this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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[–] Justdaveisfine@midwest.social 139 points 1 week ago (6 children)

There's definitely weird people making games on itch and sometimes in the depths of Steam.

By its very definition weird isn't going to sell to mass market. That being said I do agree that we need more weird AAA or AA games.

[–] Auster@thebrainbin.org 52 points 1 week ago

Looking from another angle from Yoko Taro's point, I'd say that, in fear of failing due to being too big, companies would rather play it safe, but that causes creations to grow sterile.

And as consequence, people allegedly "weird", which I wouldn't think are necessarily people with curious antiques as Yoko Taro himself, but simply people whose game ideas are far from a safe ground, go for making indie titles instead as then they can be free to do whatever they want.

[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 24 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There's definitely weird people making games on itch and sometimes in the depths of Steam.

Oh yes. Ever heard of Beautycopter?

[–] RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have. Watched two beings play it. I sincerely hope the person(s) who made that game make more games.

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[–] missingno@fedia.io 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Weird still exists, true, but the combination of weird + budget is what's really missing.

[–] Justdaveisfine@midwest.social 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The only recent example I can think of is Death Stranding.

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[–] pennomi@lemmy.world 99 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Makes sense. AAA games are finance projects more than creative projects. Yeah there’s a lot of art and writing and stuff, but it’s all calibrated to make the most money and anything that threatens it is jettisoned. This makes them formulaic to a fault.

Indie games are passion projects, so you see a lot of weird stuff out there. Most of them are utter failures, financially, but the ones that survive are truly something special.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 week ago

Not dissimilar to what happens with big studio films

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (9 children)

20 years ago AAA games could still experiment, but that was because back then AAA games had about the same budget as big indie games now.

You just can't gamble if you have 10k employees and hundreds of millions riding on it.

[–] phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Being "safe" is also a gamble, if you aren't bringing anything new or unique you're gambling that the title or brand is sufficient for success.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 63 points 1 week ago (3 children)

That's the entire tech industry. I got in at the tail end of it being full of nerds who were interested in computers. Then jocks and the like found out it pays really well and now it isn't fun anymore.

[–] Baguette@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)
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[–] AnalogNotDigital@lemmy.wtf 8 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Yeah man all those well known jocks like Spez and Zuckerberg sure did a number on tech.

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[–] Coreidan@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (7 children)

I stopped playing AAA games years ago. They are all trash.

Indie games are where it’s at

[–] maniajack@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I dunno I like elden ring and rdr2. Some are still good, just not most, anymore

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 5 points 1 week ago

They're polished, but nearly all of them are too safe.

The ones that subvert things a little are always best for me, and these always get mixed reactions from people who went in with a set idea of what they wanted from it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 being a slow paced wild west simulator rather than Grand Theft Horse is a prime example. It didn't play by safety and doing popular things. It did what they wanted it to be, and it's all the better for it.

[–] Edgarallenpwn@midwest.social 5 points 1 week ago

I've mainly been an Indie gamer since 2012 or so. My last gaming build is almost 7 years old, but I think the last AAA game I played was during lockdown and that was just because it was a way to hang with friends. At this point I just play indie ports on my phone.

Funny enough, after going through my Steam recently played, the last AAA game I enjoyed was Nier.

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[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 37 points 1 week ago

The indie scene is so much fun.

[–] hark@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The weird people are still there, but development teams are much larger now, so their input is not as prominent. Plus the budgets are so large that a flop can heavily damage a company or even ruin it, so they're very risk-averse. We need more AA or A games instead of relying so much on heavy-hitters.

[–] jol@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The weird people still make tons of indie games.

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[–] eronth@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Part of the issue is that AAA still hasn't learned how to manage and produce passion projects, which most great games are. They keep wanting to use what's working elsewhere with no regard for what makes sense in their own game.

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[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Weird people were forced out of the industry over the past decade or more, for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with making games.

[–] mohab@piefed.social 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Happens with any industry that gets big, I think. More profits=more suits/vampires coming in and replacing artists/scientists or whoever is more qualified to make key decisions.

This won't stop unless infinite wealth hoarding is tackled by governments, if ever.

[–] ogmios@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago

You're not wrong. I still remember the day I picked up a newspaper and saw the headline "video games earn more than movies for the first time ever," and I immediately knew where the industry was headed. In retrospect, I was 100% correct.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Happened even with Boeing. I think it should be illegal for anyone with an MBA to be CEO or CTO of any company. They can be CFO if they want to, but not any role with actual decision power over products.

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[–] MidsizedSedan@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I know im late to the party but... I just started playing Death Stranding. Lets just say its more than just a walking simulator...

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 11 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It is mental, but I also kind of wish he'd hire somebody else to write dialogue for him.

And maybe somebody to check all the women characters, and make sure he's not coming across as being a little bit odd.

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[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago

Yoko Taro talking about weird shows a healthy deal of self awareness... +1 respect in my book

[–] blazeknave@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

That's why bg3 felt so special. For us by us at that scale

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 15 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Do you think video games are silly little things?"

[–] TwoBeeSan@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

no.

That entire credit sequence is high water mark for games as a medium.

Every emotion.

Drunk ass man writing his characters, crying in a room alone. The thing we need more of lol. Will purchase any game his name is attached to.

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[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

No worries. There is plenty of weird to find with indie games.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, but how survivable is making indie games? Unless you make it big, you aren’t paying rent that way.

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[–] Lojcs@lemm.ee 14 points 1 week ago

Next you'll tell me mainstream is not niche

[–] Crankenstein@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Capitalism at its finest.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Who knew kicking out every passionate person with artistic integrity and forcing the death of the artist would impact the creativity of the industry?

Jesus christ I hate game CEOs, they need to be locked in a room with games until they learn how to have fun.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago (10 children)
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[–] Doom@ttrpg.network 11 points 1 week ago

Nepotism is ruining entertainment.

[–] ijedi1234@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

There are plenty of weird people making weird games if you know where to look. itch io and DLSite, for instance.

[–] missingno@fedia.io 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The thing I miss most about handhelds is all the mid-budget experimental spinoffs made for them. That was where weird truly flourished, and I'm sad that there's not really a place for that in today's market. Hideo Kojima's Boktai trilogy is one of my favorite games of all time, and there will never ever ever be another game remotely as weird as that.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago

I suppose it happened because from a mainstream perspective handhelds like the DS and PSP were far behind dedicated systems in terms of graphics, and so the expectation was never there to have "triple A" visuals - neither from consumers nor industry.

Made for very fertile ground in terms of games that had budget, but still had a long leash to go and get wacky.

[–] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

After Spec Ops The line, everything went to shit, the bar was too high

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Dunno why you're being downvoted, that game was insanely good. Mediocre shooter, but the story was amazingly good.

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[–] commander@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

Dragon Age 1-3 all had their drawbacks but could always fall back on how beloved the lore was and how it was present. Dragon Age Veilguard has much of the lore the original creator laid out but presents the revelations in its game poorly and retcons lore from previous games in sterile ways. The original creator left after 3 and over the decade has dropped tidbits about the changing culture of the studio he left

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