Indies speak out as more games miss out in digital charts farce

Two major British indie releases would have entered the All-Formats charts this week if digital figures had been counted.

Volume, the new game from Mike Bithell, would have at least made the Top Ten, according to MCV sources. It comes a week after Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, the PS4 exclusive created by UK-based The Chinese Room, missed out on the No.1 spot simply because it was only available over PSN.

And now British indie studios are calling on the digital retailers to start sharing their data, so that the world can see just how rapidly the UK independent scene is growing.

Personally, yes, publishers should share their digital sales data,” said creative director of Rodeo Games, Ben Murch. I’m a big fan of transparency in as many areas as possible. I do understand that the situation can be quite complicated, with other parties, shareholders, licencee holders, etcetera not wanting to share sales data. But an all encompassing chart would be grand though.”

Cliff Harris of indie studio Positech added: [A chart] would encourage competition and progress in the genres that gamers are really enjoying which is a good thing.”

Indies acknowledge it is down to individual companies about sharing data, but with analyst tools becoming increasingly accurate, an official chart should follow.

It’s always down to individual publishers to make a decision with regards to their data but with sites like Steamspy, some of that data is already available so it’s seems like a logical step forward,” said Roll7’s Tom Hegarty.