this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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If this results in the AAA games industry dying and having a full reset in a couple years when this all blows over, I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't think indie games are going anywhere, so it's not like we won't have anything new to play, and AAA studios have just become so generally awful that there wouldn't be any great loss there.
If anything, I'd expect smaller indie games that can run on weaker/older hardware to be more likely to survive
That would require people learning how to program.
No, new devs will love the AI tool frameworks for creating games. The money will be good and nobody will own ANYTHING, except for the corporations that hold our debt.
I'm not falling for it. Going to start retro gaming clubs.
I've seen plenty of indie game studios swear off all generative AI. I mean I'm all for retro gaming too, just bought a new cable for my N64, but there's definitely plenty of good choices in the indie space still
Yeah I do think there will be a "never die" indie community thankfully! I just think that going from experience the new generations bring more and more people to the internet and they do not share our values. They create their own things that corporations back and people see those as legitimate and safe, even though they are quite the opposite.
I just believe that what AI tools are will be split into categories because even indie devs can't ignore all the tools forever. I mean at some point you're using generated textures and it doesn't have to be trained on broken dreams.
But then that creates all sort of gray areas for corporations to claim they are being good while they are raking it in and building their own gaming ecosystems.
Possibly, but polls show (yes I understand the caveats with them) AI being liked even less than ICE. So maybe the younger generation will listen on this one. Only time will tell.
Just because some indies will make slop doesn't mean all of them will. There will be good stuff too.
I mean, if the whole industry came to a stop tomorrow we still have hundreds of great (I'm talking about 8-10/10 games, not just good ones) games. And that is without resorting to emulation or replaying games.
"I have nothing to play"
Wife angrily points at my 1,000+ title library
"hey now! there's no need to get personal ....."
I have played and enjoyed a lot of AAA games over the years. God of War, The Last of Us 1 & 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, the new DOOM games, Battlefield 6, and pretty much any other popular AAA game you can think of over the last five years. You know what my top games are in terms of playtime? Stardew Valley, Factorio, and Rimworld. And it's not even close.
Stardew, Factorio, and Rimworld have certain qualities that make long playtimes more likely. But that doesn't inherently make them more valuable experiences, imho.
I think that Last of Us 1 and 2 are masterpieces. But I've only played them once each, and that's okay.
Which is definitely fair. I'm just saying that just because I can't afford a 5090 doesn't mean I won't be able to play games. Sure, I won't be able to play GTA VI but I can still play thousands of other games.
Sucks that a job in gaming is not a viable career anymore though. Only option left is you slave away as an indie dev and most likely make under 500 bucks in the end. That's kind of unsustainable as a form of income.
All the fun jobs are going away :( time to learn plumbing I guess.
The "fun jobs" were always rare though. The vast majority of of people in the world work at jobs that aren't fun. It's always been that way.
They will be able to survive it far better than indies. They already wish they could push users to subscription and cloud gaming models, and I suspect this will drive the most predatory of the lot (EA) into acquiring their own PC rental programs. It will be an opportunity for them to sell you a packaged experience at a monthly subscription price. The indies that will survive will be those whose games don't really have high hardware requirements, but the fan base isn't the same.
What?
Indie games can generally run on a potato, so they aren't really affected by the hardware shortage.
And indie game devs aren't being pressured to push out AI slop or be "made redundant" by someone more willing to sacrifice quality for speed.
90%+ of my gaming time is indie games in recent years. Very many of them are doing great. The coming market crash and recession from AI over-investment is going to affect all non-necessary spending, of course. But, even then, it's a lot easier to justify a $5-20 game purchase when money is tight than $80+ for AAA games (not even counting hardware to run it!)
I literally don't understand how you could possibly see how indie devs are losing out here. Nobody needs to buy the slop big studios are putting out. If EA is pushing out shit, then just skip eating the shit sandwich, maybe?
Did I miss your point? Or do you not know that indie games are making up an increasing share of gaming revenue?
So ...
Yes.
Yes, largely because you can't or don't want to acknowledge the sort of fanbases they have. AAA have at 8x the market share that indies have, and their bases are more loyal predictable whales. They will be more willing to throw away money. People like you are more demanding with their money, are more likely to be more selective, demanding, and might even choose to save it over other things you have to worry about. Proportionally, the indie market might be growing, but the amount it actually grew is still less than what the AAA market did, and again, not the same type of gamer.
There's also this part, "Nobody needs to buy the slop big studios are putting out. If EA is pushing out shit, then just skip eating the shit sandwich, maybe?", where you seem to be arguing against the strawman you are trying to superimpose onto my argument. Just because I don't like does not mean I have to act like it isn't so.
Right, but that's incorrect in the PC space:
Indie games are eating AAA's lunch on PC.
It's also just measuring sales from the games itself, not the predatory game shop sales.
You also cite the article and ignore that Black Myth: Wukong and Palworld require decent PCs, both cited performers in it.
And thanks for bringing that up, consoles are also going to snipe at the market because they share the same components, and are another way AAAs farm whales.