Well known developer and industry expert Peter Molyneux shares his thoughts on the ‘indie game golden age’, believing that this time of bliss in the indie scene won’t last. In an interview with CVG, Molyneux states: “These things go in cycles. What I’d say is, enjoy this time, because it won’t last.” He then continues: “Don’t think we’re going to be all indies for the next five years – these things go in cycles, just like in the music business. You have a time where punk is big, and then you have times like now where everything is manufactured. Enjoy this time, because inevitably it will only last a short period.”
Molyneux’s comments represent a fear in the general gaming public that the innovative indie titles will soon fall prey to triple A budget homogeneity in the coming years. Many gamers have become disillusioned with triple A titles and have turned to indie games as a source of fun and innovation to fill the void that the triple A titles have created. Molyneux warns that this won’t last forever. “Walk through any hotel lobby at GDC and look at people’s name badges. This morning at breakfast I saw three angel investors talking to indies. They’re saying, ‘take my money! I want to invest in your company!”, another statement by Molyneux. The key here seems to be that ‘money corrupts’ and perhaps Molyneux fears that the indie developers of today are the triple A cash machines of tomorrow.
Molyneux also comments on how he feels that creativity will become stifled once the indie developers cease to be independent and become reliant on a bigger company’s payroll. “But what those indie companies don’t realise is that they’ll then have to have board meetings, and in those meetings they’ll be told, ‘no, you shouldn’t do that – look at this game that’s making money’.” says Molyneux. This again represents a fear that without complete creative control of a product, with indie developers instead at the mercy of bigger companies, indie games will become less creative and more homogenized to fit in with a saturated market.
Indie games are at their biggest and best at the moment and this will continue for some time, and Microsoft recently announced that 65 companies are developing indie titles for Xbox One. However Molyneux believes that this golden age could soon come to an end when the cycle completes. But what do you think? Do you think that indie games will fall to the cycle and lose creativity once bigger companies become involved?
Source: vg247