Founder of Dumbbell Games: "Friend Slop is One of the Worst Things to Happen to Steam"
In the past couple of years, there's been a noticeable trend on Steam towards what is called "friendslop"—visually unremarkable cooperative games for friends. While some developers are following this trend, Tolga Coşkun, the founder of the Turkish indie studio Dumbbell Games, considers the popularity of such titles a serious problem.
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Coşkun wrote a LinkedIn post criticizing "friendslop." He believes the current situation could harm the gaming industry in the long term, especially affecting smaller teams. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, Coşkun argues that "friendslop" has significantly lowered the price bar for indie games. Titles in this category are often quite cheap—less than $10—leading gamers to expect low prices from other projects as well. Coşkun believes it has become practically impossible for indie developers to justify higher prices for their games.
In addition to low prices, indie developers are now expected to deliver quick and "endless" content patches, Coşkun writes. According to him, if a game doesn't receive even minor updates within a few weeks of release, many start to think the creators have abandoned it. As a result, the pressure on teams has noticeably increased.
The third reason Coşkun mentioned is the lowering of the technological entry threshold into the industry. As the founder of Dumbbell Games notes, "friendslop" developers have shown that a full-fledged game isn't necessary for significant earnings. It's enough to create a trailer, test it, and if there's hype, build a playable version based on it—by then, the game will be forgotten, but a good profit can be made in this period. However, he emphasizes that the product's value is no longer a consideration. Moreover, he is convinced that this approach has significantly increased the influence of influencers in the industry, who can draw attention to the games they promote.
"For big studios, this is trivial. But for those who are just starting or developing, the entry barrier to the industry hasn't disappeared; it has merely shifted from technical skills to funding. If you have capital, you can experiment with finding the next 'viral' idea. [...] It starts to resemble buying mobile traffic through Meta*. Steam is no longer as effective, and audience behavior is rapidly changing. If Steam follows the path of mobile stores, publishers—not good games—will dictate the terms," Coşkun concluded.
*Meta is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia, and its activities are banned in the country.