A large part of Apple’s success in mobile gaming during its early years was due to the many independent developers that took a chance on the Cupertino-based company’s then fledgling storefront. And while that bet paid off in spades, the App Store of late has been tough on smaller game makers what with the influx of free-to-play experiences and big budget titles.
With discoverability being a problem for smaller studios, it appears that Apple wants to rectify this with the Indie Game Showcase. It’s a permanent spot on the App Store for games from indie creators. At the time of writing this, it’s live on the US App Store, with sections dedicated to new titles, deeply discounted ones, those with good stories, and gameplay to name a few. The only section the Indian App Store has at the moment is for the top 25 indie games.
This is a smart move from Apple, as many developers these days live and die by being featured on the company’s App Store. Granted this doesn’t solve that issue completely, but ensures a larger number of games gain prominence. More so when you consider that the likes of Google courting indie developers appears to be restricted to the Indie Games Festival rather having a permanent section for them, at least on the Indian Google Play store.
Discoverability has always been a hot button topic for developers. While the likes of Valve retooling Steam Greenlight to accommodate the influx of titles, and even Nintendo opening its doors to indie developers, things just might be looking up for smaller game makers.
[“source-ndtv”]
