this post was submitted on 06 May 2026
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PC gamers buy way more games that cost less than $30 at launch compared to PlayStation and Xbox players, analysts say, and it's "reshaping the PC market" (www.gamesradar.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Agent_Karyo@piefed.world to c/pcgaming@lemmy.ca
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Schedule 1, Peak, and REPO lead a big year for small games

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Large game studios have different inherent strengths than smaller game studios, unfortuntately I think much of the gaming world has forgotten this in the excitement about the collapse of competency in and enshittification of traditional video game companies "clearing the way" for indie game companies.

I love indie games but some types of games can only be made by large predictable sort of boring game companies, I am mostly uninterested in those games but even I can recognize that they fulfill an essential role in making big production approachable, eye-catching experiences that play like interactive movies with all the production muscle that entails. Also sports games that evolve to remain relevant to the sports they represent are another big example of games best made by large boring game companies, which isn't to say that indie sports games aren't cool too that isn't the point.

An indie game company can't make Red Dead Redemption 2, they can make a narrower more focused game like Read Dead 2, but the scope of a game like that requires a huge company of artists working in parallel rather than in individual competition with one another.

A perfect example is comparing recent Zelda games to similar indie games like TUNIC, Gedonia 1 and 2, Anodyne 1 and 2 or Oceanhorn 1 and 2.

All of these games have a unique style and individuality that only comes from smaller indie studios, but none of them can compare to the breadth, muscle and expansiveness of a Nintendo open world game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/553420/TUNIC/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2566340/Gedonia_2/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/234900/Anodyne/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/877810/Anodyne_2_Return_to_Dust/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/339200/Oceanhorn_Monster_of_Uncharted_Seas/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1622710/Oceanhorn_2_Knights_of_the_Lost_Realm