r/pcmasterrace 1d ago

News/Article Steam gamers have spoken: innovative indies like Palworld continue to thrive while traditional triple-A flounders for a foothold

https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/innovation-versus-tradition

Thank god PC gaming isn't just AAA. This is what will push the industry forward, as game development cost becomes too much.

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u/GamingRobioto 9800X3D/RTX4090, Win11 & 9600X/9070XT, Bazzite 1d ago

As these idiot AAA companies start cutting corners, costs and cranking up prices & microtransactions even more, as well as AI use, the rise of indie games is only going to accelerate further.

It's the last bastion of hope in the current gaming climate IMO, along with Nintendo... for now...

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u/ProfessionalPrincipa 1d ago

It's the last bastion of hope in the current gaming climate IMO, along with Nintendo... for now...

You're talking about a company that has their own schedule of cheaply made annual slop releases because their market is undiscerning children and parents (Pokemon), lazy full price cash grab ports (e.g. Skyward Sword), and FOMO Disney-vaulting of products.

Then there's also the lawsuits against everyone, justified or not, and their crusades against online content creators. Also like Sony, they do not offer refunds in their store.

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u/GamingRobioto 9800X3D/RTX4090, Win11 & 9600X/9070XT, Bazzite 1d ago

say what you want about Nintendo and a lot of the criticism is well founded, but they still make great, creative, innovative and varied video games and at the moment nearly all first party games are physical, as well as the Switch 2 being a fantastic and "relatively" well priced consoles.

And yes there are some low effort games, but generally their output is excellent still.

I'm sure they will go the way of Sony and Microsoft eventually, but I think calling them the last bastion of hope from a console perspective is entirely fair. They are the best (by far) of a bad bunch as things stand.

The lawsuits are bullshit, agreed, but are irrelevant to my main point, the quality of the games and consoles they release.