(Credit: Sans Strings Studio)
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—It's no secret that the video game industry is in a weird place. Despite being a billion-dollar industry, major and minor studios collapse under the weight of their enormous budgets and predatory live service practices. Geoff Keighley, mastermind behind The Game Awards and the Summer Games Fest, seems keenly aware of the growing dissent between gamers and big-budget blockbusters. This year's Summer Game Fest was one of the best in its brief history—and that's because the spotlight wasn't exclusively on AAA games like Resident Evil 9. It was the underdogs in the independent and double-A scenes that kept the show moving with the hope for a healthier, more creative tomorrow.
How Indie Games Got Their Groove Back
As the lights dimmed in the YouTube Theater and the Summer Game Fest kicked off in earnest, Keighley strode across the stage to highlight the year's 10 best-selling Steam games. In that list were Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, R.E.P.O., and Schedule 1. The kicker? They were each created by teams of fewer than 30 people. Indie games were not to be ignored—Keighley made that clear, and that set the vibe for the night.
Although big names like Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Onimusha: Way of the Sword drew cheers, more out-of-the-box creative efforts elicited the most oohs and awws from the live audience. They included the puppet pugilism game Felt That: Boxing, the rubber hose cartoon style of Into the Unwell, the stop-motion animation of Out of Words, and the gross body horror of ILL. The creativity on display did not go unnoticed.
Indie games have long enjoyed more freedom than AAA games despite having a fraction of the budget. High costs across massive teams can, of course, create outstanding video games; just look at mega-successful Grand Theft Auto V and its estimated $265 million budget. However, the industry has also experienced tentpole titles like Concord fail spectacularly. Although some people may enjoy the schadenfreude, these failures result in squandered talent and studio closures without any real punishment for the suits who likely made those game-ruining decisions.
The Double-A Game Renaissance
In 2023, I wrote about the live service game bubble bursting and how single-player titles were reemerging as the preferred way to play. But it was the very public failure of Sony’s live service shooter, Concord, alongside the loving embrace of Sony's 3D platformer, Astro Bot, that made it clear that a sea change had occurred. Gamers wanted smaller-scale, creative experiences, and game development tools like Unreal Engine have given indie developers the muscle needed to compete with the heavyweights.
That's true of double-A titles, too. A double-A game falls between the budget of indie games and AAA titles, often smaller in scale because of it. As game prices hit the highest they've ever been in years (such as the $80 Mario Kart World), $50 double-A titles have garnered praise from fans and critics. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Split Fiction, and South of Midnight are three such examples. The upcoming Mafia: The Old Country and Wuchang: Fallen Feathers are set to continue that trend.
Double-A games are shorter and take greater risks. They can afford to be more experimental, and most importantly, don't need to sell 10 million copies to be deemed profitable. Not every gamer has the time or the patience to navigate the huge open worlds of AAA titles, so double-A games have a chance to appeal to people who don't want to shell out full price for a game they won't finish.
Smaller Games Are the Future
Summer Game Fest had many blockbuster titles, such as the debut of Capcom's Resident Evil 9, but good on the show for using its reach to highlight the smaller and most creative games in the business. It proved that Geoff Keighley has his finger on the pulse of what is driving video games toward a sustainable future, and it made this Summer Game Fest one of the best shows because of it.