With a handful of game development studios dominating the mobile market, independent games are usually drowned out by the noise. But, Apple is now planning to look out for them and has announced the addition of a permanent spot for indie games in the App Store.
This new ‘Indie Games Showcase’ section aims to highlight the fantastic creations of smaller (even low-budget) game studios, who are building addictive games that might become your daily medicine. It will include both new and upcoming iOS game titles, coupled with old and popular titles from indie game developers.
This new section of the App Store is now a permanent affair but will exclusively be highlighted front and center by the Cupertino giant for a couple of weeks. Apple announced its support for the indie developer community via a tweet, saying that it would be ‘Celebrating Indie Games’ from March 9th through 20th. This feature was preceded by other promotions, like discounts and carousel placements.
Love the games we’ve debuted? Starting today, we’ll have a permanent spot on the App Store just for indie games. https://t.co/M7fhi8kU4D pic.twitter.com/d9Nt98EGvw
— App Store Games (@AppStoreGames) March 17, 2017
Very much like every other category, these titles will also be curated and assigned to an exclusive section by Apple’s editorial team. The games will further be broken down into different categories, ranging from “newly discovered indies” to “incredible sound design” and “unforgettable stories”. It will also include a collection of both completely free-to-play and paid game titles, which are currently being highlighted on the home screen of the App Store as well.
Apple has taken a significant step in the right direction by giving indie game developers a permanent placement in the App Store. The fledging mobile game industry contains big developers with bigger budgets and they mostly overshadow the new entrants in the game industry. This will give independent developers and game studios just coming up on the scene, a level playing field and a fair chance to compete with players like Supercell, Tencent, Rovio, Blizzard and Niantic among others.
