scemopagliaccioh Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 Always hated that the term “Indie” became so important, it gave too much power on the customers for those devs, like some Messianic CDPR-esque redux. Glad to see that it no longer holds any meaning, with Call of Duty of all things in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theSpirae Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 Battlefield, CoD, etc why not, just label it Indie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 25 minutes ago, scemopagliaccioh said: Glad to see that it no longer holds any meaning, with Call of Duty of all things in there 3 minutes ago, theSpirae said: Battlefield, CoD, etc why not, just label it Indie... It’s not - there are two separate sales on - The “Indies” sale and the “Games under £20” sale. This list just amalgamated the two lists into one for our ease, and used the dominant title (the one with more entries) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_91 Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 (edited) Still waiting for Parappa the Rapper to go on sale Anybody played Dangerous Driving and would you recommend it as a fan of the Burnout games? Edited August 18, 2021 by MD_91 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreshFromThaDeli Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 I was a good boy in the summer sale. I didn't buy anything despite several games on my wish list being on sale. Now I must resist the urge to buy more games and not play them for months on end. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ness1216 Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 17 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Des anyone have anything to say about the game "Elliot"? I have literally never heard of it, yet feel oddly drawn to it as it is my son's name, and I therefore feel a sense of fatherly obligation to put it on my profile This has been my feeling too - same exact circumstances. I think I remember seeing that it is actually quite difficult. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercenary09 Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: It’s not - there are two separate sales on - The “Indies” sale and the “Games under £20” sale. This list just amalgamated the two lists into one for our ease, and used the dominant title (the one with more entries) Yeah but there are some weird choices in the indie sale. Like Wasteland 3 is not indie. Neither are THQ Nordic games like Kingdoms of Amalur or Spongebob. Edited August 19, 2021 by Mercenary09 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NZBigC Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 11 hours ago, Kamurotetsu said: Fallout 4 GOTY Edition for £8 is a steal, I think it's the cheapest I've seen it. The season pass is also ultra cheap. Prices have never been anywhere close to these before. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 14 hours ago, arcanehornet_ said: Is it just me, or are the same games going on sale over and over again? Finally spotted it? lol Yeah, I mean at this point, it feels like the price of some of the games has dropped permanently and they will never be off sale. Feels a bit like a con though in a way. I have lost count how many games I bought on sale for 50% or more on a whim, to then not get around to playing because I have another 20 games also bought at 50% off (which I also haven't played) Whereas a few games I am watching, haven't gone on sale for years, or ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, Mercenary09 said: Yeah but there are some weird choices in the indie sale. Like Wasteland 3 is not indie. Neither are THQ Nordic games like Kingdoms of Amalur or Spongebob. Not sure about Spongebob, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was definitely indie… … the only reason THQ even has the IP is that 38 Studios were so indie that they ran out of money and ended up collapsing before Kingdoms of Amalur was even completed - that’s why it never came out Edited August 19, 2021 by DrBloodmoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 5 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Not sure about Spongebob, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was definitely indie… … the only reason THQ even has the IP is that 38 Studios were so indie that they ran out of money and ended up collapsing before Kingdoms of Amalur was even completed - that’s why it never came out Read about it in Jason Schrier’s “Press Reset” (Actually a great read)! There’s indie and indie, though: that one had millions and millions of dollars of investment, definitely not a one-person-in-a-bedroom deal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, visighost said: Read about it in Jason Schrier’s “Press Reset” (Actually a great read)! There’s indie and indie, though: that one had millions and millions of dollars of investment, definitely not a one-person-in-a-bedroom deal. That's true - and I think there is a genuinely interesting conversation to be had about the technical definitions of 'Indie'. There is an inherent problem, in the sense that there is no real classification as to what it means - i.e. what an "independent" game is actually independent from. Clearly, you look at it from a financial point of view - i.e. Independently funded. That is a totally valid definition, by the way - and I agree, it gets stickier for large budget games like KoA. I have generally viewed it more as independence from oversight or interference - i.e. there is no overarching conglomerate or third party oversight through which creative decisions need to be filtered. Of course, in a lot of cases, one goes hand-in-glove with the other - after all, corporate interference in artistic endeavours generally is only apt to happen when there is a significant financial carrot being held in one hand, with the focus-testing stick in the other - but I do think you can't necessarily consider that to always be the case simply because a bigger publisher is involved, or conversely, that it isn't happening, simply because the publisher is smaller. I would, for example, consider DoubleFine games to still be "Independent" somewhat, despite Microsoft corporate ownership, as they seem, to all intents and purposes, to retain full creative control of their projects, and not have to make artistic decisions based on the understanding of corporate oversight. (I could be wrong, and maybe they just hide them better!) They don't at all fit the financial independence classification, but would still meet the creative one, if you know what I mean? The same issue, of course happens at the other end of the scale - the number of Big Games which get called "Triple A" that are actually not, is staggering. (AAA is purely a marketing term, and about the marketing budget of the game - the general rule is, if you see a TV ad or a huge number of billboards and bus ads, it's AAA. Otherwise, it's just a big release!) The real issue is, both "Indie" and "AAA" have become shorthands for something they don't really mean, because we don't actually have widely used, snappy terms for all the various stages in-between. It's become like the definition of Pornography - we can't define it, but we know it when we see it! ? It's become much more about games which have the "ring" of Indie - an "Independent flavour", if you will - rather than actually games that were independently funded or independently released. Same with AAA - if a game has the shiny veneer of a big glossy game, we call it AAA whether the marketing budget was twice the dev cost, or a couple of bucks and a Steam key. ? Edited August 19, 2021 by DrBloodmoney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visighost Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 @DrBloodmoney Great points all around. You're absolutely right that indie and AAA are often used as "genre markers" rather than anything to do with actual independence, a sort of shorthand for "independent aesthetics" (which I would say imply less milquetoast, more adventurous choices in themes, music, design, etc.). I used to be in the world of music (but am not anymore, so the references may be dated), and I think there are many parallels to be found: a handful of listed giga-corporations own a plethora of smaller studios, which sometimes in turn own smaller ones with a definitely not radio/mainstream friendly sound. Major labels have their own distribution channels, giving them preferential access to store space and a publicity budget which may well influence directly or indirectly what medias cover (i.e. either "I'll talk about them since they give me money for ads" or "everyone's talking about that album/game that is advertised everywhere, so doing so as well will give us views"). I believe that an indie, on the hand, has a simpler corporate structure (i.e. one entity) and teams (though I can’t put a number on that). There’s also no safety net for indies, no cushion like Sony has between its different entities, for example (it’s ok Sony music and tvs lost money since our movies and Playstation made some). There’s certainly privilege to be found at the development level (I can afford to take the risk to launch an indie studio since my partner has a stable job/I live at my parents’), but the risk is inherently more direct. There’s value in using the term “right”: I firmly believe in the “one dollar one vote” state of affairs in society, and would rather give my money to smaller, creative studios than to anonymous shareholders. Digital platforms themselves sadly use terms such as indie purely for marketing rather than basing themselves on some rigorous definition, so consumers have to do the footwork. To use your example, if I buy a Double Fine game now, do the funds go to Microsoft’s shareholders? Anyhow, sorry for the disjointed thoughts, getting ready for work… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercenary09 Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 20 hours ago, DrBloodmoney said: Not sure about Spongebob, but Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was definitely indie… … the only reason THQ even has the IP is that 38 Studios were so indie that they ran out of money and ended up collapsing before Kingdoms of Amalur was even completed - that’s why it never came out Um what? The game did come out on PS3 and Xbox 360. EA published it. It is not an indie game it's a AAA game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrBloodmoney Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 (edited) 4 hours ago, Mercenary09 said: Um what? The game did come out Nope. Quote on PS3 Nope. Quote and Xbox 360. Nope. Quote EA published it. Nope. Quote It is not an indie game It's not any game. Quote it's a AAA game. Nope. Kingdoms of Amalur was an MMORPG (Known internally - and in reports / court documents as "Project Copernicus"), being developed by an independent studio - 38 Studios. During production, as a result of financial concerns, a Single Player game - set in the same universe and using some of the same assets (Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) was created, in order to bring in some more money to fund the continued development of Kingdoms of Amalur - and to satisfy the contractual requirements 38 Studios had with the state of Maine, who had a financial stake in the project in exchange for jobs creation within the state. It was published via EA - however, it was not even close to a AAA (AAA is a marketing term, and it's marketing budget was no where close to AAA,) nor was 38 Studios a subsidiary of EA - they were an independent studio. It was fairly well received, however, it didn't sell the quantities required to save the studio (arguably, that would have been nigh on impossible), and other financial concerns meant they collapsed before Kingdoms of Amalur could be completed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/38_Studios https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-23/project-copernicus-the-collapse-of-curt-schilling-s-38-studios-video-game Edited August 20, 2021 by DrBloodmoney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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