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[bender]

this is crazy to me but if it works for you

It's true for me too. The game wasn't on my radar and I really dislike the main character design so I probably wouldn't have paid attention to it if it weren't for Game Pass. In the end, I really enjoyed my time with it. Personally, Game Pass has devalued the indie scene as eight out of ten times when I have any remote interest in an indie title, it shows up on Game Pass. Recent titles: Amnesia: The Bunker, Chicory, Death's Door, Eastward, Powerwash Simulator, Prodeus, Signalis, Somerville, Gunk, Toem, Tunic, Unpacking. All titles I was interested in, got to play and ended up glad I didn't purchase them. And every once in a while there is a nice surprise like Infernax which I sought out a physical copy of after finishing.

 

[NickFire]

Well…. They are gonna have to do something! Just focusing on these indies for a moment….. remember it would have been far harder for any of them to get any prescience in physical retail stores where EA and UBI and ABK pretty much owned the store space and the cost of putting games on discs and printing up boxes and shipping them made it impossible for them to even get to store. Digital removes that obstacle and the hold that majors had over gamestores in much the same way record labels owned marketing space in the old big chain record stores ( which are all dead just like video game stores will soon be too) even the staff get told to push the big AAA games over offerings from smaller devs.



Things can and will be different. The field is a bit more level for smaller devs and pubs because of the digital store front.


It can go both ways I guess. But I don’t believe any indie could say they liked the way things used to be run because how it was before, it pushed them and their games to the side.

They might long for the old days if their short term gains resulted in their prior customer base adopting a new model that will not have room for them.

 

[RickMasters]

They might long for the old days if their short term gains resulted in their prior customer base adopting a new model that will not have room for them.

They also might not have a say if said customers adopt new business to buy games as they have been doing. Digital is on the up and the industry can only feed the consumers demand for that. Which I’m sure they have no problem with because they are the ones making the money at the end of the day. Times are changing and it’s never a smooth transition for all. Just how it is. Movies, music…. And now games. People would rather just pay and download their content nowadays, than go to some game shop. As much as I miss those places I kind of don’t….

 

[ChuckeRearmed]

Now that I think about it, their comment reminds me of Embracer's comment where they blamed 30% for their problems (which is lol)
The truth is that Devolver, other indies and a lot of other games have to compete for time and attention. Subscription services are just one of the ways to gain visibility and opportunity to compete for time.

With or without subscription services, games sell well and games sell bad.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[ByWatterson]

HOT TAKE: Subscription services are VR-style failure in slow motion. All this venture capital, all this investor happiness at exponential growth without regard to actual, you know, PROFIT, and a crash all at once (VR crash is right around the corner, I believe).

In movie streaming, literally only Netflix is profitable. Everyone else has declining or stagnating membership, prompting jacked up rates, prompting more consumer abandonment.

It works in music, back-catalog games, Netflix, and apparently that's about as much as the market will support.

 

[Danknugz]

i'm not really into the business side of gaming but something tells me you should probably make games that people want to play first before throwing your weight around like this

 

[Three]

Plucky Squire was never announced for any sub AFAIK so I don't know why people are saying it isn't anymore as if there was a change of plan.

 

[Rhazkul]

HOT TAKE: Subscription services are VR-style failure in slow motion. All this venture capital, all this investor happiness at exponential growth without regard to actual, you know, PROFIT, and a crash all at once (VR crash is right around the corner, I believe).

In movie streaming, literally only Netflix is profitable. Everyone else has declining or stagnating membership, prompting jacked up rates, prompting more consumer abandonment.

It works in music, back-catalog games, Netflix, and apparently that's about as much as the market will support.

Netflix is losing subs too....the hype is over, the content is trash. Personally i was so disappointed with the latest 2 seasons of Black Mirror...and this used to be a show i would sub for....not anymore...same with GamePass: there are a handful of good quality games on it, the rest is trash, it's bloated with shovelware. People are finally realizing that they aren't getting their money's worth and are better off buying the stuff instead. Or at most sub for a single month once in a while to check some new stuff out and then drop the sub again (that's me).

 

[CuNi]

HOT TAKE: Subscription services are VR-style failure in slow motion. All this venture capital, all this investor happiness at exponential growth without regard to actual, you know, PROFIT, and a crash all at once (VR crash is right around the corner, I believe).

In movie streaming, literally only Netflix is profitable. Everyone else has declining or stagnating membership, prompting jacked up rates, prompting more consumer abandonment.

It works in music, back-catalog games, Netflix, and apparently that's about as much as the market will support.

Weird. Valve just released SteamVR 2.0 beta. If it were doomed, surely no one would invest so much dev time to it... There is also still a lot of developing going on.
VR isn't dead, it's just still not there for the masses because good tech is expensive. I'd say it's mass market ready by 2030. I'm the next 2-3 years we'll see headsets release with the right hardware specs but higher prices and once price comes down, it'll gain adaption.

Streaming is on the decline because every stupid existing company decided they'll demand 10 bucks and offer their catalogue on their own, fragmenting the market beyond sustainability and then as profits don't come in started to either ban shared accounts, up prices or introduce ads. Obviously people are leaving the ship.

Netflix hast some gems and a lot of filler content, but I'm not paying 20 bucks just to watch something in 4k by myself.
I ain't doing that for Disney's tiny library either so I'm going to leave once they block shares accs there too. And since Amazon plans to introduce a 3 dollar per month tier to prime video or play ads if you don't up, I'm planning on canning prime as well.

Tldr: VR is very much still alive and kicking, no burst bubble. Streaming is just killing itself with stupid decisions left and right. No bubble either.

 

[mckmas8808]

That all subscription based future looking good lol

Exactly! They sound just as silly as the people in 2012 that said console gaming was dead lol!

 

[xrnzaaas]

Microsoft must have offered them some low numbers, because I don't think they turned it down merely because they're against subscription services. This may become a similar case for other publishers - don't agree to day1 Game Pass, get money from traditional sales and introduce your games to Game Pass later on.

 

[Chukhopops]

Microsoft must have offered them some low numbers, because I don't think they turned it down merely because they're against subscription services. This may become a similar case for other publishers - don't agree to day1 Game Pass, get money from traditional sales and introduce your games to Game Pass later on.

Probably a mix of Devolver wanting more and MS/Sony offering less. This year GP doesn’t need to rely on indies nearly as much as last year.

Last year we had Trek to Yomi (awful) and Disc Room (decent) so no big loss imo.

 

[BootsLoader]

At last a Studio that makes sense.