Talking about devaluation of games, I was checking some threads on Reddit and other forums today and one thing that got my attention on posts regarding Celeste / Inside being the free EGS games next week was how many people were mentioning that they were waiting for a sale on Celeste but instead will grab it for free and consequently some comments that said that they would think twice before buying an indie game as long as EGS is giving away those games. Hell, I read a bunch of comments comparing those free offerings to Humble and the monthly wasn't really ahead.
EGS clearly has reasons to bring more big names like Celeste to their giveaways, but you have to wonder how much this will affect indies in a long-term. I might be thinking to much into it but imagine if EGS expands the free game every week thing for 2020, then the people who usually wait for a sale or a bundle might as well wait for it to become free there. There's already a reluctance to buy games on day one on PC thanks to sales and bundles, but at least with Humble you had to pay something. Slay the Spire is a pretty big profile indie, but to get it you have to pay $12 whether you like the rest of the games or not. Now with EGS you have Mutant Year Zero, Celeste, Moonlighter all for free. And I'm not even putting subscription services in the sum here.
Not saying that nobody should pick those free games, after all their publishers have already done the deal so if you don't mind EGS or at least their free games, go for it, but I can't help to think that once this ends it will be way more difficult to sell an indie for full price - not that it was any easy one year ago.
EGS clearly has reasons to bring more big names like Celeste to their giveaways, but you have to wonder how much this will affect indies in a long-term. I might be thinking to much into it but imagine if EGS expands the free game every week thing for 2020, then the people who usually wait for a sale or a bundle might as well wait for it to become free there. There's already a reluctance to buy games on day one on PC thanks to sales and bundles, but at least with Humble you had to pay something. Slay the Spire is a pretty big profile indie, but to get it you have to pay $12 whether you like the rest of the games or not. Now with EGS you have Mutant Year Zero, Celeste, Moonlighter all for free. And I'm not even putting subscription services in the sum here.
Not saying that nobody should pick those free games, after all their publishers have already done the deal so if you don't mind EGS or at least their free games, go for it, but I can't help to think that once this ends it will be way more difficult to sell an indie for full price - not that it was any easy one year ago.