The power of indies has never been greater. Small, independent game developers have driven the success of platforms such as the iPhone, iPad, and Android. And now those indies are being courted by the likes of Nintendo, Sony, Ouya, Amazon, Steam, Facebook, and Microsoft with developer programs that sweeten the pot if the developer will make a game for their platform.
John Graham, COO of Humble Bundle
And as a result, you can expect to see those small studios turn into big ones. Self-publishing and new platforms are giving them options they never had before, and some successful studios are becoming big players. What’s next in the evolution of the big indie? And what does it mean to be an indie?
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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