Devolver Co-Founder Discusses Downside of Big Games

In a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz, co-founder of Devolver Digital Nigel Lowrie gave his two cents about the current struggles of the gaming industry, including the ongoing competition for player’s time.

The boost seen during the pandemic is beginning to falter, layoffs continue (Revolver had its own round of them back in February), and smaller indie studios are finding it harder and harder to compete in a world of massive, ongoing live-service titles.

“The consumers are so tied up in some of these really fantastic live service games, but there’s only so much time they can spend,” Lowrie said. “So there are more and more huge games being launched asking for an enormous amount of time, but there’s just not that much time available for people to play.”

Devolver Digital is the publisher behind the recent phenomenons Cult of the Lamb and Inscryption, as well as Trek to Yomi, Weird West, and The Talos Principle.

“We want everyone to do well, but the fact remains it’s competition for time and competition for getting in front of people. It’s getting tougher and tougher to set yourself apart and make a clear argument as to why you should spend time with this game vs. that game, for sure,” Lowrie continued.

While Xbox and PlayStation focus more largely on triple-A titles, Lowrie commended Nintendo for giving indie titles more of a platform to thrive against the big boys.

“They’ve created an ecosystem – and therefore a user base – that is really open to interesting concepts and gameplay ideas,” Lowrie commented. “The PlayStation and Xbox user, for as long as I’ve been doing this…there’s a lot of people that still like indie games, don’t get me wrong. Cult of the Lamb has done very well on those platforms. But I think the large majority of those people buy those platforms to show off what they can really do. They’re looking at Destiny. They’re looking at Helldivers. They’re looking at Starfield. They definitely push those.”

Regardless of the hardships, Lowrie is content with what Devolver Digital has done, and is eager to remain true to the company’s original vision.

“I’m pretty proud of the fact that we’ve kept our culture intact. The motivations of what makes us happy, share price isn’t number one. It’s making sure our developers are happy and that we’re putting out quality games. And things like share price and revenue or whatever follows, as long as we continue on the path we’re on.”