Retro City Rampage Dev Sets the Record Straight on Platform Sales

With big-budget games getting bigger and fewer in between, the battleground for biggest library comes down to indies.

Sony is, for all intents and purposes, the de facto “indie console” when it comes to the big three manufacturers. Microsoft and Nintendo have made great strides, but it’s an uphill battle for either company as they compete against their own reputations. Nintendo has its poor third-party attach rate, and Microsoft has a history draconian release policies.

Brian Provinciano, creator of Retro City Rampage, has released his game on just about every platform under the sun, and apparently that makes it a perfect battlefield for the Console Wars. The internet, as it’s wont to do, has decided to generate its own “facts” about Retro City Rampage’s performance to use as ammunition in the conflict.

Looking to set the record straight, Provinciano provided real statistics on the game’s official Twitter account:

It’s important to note that Retro City Rampage came out in late 2012. Since then, we’ve had new consoles, new indie initiatives, and a lot of catch-up. Still, Sony is now even more associated with independent and alternative games, while one-time king Steam has its own set of problems.

The interesting note, to me, is regarding the PlayStation Plus free games deal. Educated friends of mine – friends in the industry – have made the same claim that there’s no way developers can make money from it. In this case at least that doesn’t seem to be true.

As Provinciano himself points out, stating the facts likely won’t change people’s minds about the matter. Still, it’s interesting to have some real data on how indie development broke down for at least one person.

Steven Strom

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Steven "The Future of Games Journalism" Strom plays entirely too much Dota 2. He sometimes plays games when he's not too busy writing about them and their place in our culture, and thinks maybe they're not just a fad after all.