At the risk of stating the obvious, the AAA side of the video games industry is broken. However, indie studios just might salvage it.
Games journalism at times feels like the obituary page of game studios. Most recently, Sony closed the doors to Bluepoint Games, a respected studio with a list of highly rated remakes under its belt. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s baffling to see what Bluepoint was asked to do after developing their triumphant PS5 launch title, the Demon’s Souls remake, in 2020.
Since that release 6 years ago, Bluepoint worked primarily as a support studio for Sony, assisting the development of God of War: Ragnarok and later taking the helm for a live service spin-off God of War title. If you’ve been paying attention to Sony’s multiplayer offering lately, then you know that this game never got off the ground. It was shortly cancelled.
On February 27th, reporter Jason Schreier from Bloomberg released an article that detailed some of the reasoning behind the closure. Bluepoint had pitched several ideas to Sony for their next project, including the long-fabled and mostly fan-imagined Bloodborne remake and a Ghost of Tsushima spin-off game. Without much detail and some speculation, it seems like both ideas were shot down because of other studios’ desires to potentially get around to those games themselves later or not let go of IP they clutch to their chests.
It’s that last point that I’m thinking about. And that’s where indie games seem able to step in.
I recently played the excellent Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound and loved it. It’s not a remake, and it’s not exactly a demake either, but something in between that works under the label of a spin-off. To be clear, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound is a spin-off, but one that returns to the side-scrolling, pixelated roots of the franchise. But it wasn’t Koei Tecmo that made it; it was The Game Kitchen.
For those unfamiliar, The Game Kitchen is, in my opinion, one of the most important contemporary Spanish game studios. When the history books, or Wikipedia pages, are written that detail which studios from Spain helped develop a specific culture of game development in that region of the world, The Game Kitchen will certainly be numbered among them. With their breakout game Blasphemous, they cemented their talent and reputation as craftsmen of side-scrolling, pixelated action games.
At a cursory glance, there’s a match there. If you want to experience a new but retro-designed Ninja Gaiden game, why not pair that IP with a studio that’s got a recent hot streak in that look, style, and adjacent genre? Not that Team Ninja or co-developer Platinum Games aren’t capable, but maybe that’s not where their design is right now. The recent Ninja Gaiden 4 continues the evolutionary trajectory of the series as we’ve seen it over the last twenty years.
This business model excites me. It just might be the win-win scenario that the games industry needs right now. AAA studios get to lease out their IP and keep fans there satisfied. Indie studios get more work and get to refine their talent on shorter projects that will make ends meet as they develop their own original games. Shoot, it’s hard to think that publisher Dotemu didn’t also benefit from another success under their belt. The funding is split, and labour is split between multiple parties, each successful at what they do, and they all come together for a game that’s well-received and financially viable.
Giovanni Colantonio from Polygon picked up on this as a trend too. In a February 13th, 2026 article, shortly after the PlayStation State of Play, he noted that the new Silent Hill game, the Castlevania title, and God of War: Sons of Sparta all are doing this same thing. Indie studios with success are front and centre as developers on storied franchises, where the IP holder is tapping into studios with razor-sharp precision on classic genres. It’s a full-circle moment, as indie studios and developers who iterate on their childhood classics are now perpetuating the lifespan of the titles that inspired them.
Watching the State of Play from this month, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse was the most exciting game on display for me. It hits all my personal preferences but also functions as a door to finally tap into the massive Castlevania legacy for me. If I enjoy Belmont’s Curse, I may finally buy or play the Castlevania games that have been on my radar or sat in my backlog. It’s an exciting front door to a history of beloved games, and I’m sure that means new dollars for old games for these IP holders. Now if all their classic games were available via backwards compatibility… but that’s another article.
In short, while the AAA video games industry seems to be making another round circling the drain, I don’t want to sit passively in cynicism when there are studios that are breaking the mould to make things work, even if on a smaller scale.
