Indie games are hit and miss, a lot of miss. In fact, there are over 280 million Steam games that have never even been played, but that’s not important. What is important, is the symbiotic relationship between indie games and AAA studios.

Without indie games, the gaming industry would be stagnant. There’d be no reason for Activation, EA or any other studio to try anything new, not when they can just print money with the same titles year after year. Indie games are innovative and indie devs often take risks that AAA studios just couldn’t get away with. This puts pressure on AAA studios and keeps them moving in the right direction. 

Is it a perfect system? Of course not. That’s why we have things like the Battlefront II and Destiny 2 controversies, but it’s also why those things turned into controversies and weren’t just accepted by gamers.

If we didn’t have games like Cuphead and Shovel Knight to show us what games could be, then we might just accept that Battlefront II is as good as it gets. 

It isn’t a one-way street though, there’s a mutually beneficial relationship between the two. AAA money fuels the gaming industry. Like it or not, gaming needs the likes of Call of Duty and FIFA. What Remains of Edith Finch is an incredible game, but it isn’t for everyone and its profits reflect that.

AAA money makes indies possible. It allows Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and others to help fund the indie industry as a whole. 

Sure, indie could survive without AAA and vice versa, but they’re better because they have each other. They’re like peanut butter and jelly; some people like one more than the other, but most people agree that they’re better together.