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'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 7 months ago by mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to c/games@lemmy.world

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[-] suzune@ani.social 27 points 7 months ago

Maybe... just not make exclusive deals? Especially not on mediocre game distribution platforms.

[-] MurrayL@lemmy.world 20 points 7 months ago

"I talked to at least five small teams, like 35 [members] and under, during GDC, and they're like: Cuts, cuts, cuts, funding canceled, talks that were going on for a year, canceled," said Casey Yano, the co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. "It sounds like it's shit. We're definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I'd be very, very, very scared right now."

If these deals didn't exist, lots of games simply wouldn't get made. You can hate on the platforms all you like but the deals are one of the only sources of funding for small & solo developers.

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 14 points 7 months ago

Oh no! Not the games I will never play because they're exclusive to EGS!

[-] beetus@lemmy.world -4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You do realize those are usually exclusive for only a year, right? So EGS pays them out for a year of exclusivity and then the devs are free to launch on steam and others.

The thing is, often if they don't get that first infusion of cash from a deal with EGS (or another investor) they don't get to complete or even launch the game at all. So it never would make it to the other markets.

[-] Halosheep@lemm.ee 5 points 7 months ago

Usually by the time they've made it off EGS, I've forgotten they exist. There's been many sequels to games I loved that I forgot existed because of this.