How many times have you heard people talking about Fallout 4 in the last month? Follow-up question, how many times have you heard people talking about, say, Soma? There’s a high probability you’ve heard of one of those, and it’s more than likely not the latter. The former is a measly four points higher score-wise on Metacritic (an 87 to Soma’s 83), and dead even on GameSpot, with both sitting pretty at a 9/10. Yet, one game has sold over three million copies, while the other about a hundred thousand or so. It’s a sad truth that indie games are, and always have been, overshadowed by major releases.

Indie games are generally at a disadvantage from the get-go. Indie games, or independent games, are video games created by either individual people or small teams (usually with a very limited budget) almost always without support from a video game publisher. Comparatively, your typical major releases are created by massive teams the size of movie production crews (generally with a movie-sized budget as well) with significant support from video game publishers. Indie games are also almost always released digitally only, usually on only one platform, while major releases are released digitally and physically. Major releases also have ads that run frequently on TV, which certainly assists in garnering attention, while indie games just about never do.

There have been strides made in recent years in the realm of indie games, though. Sony (makers of the Playstation, although that might go without saying for most) has put forth significant effort to lend aid to indie game developers and bring them over to their consoles. Many indie developers have begun to turn away from Microsoft and the Xbox One and towards the Playstation for this very reason.

One of the most prevalent examples of Sony’s aid is with the one and only Rocket League, from developer Psyonix, which some may remember (though I probably doubt it) I covered a couple months ago. Psyonix agreed to something fairly risky with Sony. They agreed ….to have Rocket League released on Playstation Plus (a paid membership which gives players two free games monthly, as well as discounts on most games) for free. Releasing anything for free is a decisively bold move, and one that may not always work out in one’s favor. But, luckily for Psyonix, the decision to release it for free on PS Plus allowed for the game to be substantially more widespread, with way more people able to play and enjoy. This, in turn, made players considerably more willing and eager to purchase any and all DLC (downloadable content) that Psyonix released. The general consensus in the game’s community is that without Sony’s assistance, Rocket League would most likely not have sold as many units or be as popular as it has become.

Still, as far as indie games have come, and as much aid and assistance is now being given out by the more major companies, there is still a long way to go. Indie games are still generally more in the background, with a few exceptions here and there. Players worldwide are still engrossed with all the major releases (your Fallout 4’s, your Star Wars: Battlefront’s, your Black Ops 3’s, etc.) rather than the abundant plethora of indie games that are out there (games like Undertale, Axiom: Verge, Rocket League, Soma, and The Binding of Isaac, all of which have Metacritic scores in the 80’s and 90’s). Not one of the top ten highest grossing games of 2015 is an indie game, and while that may be a rather lofty goal, it really should happen soon, given the ever-increasing quality of indie games. In any case, it appears inevitable that indie games will indeed escape the looming shadow of the major releases, undoubtedly sooner rather than later.