When Geoff Keighley takes the stage at an event like The Game Awards, he doesn’t tend to talk about current events. This has been a point of frustration for some people over the years who have expressed criticism of how the game puppet uses (or abuses) its platform. When Keighley walked on stage at this year’s Summer Game Fest, expectations were low that he would acknowledge the current layoff crisis in the video game industry. Then Keighley delivered the biggest surprise of the show in the first minute.
“It’s been a tumultuous and difficult year with company layoffs and studio closures that have disappointed us all. But there’s something else going on, too,” Keighley said to open the show, before switching to a slide showing the 10 best-selling new games on Steam so far in 2024. The list wasn’t full of blockbusters; it was topped off with surprising successes like Palworld, Balatroand Manor Lords.
“Our industry is evolving and changing. And thanks to digital distribution, smaller teams and new creators are achieving incredible success… Two of them are considered big company games, but the other eight are from indie, mid-sized teams or indie developers. I look at this list and get inspired that new ideas, new teams and smaller creators can and will break through. It’s a reminder to big companies that they need to treat their developers right because there are many paths to sustainability and success today. And that’s what makes this industry so great.”
It was a big moment for Keighley to see him directly address his critics and accept the responsibility that comes with a high-visibility platform like his. But the moment wasn’t just about Keighley; it set an important narrative about where the video game industry was headed that permeated throughout the show. By the end of the event, the message was clear: India is the next frontier for major publishers seeking a more sustainable future.
Independence
It’s no secret that the video game industry has been in freefall. Already in 2024, we’ve seen over 10,000 layoffs across publishers large and small. Xbox itself has laid off thousands, even completely canceling beloved studios like Tango Gameworks. Polygon reports that 2024 has already seen more gaming layoffs than all of 2023 combined — and that’s just June. It’s a desperate situation that underscores the need for change. Increasing budgets, eight-year development cycles, and huge “megagames” are no longer sustainable strategies. But what is the alternative?
The recurring answer at Summer Game Fest was that I went small. This year Keighley made a stronger effort to showcase indie games like Killer Bean alongside Harry Potter and other IP giants. There is a cynical reading in Keighley’s opening monologue; it could be seen as a way to firmly control the narrative of the live stream, which lacked high-profile “world premieres,” as if to convince viewers watching for the big reveals that they care more about indies than they think. It would be a smart way to set expectations up front and focus on smaller games as intentional rather than a byproduct of the tangible impact of layoffs on big games.
All that aside, Summer Game Fest painted a frankly compelling story about sustainability. This was shown in two moments. One of them was when Between us the creator of Innersloth has revealed his new publishing initiative, Outersloth, to elevate promising indie producers in need of help. Innersloth’s Victoria Tran called the initiative “a passion project and a dream for a better industry.”
But the more pivotal moment came right before that, when Blumhouse Games got a long segment outlining its cryptic publishing plans. While gamers might have expected the Hollywood mega-power to unveil some glossy horror games, that hasn’t been the case. Instead, we saw a reel of small independent producers. Fear the Spotlight, for example, is a retro throwback created by two people. In the onstage segment following the reveal, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum took the stage to explain his company’s gaming mission.
“We wanted to take our approach to movies and apply it to games, and that’s what you see here,” Blum said during the show. “We will play indie games. We’re going to seek out creators and give them a platform and encourage them to be weird and subversive and find the coolest and scariest things they can and put them into very cool games.”
Blumhouse Games Interview and trailer with Jason Blum and Louise Blain | Summer Game Fest 2024
Both moments sent a clear message: Publishers see a way forward in supporting the kinds of small games that appeared in Keighley’s Steam Success Stories opening slide. This philosophy is not only present in companies like Blumhouse. Xbox has already been a huge success Palworld, which launched on Xbox Game Pass, as a win for the company. Even Sony has seen the fruits of this effort Helldivers 2, from Swedish indie studio Arrowhead, proved to be a surprise hit for the company. While mega games like Final Fantasy VII Reborn struggling to meet sales expectations, smaller games pay big publishers.
New Hollywood
While this may be an emerging trend in video games, it’s not unprecedented for art in general. In fact, what is happening right now in games has a direct equivalent in the history of cinema. In the 1950s, Hollywood was going through its own collapse after its golden age. There were several factors, including the 1948 Supreme Court decision that broke up the studio system, as well as the rise in popularity of television. The kinds of big, formulaic epics that Hollywood thrived on soon became unsustainable—especially because they didn’t connect with younger moviegoers.
In an effort to save the industry, studios began taking more risks in an effort to find new audiences. This era was called the New Hollywood. Instead of doubling down on war epics and musicals, they started financing films from young independent directors who went against the grain. Then unknown filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg soon rose to prominence. And while this method occasionally produced costly flops, it also revived public interest in the films. It was the fresh blood Hollywood needed to stay alive.
A moment seen at Summer Game Fest suggests the video game industry is on the cusp of its own new Hollywood. We’re fast approaching a future where big publishers start funding and promoting indie projects from small developers with proven success, instead of relying on big-budget mega-games. Don’t be surprised to see publishers like Xbox strike deals with similar developers Palworld‘s Pocket Pair Inc. to create more projects for them.
Does this strategy pay off? It’s a risk, just like it was for Hollywood in the 1960s. It’s hard to predict what games will be hits, especially when you’re dealing with high pitches in left field like “roguelike poker.” And just because a developer strikes gold once doesn’t mean their second game will see the same success. Independent development also has its own obstacles; it is not a magic cure for the industry’s problems. After all, the whole New Hollywood experience largely ended after the success of Star Wars pushed studios back to making blockbuster blockbusters instead of gambling on wild ideas. Publishers might be tossing indies to the side at this point Grand Theft Auto 6 launches and swallows cash.
Until then, pay close attention to the kinds of small games that are driving Steam’s charts out of left field. The studios behind these games can create your next favorite PlayStation or Xbox exclusive.
Editor’s recommendation