Indie games have ironically become big business. EA announced their new indie publishing arm EA Originals during their E3 press conference. Microsoft already has their indie program with ID@Xbox. Director Chris Charla took the stage during the Xbox E3 conference to profess his love for Playdead’s new game, Inside. “I get to play a lot of games before they come out,” beamed Charla. “I can honestly say Inside is a masterpiece. It is one of the best video games I’ve ever played, and I can’t wait for everyone to try it.”
To celebrate the launch of Inside on June 29, Playdead’s first game, Limbo, will be available for free starting today to all players on Xbox One.
“Independent developers have fundamentally changed the way we play games this generation,” said Charla. “With more than 1,000 games in development through the ID@Xbox program, we are really in a Golden Age.”
The customary indie montage (above) shows off many of the indie games currently in development. We get a few more glimpses of StudioMDHR’s crazy cool animated Cuphead. There’s Outlast, Delivers us to the Moon, Flint Hook, FAR, Slime Rancher, Shadow Tactics, Figment, The Culling, For the King, Beacon, Stardew Valley, Hand of Fate 2, Below, Raiders, Bloodstained, Yooka-Laylee, and Everspace all coming to Xbox One.
Indie games offer varied gameplay, vastly different experiences, and cool new ways to tell stories. I could not be happier with their continued support by Microsoft and other big companies.
