Former Bioware Boss Casey Hudson Announces New Indie Studio, Feels Like Anti-Bioware & Anti-EA

[killamch89]

Casey Hudson, the guy who was an instrumental part of the Mass Effect series' success among other Bioware titles has started a new Indie studio and by the sound of things, plans to do things totally different from EA/Bioware. We'll see if his company lives up to these promises but what are your thoughts about this.

 

[Empire]

My favorite thing to say nowadays is "If there is oppression, there is resistance that will match it." The more we see this stuff happen, the more opportunities we have to give the corporate commander the fate he deserves. Provided the resistance succeeds. Creative freedom will never die. Good on this man doing what he's doing. I'll have some skepticism on the side as we need to see the actions proving the words, but I hold out faith for him. This reminds me of Leslie Benzies and what he aims to do.

[killamch89]

On 7/12/2021 at 5:26 AM, Empire said:

My favorite thing to say nowadays is "If there is oppression, there is resistance that will match it." The more we see this stuff happen, the more opportunities we have to give the corporate commander the fate he deserves. Provided the resistance succeeds. Creative freedom will never die. Good on this man doing what he's doing. I'll have some skepticism on the side as we need to see the actions proving the words, but I hold out faith for him. This reminds me of Leslie Benzies and what he aims to do.

The funny thing about Indie studios is that a lot of the time they end up going down the road of the said triple A companies "they're against" so I'm very skeptical when somebody just throws out a bunch of promises. That's what we get all the time so what makes this experience so different? 

[skyfire]

Indie means lack of developers. Usually indie devs are limited to 1 to 5 developers at the most. They have no publishing company behind them and they are moonshot type of business. 

[killamch89]

11 hours ago, skyfire said:

Indie means lack of developers. Usually indie devs are limited to 1 to 5 developers at the most. They have no publishing company behind them and they are moonshot type of business. 

Most modern Indie business normally have more than 5 developers and some do have a publisher or some kind of publishing arrangement with another gaming company so it isn't necessarily that they suffer from as many issue as other companies up to a few years ago.

[m76]

He might be a veteran but also responsible for some of the biggest misteps at bioware. Like the red green and blue ending for ME3, and the consequent artistic integrity excuse for doubling down on it instead of improving it. Also it was under his leadership that they wasted time for years with no clear direction and then had to wrap up both ME:Andromeda and Anthem in basically 18 months after EA stepped on their collective necks.

Edited July 19, 2021 by m76

[Crazycrab]

4 hours ago, m76 said:

He might be a veteran but also responsible for some of the biggest misteps at bioware. Like the red green and blue ending for ME3, and the consequent artistic integrity excuse for doubling down on it instead of improving it. Also it was under his leadership that they wasted time for years with no clear direction and then had to wrap up both ME:Andromeda and Anthem in basically 18 months after EA stepped on their collective necks.

 

A good portion of that was no doubt born out of pressure and frustration on the part of EA, but he has made some questionable creative decisions.  Maybe without that pressure he can do better but won't know until we see what he and his studio can accomplish on thier own merit.

Edited July 19, 2021 by Crazycrab

[killamch89]

9 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

A good portion of that was no doubt born out of pressure and frustration on the part of EA, but he has made some questionable creative decisions.  Maybe without that pressure he can do better but won't know until we see what he and his studio can accomplish on thier own merit.

So true - just look at Bungie and the Destiny series. Everybody was blaming Activision for mishandling the game but now Bungie's staff are the same ones ignoring their own community.

[skyfire]

On 7/14/2021 at 11:44 PM, killamch89 said:

Most modern Indie business normally have more than 5 developers and some do have a publisher or some kind of publishing arrangement with another gaming company so it isn't necessarily that they suffer from as many issue as other companies up to a few years ago.

If it's more than 5 developers, then it becomes mid level studios. Under 5 developers they stay indie without funds and publishing agreement. 

[Crazycrab]

9 minutes ago, skyfire said:

If it's more than 5 developers, then it becomes mid level studios. Under 5 developers they stay indie without funds and publishing agreement. 

 

No, independent only means that they are operating without a third party publisher. CD Project Red is an independent studio and they have hundreds of employees.  It's a common misconception, the term "independent" has absolutely nothing to do with the size or scale of the business.

 

[Shagger]

5 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

 

No, independent only means that they are operating without a third party publisher. CD Project Red is an independent studio and they have hundreds of employees.  It's a common misconception, the term "independent" has absolutely nothing to do with the size or scale of the business.

 

 

He's right @skyfire. You could generate a list of "indie" games and include Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 4 and The Witcher 3 and it would be perfectly valid.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Shagger

[killamch89]

@Crazycrab is correct - there are so many more examples of this in the industry outside of CDPR.

[m76]

23 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

 

No, independent only means that they are operating without a third party publisher. CD Project Red is an independent studio and they have hundreds of employees.  It's a common misconception, the term "independent" has absolutely nothing to do with the size or scale of the business.

 

Indie technically means independent as in not having a third party publisher, but people in reality use the term "indie" for small development studios who produce smaller budget games, and not AAA ones.  And to make matters worse many of these small studios do sign up with 3rd party publishers to distribute their games.

So in the end most developers who we typically refer to as "indie" are not actually independent. The dictionary definition is not always how a term gets engrained.

So when people say indie everybody knows they are not referring to CDPR or any other big studio who is self publishing. But to small devs making small games regardless of if they own their publishing rights or not.

[skyfire]

1 hour ago, m76 said:

Indie technically means independent as in not having a third party publisher, but people in reality use the term "indie" for small development studios who produce smaller budget games, and not AAA ones.  And to make matters worse many of these small studios do sign up with 3rd party publishers to distribute their games.

My point exactly. Indie in short means not attached to anything. 

[Crazycrab]

1 hour ago, m76 said:

Indie technically means independent as in not having a third party publisher, but people in reality use the term "indie" for small development studios who produce smaller budget games, and not AAA ones.  And to make matters worse many of these small studios do sign up with 3rd party publishers to distribute their games.

 

Well your admitting yourself that their using the term wrong and it creates a lot of confusion.  Call them small studios or small developers.

 

If your talking about size or budget you wouldn't put games like Undertale, Fez or Cuphead in the same bracket as Grand Theft Auto 4, Skyrim or Cyberpunk 2077 even though these are ALL indie games.  You also wouldn't put It Takes Two, Child of Light or Journey in the same bracket as Battlefield V, Assassin's Creed Valhalla or Horizon Zero Dawn even though these are all NOT indie games.  So why use the term "indie"?

 

I admit that it's a bit irrational but it is a real peeve of mine when use the term "indie" to describe a game and/studio as "small".  The reason for this is that it ties up with unstated assumptions that it's a small studio with only a handful of struggling employees that we should feel sympathetic towards, but this is often not the case.  It's not like developers that are working with a publisher have it any better and in fact, they often have it worse.