Topic: Games Industry Death Watch 2010-present

[Phil]

Kytim89 is a massive liar. It was nowhere near 75%. It was 78%. God.


I'm just joshing!


I think this is the article you were wanting to link to, Kytim.



http://www.technobuffalo.com/2014/01/02/sony-has-78-chance-to-go-bankrupt-in-two-years-says-macroaxis/

[Stogi]

I don't normally agree with Yahtzee from Zero Punctuation (although I always find it entertianing), but he brings up the exact point I made about a dedicated game console.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8789-The-Legend-of-Zelda-A-Link-Between-Worlds

[Luigi Dude]

Sony Santa Monica laying off 50 workers and canceled one of the games they were working on.  For anyone that doesn't know, this is the studio behind the main God of War games.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/02/25/layoffs-hit-god-of-war-studio-sony-santa-monica

Look like the PS4's success is truly revitalizing the industry all right.

[Oblivion]

Look like the PS4's success is truly revitalizing the industry all right.

Yeah, because everyone is saying just that. *rolls eyes*

[BranDonk Kong]

They probably canceled a PSVita God of War game. Now it's hard to say that the PS4 is revitalizing anything - but it is selling a **** ton of consoles (322,000 in Japan in 2 days).

[Luigi Dude]

They probably canceled a PSVita God of War game. Now it's hard to say that the PS4 is revitalizing anything - but it is selling a **** ton of consoles (322,000 in Japan in 2 days).

Nope, it was a brand new IP that was considered a unique sci-fi game that was being worked on by the Director of God of War 3.  It was even set to be shown at E3 this year meaning something really got messed up.

https://twitter.com/jonathanhawkins/status/438753163777019904

https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/438761105767559168

https://twitter.com/shinobi602/status/438762496166756352

[MagicCow64]

Everything is just fine:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/massive-layoffs-at-disney-game-unit-as-700-people-lose-their-jobs/1100-6418153/

Edit: Fixed

[BranDonk Kong]

A little late to the party. That's what happens when Publishers have control of the IP though. They'll move on to form a new studio and make good games.

[BlackNMild2k1]

You guys are more than a week late with that one

Time to update that list again, Irrational Games is shutting down.  This was the studio that made Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite for anyone who didn't know.

http://www.irrationalgames.com/


Yep, the traditional gaming industry is still healthy and with the PS4/One raising cost even more, it'll only get healthier. 

[MagicCow64]

Whoops, my bad. I'll edit the post to replace that link with a link to a story about the next high-profile studio closure/layoff in 2-3 days.

[BranDonk Kong]

That's all we ask.

[Phil]

Here's sadly a new one. This becoming too much of a common occurrence...


It's the studio that was behind Stubbs the Zombie and the criminally overlooked Wii game Guilty Party.


http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2014/03/06/stubbs-the-zombie-developer-wideload-games-the-latest-victim-of-disney-interactive-layoffs/77321/

[ShyGuy]

Time to update this thread to 2016, Majesco is out of the game.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/majesco-merges-with-biotech-company-leaves-the-vid/1100-6446150/

How comes its never companies I don't care about leaving the industry?

[oohhboy]

I can't say I will miss them. Despite the sheer number of games, I haven't played let alone every owned one of their games. I have Psychonauts in my Steam Library, by it is the Mac version and I haven't started it up yet.

I am sure there are other people who actually have fond memories to share. My money is on the Cooking Mama games.

[ShyGuy]

They've developed and/or published a number of titles people are fond of:

Cooking Mama series
Costume Quest 2
Psychonauts
A Boy and his Blob
Slender Man
Shadow Warrior

[oohhboy]

Shadow Warrior??? That's 3D realms/Devlvor Digital unless I missed something

The rest checks out.

[ThePerm]

It looks like Devolver Digital has the rights to the Shadow Warrior franchise. In the Shadow Warrior 2 wiki pages, it doesn't mention 3d realms. That doesn't mean too much. I can imagine this has something to do with the 3d realms weirdness that occurred when Duke Nukem Forever got made.

[BlackNMild2k1]

i was just gonna update the date in the title, but I guess a mod beat me to it... hours ago.

[oohhboy]

The thread title died 3 years ago trying to murder suicide the thread. This is the twin sibling.

Ubisoft looks like it is in danger of losing it's "Independence".

[oohhboy]

Crytek is dying. Be sure to get front row seats.

http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/matthew-wilson/source-crytek-is-sinking-wages-are-unpaid-talent-leaving-on-a-daily-basis/

VR and 2016 claims another victim.

[ThePerm]

I wish Nintendo kept track of some of these. Especially Crytek. Some ex-goldeneye staff work there. RARE-FREERADICALS-CRYTEK UK.

Nintendo should do another British Spy game. I've been watching a lot of James Bond Lately.  Jason Bourne, Jack Bauer, Jack Burton. Joanna Dark was ok. How  about Justin Bieber, James Brolin, Josh Brolin, Jack Black, Jason Biggs, Jimmy Buffet, James Brown, Jim Beam , Jason Bateman, or George Bush?

If I were simply mixing names I'd go with Justin Black. He refuses to wear any other color.


I could go on to DEATH with these names.

[oohhboy]

Crytek is on life support. I wonder how this will impact Star Citizen which is a **** show as it is.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-12-20-crytek-breaks-silence-lets-go-of-multiple-studios

[Phil]

I hope Crytek is forced to pay all those employees who haven't been paid in months.

[King of Twitch]

closing down its Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China) and Istanbul (Turkey) studios

Sounds like perfectly obscure places to ignore basic standards of decency and labor laws. Game journalists need to do a better job of holding these people accountable and letting in the sunlight.

[oohhboy]

closing down its Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea), Shanghai (China) and Istanbul (Turkey) studios

Sounds like perfectly obscure places to ignore basic standards of decency and labour laws. Game journalists need to do a better job of holding these people accountable and letting in the sunlight.

This is a sort of why bother, the US is pretty damn slack about labour rights and depending on state a pretty low floor especially with right to work states(What a joke of a name)

EA only changed their labour policies after the internet outrage from EA mother stating the horrible conditions. So I expect most other companies to be the same, just with nicer offices.

They do get to pay them a lot less as the cost of living compared to the US is pretty low so they can treat them better compared to their US counter parts with less pay.