Gamescom 2014: Xbox Gambles And Other Big Stories
By Martin Benn
3. Activision has purposed Sierra to bring indie gaming underneath their publishings
This is pretty huge for independent developers, especially those who were representing themselves at Gamescom. The more publishers looking to get into funding smaller projects, the better and more diverse games at the indie level can be. In addition, Sierra is working with other small developers to bring back some of their products such as King’s Quest and Geometry Wars. This is definitely interesting and a bit of a departure from Ubisoft’s style of creating independent content with small teams in house. We’ll see how Activision’s approach works when Sierra’s first batch of published properties hit the market in 2015.
4. Indies are moving beyond 2D platforming and puzzle games to bigger 3D animated titles
There isn’t anything to point to specifically in terms of a news story here, however, multiple renowned studios have created second party and “AAA indie” titles such as The Tomorrow People from Q Games and Hellblade from Ninja Theory. The biggest complaint about “indie” games, a truly auspicious title for these at this point given they aren’t all independently funded, is these games are stuck on being 2D platformers. More and more we’ve seen studios branching into indies as more 3D experiences bringing back a lot of the middle class of gaming with A and AA experiences as more money funnels into these smaller teams from publishing companies. There’s a lot of creativity in these teams and the extra funding from Sony, Microsoft, Double Fine, Activision, etc should bring about a good amount of even more varied indie games like what we’ve been shown at Gamescom this year across all platforms.
5. P.T. captures the horror game zeitgeist
An exclusive preview of a new game coming from a collaboration of Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima was presented for the PS4. I played this game all of 10 minutes and said, “Nope!” I don’t do scary games that much. This preview captures the atmosphere of dread really well and plays with you like a toy. As seen in the video above, you’ll be wanting to forge ahead eyes closed or waiting anxiously for the scares to arrive. Unfortunately for Xbox fans, it is a PS4 exclusive, but you can find plenty of walkthroughs and playthroughs streaming on Twitch and YouTube.
What other news out of Gamescom really interested you? Let us know in the comments below.
—————————
Want to get the latest gaming news wherever you may be? Download the official Fansided App on the App Store or Google Play Market today to stay up-to-date on the latest news and rumors from GameSided without even being at a computer. You can also sign up for our newsletter below to get daily updates send straight to your e-mail. And don’t forget to connect with us on Twitter @Gamesideddotcom.