Life is Strange Indie or Triple A?

[pondspress]

Curious question. I work with an Indie Game studio. I would love to play this game regardless, but I can't preview it for Indie Game if its Triple AAA. I'm sort of confused about this statemnet as Life As Strange is tagged as "indie", despite being published by microsoft.

[Fail_Quail]

Depends how you categorise 'triple A' or 'Indie' really.

Looks to be a roughly indie studio releasing under a triple-A banner, so both?

[pondspress]

That is so weird. I guess it can be accepted.

[Big Boom Boom]

It's developed by an indie studio and published by a AAA publisher. In a sense I guess it's not indie because I believe Square-Enix funds its development to a point (in an interview Dontnod said that SE is the only publisher who doesn't force them to change the protagonist to male).

[Kommissar K]

I'd call it more "AA." Honestly, to say the only choices are AAA and Indie is kind of a false dichotomy.

It has a pretty big ticket publisher, and is by a development team that has put out a relatively full length game (if a bit underexposed/not greatly reviewed).

[Detweiler324]

AAA trying to appeal to an indie niche.

[Monkey Metal]

Originally posted by Kommissar Klose:

I'd call it more "AA." Honestly, to say the only choices are AAA and Indie is kind of a false dichotomy.

It has a pretty big ticket publisher, and is by a development team that has put out a relatively full length game (if a bit underexposed/not greatly reviewed).

dontnod also made remember me, which can be classed as a AAA game (published by Capcom)

[WarBaby2]

It's kinda both... well, actually I think it's sold as an indy'esque gamke by a AAA company. Considering the problem SE had over the last couple of years, it smells a bit like a marketing ploy, though.

[fenke]

How would you define Indie games? What are your criteria?

Wikipedia stated something like "Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support."

[pondspress]

I'm going to file it under Triple "AAA". I'll just review it when the last episode comes out. So far so good though from what i'm playing! :)

[WarBaby2]

Originally posted by fenke:

How would you define Indie games? What are your criteria?

Wikipedia stated something like "Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support."

That's the textbook deffinition... in reality, indy games have become synonymus for non mainstream gaming experiences that use alternative mechanics to transport their content... or something like that.

[Big Boom Boom]

It's not made by SE... SE doesn't own Dontnod, they publish game for Dontnod but Dontnod is still an indie developer. EA published tons of indie games too. Every big publishers do it nowadays.

[fenke]

Originally posted by WarBaby2:

Originally posted by fenke:

How would you define Indie games? What are your criteria?

Wikipedia stated something like "Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support."

That's the textbook deffinition... in reality, indy games have become synonymus for non mainstream gaming experiences that use alternative mechanics to transport their content... or something like that.

Indie is short for Independent, that much seems clear enough. Wikipedia's definition is sourced and you can check the sources yourself, whereas any other definition is personal, vague and can be adapted to the moment. Anyway, with any definition, there will likely be borderline cases; Dragon Age Origins could fall into the category, as Bioware developed it on their own (I think), and then searched for a publisher, but most would list it as triple-A.

I gave it as an example, the OP can use their own definition, or that of their publisher. By the 'textbook' definition it looks to fall into this category.

[Balmung]

A tripple-A Titel have for me Support for more than only englisch and french Language.

[Clockwise]

Originally posted by fenke:

How would you define Indie games? What are your criteria?

An indie game is literally just one that is put out by a developer without the backing of a publisher (financial or otherwise). LiS clearly isn't an "AAA" title in terms of resources or marketing, but it's not an "indie game" either because SE are the publisher.

On the other hand, LiS certainly could be considered an "indie game" in the "indie film" sense of not being a mainstream offering in the gaming world.

[pondspress]

Well, i've already backed off from preview. I will just review the game when all episodes are out. I will say from what i've played, so far so good!