The times, they are a-changin'. Several years ago, indie developers could rely on exclusive deals with such platforms as Epic Games Store or Xbox Game Pass, and that money would bring much-needed sustainability during the development process.

However, this is not the case now, as the amount of money pouring into such small projects has gone down. In an interview, Casey Yano, the co-founder of Mega Crit studio (Slay the Spire creator), and Chris Borassa, the Darkest Dungeon game director, shared their feelings about the current state of the games industry.

The Gold Rush is over. I come from the Northwest Territories. The town I'm from was built on gold, and then they found diamonds further north. Maybe another paradigm shift is waiting for us, but I definitely think the scale of the deals I'm hearing about is significantly diminished from the big swinging days.
Chris Borassa

Red Hook Studios, which developed the Darkest Dungeon, announced that its sequel will be an Epic Games Store exclusive. It seems like they got it at the right time, and that would really help allocate resources. 

While it may have been a great business model for small companies, now they would need to think of extra sources of income.

Main image: alphacoders

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