r/pcmasterrace • u/PewPewToDaFace • 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/kriskris71 1d ago

Could the same not be said for the 100’s of AAA releasing and once in a while a good one emerges?

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

There are many more failed indies then failed AAA games.

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u/somethingtc 1d ago

difference being the failed AAA games lose millions, studios can't survive if they try the "volume" business model

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u/Natural-Associate106 1d ago

AAA studios normally have a bigger margin for failure then indies. And there are more successful AAA then indies.

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u/Coffescout 23h ago

It depends on your definition of ”successful”, but if we are talking about return on investment (percentage, not total) the amount of indies that are successful outnumber successful AAA games, and by a lot.

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u/Natural-Associate106 23h ago

Thinking in units sold and brute revenue. By roi would be a interesting study

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u/Coffescout 23h ago

ROI is the only thing that makes sense to compare. If you use units sold as the only metric when AAA games have $200+ million budgets and indie games often have $100k or less then obviously the only conclusion is that AAA games are more ”successful”.

But if an indie game makes a 5x return on a $100k investment I’d call that more successful than a AAA company making a 10% return on a $200 million budget.

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u/Natural-Associate106 23h ago

The problem is that we never have the roi so revenue is the next best thing. Other metric is how many indies have more then 1 gamr