

Why game industry talent is going indie (2011) - joeyespo
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/experience-going-indie/

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lmkg
There's another important aspect to this story: ten years ago, being an indie
dev was not economically feasible. Before digital distribution, Best Buy had
shelf space for like 100 titles, and they made the (rational) decision to
spend this limited resource on high-margin, low-risk titles in order to
maximize revenue. In other words, there was no opportunity for a long tail of
gaming. Physical retailers couldn't keep around a back catalogue of 10,000
games for $10 a piece--the margin wasn't worth the inventory costs.

Digital distribution turned that on its head, and a long tail became possible.
How _quickly_ it became populated is a testament to the built-up frustration
of devs having to work for The Man.

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mrschwabe
Exactly - but also, digital distribution (iOS, Steam) is just one of two keys
that has initiated the golden days of indie game development. The other is
crowdfunding (Kickstarter).

Today, talented game developers have the means to fund & deliver their
projects to the masses. The golden era is upon us.

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alanfalcon
This would be a good time to have the promised follow-up with the developers
mentioned in the article. There's some decent discussion about the risks of
going indie, but it'll have more teeth when we find out that the devs actually
lost their homes when the risk didn't pan out (if that's the actual outcome).

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msg
This is about a year old. I hadn't seen it.

You can guess from the headline (because big developers/publishers destroy
your soul and your projects).

The mini profiles of games and people are sweet.

~~~
joeyespo
> This is about a year old.

Ah you're right. I haven't seen it either so I didn't even look. Title
updated, thanks.

