In an interview given last week at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, he developers of the indie games Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon they said the deal some small developers relied on to get financing in recent years, such as Epic Game Store exclusives and Xbox Game Pass, they are no longer as consistent as in the past.
“I spoke to at least five small teams, with 35 or fewer members, during GDC: cuts, cuts, cuts, canceled funding, talks that had been going on for a year were cancelled,” said Casey Yano, co-founder of Slay the Spire studio Mega Crit. “It sounds like shit. We have the privilege of being able to finance ourselves. Otherwise I would be very, very, very scared right now.”
Slay the Spire it was released in early access on Steam and initially didn't get many sales, but then became one of the biggest successes for the deckbuilding genre. Darkest Dungeon was also a success in early access on Steam; both games are available on PC Game Pass, though Darkest Dungeon director Chris Bourassa said that Microsoft's offers to get games for Game Pass have “diminished in scope” compared to the early days.
“Much less,” Yano added.
Epic Games and indies
“Even Epic,” Bourassa said. “The gold rush is over. I'm from the Northwest Territories. My city was built on gold and then they found diamonds further north. Perhaps another paradigm shift awaits us, but I believe the scope of the agreements I hear about has diminished significantly since the days of the big swings. We certainly concluded our Epic deal at the right time.”
So it seems that indie developers will struggle to find support in Microsoft and Epic Games Store.
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