Comment on 'The gold rush is over:' Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon devs say that big Game Pass and Epic exclusive deals have dried up for indie devs

suzune@ani.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• MurrayL@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  “I talked to at least five small teams, like 35 [members] and under, during GDC, and they’re like: Cuts, cuts, cuts, funding canceled, talks that were going on for a year, canceled,” said Casey Yano, the co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. “It sounds like it’s shit. We’re definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I’d be very, very, very scared right now.”

  If these deals didn’t exist, lots of games simply wouldn’t get made. You can hate on the platforms all you like but the deals are one of the only sources of funding for small & solo developers.

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  • Halosheep@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Oh no! Not the games I will never play because they’re exclusive to EGS!

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    • beetus@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      You do realize those are exclusive for only a year, right? So EGS pays them out for a year.of exclusivity and then the devs are free to launch on steam and others.

      The thing is, often if they don’t get that first infusion of cash from a deal with EGS (or another investor) they don’t get to complete or even launch the game at all.

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      • Halosheep@lemm.ee ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Usually by the time they’ve made it off EGS, I’ve forgotten they exist. There’s been many sequels to games I loved that I forgot existed because of this.

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• rtxn@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Remember DARQ? Taking a stance against third-party exclusivity pays off.

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