I Want An Indie Game Pass

I have so many games I want to play right now and, as I've previously established, I don't have the money or time to do so. Triple-A games are expensive and, in many cases, I don't even know if I'll have time to finish them before the end of the year arrives. Between the long games I'm already playing — Star Wars Outlaws, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth — and the long games I want to play — Metaphor: ReFantazio, Dragon Age: The Veilguard — my life would be a whole lot easier if this was my only hobby (or if I was independently wealthy).

Indie-pendently Wealthy, That Is

I also have another, related, but slightly different problem. There are a ton of indie games I want to play. Though most of them are inexpensive on their own, if I try to spread a wide net, I will still end up racking up quite the bill. What’s more, many of these games are small enough that they would never be included in something like Xbox Game Pass. They largely aren't even available on consoles and, if they were, they're probably too short and/or weird for Xbox to be interested in them. Can you imagine Clickolding next to Halo and Diablo on Game Pass? I can't.

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Obviously, there are indies on Game Pass. Inscryption just got added, as did Sifu and Wargroove 2. But the indies that do tend to find a home on subscription services are bigger and more palatable than the ones I'm talking about. I'm thinking about games that could be available on itch.io, not games published by Devolver Digital or Annapurna Interactive — games like Mouthwashing, I Am Your Beast, and Arctic Eggs. These are weird little indies that you hear about in a five minute segment on a podcast or from a video by a YouTuber with esoteric taste.

The closest we've gotten to something like this were the itch.io indie bundles of 2020 and 2021, when independent developers came together to give away hundreds of games in exchange for donations to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Community Bail Fund, and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. itch actually has a bundle like this going right now.

The thing about loving indie games is that, if you’re plugged into the scene, there are a lot more games coming across your radar on a regular basis than there are in the triple-A space. This was noticeable earlier this year when Animal Well arrived on the same day as 1000xResist, Crow Country, Little Kitty, Big City, Cryptmaster, and a week after Indika, and three days after Hades 2, and a week before Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. The calendar isn’t always that packed with well-received indies, but there are always new games bubbling up, and keeping track of them all would be a full-time job.

Would An Xbox Game Pass Made Exclusively For Indie Games Work?

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a subscription service that let you play all those games for a monthly price? I mean, yes, it would be nice… for me. And probably for you, too. In the grand scheme of things, though, it would probably be worse for indie developers. It would be better for my wallet if all these little games were bundled into something like Game Pass. But, it would only serve to further devalue games, in the same way music and movies have been devalued by Spotify and Netflix. It would train players to expect to find games on the service, rather than expecting to pay for something they want to play.

Services like Game Pass can lead to unique games being funded. Obsidian's Josh Sawyer has said that Pentiment would not have been made without it. But, Xbox's focus on Game Pass has largely conditioned its audience not to play games that aren't included on the service. So, though Game Pass will put a game on new players' radars, the service as a whole is leading to games being seen as disposable content, not worthwhile works of art. That's bad for indie games in the long run, especially since Game Pass, like all subscription services, is now raising prices and curtailing the services offered at lower tiers. If Game Pass is the only way players are going to find your game, it's bad news when it prices a portion of that audience out.

I, selfishly, want a way to play more games for less money. But, if anything, indie developers should be charging more.

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