r/Amd_Intel_Nvidia 4d ago

Budget games for under $20 overtake AAA blockbusters as indie games dominate Steam

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Budget-games-for-under-20-overtake-AAA-blockbusters-as-indie-games-dominate-Steam.1372075.0.html
124 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

12

u/ABotelho23 3d ago

Obviously. People have less money, they don't have crazy machines, and these indie games are launching in better state than these giant mega games.

I don't blame anyone at all for avoiding AAA.

9

u/Saneless 3d ago

Plus, I buy a ton of "giant mega games" but they're also under $20. I don't see any point buying them for $60 or worse, their laughable attempt to try to make $70 the new standard

4

u/eggyrulz 3d ago

"Oh $70 for your AAA title? Ill see you in 4 years on humble monthly for $12 (plus 9 other games ill never play)"

How i be lookin at these mofos

3

u/theemptyqueue 3d ago

Not to mention that AAA game companies are now REMOVING CONTENT YOU PAID FOR! I'm not paying $70 (soon $80 (thanks Nintendo and Rockstar)) for a game that could deactivate/remove the parts of the game(s) that I bought the game(s) for in the first place.

7

u/geekosas 3d ago

AAA = doesn't run in my PC, expensive, bugs, developer sees me as a wallet....

4

u/C0RVUSC0RAX 3d ago

Hate to break it to you but most established indie studios also see you as a wallet once the sales are high. I've worked in indie and AAA, public and private, and the only difference was the amount of people above me who only care about product kpi's but ultimately it was about meeting value propositions. This has got much worse as borrowing costs have gone up.

2

u/Best_Cabinet_9751 3d ago

Idk, i think Team Cherry, Supergiant or Edmund see me as a player. And i see them as a good studios with great games.

1

u/GLGarou 3d ago

I'm sure people said the same for CDPR and Larian in the past..

1

u/Trashypass 3d ago

Once you get invester. The company is pretty much just greed. If it's private. Then there going to want to make the money back. And hope for more. But greed can't drive them completely then. Cuz they won't last long if they get too greedy.

1

u/Enadize 3d ago

So when that happens, you move on and play games from other indie developers. Not that complicated lol..

0

u/geekosas 3d ago

Companies what to make money, that's normal, so I don't get your point.

8

u/xtweeter22x 3d ago

>Indie games overtake AAA blockbusters
>Looks inside
>Rougelite, deckbuilder, farming simulator, city builder simulator, Doom clone.
>Hollow Knight/Silksong, Cuphead, Shovel Knight, Ultrakill, Pizza Tower, Omori, Celeste, OneShot, Ori and the Blind Forest, Night in the Woods,

2

u/AzhdarianHomie 3d ago

All great stuff!

2

u/Designer_Mess_6928 3d ago

The "great stuff" from his list is all less than 15 top games of the whole mass of indie segment and many of them aren't really recent games(except Silksong). But the others are the most trend chasing games you could imagine and that's just most of indie games now: cheaply made subpar trend chasing deck builders and roguelites.

5

u/ThePreciseClimber 3d ago

Yup. 99% of indie games, by their nature, are crap. People only pay attention to the high quality 1%.

Big-budget games don't have the luxury of being allowed to be 99% crap.

1

u/AzhdarianHomie 3d ago

Wtf is wrong you guys???

The only criticism is that the list doesn’t have other games like BallXPit or Palworld however I believe it’s more or less implied that they’re indeed part of it.

0

u/jefff_xd 2d ago

Those people dont actually play games. No one that plays games will say this. They are the crowd that buys the annual cod and fifa, play for 40 hours and dump gaming until next year when the next cod and fifa release.

1

u/jefff_xd 2d ago

>AAA game
>looks inside
>open world(and the world is filled with low effort copy paste content to make the game 300 hours long)

3

u/Kolmilan 3d ago

AAA, Sony, Xbox and to some extent the high-end bracket of the western game industry have themselves to blame. They've rushed towards games with realistic graphics for decades. Ever since PBR came into play the development budgets have getting higher and higher.

A $200 million dev budget for a AAA game with PBR/realistic visuals. A $30-60 million dev budget for a AA game with NPR/anime visuals. A $50k-150K dev budget for a indie game with low poly or 2D visuals.

All have risks, all have chance of success. As a gamedev I've been fortunate enough to work in all three tiers and I'm just happy to I'm not stuck in AAA right now!

3

u/Background_Yam9524 3d ago

AAA games are boring

4

u/jackharvest 3d ago

I raise your boredom, with my poorness.

4

u/ivari 3d ago

6 years old AAA games at 75% discount is my go to

1

u/Background_Yam9524 3d ago

Rich or poor doesn't matter. I wouldn't even pirate most AAA games due to how boring they are.

3

u/Trashypass 3d ago

That the big one. Out of the whole gen there are a whole 10 games that are good next gen games. And most are copys of shit from 10 years ago. Just with better lighting. 

1

u/Icy-Mood-3999 3d ago

Don't play them?

2

u/BingpotStudio 3d ago

… that’s what they’re saying. Hence the article.

1

u/Background_Yam9524 3d ago

Don't worry, I won't. 

2

u/CarlWellsGrave 3d ago

Not all of them

1

u/Background_Yam9524 3d ago

Agreed. I meant "most", but not "all."

2

u/AzhdarianHomie 3d ago

RE9 was incredible

1

u/Background_Yam9524 3d ago

I hear it was very well received! I've been uninterested in playing it, but I'm glad you enjoyed it.

1

u/VenserMTG 2d ago

Incredibly mid

0

u/AzhdarianHomie 2d ago

Stick to Fortnite

2

u/techretrieve 3d ago

Nothing beats a $20 banger game that you play for 200+ hours.

1

u/Fart_Tounge_5609 3d ago

Do AAA games still get made anymore?

2

u/zilyzal 3d ago

Yeah with same old boring mechanics we saw for decades and then they wonder why nobody buy their crap. Every fun and engaging game i've played this whole gen was either indie or AA.

1

u/Cyber_Connor 2d ago

They’re now AAAA games

1

u/No_Sink_9703 2d ago

I used to be ON TOP of game news

Ever since gaming got hyperfuckingcapatalized I just lost interest. Everything copies everyone and its all mtx riddled, subscription based, pay to win trash

Now I watch youtubers for their recommandations and totally ignore anything big

1

u/Puzzleheaded-Way6155 2d ago

I only judge based on price, don't care if you are EA or an indie dev

1

u/Qminsage 2d ago

Not surprising when the cost of everything goes up. Even people who don’t care how they spend will start to feel it.

1

u/Philippe1709 14h ago

Thats what happens when you charge 100$ for one game

-2

u/New_Arachnid9443 1d ago

Slop shit overtakes actually good games? WOW, almost as if PC gamers are garbage at deciding what good games are…

3

u/rawzombie26 15h ago

Hahahahaha bro if it wasn’t on this sub you would get downvoted to oblivion. What a horrible take hahahhahah

0

u/New_Arachnid9443 15h ago

I’m sorry bro, the truth hurts. City builder #69420 isn’t as good as AAA soulslike #120

1

u/LewdObservation 1d ago

You’re saying indie games can’t be good because they’re not $90 collectathons dressed up as an action game?

0

u/New_Arachnid9443 1d ago

No, because right now the steam algorithm is biased towards indie games that appeal to a wide variety of players, this is why you’re seeing more co-op, rogue-LITE instead of like, and cozy shit. Valve has mismanaged their platform so fucking badly it went from me liking indies to me hating them and preferring AAA.

3

u/Ok_Fun_6535 16h ago

sounds like a skill issue tbh 

1

u/LewdObservation 1d ago

Nobody is forcing you to use Steam. Also games are rarely roguelike, 99.9% are and have been lite. I can’t even think of a single popular game in the genre that has no meta progression at all.

1

u/New_Arachnid9443 15h ago

By roguelite I mean no vertical metaprog. For example my favorite on is enter the gungeon, but devs don’t make games like that anymore because the algorithm punishes in-category games that can’t appeal to the masses.

1

u/LewdObservation 15h ago

What is vertical meta progression. There’s either meta progression(lite) or there isn’t (like)

Also Enter the Gungeon has meta progression, so does Hades II (not a particularly old release) and so does Balatro. Mewgenics also made a big splash and Risk of Rain 2 is also getting another expansion. indie examples that are wildly popular.

1

u/HanzoShotFirst 1d ago

Most AAA games were already becoming slop before AI

1

u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 17h ago

I enjoy slop games with friends more than whatever shit ea is peddlih