The video game industry is undergoing changes following the reality check of 2023 (which persists into this year) by not meeting disproportionate goals. However, this has also had an impact on agreements between publishers, developers, and platform owners, such as in the indie scene that until a few years ago relied on exclusivity deals or releases on Epic Games Store and Xbox Game Pass as a form of financing, something that has now ended.
Independent Devs No Longer Find Good Exclusive Deals on Platforms or Services
A report from PCGamer shared statements from developers of indie games Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon during GDC 2024 who revealed that the times of the best financial deals with platforms like Epic Games Store or Xbox Game Pass are behind us. Initially, Casey Yano, co-founder of the Mega Crit studio behind Slay the Spire, provided context on what the scene is currently experiencing: "I talked to at least 5 small teams during GDC, and they only spoke to me about cuts, cuts, canceled funding, canceled conversations. It seems that everything right now is crap. We are definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund, otherwise I would be very, very, very scared right now."
"The Gold Rush is Over," Says the Director of Darkest Dungeon
Regarding the option of reaching an exclusivity agreement or immediate release on Epic Games Store or Xbox Game Pass, Chris Bourassa, director of Darkest Dungeon, revealed that the deals are increasingly lower and have lost appeal for independent developers: "They're very low. It also happened with Epic Games. The gold rush is over. Maybe another paradigm shift is waiting for us, but I definitely think the scale of the deals I hear about is significantly smaller than in the big days. We certainly got our deal with Epic at the right time."
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