There's definitely weird people making games on itch and sometimes in the depths of Steam.
By its very definition weird isn't going to sell to mass market. That being said I do agree that we need more weird AAA or AA games.
this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2025
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Looking from another angle from Yoko Taro's point, I'd say that, in fear of failing due to being too big, companies would rather play it safe, but that causes creations to grow sterile.
And as consequence, people allegedly "weird", which I wouldn't think are necessarily people with curious antiques as Yoko Taro himself, but simply people whose game ideas are far from a safe ground, go for making indie titles instead as then they can be free to do whatever they want.
There's definitely weird people making games on itch and sometimes in the depths of Steam.
Oh yes. Ever heard of Beautycopter?
I have. Watched two beings play it. I sincerely hope the person(s) who made that game make more games.
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Weird still exists, true, but the combination of weird + budget is what's really missing.
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Makes sense. AAA games are finance projects more than creative projects. Yeah there’s a lot of art and writing and stuff, but it’s all calibrated to make the most money and anything that threatens it is jettisoned. This makes them formulaic to a fault.
Indie games are passion projects, so you see a lot of weird stuff out there. Most of them are utter failures, financially, but the ones that survive are truly something special.
Not dissimilar to what happens with big studio films
20 years ago AAA games could still experiment, but that was because back then AAA games had about the same budget as big indie games now.
You just can't gamble if you have 10k employees and hundreds of millions riding on it.
Being "safe" is also a gamble, if you aren't bringing anything new or unique you're gambling that the title or brand is sufficient for success.
Less so though.
Yes, being "safe" means you won't make the next Minecraft, where a hobby budget turns into the best selling game of all time. But it also means that the people who buy every instalment of Fifa or Assassin's Creed will also buy it.
These popular franchises almost always turn a calculable profit as long as they don't experiment and do something new that bombs.
As sad as it is, it actually does work out.
That's why we gamers shouldn't trust on AAA titles bringing something great to the market. If you want to play a game like you watch linear TV (plonk down on the couch/in front of the PC and to whatever to relax and waste time), then AAA is great. If you want to play something new, something exciting, something that you haven't played before, then go with lower-budget titles.
AAA is the McDonalds of games. You don't go to McDonalds for the freaky hand-crafted vegan fusion kitchen bacon burger with crazy Korean curry mayo and caramelized lettuce.
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That's the entire tech industry. I got in at the tail end of it being full of nerds who were interested in computers. Then jocks and the like found out it pays really well and now it isn't fun anymore.
Yeah man all those well known jocks like Spez and Zuckerberg sure did a number on tech.
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The indie scene is so much fun.
The weird people are still there, but development teams are much larger now, so their input is not as prominent. Plus the budgets are so large that a flop can heavily damage a company or even ruin it, so they're very risk-averse. We need more AA or A games instead of relying so much on heavy-hitters.
Part of the issue is that AAA still hasn't learned how to manage and produce passion projects, which most great games are. They keep wanting to use what's working elsewhere with no regard for what makes sense in their own game.
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Weird people were forced out of the industry over the past decade or more, for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with making games.
Happens with any industry that gets big, I think. More profits=more suits/vampires coming in and replacing artists/scientists or whoever is more qualified to make key decisions.
This won't stop unless infinite wealth hoarding is tackled by governments, if ever.
You're not wrong. I still remember the day I picked up a newspaper and saw the headline "video games earn more than movies for the first time ever," and I immediately knew where the industry was headed. In retrospect, I was 100% correct.
Happened even with Boeing. I think it should be illegal for anyone with an MBA to be CEO or CTO of any company. They can be CFO if they want to, but not any role with actual decision power over products.
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I know im late to the party but... I just started playing Death Stranding. Lets just say its more than just a walking simulator...
It is mental, but I also kind of wish he'd hire somebody else to write dialogue for him.
And maybe somebody to check all the women characters, and make sure he's not coming across as being a little bit odd.
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Yoko Taro talking about weird shows a healthy deal of self awareness... +1 respect in my book
That's why bg3 felt so special. For us by us at that scale
"Do you think video games are silly little things?"
no.
That entire credit sequence is high water mark for games as a medium.
Every emotion.
Drunk ass man writing his characters, crying in a room alone. The thing we need more of lol. Will purchase any game his name is attached to.
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No worries. There is plenty of weird to find with indie games.
Yeah, but how survivable is making indie games? Unless you make it big, you aren’t paying rent that way.
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Next you'll tell me mainstream is not niche
Capitalism at its finest.
Nepotism is ruining entertainment.
Fewer weird people.
What if they meant there is the same number of weird people but they aren't as weird
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The thing I miss most about handhelds is all the mid-budget experimental spinoffs made for them. That was where weird truly flourished, and I'm sad that there's not really a place for that in today's market. Hideo Kojima's Boktai trilogy is one of my favorite games of all time, and there will never ever ever be another game remotely as weird as that.
I suppose it happened because from a mainstream perspective handhelds like the DS and PSP were far behind dedicated systems in terms of graphics, and so the expectation was never there to have "triple A" visuals - neither from consumers nor industry.
Made for very fertile ground in terms of games that had budget, but still had a long leash to go and get wacky.
There are plenty of weird people making weird games if you know where to look. itch io and DLSite, for instance.
That was literally his point....that the weird people make indie games and not AAA games.
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After Spec Ops The line, everything went to shit, the bar was too high
Dunno why you're being downvoted, that game was insanely good. Mediocre shooter, but the story was amazingly good.
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Dragon Age 1-3 all had their drawbacks but could always fall back on how beloved the lore was and how it was present. Dragon Age Veilguard has much of the lore the original creator laid out but presents the revelations in its game poorly and retcons lore from previous games in sterile ways. The original creator left after 3 and over the decade has dropped tidbits about the changing culture of the studio he left
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