There was a time when indie games felt like side projects—little experiments that sat in the shadow of the big AAA behemoths. If you played indie games, you were either deep in the Steam sale rabbit hole or just tired of the same old open-world grind from major publishers.
Now? Indie games are leading the industry.
The best RPG of the decade wasn’t from BioWare or Bethesda—it was Baldur’s Gate 3, made by an independent studio that outdid every AAA company at their own game. The most innovative horror games aren’t coming from Capcom or EA—they’re popping up on Itch.io and blowing up on YouTube. Some of the best platformers, roguelikes, and action-adventure games? All indie.
AAA gaming is imploding under its own greed—bloated budgets, mass layoffs, forced live service nonsense—and indie studios are stepping up to do what the big guys won’t: make great games that actually respect players.
Why Indie Games Are Thriving Right Now
There’s a massive shift happening in the gaming industry, and it all comes down to one thing: indie devs don’t have to play by the same rules as AAA publishers.
- AAA Games Take Too Long—and Cost Too Much
Big-budget games now take 5–10 years to develop, cost hundreds of millions, and still launch broken. Meanwhile, indie studios can make smaller, tighter, more creative games with a fraction of the time and money.
- Baldur’s Gate 3—made by Larian Studios (not a AAA studio), took 6 years, sold 10 million copies, and won Game of the Year.
- Hollow Knight—developed by three people, became one of the best Metroidvanias of all time.
- Hades—made by a tiny team, delivered better combat, writing, and replayability than most AAA action games.
AAA keeps inflating budgets while indie games just make good games.
- Indie Devs Don’t Have to Chase Trends
AAA gaming doesn’t take risks anymore. Every game has to be a live service, every release is padded with unnecessary microtransactions, and every sequel feels more bloated and lifeless than the last.
Meanwhile, indie studios can do whatever the hell they want.
- Want a brutal roguelike where you play as a revenge-obsessed cowboy fighting cosmic horrors? That’s West of Loathing.
- Want a psychological horror game that literally messes with your PC files? That’s Inscryption.
- Want a game where you’re a goose stealing from villagers? That’s Untitled Goose Game.
Indie devs can experiment, while AAA publishers are stuck playing it safe because they’re too big to fail.
- Indie Studios Actually Listen to Players
The biggest difference? Indie devs actually give a shit.
AAA publishers treat players like consumers to be milked for every last dollar. Indie devs treat players like an actual community.
- Larian Studios released Baldur’s Gate 3 with zero microtransactions, saying they “didn’t believe in selling cosmetics in a single-player RPG.”
- The devs of Celeste released free content updates years after launch, just because they wanted to.
- The devs of Hollow Knight and Dead Cells constantly engage with their fans, adding requested features and fixing issues based on community feedback.
Meanwhile, AAA studios are busy pushing NFTs, battle passes, and live service failures nobody asked for.
Can Indie Games Replace AAA?
Right now, indie games are filling the gap AAA games are leaving behind.
- People wanted a real, deep RPG—AAA studios gave us Anthem and Mass Effect: Andromeda. Indie devs gave us Baldur’s Gate 3 and Disco Elysium.
- People wanted creative, high-quality horror games—AAA gave us The Callisto Protocol. Indie devs gave us Phasmophobia, Signalis, and Dredge.
- People wanted fun platformers—AAA canceled them all, while indie devs gave us Celeste, Hollow Knight, and The Messenger.
AAA gaming is too bloated, too risk-averse, too obsessed with monetization to keep up. And indie games? They’re proving that you don’t need billions of dollars to make something great.
Where Does This Go From Here?
Indie gaming isn’t just a trend—it’s the future of gaming.
AAA studios are going to keep chasing live service trends, cutting corners, and laying off their own devs. Indie studios are going to keep actually making good games.
And at some point, we have to ask: why are we still giving AAA companies our money when indie devs are making better games without the bullshit?
Because if the last few years have shown us anything, it’s this:
AAA isn’t gaming’s future.
Indie is.