The year 2013 is going to be an important one for the video game industry. The Nintendo Wii U is only a few months old, both Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox 720 will be launching by the end of the year, new hardware from Valve, NVIDIA and Ouya is on the way, and smartphones/tablets have suddenly become a dominant force in the industry.
If the Big Three — Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft — don't make a big splash quickly, they could be in for a dangerously rocky new generation of video game consoles. Nintendo's already learning the hard way with the Wii U, which has struggled mightily out of the gate, but if it means anything for Sony and Microsoft, it's simply this: Without a steady stream of quality titles, don't bother.
And that stream of titles seems increasingly like it's leading developers to mobile platforms. Video games for home consoles have become extremely expensive to develop, prompting many creators to go small, even go alone, and publish their projects through other venues. As the Associated Press notes, the Game Developers Conference — currently underway in San Francisco — used to have the Independent Games Festival to display indie projects while the blockbusters got the bulk of the attention. Now, one might wonder if it will even be necessary going forward.
"I think what we're seeing is that there's many more small developers," Simon Carless, executive vice president at GDC host UMB Tech, said to the AP. "For example, 53 percent of developers identify as an indie developer and 46 percent of those surveyed work at companies with 10 employees or less. It's simply a fact that people are more excited by platforms where there's a low barrier for entry."
Considering that 58 percent of the conference's participants plan to release their next game for smartphones or tablets, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are all heading into GDC with the aim of luring them back into the home console fold.
According to Sony, the PlayStation 4 will be much more accommodating to indie developers, and it'll be on-hand at GDC to reveal more information about the system's hardware. Nintendo, meanwhile, will participate by offering developers better instructions for developing Wii U apps. Microsoft probably won't say much, if anything, about the Xbox 720, but it will also share information on developing projects for Xbox SmartGlass, which can connect to the Xbox 360.
General Manager of GDC Meggan Scavio isn't ready to hand off the conference to the indie developers just yet, though, saying that blockbuster titles from big publishers will always have a big platform at the event.
"We're still talking about all the really big titles," said Scavio. "We've got talks on Dishonored, Borderlands 2 and Assassin's Creed III. Bungie is going to be talking about Destiny. The guys from The Walking Dead game are doing panels. Hideo Kojima is going to be there. It's not indie central yet."
Either way, a big indie presence is good for the industry, and instead of begging the powers that be to take notice, it's nice to see the big dogs scrambling to bring them aboard for a change.
