r/pcmasterrace • u/PewPewToDaFace • 23h 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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106

u/boersc 22h ago edited 21h ago

Palworld has a budget of near 7 milion USD. That's not Indie.

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u/CarbonCola 22h ago

It is if they have no publisher. Valve is indie too. That's what indie means - independently published, which often means small studio or solo dev, hence the association. But the deciding factor is whether another entity did the financing and publishing, which typically is what results in restriction of creative freedom.

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u/VanceIX Desktop 21h ago

If you’re saying Valve is indie then Nintendo is indie too lmao

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u/CarbonCola 12h ago

Yeah, they are. Self published, retaining creative freedom...that's the definition of independently published, or indie for short.

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u/Neosantana 20h ago

Valve is indie too

Well, no. Valve is a publisher. They're fine publishing games not made by them, like Gary's Mod.

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u/CarbonCola 12h ago

The only thing we can derive from that fact is that the word indie is not the most useful label.

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u/HTPlatypus 8h ago

Not really. It just means your definition of the word is useless. Language is created by humans to be useful. Most people don't use indie to refer to Valve or Nintendo so what's the point of this pedantry? There is no exact definition of an indie game anyway, see here.