Off-Topic Discussions

[JonathanCarabalo]

A massive wave of lay-offs has hit the video game industry:

• THQ declares bankruptcy, all divisions, including game development houses, closed down and auctioned off, the company broken up.  4 of its 5 development houses were sold, all except Vigil Games
• Junion Point Studios closed down (Epic Mickey developer, owned by Disney)
• Superbot Entertainment, lays off 20 employees
• Gameloft India Studio closed down, all 250 developers layed off - no warning given ("pack up and get out" basically)
• Disney lays off an additional 50 game developers

The Video Game industry is a whopping $57 billion dollar per year industry!  That's more then the movie theatre industry by the way.  It was only $12 billion last time I checked in 2004 - that's a considerable change in 9 years.  Thus - massive consolidation as the Playstation 4 is ramping up production - the weaker game companies are going out of business. 

[JonathanCarabalo]

What will happen in the future?  It will accelerate.  Both Microsoft and Nintendo will likely be driven out of business.  It's over.  Thousands of lay-offs in the worldwide video game industry, as Playstation 4 picks up momentum. 

[the_original_se]

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JonathanCarabalo wrote:

• THQ declares bankruptcy, all divisions, including game development houses, closed down and auctioned off, the company broken up.  4 of its 5 development houses were sold, all except Vigil Games
• Junion Point Studios closed down (Epic Mickey developer, owned by Disney)
• Superbot Entertainment, lays off 20 employees
• Gameloft India Studio closed down, all 250 developers layed off - no warning given ("pack up and get out" basically)
• Disney lays off an additional 50 game developers

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and nothing of value was lost.

[TeAshimaDeVa]

Welcome to the world the rest of us live in.

[SlashZaku]

The industry has really been eating itself this gen with the rising costs/budgets and games not meeting 'expectations'. Everything can't be 'AAA' and everything doesn't deserve the 'AAA' budget. I actually wonder what the body count is going to be at the end of next gen and what big name studios/publishers may be brought down because they're not getting the 'string of hits' they want/need.

[TheJLC]

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SlashZaku wrote:
The industry has really been eating itself this gen with the rising costs/budgets and games not meeting 'expectations'. Everything can't be 'AAA' and everything doesn't deserve the 'AAA' budget. I actually wonder what the body count is going to be at the end of next gen and what big name studios/publishers may be brought down because they're not getting the 'string of hits' they want/need.

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Pretty much this.

Too many developers and publishers have been trying to beat the current successful AAA titles with their own titles. If they don't have one, they try to create and force their own title to compete, which isn't easy when it's a new IP. The games are usually good, but all that money invested doesn't turn profit as it cannot beat or even rival the AAA rivals. Why? Because the successful AAA titles didn't become successful overnight, it took time to get where they are at.

Unfortunately, many developers and publishers think that just throwing money at it will make it better which isn't true, you also have to add quality and time. Because as a consumer I can tell when I'm getting a rushed product that took millions to produce. And I can easily compare that to a product where millions was also spent, but is good and based on a working formula.

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

We also lost zipper 2 years ago and LightBox interactive just a few months ago

[SlashZaku]

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PLYMCO_PILGRIM wrote:

We also lost zipper 2 years ago and LightBox interactive just a few months ago

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Studio Liverpool (Wipeout, Colony Wars) and BigBig (Little Deviants, Pursuit Force) too I think.  I really wish Liverpool would have gotten to make a new Colony Wars =\

[the_original_se]

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SlashZaku wrote:

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PLYMCO_PILGRIM wrote:

We also lost zipper 2 years ago and LightBox interactive just a few months ago

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Studio Liverpool (Wipeout, Colony Wars) and BigBig (Little Deviants, Pursuit Force) too I think.  I really wish Liverpool would have gotten to make a new Colony Wars =\

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doesnt Sony own the rights to Wipeout though? im sure they could make more if they wanted to, doesnt seem like a very complicated game to do.

[Facelaud]

Hopefully they'll try to compete with lower price points next generation, it's just not very smart to launch your game with a $10 million budget for $60 on the same day GTA5, Call of Duty or Uncharted release. It just doesn't make much business sense.

Most games are absolutely not worth $60. I've only bought a few $60 games ever and every single time they disappointed me greatly(Starcraft 2 sucks). Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time's $40 pricepoint is probably the best thing to happen to the title, the game suddenly looks worthwhile beside God of War: Ascension and The Last of Us, as well as third-party titles like Bioshock Infinite or Aliens: Colonial Marines. If you can put your game beside another new title at the same pricepoint and clearly see that the other title offers much more value, you're doing something wrong.

I personally think it'd be smarter for mid-range publishers to break their teams down into multiple groups and have them all develop their own cheaper digital games, much smarter than trying to compete with THE DOODY and requiring 5 million sales to break even. Hopefully they'll wise up soon.