Microsoft's mega-deal worries small video game makers

When Tanya Short first pitched the idea for Boyfriend Dungeon, a computer game where the player's romantic partners are monster-vanquishing weapons, publishers didn't seem overly interested.

"They all rejected it. They said the name wasn't interesting, or they just didn't understand it," says Ms Short, the director and chief executive of independent game studio, Kitfox Games.

It was only after a growing buzz about the game, and some initial funds, via Kickstarter, that the games platforms changed their tune.

Boyfriend Dungeon is now available on a variety of systems, including PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.

But Ms Short worries that quirky games like hers, designed by creatively independent studios, will have an even harder route to market in the future - because the biggest corporate firms in gaming are expanding.

In January, Microsoft said it plans to buy Activision Blizzard, one of the world's largest game developers. At just less than $69bn (£51bn), it would be the biggest takeover in video games history and sees Microsoft gain franchises like Call of Duty and Warcraft.

Reportedly, Microsoft's deal will still have to satisfy the scrutiny of the US Federal Trade Commission, whose chair, Lina Khan, has expressed some opposition to big tech monopolies.

Ms Short is one of a number of indie game developers who have told BBC News they are worried about what the deal could mean for the industry.

Microsoft insists it will continue to cater for small, independent developers. But some of those developers are deeply concerned, for instance, that if the Microsoft-owned, Game Pass subscription service, increasingly becomes the only means through which many people access games, small studios could be left competing for funding and promotion via that platform.

Ms Short also points out that, currently, indie studios already avoid launching their games in the run-up to Christmas, since so many large, or "triple-A" titles are released during that period. Think Call of Duty or FIFA. But with greater consolidation of large developers - and platforms, such as Xbox and Game Pass, calling more of the shots - things could get even trickier.

"This Activision acquisition strikes fear in us because it makes it so much more obvious - maybe they could dominate the rest of the year and then what do we do?" she says.

Yura Zhdanovich, founder and game director at Sad Cat Studios, leads a team of around 20 people who are working on a cyberpunk adventure game, Replaced. It features an artificial intelligence hunting for meaning in a dystopian urban landscape.

When it's released later this year, the game will appear on Game Pass and some other platforms. Mr Zhdanovich praises Microsoft in terms of how the firm has worked with his studio so far, though he says he worries about whether there will be enough support for indie developers in the future.

While Game Pass currently offers some indie titles, among the 500 or so games available on the service, there aren't that many of them, according to Piers Harding-Rolls, analyst at Ampere Analysis.

He says it is hard to predict what would happen if gamers were to increasingly sign up to Game Pass, or similar services, in the future, and move entirely away from buying games individually.

"Conceivably, indie games outside of these services might lose engagement as subscribers focus most of their attention on games they can access for free within the service," he adds.

It's a concern because indie studios are currently in a "race to the bottom" in terms of revenue, says Jake Simpson of TNB Studios, a seasoned developer who has worked with Microsoft and Activision, among others.

According to VG Insights, more than half of the indie games on the Steam distribution service have never made more than $4,000.

"People are prepared to spend $1,000 dollars (£740) on a telephone and then get very offended if you ask them to pay $4.99 for a game," says Simpson, who praises the innovation and creativity of many small developers.

AI researcher and game designer, Mike Cook at Queen Mary University of London, says that there is an "overcrowding" problem that means it is hard for good games to find their audience. Very small developers, in particular, are feeling that pressure.

"The dream of individual people making games and publishing them has become a lot harder over the last few years," says Dr Cook.

It is possible to self-publish Xbox games via Microsoft's ID@Xbox scheme.

The company's Sarah Bond, corporate vice president at Xbox's Gaming Ecosystem Organisation, argues that Game Pass will, if anything, benefit indie developers by introducing them to new and unfamiliar types of game.

As an example, she says that of the people who tried indie puzzle game, Human Fall Flat, on Game Pass, 60% had never played a puzzle game before. And that 40% of those people went on to buy a different puzzle game outside of Game Pass.

"We are continuing to invest with indie developers and we will continue to do so as the service grows," Ms Bond says in an interview with the BBC, though she declined to discuss specifics.

"No, it will not make us a monopoly," she adds, referring to the planned deal with Activision.

Anisa Sanusi, a video game user interface designer, says news of the Microsoft-Activision deal has left indie studios "on guard".

She says she is concerned that Microsoft's acquisition of game companies could lead to an overall decline in competition within the industry.

It's important that indie developers survive, she adds, not just for creative diversity, but because smaller companies often provide less pressurised environments for artists, writers and programmers to get involved in the business of making games.

"We know the money's there, we know it's a lucrative business," she says.

"Yet, we still, as indie developers… we're kind of clawing our way."