What are your thoughts on the video game middle market?

[Wavergray]

Just in case you have never heard of,it, the video game middle market is were games that cost more to make than an "indie" game, but less then a "AAA" game are made. The middle market is where you find most of the experimental, genres standard, and (insert "AAA" game name here) clone games.

 

If you google "video game middle market" you will find plenty of articles about how the middle market for video games is dead and has been dead since about half-way through the Seventh video game generation(PS3/360/Wii), but I don't think that true. Sure it's nowhere near as big as it used to be, but there are still some middle market games that come out every once an awhile like Onechanbara Z2: Chaos, The Technomancer, Lords of the Fallen, the Neptunia games, and any Musou/Warriors game.

 

I wouldn't say the middle market is dead, it's more like the middle market and Indie market switched places. Back during the Sixth video game generation(PS2/Xbox/GC/DC) there were a ton of middle market games and almost no indie game. However, that's just my opinion

 

Now this is the kind of stuff I think about all day and I was just wondering what are other people's thoughts on the video game middle market?

Edited January 15, 2017 by soultaker655

[Nymph-chan]

i honestly prefer those games ( onechanbara, gal gun, Senran kagura ect ) over the western AAA, rushed, buggy titles.

i think the reason there is less compared to ps2 days is because game cost more to make now, that is whats going to kill gaming (imo).

[MafiaBrett]

I like all 3 markets equally. Would you consider survival genre games like H1Z1, DayZ, and Miscreated as Indie or Middle Market? Because personally I can't wait to start seeing more of these show up on console. Ark Survival I guess technically is one of type first.

[Satoshi Ookami]

If it produces weeb games, it's definitely not dead  

[Guest]

What market to me doesn't matter as long as its a good "fun" game. Some of those "middle" market games are better than AAA sadly.

[DARKB1KE]

There's no such thing as a middle market.  You either release a good game or you get a budget one. 

[fabmorais_2011]

I like to balance my playtime between indies, the so-called "middle market" games and AAA big-hitters. I think there's good fun to be had on any type of games, regardless of production values.

I also like to keep up with the trends, to see where the industry is going, so I don't really have a specific niche that I favor over others. When I'm playing indies for too long, I want to go back to bigger titles and vice-versa.

Edited January 15, 2017 by fabmorais_2011

[Myu]

I really don't think middle market games are dead, I can't even keep up with the Vita releases and most of them are probably considered middle market. I play very few AAA games though because I tend to be more and more disappointed by their content.

 

In my opinion, indie games became extremely popular thanks to a lot of streamers/youtubers (especially Pewdiepie back in the days) who advertised them by showing them to their viewers.

I know that games like "Papers, please" and "Cook, serve, delicious" wouldn't be in my library if I hadn't watched MisterMV play them.

[timey77]

It would make sense to see the middle ground disappear slowly, just look at the current state of gaming. Back in PS2 days, there was no Playstation store and, as a consequence, very limited ways for indie developers to release their games. Getting your content on a disc, having a sufficient amount of copies made, advertised, and distributed costs a lot of money and comes with serious risks. Back then, you needed a budget, something that very few indies have. Today, we got indie studios run by two people, technology is cheap and the finished product doesn't have to be printed on a disc, it just sits waiting for your download in the store.

 

Indie, on the other hand, has come a long way, too. Back in the days, if someone asked me to name a few devs I could have come up with the Japanese guys, the "major players" like Kojima, Miyamoto, etc. Today, we got people like Notch or Ed McMillen. Movies have been made, documentaries shot.

Plus, those games get a lot more exposure. Back in PS1/2 days, I had to buy magazines in a store when I wanted something gaming related. Since there were a lot of them and they were all competing in the same market they had to cover certain games/topics and we hardly got to see anything except the mainstream.

 

 

 

 

[Wavergray]

15 hours ago, MafiaBrett said:

Would you consider survival genre games like H1Z1, DayZ, and Miscreated as Indie or Middle Market? Because personally I can't wait to start seeing more of these show up on console. Ark Survival I guess technically is one of type first.

 

They would be in the middle market. One of those games (I think it was DayZ) was the first experimental game and the rest of those games are clones of that first game with their own twists to the genre.

 

[Zanreo]

I love the "AA" level games and would like to see more of them I'm disappointed in most of the AAA industry and their games (except Nintendo), even the good games doesn't tend to fit my taste, so AA, indie and the occasional "B-tier IPs"/smaller projects from big companies is most of what I play.
One advantage AA has over indie is they're more likely to have a packaged version... and I do prefer boxed games when given the choice (but fully understand why most indies won't have that option)

 

But yeah, they don't seem to be "dead" as much as mostly ignored/unknown outside of their own fanbases/cult followings.

Edited January 18, 2017 by Zanreo

[Caesar Clown]

If the Musou games are considered "middle market", it's in no way even close to being dead. There's at least one released a year, and while I don't know what the releases are like in Japan, outside of Japan we've got at least 2 of them coming this year (Berserk and the Band of the Hawk (which was released last year in Japan) and Fire Emblem Warriors).

[Wavergray]

10 hours ago, Caesar Clown said:

If the Musou games are considered "middle market", it's in no way even close to being dead. There's at least one released a year, and while I don't know what the releases are like in Japan, outside of Japan we've got at least 2 of them coming this year (Berserk and the Band of the Hawk (which was released last year in Japan) and Fire Emblem Warriors).

Yes Musou games are middle market because they are cheap to make. That's why a new one is released every year and why Bandai Namco, Marvelous, and Capcom started making their own Musou games.. This is also why you will sometimes see a random video game developer just make a Musou game out of nowhere.

Edited January 19, 2017 by soultaker655

[damon8r351]

Thoughts on "video game middle market"? As little as possible. I see a game I'm interested in, I buy it and play it, with nary a thought about what "market" it belongs to. Time spent wondering on the internet what "market" a game belongs to and what's happening to that market is time spent not on a console playing a game.

[Bullstomp]

Where does "No Man's Sky" fit, is it a middle market game?

[Wavergray]

21 hours ago, Bullstomp said:

Where does "No Man's Sky" fit, is it a middle market game?

When you look past all the hype and lies, No Man's Sky was an experimental middle market game that got pushed into the "AAA" market way too soon.

 

Hello Games as a indie developer that had enough money to make a middle market level game, but maybe because of Sony's involvement, a lot of things got out of hand and No Man's Sky ended up in the spot it's in now.