www.patreon.com/minnmax - We'll DM you a Steam code for Arco if you support us at any tier, we run out of codes when we hit 5,035 supporters on Patreon.
Severed Steel was great on consoles! Are you considering porting Echo Point Nova to PS5 at some point? If I'm remembering correctly, Severed Steel came later to consoles after the PC version as well.
Ben: "No one wanted this question, but I like it so we're doing it anyway." Then asks what 5 studios survive the snap. Janet suggests Naughty Dog and everyone gives her crap lol especially with Jacob saying that the 'legacy' staff are no longer at ND, but he suggests id and says "I'm thinking 90s id." Janet was spot on knowing she'd get crap.
You guys deserve millions of subs. I dont understand what's going on with all those Game Informer people that didn't follow you here. This channel is the Game Informer show on steroids.
lol there is no hate. was a dumb pick. notice no one said Rockstar. bringing up a studio that releases 1 or 2 games a decade, has an ‘alleged’ brutal work environment and crunch to preserve is stupid and everyone kindly sidestepped the suggestion. She’s like a dog with a bone though.
I'm on team Janet when it comes to which developers who should be involved in shaping the future of games. Even if you don't want Naughty Dog you might want their multi-award winning and incredibly comprehensive accessibility features (I'd be interested to know how much of the budget for recent Sony AAA games was taken up by research, development and integration of those features. I bet it isn't an insignificant percentage.) I'm spanking my cats bottom as I type.
Wow, 5 years already? Congrats, everyone. I'm so glad you kept doing your thing and I get to see everyone doing what we all love and continue to watch you for.
You're absolutely nuts if you wouldn't want Naughty Dog involved in a reimagining of the gaming landscape. They're far too important and have crafted experiences that actually transcend gaming.
In terms of the next Naughty Dog game, it has been rumored forever that the next IP was going to be based on Savage Starlight, the comics Ellie collects throughout TLoU. It's a story that takes place in space. Also, Neil Druckman explicitly said in a Washington Post interview about a year ago that games like Elden Ring, that abandon the typical "hand holding" type of direction and give players massive amounts of agency is what has piqued his interest in recent years in terms of game design. So, I would bet that's probably what their source was comparing it to.
@@Draffut2003 personally, I’m not getting my hopes up at all for it, I don’t really care for the path ND is on right now. Just sharing the rumors that have been circulating around for a while.
I would give most beautiful game to Dishonored. The hand painted textures and the art style that is just cartoonish enough to sell the magical realism makes it look incredible even today.
Oof hard disagree on Gris being just in the "beautiful game" category and not having much else going for it. The story moving her out of depression/grief was so incredibly moving and the movement to get through that story was so well done that the puzzle elements felt very intuitive, making that progress feel very natural and the growth that comes along with gaining color and new abilities just flow almost effortlessly. I don't know that I was going through depression when I was playing it, though I was struggling with my work, and it was such a phenomenal way to calm my mind and help myself through a bad week. I am ADORING Neva, it's a fantastic game so far, but idk. Gris is something special.
Gorogoa would be my pick, as its beauty is tied into gameplay too. +1 vote for Okami as well. Other games not mentioned: LocoRoco, Abzu, Virginia, The Procession to Calvary, The Unfinished Swan, Critters For Sale, Citizen Sleeper, Everything (if you went to the smallest possible scale), Braid, The Plucky Squire, Thumper, Gran Turismo 7 (night time tracks on PSVR2)
Pyre would be my pick, it’s beautiful visually and how cohesive the whole game is with its gameplay and music. The mysticism of that game oozes when you play it.
Echo Point Nova is such a crazy fun title, glad it gets some shine here. The only downside is motion sickness (but I've felt compelled to power through, it's that much fun)
I love hanging out in beautiful nature scenes in games, so Death Stranding is one that stands out as the most beautiful. There's some others I'm not thinking of at the moment, but I just love the being in cold weather listening to peaceful music moments in that game. Hanson's choice of Genesis Noir is a very different but perfect choice as well.
I thought it when i played it and i still think it now, Bioshock: Infinite is one of the most beautiful games ever made. I wonder if people would be hesitant to agree because that game has not held up to critical reevaluation. But i do genuinely think it's the prettiest top-to-bottom game I've played.
Neva's combat really isn't hitting for me. For the record, Gris has quietly superb gameplay in its platforming and puzzle design. Not having combat or death states is one of its strong points.
I turned off the health points and put it on story mode or whatever. It plays closer to Gris that way. Taking damage was massively disrupting the flow of the game for me, and hampering the experience vs what I got from Gris. Turning that off has significantly improved it. But agree. Gris is amazing.
So glad to see someone else big up Gris! Replaying it for the first time since launch the other day and I had forgotten how good the puzzle design is. It constantly introduces new ideas and things to do and moves through everything with such fluidity and grace. It’s kinda remarkable that it gets written off as just a pretty art game. Have only spent about an hour or so with Neva but it’s kinda lacklustre in comparison. Not only is the art appreciable worse (very digital looking compared to Gris beautiful hand drawn look) but replacing the unique puzzle elements with dull combat and baby’s first soulslike enemy encounters is so far off what i want from this studio. Here’s hoping it improves as I get further in
Damn, when the game studios question came up I was thinking along the lines of "5 you wanna see mold the new, fresh landscape based on the design they've promoted in the current games we know them for" and less a "culture, production values, work ethic" end of things. If we're going off the vibes based approach Janet was kind of arguing on, I'd definitely agree with Naughty Dog! They have some real range across the 4 series they've built from the ground-up - pioneering innovation that's easy to take for granted these days or even remain cynical about, but it really has had a lasting effect on so many sister studios within SIE or, hell, western gaming at large. Without diving into the nuances of individual divisions within larger developer houses, my other 4 picks would be Valve, Rockstar, Nintendo and Capcom. Janet was cooking with her take! As an aside, I was surprised to hear Leo rate Sly Cooper 4 so highly. I loved the game at the time, but looking at it now it's apparent Sanzaru had a difficult task of coming up with more of a story past Sly 3 which inherently did not need more. The ending of Sly 3 is so resolute and climactic for all the characters' arcs and its themes of legacy, true friendship and identity really laid on a... SuckerPunch of lasting quality 🫣. Sly 4 feels cheap in a lot of ways because they water down Sly and Bentley's banter to a point unrepresentative of the note the previous trilogy ended on and it all comes off too Saturday Morning Cartoon-y for how the original trilogy otherwise fought against that idea to drive home some deep issues present in the Cooper gang. Anyway, great pod episode and hope y'all are doing fantastic!
1. Sly 2, still on my Mount Rushmore of 3D platformers. 2. Sly 4, an astounding love letter by a new dev team which perfectly captured the magic. 3. Sly Cooper, a solid and fun opening act which only looks lesser by comparison to where the series would go. 4. Sly 3, a decent game marred a bit by a ruthless over-reliance on shoving a new minigame in front of you every ten minutes. I know it's never happening, but I would snap up a new Sly Cooper game so fast I'd phase out of reality momentarily.
The game is a bit of a slog (no one tell Suriel), but I'd also nominate the striking visual style of Killer 7 for Most Beautiful Game. It is never less than amazing to look at.
Hearing that Kyle would take photos of his settings before discovering copy and paste attributes made me scream in disgust. Also Leo sexualized animals about 4 times in this episode which is great to see
Pro rules is the complete opposite of letting your kids win. The game has always had an algorithm where the person losing gives luck for losing players like a random block that gives a star out of nowhere lol. Pro always strategy for better or worse even letting players vote for mini games.
Love y'all, but you should stop apologizing for not having an opinion on whatever games showcase was missed. Every time theres a "reaction" stream, the same information gets shared on the podcast, and the opinions of video game podcasters are pretty much all the same.
Janet, I really enjoy your gaming takes, but please, you already do the california thing where you make every sentence sound like a question through inflection, you don't need to also say "question mark" out loud on top of that, specially when what you are actually doing is making a statement, not asking a question 😂
LIS is literally just the trolley problem, picking Chloe goes against the trolley problem and the whole point of the trolley problem is you simple don't choose, that's how you "beat" it. So every play through, Arcadia Bay gets saved. Hesitant about the new one cause personally can't stand Chloe anyway, was never keen on Max as a result of all that, disliked LIS2 a lot but adored every single moment of TC, TC was so freaking good and actually connected on a very deep level. So kinda 50/50 on this.
1:16:37 i sound like an tech apologist but i always disagree on the Spotify is evil argument. ITS THE RECORD LABELS. they are the true evil here wtf, its very simple artist sign their life to them and then go complain to the 3rth party Spotify on their behalf why aren't they getting paid?. look at Spotify's numbers they pay all the money to the labels, and then the labels pay the artist... they are leaches at this point in the relationship. Wouldn't it be better if artist signed directly to Spotify cut the middle man and do direct business with the ones actually distributing their work (like it used to be when the labels got into power?, they signed with them because they needed them to distribute their work...) but the labels will never let that happened. BECAUSE THEY OWN SPOTIFY yeah guess who is really the devil in the shadows all along... fuck the record labels they should be allowed to fail long ago when social media took over culture, if you are a content creator you should hate them too because when they try and justify their existence by squeezing every penny out of artist work they harm you in the process by giving you strikes and so on. its them its their fault its because they are greedy and don't care about anything but money...
To rebuild, yes. I think larger studios who have specialize in genres that define the medium. There are big indie publishers but usually studios don’t have as big of a catalog and their teams are much smaller. That’s not a bad thing. But it makes them less thought of for a question like this for me personally. And with indies change in staff is even more felt. The studio that made inside has already spun off into another for instance. One of the games from a spinoff was critically acclaimed. The other wasnt. I suppose I could 4D chess it and say that is good bc it would make more studios but the same can be said of AAA devs making their own indie studios. So yeah. I want numbers.
@@Gameonysus That's a rational take, but I would want a renewal in culture and creativity that none of the AAA studios bring to the table. Studios like Supergiant, Larian, Klei and thatgamecompany come to mind.
@@fotografick I love indies but I think sometimes in praising them we can undermine the creativity that comes from AAA as well. Especially when many indie developers have gotten their initial inspirations from the AAA landscape. Crow Country is RE, Meat boy is Mario, Beastieball is Pokemon, hollow knight is metroid etc. If any or all of those games beat their OG AAA counterparts to you that's a valid take but i think it's a mistake to act as if Indie = creative true art and AAA = blockbuster drivel. I have played good and bad games from both spaces. I have played interesting and uninteresting games from both space. Idt quality or creativity is exclusive to either.
@@Gameonysus I wasn't saying that AAA studios are not creative. I was saying the culture of indie studios allows them to be more creative, take risks, produce games quickly and innovate. UFO 50, BG3, Hades are examples of this. The problem isn't with the creativity of the developers, but the structure, timelines, and trend chasing that happens in the AAA space, with some exceptions of course (Kojima, TOTK etc)
@@fotografick I think this is true for some indie studios but definitely not all which is just to say that there are problems within both sectors of the industry. I just think it’s bad to act like indies are a safe haven from the ills that plague the artistry when so many reports have come out about closures, funding issues, and internal struggles from smaller studios. That said I think we both like indies so we’re not really arguing to begin with. Just some semantics.
www.patreon.com/minnmax - We'll DM you a Steam code for Arco if you support us at any tier, we run out of codes when we hit 5,035 supporters on Patreon.
That was fast! Congratulations! It says you're at 6,967 members.
@@SuperNintendad 5007 paid members looks like!
I’m the dev of Echo Point Nova, huge thanks for all the praise!
it's so sick keep building on what you have
. . . . . . . . . . . . nova
(I tried to do a point echoing).
@@FBuildingPerhaps the most abstract UA-cam comment I’ve seen, I like your style
Severed Steel was great on consoles! Are you considering porting Echo Point Nova to PS5 at some point?
If I'm remembering correctly, Severed Steel came later to consoles after the PC version as well.
It has to be acknowledged-Kyle's mustache has been looking great lately.
Ben: "No one wanted this question, but I like it so we're doing it anyway." Then asks what 5 studios survive the snap.
Janet suggests Naughty Dog and everyone gives her crap lol especially with Jacob saying that the 'legacy' staff are no longer at ND, but he suggests id and says "I'm thinking 90s id." Janet was spot on knowing she'd get crap.
You guys deserve millions of subs. I dont understand what's going on with all those Game Informer people that didn't follow you here. This channel is the Game Informer show on steroids.
Thanks. Any help spreading the word is appreciated!
The naughty dog hate is wildzz..
Thank u Janet for being a voice of reason
lol there is no hate. was a dumb pick. notice no one said Rockstar. bringing up a studio that releases 1 or 2 games a decade, has an ‘alleged’ brutal work environment and crunch to preserve is stupid and everyone kindly sidestepped the suggestion. She’s like a dog with a bone though.
I'm on team Janet when it comes to which developers who should be involved in shaping the future of games. Even if you don't want Naughty Dog you might want their multi-award winning and incredibly comprehensive accessibility features (I'd be interested to know how much of the budget for recent Sony AAA games was taken up by research, development and integration of those features. I bet it isn't an insignificant percentage.) I'm spanking my cats bottom as I type.
Wow, 5 years already? Congrats, everyone. I'm so glad you kept doing your thing and I get to see everyone doing what we all love and continue to watch you for.
You're absolutely nuts if you wouldn't want Naughty Dog involved in a reimagining of the gaming landscape. They're far too important and have crafted experiences that actually transcend gaming.
In terms of the next Naughty Dog game, it has been rumored forever that the next IP was going to be based on Savage Starlight, the comics Ellie collects throughout TLoU. It's a story that takes place in space.
Also, Neil Druckman explicitly said in a Washington Post interview about a year ago that games like Elden Ring, that abandon the typical "hand holding" type of direction and give players massive amounts of agency is what has piqued his interest in recent years in terms of game design. So, I would bet that's probably what their source was comparing it to.
Na, it's just going to be like the 4th rerelease of The Last of Us.
@@Draffut2003 personally, I’m not getting my hopes up at all for it, I don’t really care for the path ND is on right now.
Just sharing the rumors that have been circulating around for a while.
You guys are the best. Such awesome topics, variety, and unique perspectives. I'm so glad people are talking about Sly Cooper especially!
THANK YOU Leo for that smart object import Photoshop tip, that drives me crazy
I would give most beautiful game to Dishonored. The hand painted textures and the art style that is just cartoonish enough to sell the magical realism makes it look incredible even today.
good one, some incredible landscapes that look just like concept art
I love the way Dishonored looks.
Oof hard disagree on Gris being just in the "beautiful game" category and not having much else going for it. The story moving her out of depression/grief was so incredibly moving and the movement to get through that story was so well done that the puzzle elements felt very intuitive, making that progress feel very natural and the growth that comes along with gaining color and new abilities just flow almost effortlessly. I don't know that I was going through depression when I was playing it, though I was struggling with my work, and it was such a phenomenal way to calm my mind and help myself through a bad week. I am ADORING Neva, it's a fantastic game so far, but idk. Gris is something special.
Gorogoa would be my pick, as its beauty is tied into gameplay too. +1 vote for Okami as well. Other games not mentioned: LocoRoco, Abzu, Virginia, The Procession to Calvary, The Unfinished Swan, Critters For Sale, Citizen Sleeper, Everything (if you went to the smallest possible scale), Braid, The Plucky Squire, Thumper, Gran Turismo 7 (night time tracks on PSVR2)
Gorogoa is a GREAT pick
If you like Braid you should check out Arranger. It’s easily one of the most beautiful games I’ve played and it’s made by the same artist
Pyre would be my pick, it’s beautiful visually and how cohesive the whole game is with its gameplay and music. The mysticism of that game oozes when you play it.
The way "dangerously cheesy" hit Leo
A Short Hike for me is one of the most beautiful games, in design, story and visuals. What a vibe!
Hot take: the MK8 version of N64 Rainbow Road is one of the most beautiful (both aesthetically and artistically designed) stages ever made.
Wind Waker is still one the most beautiful game imho
Kyle's answer about the Sprawl was dead on!!
Here I was thinking I was alone in equating that song to Dead Space!
@KyleHilliard omg, no you hit the bullseye on that one with me!
Echo Point Nova is such a crazy fun title, glad it gets some shine here. The only downside is motion sickness (but I've felt compelled to power through, it's that much fun)
I love hanging out in beautiful nature scenes in games, so Death Stranding is one that stands out as the most beautiful. There's some others I'm not thinking of at the moment, but I just love the being in cold weather listening to peaceful music moments in that game.
Hanson's choice of Genesis Noir is a very different but perfect choice as well.
Whenever i think of Gears of war mad world comes to mind. And of course i dont want to set the world on fire for fallout 3.
Got Quest 64 for my 14th birthday and finished it multiple times. I'm sure it doesn't age well, but I always remember it fondly.
“We have this stairwell we don’t know what to put in it” Leo: stairs 😂
I thought it when i played it and i still think it now, Bioshock: Infinite is one of the most beautiful games ever made. I wonder if people would be hesitant to agree because that game has not held up to critical reevaluation. But i do genuinely think it's the prettiest top-to-bottom game I've played.
I don’t like the game that much, but it is beautiful. Bioshock 1 is as well
Ben, great giggles after saying “TOAD”
Leo just discovering that cats love roughhousing? My cats also love the massage gun on the lowest setting
I have a ginger cat that looks just like that. I somehow discovered the same thing, just doing some jazz like improvisational patting.
Im so conditioned, i checked the timestamp when yall started thanking supporters. Lol. Thought i had skipped to the end.
Mine is Elder Scrolls Oblivion, i could walk around that environment forever. The music is outstanding as well.
Drink Box Studios needs to survive
Good call.
Neva's combat really isn't hitting for me. For the record, Gris has quietly superb gameplay in its platforming and puzzle design. Not having combat or death states is one of its strong points.
I turned off the health points and put it on story mode or whatever. It plays closer to Gris that way. Taking damage was massively disrupting the flow of the game for me, and hampering the experience vs what I got from Gris. Turning that off has significantly improved it. But agree. Gris is amazing.
So glad to see someone else big up Gris! Replaying it for the first time since launch the other day and I had forgotten how good the puzzle design is. It constantly introduces new ideas and things to do and moves through everything with such fluidity and grace. It’s kinda remarkable that it gets written off as just a pretty art game.
Have only spent about an hour or so with Neva but it’s kinda lacklustre in comparison. Not only is the art appreciable worse (very digital looking compared to Gris beautiful hand drawn look) but replacing the unique puzzle elements with dull combat and baby’s first soulslike enemy encounters is so far off what i want from this studio. Here’s hoping it improves as I get further in
@@infinitepest Yep, you said it perfectly. After completing the game my opinion is the same.
Damn, when the game studios question came up I was thinking along the lines of "5 you wanna see mold the new, fresh landscape based on the design they've promoted in the current games we know them for" and less a "culture, production values, work ethic" end of things. If we're going off the vibes based approach Janet was kind of arguing on, I'd definitely agree with Naughty Dog! They have some real range across the 4 series they've built from the ground-up - pioneering innovation that's easy to take for granted these days or even remain cynical about, but it really has had a lasting effect on so many sister studios within SIE or, hell, western gaming at large. Without diving into the nuances of individual divisions within larger developer houses, my other 4 picks would be Valve, Rockstar, Nintendo and Capcom. Janet was cooking with her take!
As an aside, I was surprised to hear Leo rate Sly Cooper 4 so highly. I loved the game at the time, but looking at it now it's apparent Sanzaru had a difficult task of coming up with more of a story past Sly 3 which inherently did not need more. The ending of Sly 3 is so resolute and climactic for all the characters' arcs and its themes of legacy, true friendship and identity really laid on a... SuckerPunch of lasting quality 🫣. Sly 4 feels cheap in a lot of ways because they water down Sly and Bentley's banter to a point unrepresentative of the note the previous trilogy ended on and it all comes off too Saturday Morning Cartoon-y for how the original trilogy otherwise fought against that idea to drive home some deep issues present in the Cooper gang.
Anyway, great pod episode and hope y'all are doing fantastic!
Now I'm curious about which ending Janet chose in LIS1
I think that was the funniest Get a Load of This I’ve seen 😂 2:06:22
Janet nailed it with Yoshi's Island being the most beautiful game. Timelessness is super important
I was wondering if they'd talk about the huge game freak leak but i can see why they didn't
The Ratchet & Clank trilogy is the one of the goats
1. Sly 2, still on my Mount Rushmore of 3D platformers.
2. Sly 4, an astounding love letter by a new dev team which perfectly captured the magic.
3. Sly Cooper, a solid and fun opening act which only looks lesser by comparison to where the series would go.
4. Sly 3, a decent game marred a bit by a ruthless over-reliance on shoving a new minigame in front of you every ten minutes.
I know it's never happening, but I would snap up a new Sly Cooper game so fast I'd phase out of reality momentarily.
The Trine series is absolutely gorgeous.
Hope you talk about RetroRealms on the next episode.
A development studio worth saving is RGG studios. Responsible reusing of assets to consistently pump out awesome games.
My beautiful games: final fantasy x, final fantasy rebirth, arkanes Prey, metaphor, marvel v capcom 2 and resident evil remakes and village
I think Alice Madness Returns is beautiful for art style, and Dead Island 2 for realistic-ish graphics.
@Jacob Geller Detroiters is back on Netflix. GET BACK IN THERE YA DINGUS!
I’m surprised no one mentioned a Final Fantasy game as one of the most beautiful.
Minnmax vs EZA, trivia tower? Paul Giamatti we need you!
I just ordered from uncommon goods like two weeks ago. Should have waited for the coupon code!
1:36:33
The game is a bit of a slog (no one tell Suriel), but I'd also nominate the striking visual style of Killer 7 for Most Beautiful Game. It is never less than amazing to look at.
Stray Cat Magnet would be a great name for a flavor of deodorant.
nice!
Hearing that Kyle would take photos of his settings before discovering copy and paste attributes made me scream in disgust. Also Leo sexualized animals about 4 times in this episode which is great to see
Save Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, you monsters!
Pro rules is the complete opposite of letting your kids win. The game has always had an algorithm where the person losing gives luck for losing players like a random block that gives a star out of nowhere lol. Pro always strategy for better or worse even letting players vote for mini games.
Algo
Love y'all, but you should stop apologizing for not having an opinion on whatever games showcase was missed. Every time theres a "reaction" stream, the same information gets shared on the podcast, and the opinions of video game podcasters are pretty much all the same.
Janet, I really enjoy your gaming takes, but please, you already do the california thing where you make every sentence sound like a question through inflection, you don't need to also say "question mark" out loud on top of that, specially when what you are actually doing is making a statement, not asking a question 😂
LIS is literally just the trolley problem, picking Chloe goes against the trolley problem and the whole point of the trolley problem is you simple don't choose, that's how you "beat" it. So every play through, Arcadia Bay gets saved.
Hesitant about the new one cause personally can't stand Chloe anyway, was never keen on Max as a result of all that, disliked LIS2 a lot but adored every single moment of TC, TC was so freaking good and actually connected on a very deep level.
So kinda 50/50 on this.
Five studios to restore gaming in a better form:
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio
Team Ninja
Capcom
From Software
Game Science
NS+ Joke Review but you’re reviewing last years thanksgiving jokes
I WILL NOT ACCEPT THIS SOLAR ASH SLANDER JACOB
Ghost of Tsushima is at least top 3 most beautiful games ever made.
1:16:37 i sound like an tech apologist but i always disagree on the Spotify is evil argument. ITS THE RECORD LABELS. they are the true evil here wtf, its very simple artist sign their life to them and then go complain to the 3rth party Spotify on their behalf why aren't they getting paid?. look at Spotify's numbers they pay all the money to the labels, and then the labels pay the artist... they are leaches at this point in the relationship. Wouldn't it be better if artist signed directly to Spotify cut the middle man and do direct business with the ones actually distributing their work (like it used to be when the labels got into power?, they signed with them because they needed them to distribute their work...) but the labels will never let that happened. BECAUSE THEY OWN SPOTIFY yeah guess who is really the devil in the shadows all along... fuck the record labels they should be allowed to fail long ago when social media took over culture, if you are a content creator you should hate them too because when they try and justify their existence by squeezing every penny out of artist work they harm you in the process by giving you strikes and so on. its them its their fault its because they are greedy and don't care about anything but money...
Yes true but also other streaming services like apple music and tidal pay like 3X the amount per stream than spotify does
Id suggest insomniac for one of the saved studios.
Accepted.
Actually the developers did drop the ball with new Life is Strange. Just read the diary page about Chloe. It is practically offensive to the fans.
Nope, nope. Use deodorant daily. Don't think about it just use it
Naughty Dog's new game is the Last of Us: Re-Re-Re-Re-Release
Janet's on an indie podcast, but the studios she wants to preserve are Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and EA? 1:48:40
To rebuild, yes. I think larger studios who have specialize in genres that define the medium.
There are big indie publishers but usually studios don’t have as big of a catalog and their teams are much smaller. That’s not a bad thing. But it makes them less thought of for a question like this for me personally.
And with indies change in staff is even more felt. The studio that made inside has already spun off into another for instance. One of the games from a spinoff was critically acclaimed. The other wasnt.
I suppose I could 4D chess it and say that is good bc it would make more studios but the same can be said of AAA devs making their own indie studios.
So yeah. I want numbers.
@@Gameonysus That's a rational take, but I would want a renewal in culture and creativity that none of the AAA studios bring to the table.
Studios like Supergiant, Larian, Klei and thatgamecompany come to mind.
@@fotografick I love indies but I think sometimes in praising them we can undermine the creativity that comes from AAA as well. Especially when many indie developers have gotten their initial inspirations from the AAA landscape. Crow Country is RE, Meat boy is Mario, Beastieball is Pokemon, hollow knight is metroid etc. If any or all of those games beat their OG AAA counterparts to you that's a valid take but i think it's a mistake to act as if Indie = creative true art and AAA = blockbuster drivel.
I have played good and bad games from both spaces. I have played interesting and uninteresting games from both space. Idt quality or creativity is exclusive to either.
@@Gameonysus I wasn't saying that AAA studios are not creative. I was saying the culture of indie studios allows them to be more creative, take risks, produce games quickly and innovate. UFO 50, BG3, Hades are examples of this.
The problem isn't with the creativity of the developers, but the structure, timelines, and trend chasing that happens in the AAA space, with some exceptions of course (Kojima, TOTK etc)
@@fotografick I think this is true for some indie studios but definitely not all which is just to say that there are problems within both sectors of the industry. I just think it’s bad to act like indies are a safe haven from the ills that plague the artistry when so many reports have come out about closures, funding issues, and internal struggles from smaller studios.
That said I think we both like indies so we’re not really arguing to begin with. Just some semantics.