PlayStation’s Jim Ryan on Discussing Indie Games: ‘Less Relevant Now’ - Sensationalist Headlines

[QUOTE]To those taking a more broader view, few will disagree that Sony’s showing at E3 this year — in terms of the press conferences alone — had fewer surprises than in any previous year. To those watching closely and a bit more specific in their descriptions, the absence of smaller, indie titles — not to mention the focus on big upcoming AAA titles that we already knew about a la God of War & Insomniac’s upcoming Spiderman game — certainly felt surprising given Sony have gained a fair reputation since the launch of PS4 as the default console of choice for those looking for the more interesting and diverse library of indie games. Well in an [URL="http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-06-16-the-e3-interview-playstations-jim-ryan"]interview with GamesIndustry.biz[/URL], Sony’s global head of sales and marketing, Jim Ryan, believes that the talk and notable highlighting of indie games has lost some of its former sway. “One of the things we have realised is that these video collages of ten indie games shown in a minute, is almost meaningless…” he explains, when asked about the sudden absence this year. “…there was a time and a place, in the early stages of the life of PS4, to make statements. It was more about making a statement that we are serious about the indies…it was just good to talk about in 2013/2014. It is less relevant now. We have VR to talk about now, for example.”[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2017/06/20/playstations-jim-ryan-on-discussing-indie-games-less-relevant-now/262530/[/url]

well there's definitely less separation then there used to be, standards for indie games now are way higher than previously and smaller studios are competing with larger studios as regular games now it's not like back around 2008 where indie games were janky gimmicky shit like Blueberry Garden or And Yet it Moves

Personally got a bit tired of those indie titles since about 3/4 of them get stuck in the Early Access hell. Even on consoles some indie titles have been accepted while they are early in development, 7 Days to Die comes to mind

[QUOTE=darth-veger;52385118]Personally got a bit tired of those indie titles since about 3/4 of them get stuck in the Early Access hell. Even on consoles some indie titles have been accepted while they are early in development, 7 Days to Die comes to mind[/QUOTE] No Mans Sky

[QUOTE=darth-veger;52385118]Personally got a bit tired of those indie titles since about 3/4 of them get stuck in the Early Access hell. Even on consoles some indie titles have been accepted while they are early in development, 7 Days to Die comes to mind[/QUOTE] Wait what? People don't like procedurally generated rogue-likes with pixel art graphics in early access anymore? But what about survival crafting?

[QUOTE=Antimuffin;52385591]Wait what? People don't like procedurally generated rogue-likes with pixel art graphics in early access anymore? But what about survival crafting?[/QUOTE] fight me, proc-gen pixel-art rogue-lites are still the best genre out there when it comes to replay value, even though they peaked with BoI Rebirth like 3-4 years ago. Really, though, indie games don't exist anymore. The line between AAA and indie has shrank enormously, so now you have games like PUBG competing with brand-new AAA games. The market is shared for both - there's no more XBLA versus physical "real" games. The real difference now is genre. Ubisoft doesn't make pixel roguelikes - that's still a scene dominated by indie devs. And indies rarely make (successful) Ubisoft-style tower-climbers.

[QUOTE=RichyZ;52385084]not entirely wrong, the indie bubble has kinda popped and aaa is starting to use a lot of concepts that indies pioneered only with bigger budgets and more manhours poured into said concepts[/QUOTE] Yeah, but there is recently a trend of "Microsoft does something - Sony explains, how it is not relevant and why no one needs it"

black tiger was a mistake

I don't think indie games are entirely irrelevant but the scene has changed quite a bit. It's nowhere near as foreign compared to AAA games anymore, and the standards are much higher than they used to be.

There's a bit more of a gradient between AAA and indie than there used to be, and it's probably for the best. But there are still things that smaller indie devs do that larger companies currently won't. Even if AAA studios co-opt indie ideas and aesthetics, indies just come up with new ones.

It looks to me its AAA games that are catching indie disease. Rarely i've seen a AAA game that have been completely developed at release.

[QUOTE=hakimhakim;52387698]It looks to me its AAA games that are catching indie disease. Rarely i've seen a AAA game that have been completely developed at release.[/QUOTE] Lmao that has nothing to do with Indies

I think he was saying that they weren't relevant to talk about anymore, not that they weren't relevant at all. This is the time in the PS4 lifecycle where they should be focusing on big hits that show off the Power of the PS4 and its Big Hit IPs.

its a good thing in my mind because a lot of the risky but fun ideas are being put into aaa games. when undertale became like goty it must have come as a big shock to the suits in the big companies.