Bekah Saltsman, CEO of Finji, the publisher behind 2022's indie smash-hit Tunic, has spoken out about how indie games may not survive in a subscriber market. With the rising dominance of services like Xbox Game Pass, and the big titles they hold, Saltsman is worried there may not be any space for the indies.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Saltsman points out that if the industry goes the way of subscriptions, "that means [devevlopers] have to rely on subscription fees and buyouts. And in general, subscription buyouts don't pay for that many years of a team's development, unless your team is very small."
This means that not only could indie games not see a great amount of play if they're just slapped on a subscription service, but the developers may also not make enough to cover the game they've made.
"Subscriptions are both awesome and terrifying at the same time," Saltsman went on to say. "And it could go either way. And I worry most for the smaller indie teams who maybe don't have an early foothold as creators, that they may not have the space and the money to make more than one game."
While Game Pass is a huge beast in gaming right now, there's a lot of other platforms that still encourage buying a game over paying for it via a monthly subscription. Steam, for example, has been running things the same way for years, and even though PS Plus Premium has an extensive catalogue, its day one releases are lacking. So, there are other ways for indie developers to earn some extra cash even if they do end up on Game Pass.