The gaming industry has gained quite a traction in the 21st century, with games evolving from 8-bit and 16-bit side scrollers to almost photo-realistic first/third person shooters. Till the last decade most games that came out were main stream, but slowly and steadily, over the years, some games like Call of Duty, Battlefield and Assassin’s Creed established themselves as major sellers. But since 2010-2012 these games came under some of the most anticipated games of the year. So basically, companies that made such games profited immensely. Any game from Ubisoft or EA came under the ‘Most Anticipated’ banner and many of the other games just went under the radar.
It was not until 2014-2015 that people realized that big companies had been shitting on them with stupid methods such as False hype and marketing, microtransactions, useless paid DLCs etc. This was one of the biggest reasons that indie games came into spotlight. Indie games are video games created by individuals or small teams without a publisher’s financial support. These games generally focus on innovation and creativity rather than graphics and visual fidelity. By the end of 2014, all the AAA titles had become cliched and the gaming industry had become saturated.
Most of the games that year like Shadow of Mordor, Dragon Age, Far Cry 4 garnered above average reviews by both critics as well as the general public. 2015 was a great year that way. The year saw an equal emphasis on both Indie as well as AAA games. While The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid V, GTA V, Rise of The Tomb Raider were firing all barrels in the AAA section, games like Ori & The Blind Forest, Undertale, Axiom Verge, Hotline Miami 2 did their part of not letting the gamers feel lazy during the empty calendar. Rocket League is one game that kept many gamers really busy and proved that you have to have a great idea for a game to succeed.
The year 2016 has a huge lineup of indie games and games like No Man’s Sky, The Long Dark, Tacoma, P.A.M.E.L.A. etc are among some of the most anticipated games of the year along side games like Uncharted and Dishonored 2. The Witness and Firewatch are games that were well received by critics and public alike and may also go on ahead to compete for the game of the year. Kickstarter has given us some of the better and more creative games like and with Star Citizen, Kickstarter may become one of the best places for innovative games to originate.
We can go on about how indie games have actually changed the scenario of the gaming industry, but we would like to know your thoughts on whether you still prefer the AAA games or whether you’ve also started inclining towards Indie games. Let us know in the comments below.