Top 10 Advantages the Indie Game Industry Has Over the AAA Game Industry

Nobody on TheTopTens has made a list comparing the indie gaming industry to the AAA gaming industry. I think this word needs to get out, loud and clear. So here you go.
The Top Ten
1 There exists a diverse lineage of indie game concepts

It is really nice to see that there are so many different concepts and ideas for indie games, and not just the same WW2 shooters from Activision over and over again.

2 Indie developers are free from creative direction from massive corporations

Large game companies like Activision and EA force their developers to make Call of Duty and FIFA games with no changes. Indie game developers are not dictated by large game corporations and it allows them to pump out unique contributions to the gaming industy.

3 Indie devs can care more about their projects and fans than their profit

Indie devs take all of their time and effort into making their games the best they can be, and not just rush them in hopes of making a quick buck. Also why indie game companies are not up for acquisition grabs either.

4 Indie games do not take up much hard disk space

This is beneficial if your PC or game console has most of its disk space taken up by other games.

5 Indie games are not that proccesor intensive

This piece of trivial information makes all the difference because indie games run very well on low end computers and don't require you to have much ram. Whenever I play graphically demanding games on my Steam Deck, like FFVII Remake, I can hear the cooling fans at full volume trying to cool down the CPU, which can bode a possible fire hazard. However, when I play something like Super Meat Boy on the Deck, you can barely hear any cooling fan noises coming from the machine because the game doesn't require that much CPU power to play. All the more reason why the Steam Deck is my indie console of choice. Not to mention that the majority of indie games on Steam are verified at best, and playable at worst. For added perspective, Windows XP (an operating software from 2001) is the minimum OS requirement for Forager, a game that came out in 2019.

6 Most indie games are dirt cheap

They usually can go for $20, and much less when they are on sale. I purchased Super Meat Boy from Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace when it was on sale for $1.49.

7 Indie games and devs revive long dead video game genres

Without direction from AAA game corporations, indie devs are able to make games of whatever genre they want, even old school ones like Metroidvania games (Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous), dunegon crawlers (Hades, The Binding of Issac, Hammerwatch) 3D collectathon platformer (Yooka Laylee, A Hat In Time, New Super Lucky's Tale), and the list goes on.

8 Indie game soundtracks are much more memorable compared to AAA game soundtracks

I dare you to play a music track from Cyberpunk 2077 on the piano. Can't think of anything? Now I dare you to play a music track from Undertale on the piano. You immediately start playing Megalovania on the piano. Not just Undertale, but games like A Hat In Time, Hades, Pizza Tower, Celeste, and Terraria have some of the best soundtracks and sound design you will ever hear in a video game.

9 Many indie games are made by fewer than 10 people

Hollow Knight was only made by two people at their own pace, while FIFA games were made by dozens of employees who had to deal with crunch time. Think about that for a minute.

10 Most indie games are void of microtransactions

Everyone in my generation is wasting parent credit card funds on Fortnite and Roblox, while I am wrestling against challenging platforming in Celeste and Super Meat Boy, liking all of the creative characters in A Hat In Time, exploring uncharted worlds in Axiom Verge, crawling through dungeons in Hammerwatch and Rogue Legacy, and jamming out to some killer music in Undertale and Hades. All of this requires only a one time purchase and you don't need your parent's credit card to get far in any of these games.

The Contenders
11 Indie games are more accessible
12 Indie games are more stable on release

Any of you remember when Fallout 76 launched and had tons of bugs, glitches, and crashes? Now I want you to acknowledge that Celeste came out the same year and was very playable at launch. Really goes to show how much the big budgeted gaming giants have taken a step backward in game development compared to indie developers.

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