So, the scheme is basically to have you, the publisher, invest some money into marketing the game, to get potential players aware of it, then have them pay a one-time premium to actually play it, if they're interested.
Sorry that doesn't drive MAU, DAU, or ARPPU. Also we want users on our walled garden data harvesting service that's just "Steam but Worse", so I'm afraid you need to close your studio. What's that? Sorry you're breaking up, must be something wrong with the phone here in the Swiss Alps. Ok ta ta.
I am okay with the "I made this game for fun and publish it for free/pay what you want because I can't be bothered with monetization" business model too.
“We don't need to sell four million units to make it [Space Marine 2] a success,” Willits said. “There are many games, sadly, especially out of North American developers, where if you do not sell five million copies you are a failure. I mean, what business are we in where you fail if you sell less than five million?”
It won't collapse in the same way because, like you said, we have tons of indies and they have easy access to publishing now. Hopefully the AAA space collapses though. It looks like it's going that direction. They've forgotten why they exist.
I’m curious if it would expand past games to tech. So many businesses aim for AI to take most of their programming role and fire their staff. Assuming that fails in some hilarious public ways over the next five years, I’m wondering what the old guard that knew the technologies well will do.
Also, machiens capable of gaming are ubiquitous. Say the console market collapses because people recognize that Playstation and Xbox offer less entertainment per dollar than lighting $20 bills on fire. PCs, phones, tablets, maybe even smart televisions are everywhere. It's not like the early 80's when having a computer in your house is a new idea people were still figuring out.
It would be fun watching some of the bigger studios fart themselves to death though. I don't know if we need Ubisoft, EA or Activision anymore.
I think there's also a "Netflix effect" where old games are incresingly accessible as an alternative to newer crap, kinda like (from my personal observations) how a lot of young people seem to be really fluent in old movies and TV due to streaming and YT.
Indies I think helped younger gamers and old gamers become less impressed by graphics compared to the past. Gamers expect more and there's many indies and old games people haven't played.
I've played the original "Deus Ex" for years and I'm still discovering new things about it. I don't even have to worry about Windows anymore. I can play it with Wine on Linux.
I found UFO 50 pretty creative. Maybe it's not the problem of creativity. It's the problem of monopolistic gaming companies run by people that don't like games.