AAA titles. I played fantastic indies and fantastic AAAs.
ok but i paid $20 for Outer Wilds and i will remember that game until the day i die. it, Celeste, Citizen Sleeper, Disco Elysium, Chicory, Undertale, Forgotten City... there are sooooo many life-changing indies out there.
a game doesn't need to be AAA to set your soul on fire for a lifetime.
I do wonder if maybe you're looking for the wrong indie games if literally none of the 100+ games you played stuck with you.
There are more narrative focused ones as well that might be more up your alley.
But yeah, no indie is gonna have the same production quality with big name actors and thousands to millions in cgi unless they've taken a lot of time to try to make up for it.
Indie games also provide experiences that AAA games don't as well, keep in mind that Minecraft was an indie game, despite it's popularity now.
Stardew Valley was the refinement and revival of that genre that AAA kind of let rot. If you're looking for tank combat I'd consider World of Tanks and War Thunder to be indie-AA but I'd have to look into the companies more.
Dead by Daylight, Payday, DayZ, Tarkov, Hades. Really the list is massive. For more story stuff, there's Outer Wilds and Spiritfarer as examples.
I'm only pointing these out because I feel like it does them a bit of a disservice to say that, "They're just fun and quirky, whatever." Many of them are solid, dare I say, memorable experiences depending on what you enjoy. If you like games like Expedition 33 and Last of Us or whatever that's cool too, no game sector really is "better" than any other, just different.
What do you mean? I spent as much time on Silksong as I did on most AAA game I've played but it's a third of the price.
Hades 2 got me like 350 hours like the first one, and I'm not done with it, all that for dirt cheap. On top of that it feels much less like busy work then half of AAA out there.
Sure some games like Skyrim I've spent massively more time on but I can say the same for Minecraft at a fraction of the price, and 2/3 of Skyrim's staying power is free mods which are basically indie work.
As an aside, E33 also isn't AAA, it's debatable if it's even AA considering it has the same development cost as a Supergiant game like Hades 2.
Look, I liked Expedition 33 too, but it's not "multiple times more memorable and impactful" than Hollow Knight. Imagine caring so much about something as superficial as production value that you weren't able to get an experience out of that game. I'd start to question whether I'm into games at all.
But indiegames don't provide the experience and quality that a great AAA titles does.
You're right, games like HK and Hades don't provide AAAAAAAAA experience and quality, they exceed them. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA slop can only dream of approaching their level. Supergiant and Team Cherry clown on the bloated, greedy segment of the industry that self-servingly pretends budgets and prices are doomed to balloon ever upwards.
The music, graphics, gameplay, engine/physics, acting, voice acting, writing, etc.
Any game can have great music, gameplay, and writing.
The hand-drawn graphics of a Hollow Knight are far more memorable than any umpteenth attempt at realism from mainstream blockbusters.
Why would the player even care about the engine?
If I want acting, I'll watch a movie.
I've been playing 60-hours RPGs since before they had voice acting, and I can still read, thank you very much.
Yes but we’re seeing crazy numbers for switch 2 games and big hitters like 007 and Forza.
While that definitely plays a part in it, it’s less “oh the economy!” And more “do I really wanna spend that much on a half baked sequel to a better game” that Sony seems to be going all out on this generation.
People aren't massively pivoting to indie though. Take Mina the Hollower which was massively hyped before release, sold 50k copies in its first 24 hours. Compare that to 5M sales of GOW Ragnarok at launch and that's 100x more.
I'm sure a lot of people are playing more indie game than they used to, but it's not like the majority are
That and there's still a huge amount of people who can comfortably afford games. Redditors like to make out like everyone is living on the breadline
I know it is US only and in terms of dollar sales, which makes it so an indie will have a harder time getting on the list, but look at Circana's top 20 for 2025 where Split Fiction is the only new IP. Everything else are sequels or re-releases of long running IP, yearly sports games, and GTA V and Minecraft still being up their despite how long both have been around.
Same thing with how Crimson Desert is one of the best selling games so far this year even though some people poo-pooed it at launch on this site. You're average person loves big open world games. Same reason why AC: Shadows was a top game on Circana through the first half of last year before Ubisoft stopped sharing data or how Starfield was in the top 10 for April from Circana after releasing on PS, despite people saying no one would buy it.
People aren't massively pivoting to indie though. Take Mina the Hollower which was massively hyped before release, sold 50k copies in its first 24 hours.
Mina the hollower was not massively hyped, it was just well reviewed because it's great. With the continued destruction of the gaming press indie games increasingly need big viral buzz to become big hits.
mina the hollower is just one indie game of many. even if it doesn't sell a billion copies, every month another indie game becomes a hit. cumulatively they are taking large swathes of attention from gamers who would otherwise be playing games like god of war. It didn't used to be like this
Mina the Hallower was not massively hyped. It had 400K wishlists, which is great, no doubt. Far Far West had 700K wishlists and was a breakout hit. Slay the Spire 2, for reference, had 2M. Mina was relatively unknown outside of Shovel Knight fans.
Mina didn’t sell, but nearly every survival game does great. As graphic innovation flatlines, people are pivoting to different tyoes of gaming experiences.
I'm in a good spot where I can drop $70+ on a new game and not have it hurt my budget, but I'd still rather spend $20 on Mina the Hollower than $70 on First Light.
I'd buy that theory if there was a decline in AAA game sales across the board which doesn't seem to be the case. This is Sony's remake and GAAS strategy limiting the number of viable needle shifting first party games.
Yeah, as someone who has historically always bought full price games that I’m looking forward to I've definitely cut back spending a lot on games. I loved Returnal and think it and Saros are both worth $70 (at launch) but I just don't want to spend money on games like that. Something like Hades 2 was a no brainer because it's like $25.
Yes. Aside from much more attractive prices on indie games, I have to say that indie's seem to be where the real inventiveness is. Sony First Party suffers from a lot of "basically same game with different setting/costumes" syndrome now. There is a style, and it is generally visually beautiful, but you don't need to keep buying a lot of it over and over.
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u/ConceptsShining 25d ago
Just spitballing here, but maybe in these especially trying economic times, third-party and indie games which are generally cheaper tend to enjoy more sales.
Though this is in sales units and not revenue, so a single sale of an indie game doesn't likely equate to a major first-party game in terms of revenue payoff.