Independent developers have been encouraged to view themselves as industry leaders.

Chris Charla, the director of ID at Xbox, made the suggestion during the recent GI Live: Online.

He said in an interview: "I see the future is really independent developers having the opportunity to lead where the industry is going.

"I was in a situation recently where I was talking to a AAA developer. And they're like, 'Oh well, we want our next game to be like Hades'. And that's amazing. Hades is an unbelievably fantastic game, and it is now providing leadership [to AAA developers]. So to see that independent developers are now able to lead where the industry is going, to me, is really fantastic."

Chris urged independent developers to have big ambitions and to aspire to make a difference in the industry.

He explained to gamesindustry.biz: "There is always, always, always going to be a place for AAA games and the level of detail and depth and scale and scope that they provide is unbelievable.

"A lot of times I'll play, like, 'Yakuza: Like a Dragon', and you're just in one bit and you're 'okay, this is all the assets of typical indie game in five minutes of this game'. So I'm not at all trying to create any kind of beef between indie games and AAA games.

"But I do think that for independent developers, it's a great time to think about not just being part of the games industry, but where they help lead the industry next."