Conclusion
Looking at 2026 and the future of indie publishing, what’s your outlook? With platform changes, evolving player preferences, tighter budgets across the industry, and new challenges emerging constantly, how is Top Hat Studios positioning itself to continue finding and supporting great indie games? What opportunities or trends are you most excited or concerned about?
Joe B.: Great question. Every company in every industry is stuck between the paradox of “don’t reinvent the wheel” and “adapt to a changing landscape.” We’ve been around for more than a decade now, and while some things have changed, we’ve never felt backed into a corner – and I think that’s a luxury in an industry that evolves as quickly as the games industry.
We like to say that our core motivations and mission statement are unwavering, and that also means our belief in our brand and its core tenets is unwavering as well. Other things, in terms of execution, are downstream from that. There is, of course, a world where the current business model shifts slightly – as I mentioned in response to the first question, it already has since our inception. However, there’s a difference between how you approach the market from a business strategy perspective and how you execute that strategy – something I think is too often dismissed as being one and the same.
We’re very excited about the continued growth we’ve experienced as a company and the opportunities our success has allowed us to consider, including much bigger titles and developers that years ago we wouldn’t have dreamed of working with. We’re also excited about the strides the industry is making toward recognizing the value of “indie,” and how creators of all sizes and levels of experience are starting studios and making fantastic games around the world. There are so many exciting developers working on amazing projects globally.
That said, I do think the “indie-ification” of the game industry is a double-edged sword. This is something that happened to the film industry – and even more so to the music industry. People now think of “indie music” as a genre, but “indie” wasn’t just an arbitrary descriptor. It originally referred to something inherent. Now, in the music industry, “indie” often describes a sound reminiscent of influences from a time when things weren’t monopolized by major labels and distribution channels.
I fear that the game industry is at risk of a similar shift – that “indie” as a descriptor will eventually refer only to an echo of the industry’s past. People tie themselves in knots over what is or isn’t an “indie game,” and while that’s its own can of worms, I can say this – when an “indie” team is developing an “indie” game, virtually everyone involved is deeply passionate about it, regardless of partners or budget. This isn’t always the case as teams grow larger and larger, where things can be reduced to rote procedures and pure numbers on spreadsheets.
As the industry expands, I worry about the underlying meaning changing, and “indie” taking on a more cynical connotation – denoting only genres, aesthetics, or budget ranges. The more people – and therefore money – that flock to gaming, the more these definitions shift. And the more they shift, the more the people who were once defined by those labels risk being left behind.
In a way, I think this is an important secondary goal of Top Hat Studios – balancing growth while ensuring that these exact creators don’t get left behind.