Cult indie dev says the “AA revolution” won’t come back because publishers are chasing “a new Fortnite” and “Suicide Squad-sized bets,” that might get canceled anyway

Sep. 5, 2024

Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson worries for the future of Final Fantasy: Stranger of Paradise-sized games

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

One cult indie developer believes the AA revolution can’t dig itself out of the grave while big publishers continue to chase a “new Fortnite.”

Speaking to the Limit Break Network podcast, Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson - responsible forClickolding, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, and upcoming Next Fest darling I Am Your Beast - explained why he thinks we don’t see mid-budget games nearly as much as we used to.

According to Nelson, the industry’s “highest highs” will continue to exist because publishers want to “bet big,” and smaller indies will occasionally overperform, but “those Final Fantasy: Strangers of Paradise-sized games are the ones most likely to go extinct.”

“I believe, based off my own personal observations and suspicions, that games will continue to have the big outliers, likeBalatro, and AAA games that pop off to an incredible degree, likeElden Ringor Hogwarts Legacy,” he continued. “The thing that stops us from having a AA revolution is that you have to have money, and if the same people that could fund a AA revolution see another opportunity to take a Suicide Squad-sized bet [they’ll take the bet].” He then points to howWarner Brothers doubled down on live-service, free-to-play gambles- even after Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game of last year - to chase that infinite cash fountain.

“Everyone who has the money to do a AA revolution instead wants to make a new Fortnite, and that new Fortnite might get canceled before it ever gets released. I think we will continue to have amazing outliers like Balatro, and the biggest of the big also doing incredible things, and in the middle, that’s where you historically have the biggest issue.”

Kickstart the AA revolution yourself by checking out some coolupcoming indie games.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.

How to link your account in Marvel Rivals

Marvel Rivals director reckons Concord flopped because it wasn’t original enough: “I don’t think anybody can accurately predict this”

Untitled Goose Game publisher is back and weirder than ever with a bizarre FMV game called Blippo+, and no one’s even quite sure what exactly it is: “video is no game™”