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'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 (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Maybe... just not make exclusive deals? Especially not on mediocre game distribution platforms.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

You do realize those are usually 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. So it never would make it to the other markets.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Same, after a few years you see them show up on steam and all the reviews are

"All my lobbies are empty"
"It takes 30+ mins to get into a game with 2 other players"
"I'm only getting matched against bots"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Or the EGS phase was just glorified beta access like Hades.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago

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