Introduction:
It’s pretty obvious at this point in the modern gaming landscape that AAA video games have fallen off. Now people are forced to choose between unfinished products, products made by companies with scummy business, and everything in between. Ever since the late 2000s gaming’s most predatory practices reared their ugly heads, and they’ve only gotten worse since then. Implementing loot boxes and micro transactions all for the sake of convenience rather than working to unlock items. And what’s worse is that beloved franchises are being tarnished because of corporate greed. Ruining what made those games so special to begin with. We’ve been in the trenches for years now, and we will continue to be for years to come. However there IS a light at the end of this dung-ridden tunnel, and that light is indie games. Indie games have been surging in popularity and have reached the same heights as AAA games. It’s beautiful to see works of art like Undertale cultivating a colossal and dedicated fan-base or games like Lethal Company out selling games like Call of Duty, one of the largest IPs in gaming history. But it’s important to know exactly why people have turned to indie games, even though new and amazing titles are dropping every other week. It’s important to witness the downfall of AAA studios.
The fall of AAA Part 1: Activision Blizzard
I’m sure just about everyone in the gaming space has at the very least heard of ActiBlizz. After all, Activision owns some of the most popular game IPs on planet Earth. Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, and Skylanders just to name a few. However, because of the success of games like Call of Duty, a franchise they know will make money no matter what, they’ve gotten lazy with their work and tried to cut as many corners as possible. Unfinished products, a half hearted anti-cheat, AI generated art, and recycled ideas are just a few of the shortcuts they’ve taken on the road to development. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The women in the office are treated like dirt, with unequal pay, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace. The CEO, Bobby Kotick halted a Sexual Harassment investigation, cut down employee compensation, and threatened his assistant with death. They are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to corporate greed and corruption in the video game industry. And they’ll probably keep getting away with their scummy practices so long as they keep puking up Call of Duty games.
The fall of AAA Part 2: 343 Industries
On a similar note, Halo is one of the most influential video game titles of all time. To paraphrase a man known as Noodle: If Doom was when sound came to film then Halo Combat Evolved is when we got technicolor. Back in the 2000s, if you played video games, then you knew what Halo was. After Halo CE came out everyone was hooked, and when Halo 2 came out it broke records. It became one of the most anticipated games of 2004 and became the 5th highest selling game of that same year. Clearly, the fans absolutely loved Halo, and nothing proved that more than when Halo 3 released. It once again broke records being one of the most anticipated games again in 2007 and was the 3rd highest selling game that year. That year the story of the Master Chief had ended and Halo became dormant… for about 2 years. Halo 3: ODST released in 2009 and just about everyone loved it as well. After the release of ODST, Halo Reach came out the year after, once again being the 3rd highest selling game of 2010. The prequel to the series would be the last Halo game that Bungie, the company that made Halo under Microsoft, would make. And thus the story of Halo was over… for about another 2 years, then Halo 4 was released, under a new company put together exclusively for making Halo called 343 Industries. Halo 4 was the 3rd best selling game again in 2012, but something was off. Something didn’t quite feel “Halo” about it. But who cares? Halo was back! Except that player numbers dropped faster than average in the first month, with a lot of players going back to Halo 3. Weird. 2 years later 343 decided to release a compilation of every Halo game featuring the Master Chief. Something to celebrate Halo’s legacy. This would be pretty hard to screw up. All they’d have to do is port 4 games. Easy. The Multiplayer was completely unplayable and some of Halo CE’s assets were misplaced. But that’s besides the point. They’ll fix it up along the way. Plus, another Halo game is coming out in 2015, surely everyone’s gonna love it! Halo 5 is now considered one of the worst Halo titles. It didn’t even make top 10 in the highest grossing games of 2015. It turned out the people that developed Halos 4 and 5 weren’t the biggest fans of the original titles and wanted to change it to suit their vision rather than make another Halo game. After 3 years of nothing, Halo infinite was announced, and it looked pretty alright. But people were cautiously optimistic. The game was slated to release in 2020… Then it was delayed. The game that was supposed to be released with the Xbox Series X/S wouldn’t come out until a year later. Yikes. After the game was released, it was considered a sort of return to form when it came to the campaign, but the multiplayer was a mess. Hardly any game modes at launch, and it didn’t release with Slayer. The most popular game mode. And after promises of split screen returning after being absent in Halo 5, they cancelled it. The trust between the players and 343 was broken. To add salt to the wounds, a 2 season TV adaptation of the games was made, and it was received terribly. By the time 2022 rolled around after the first month of Infinite. Halo seemed to be in a pretty bad spot… for about 2 years. There was a massive rebranding campaign in October of 2024. 343 Industries became Halo Studios which meant that they had a somewhat fresh reputation. However, this is a cautionary tale of what happens when a company loses sight of what made their product special.
Where do we go from here?
Because of companies like this I, personally, find it hard to enjoy AAA games and there are other folks who feel the same way. But that begs the question: “Where do we go from here?” That’s where indie games come in.
Indie games I recommend:
However that begs another question: Where do I start? What indie games should I play or support the development of? Never fear, I have a few games in mind that will tickle many people’s fancies. Starting with…
- ULTRAKILL
Ultrakill is a game developed by Hakita and published by New Blood Interactive. It follows the story of a robot simply named V1 as it travels through the layers of Hell for one purpose. Collect blood to stay alive. However a far greater storm is brewing behind the gates of Heaven. MANKIND IS DEAD. BLOOD IS FUEL. HELL IS FULL. Pretty metal, huh? The gameplay is primarily focused on stylish, fast paced, intense, high octane action inspired by Doom and Devil May Cry. It is currently in early access so the game is unfinished at the time of writing.
- Inscryption
Inscryption is a game developed by Daniel Mullins and published by Devolver digital. It is a roguelike deck builder with a retro aesthetic. I actually don’t know much about the story, but the gameplay loop of building a deck of animals to fight alongside you in your travels is very addicting. I recommend it to folks who love taking deep dives into video games like this.
- Pseudoregalia
Last but most definitely not least, Pseudoregalia is a Metroidvania developed by rittzler. It follows the protagonist Sybil as she traverses a dreamlike dimension in hopes of saving the soul trapped within it. This is a game that won’t hold your hand. Not to say that it’s hard, but you aren’t given many instructions. The only way you’ll be able to figure out what to do is by exploring and collecting upgrades to complete your platforming arsenal. The moveset is one of the unique and nuanced movesets I’ve stumbled across. You start off with the barebones run and jump, but as you go along you, you collect more moves for Sybil, however the game is designed in a way where even if you don’t have every upgrade, there’s still a way to complete a challenge. Pseudoregalia quickly became my favorite game of all time after playing, so I have a lot to say about it. I’ve played it to completion 3 times, taking 10 hours my first run, 4 hours my second run and 2 hours my third run. So one could say I like it quite a bit. I can never recommend this game enough and more people need to go play it.
Wrap up
I hope I’ve made it obvious that there are so many alternatives when it comes to Video Games. Whether you don’t want to support AAA companies and their practices or just want to play something more unique, you can always depend on indie games to keep you entertained in so many different ways. Indie games are labors of love, and you can feel the passion radiating off of them. That’s what makes them so special.
