TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 2,117
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Finji CEO Rebekah Saltsman says that indie games are just trying to survive in an era where publishers don't want to invest in a game that was "only ever going to make $500,000."
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Indie games survived the theoretical "indiepocalypse" of 10 years ago and they survived the influx of AAA escapees of five years ago, and if we were going to coin a new era of indie games right now, it's "survival," says the CEO of indie developer and publisher Finji, Rebekah Saltsman, and not in the fun crafting-survival way either.
"The era is survival, and we've been here for way longer than people want to think about," Saltsman said in an interview with PC Gamer. "For a long time it's been 'just wait, it's going to be better in ___' and then fill in the blank with a year, which is always 12 to 18 months out."
It's been around five years of the "just survive until" mantra, since after the Covid-19 pandemic, by Saltsman's reckoning. While large publishers have been going through a brutal cycle of acquisitions and layoffs, indie studios struggle to secure funding amounts that Saltsman says used to be "not a big deal" to those writing the checks.
"Historically, an indie asking for maybe a quarter of a million dollars is not a big deal. It's a big deal to the indie, but for a big company that's like a drop in the bucket to the kind of budgets they're usually operating in."
Now though, Saltsman says what she keeps hearing is that companies don't want to back indies that aren't "profitable enough." Nobody wants a percentage on a $250,000 investment if there might be a $5 million investment to chase instead. The Balatros and Vampire Survivors and Stardew Valleys of the world are lightning strikes, says Saltsman. On top of that, they're also nigh impossible to predict, says me.
Somewhere between the winners of the solo dev lottery and the megabucks "triple-I" indies we're missing out on the middle tier of indie games right now, she says, things that could leave a lasting impact on the industry even if they aren't the kind of financial outliers that make one lucky developer rich.
"I think about those projects, especially over the last five years," Saltsman says. "What didn't get made because nobody would give them $100,000? What could have changed the way we thought about games because that game was only ever going to make $500,000, which would change a developer's life?...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
Indie games survived the theoretical "indiepocalypse" of 10 years ago and they survived the influx of AAA escapees of five years ago, and if we were going to coin a new era of indie games right now, it's "survival," says the CEO of indie developer and publisher Finji, Rebekah Saltsman, and not in the fun crafting-survival way either.
"The era is survival, and we've been here for way longer than people want to think about," Saltsman said in an interview with PC Gamer. "For a long time it's been 'just wait, it's going to be better in ___' and then fill in the blank with a year, which is always 12 to 18 months out."
It's been around five years of the "just survive until" mantra, since after the Covid-19 pandemic, by Saltsman's reckoning. While large publishers have been going through a brutal cycle of acquisitions and layoffs, indie studios struggle to secure funding amounts that Saltsman says used to be "not a big deal" to those writing the checks.
"Historically, an indie asking for maybe a quarter of a million dollars is not a big deal. It's a big deal to the indie, but for a big company that's like a drop in the bucket to the kind of budgets they're usually operating in."
Now though, Saltsman says what she keeps hearing is that companies don't want to back indies that aren't "profitable enough." Nobody wants a percentage on a $250,000 investment if there might be a $5 million investment to chase instead. The Balatros and Vampire Survivors and Stardew Valleys of the world are lightning strikes, says Saltsman. On top of that, they're also nigh impossible to predict, says me.
Somewhere between the winners of the solo dev lottery and the megabucks "triple-I" indies we're missing out on the middle tier of indie games right now, she says, things that could leave a lasting impact on the industry even if they aren't the kind of financial outliers that make one lucky developer rich.
"I think about those projects, especially over the last five years," Saltsman says. "What didn't get made because nobody would give them $100,000? What could have changed the way we thought about games because that game was only ever going to make $500,000, which would change a developer's life?...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?