The CEO of an indie company explodes: a surprise release like Oblivion destroys the chances of other games

The launch of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered has generated a great uproar within the gamer community, positioning itself as the biggest release of April 2025. With its surprise arrival, Bethesda’s title has overshadowed other highlights, including Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and The Last of Us 2 Remastered. However, this sudden popularity has had repercussions in the world of independent video games, where developers like Raw Fury feel significantly affected.

Oblivion is fine, but burying the games that come out is not so much

Jónas Antonsson, CEO of Raw Fury, expressed his appreciation for Oblivion, but highlighted the difficulties that indie studios face when competing with these massive and unannounced releases. “Everything more or less gets buried. We don’t have the capital or the influence to compete, so everything is carefully planned,” Antonsson commented, emphasizing the challenge of planning releases in an environment where big titles can come out of nowhere.

In this context, the game Post Trauma, created by the Spanish studio Red Soul Games, has struggled to gain visibility despite receiving positive feedback. Likewise, the RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has felt the pressure to launch its game in such a competitive moment. Kepler Interactive, the publisher behind Clair Obscur, joked about comparing the competition to the Barbenheimer phenomenon, referring to the simultaneous release of the movies Barbie and Oppenheimer in 2023.

Despite the opaque situation for independent titles, the gaming community continues to celebrate the revitalization of Oblivion, which in turn raises questions about the balance between massive releases and the space needed for indie developers to stand out in the industry.

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