When Geoff Keighley takes the stage at an event like The Game Awards, he doesn’t tend to talk about current events. That’s been a point of frustration over the years for some people who have criticized the way the gaming figurehead uses (or abuses) his platform. When Keighley took the stage at this year’s Summer Game Fest, expectations that he would acknowledge the current layoff crisis in the video game industry were low. Then Keighley pulled off the show’s biggest surprise in the first minute.
“This has 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 as he opened the show before moving to a slide showing the top 10 best-selling new games on Steam so far in 2024. The list wasn’t filled with blockbusters; it was topped by surprising success stories such as Palworld, BalatroAnd Landlords.
“Our sector is evolving and changing. And thanks to digital distribution, smaller teams and new creators are seeing incredible success… Two of them are considered big company games, but the other eight come from indie, mid-market teams or indie developers. When I look at this list, I’m inspired that new ideas, new teams, and smaller makers can and will break through. It’s a reminder for big companies to treat their developers right, because there are many paths to sustainability and success these days. And that’s what makes this industry so great.”
It was a big moment for Keighley, addressing his critics directly and accepting the responsibilities that come with a highly visible platform like his. But that moment wasn’t just about Keighley; it set an important story about where the video game industry is going, which was a common thread throughout the showcase. By the end of the event, the message was clear: India is the next frontier for major publishers chasing a more sustainable future.
Going independently
It’s no secret that the video game industry is in freefall. We have already laid off more than 10,000 employees at large and small publishing houses by 2024. Xbox has single-handedly laid off thousands and even completely shut down beloved studios like Tango Gameworks. Polygon reports that there have already been more gaming layoffs in 2024 than all of 2023 combined – and it’s only June. It is a dire situation that underlines 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: go small. Keighley has made a more concerted effort this year to promote indie games like Killer Boon alongside Harry Potter and other IP giants. Keighley’s opening monologue is read cynically; you could see it as a way to tightly control the narrative of a livestream that’s missing high-profile “world premieres,” as if to convince the audience tuning in for big reveals that they care more about the indies than they think. That would be a smart way to set expectations up front and paint the emphasis on smaller games as intentional, rather than the byproduct of the tangible impact layoffs have on big games.
That aside, Summer Game Fest painted a genuinely compelling story about sustainability. That became clear in two moments. One was when Among us Creator Innersloth unveiled his new publishing initiative, Outersloth, which aims to take promising indies in need of help to the next level. Victoria Tran of Innersloth called the initiative a “passion project and dream for a better industry.”
The more pivotal moment, however, came just before that, when Blumhouse Games got a lengthy segment introducing its mysterious publishing plans. While players may have expected the Hollywood mega-power to unveil some glitzy horror games, that’s not what happened. Instead we saw a series of little indies. Fear the spotlight, for example, is a retro throwback created by two people. In an on-stage segment following the reveal, Blumhouse CEO Jason Blum took the stage to explain his company’s gaming mission.
“We wanted to try to apply our approach to movies to games, and that’s what you see here,” Blum said during the show. “We’re going to do independent games. We look for creators and give them a platform, and encourage these creators to be weird and subversive, and find the craziest and scariest things they can and put them in really cool games.
Blumhouse Games Interview and trailer with Jason Blum and Louise Blain | Summer Game Fest 2024
Both moments conveyed a clear message: publishers see a path forward in supporting the kind of small games that appeared in Keighley’s opening slide of Steam success stories. This philosophy is not only present at companies like Blumhouse. Xbox already has the enormous success of Palworld, which launched on Xbox Game Pass, as a win for the company. Even Sony has seen the fruits of that effort, such as Helldivers 2, from Swedish indie studio Arrowhead, has proven to be a surprise hit for the company. While mega games like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth struggling to meet sales expectations, smaller games are paying off for big publishers.
New Hollywood
While this may be an emerging trend for video games, it is not unprecedented for the arts in general. In fact, what’s happening in gaming today has a direct equivalent in film history. In the 1950s, Hollywood went through its own collapse after its golden age. There were several factors, including a 1948 Supreme Court ruling that split the studio system, and the increasing popularity of TV. Soon, the big, tedious epics that Hollywood thrived on were no longer sustainable – largely because they failed to connect with younger moviegoers.
In a Hail Mary attempt to save the industry, studios began taking bigger risks in an attempt to find new audiences. That era was called New Hollywood. Instead of doubling down on war epics and musicals, they started financing films by young, independent directors who were going against the grain. Soon unknown filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg became known. And while that method occasionally produced costly flops, it also revived public interest in films. It was the fresh blood Hollywood needed to stay alive.
The moment we saw at Summer Game Fest indicates that the video game industry is on the cusp of its own New Hollywood moment. We’re quickly approaching a future where major publishers will fund and push indie projects from small developers with proven success, instead of relying on big-budget megagames. Don’t be surprised if you see publishers like Xbox making deals with developers like Palworld‘s Pocket Pair Inc. to create their next projects for them.
Will that strategy pay off? It’s a risk, just like it was for Hollywood in the 1960s. It’s hard to predict which games will be a success, especially when it comes to left-field elevator pitches like “poker roguelike.” And just because a developer strikes gold once doesn’t mean their second game will have the same success. Independent development also has its own hurdles; it is not a magical solution to the industry’s problems. After all, the whole New Hollywood experience largely ended after the success of Star Wars prompted studios to return to making templated blockbusters instead of gambling on wild ideas. Publishers could push indies aside at this point Grand Theft Auto 6 launches and consumes money.
Until then, pay close attention to the types of small games that top the Steam charts out of left field. The studios behind these games could just create your next favorite PlayStation or Xbox exclusive.
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