That last game is the latest example of what’s so great about this exciting industry trend. When no one’s wasting time asking stupid questions like whether or not featuring a woman on the front of the box art negatively impact sales, we get games like Outlast, Betrayer and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. It’s almost as if setting aside all the nonsense and high expectations that come with making wildly expensive games to focus on the creative side of development can actually benefit the game.
They’re also far more courageous ventures - like an open-world game that’s almost entirely bereft of color - than what we usually see in the AAA space. There’s also Blackpowder Games, a studio comprised of former Monolith devs, which recently released its atmospheric open-world shooter Betrayer.ĪAA-turned-indie devs have gradually developed a solid track record of making quality games that didn’t need tens of millions of dollars to realize or a hive of PR people to market to the widest possible audience.
In 2012, Red Barrels was established by some of the folks behind Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell so they could bring us Outlast. Over the last few years we’ve witnessed an exodus, of sorts, as one developer of AAA games after another has decided to drop the insane expectations and ridiculous budgets of blockbuster video games to focus on passion projects.
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