One flop can wreck a company. Independent companies get to make what they want inside the limits of the funding they have. See Double Fine. Sold out to Microsoft and got the resources to drastically improve the game they wanted to make in Psychonauts 2 adding things like boss fights to the game. Game development is expensive and takes more resources that many of these small to medium companies can get.
There's a reason so many independent studios target the look and feel of 2 and a half to 3 decade old games.
Edge of Eternity the JRPG like game is a perfect example. An independent studio tried to make a more modern looking game and people look at it, call it janky and just say no. They could have made it look like a SNES RPG and people probably would have received it better. Midgar Studios did get to make the game they wanted but right after sold out to a larger company because small to medium studios catch hell trying to overcome limited resources.
Well, that's true, but this is really for any company that pushes products. In Plat's case it feels moreso like mismanagement, and bad management can sink any company, they knew that coming in. I don't really think there's a woe is me story when it comes to Plat.
I do agree with you on Edge of Eternity, but I do actually think that game did well. I also believe it was crowdfunded, the team that made that game I'm pretty sure did ok on it, it wasn't a smash hit, but they did enough to keep afloat and keep grinding.
