deanb Posted August 23, 2012 Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 Quite a few of them happening of late. Thought it'd be worth of documenting in a thread. The big closure of late is Sony Liverpool, AKA Psygnosis http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-08-22-sony-closes-wipeout-developer-sony-liverpool-report Popcap, THQ and someone else also had some lay-offs. Which controversially seems to have included laying off the creator of Plants vs Zombies days after the sequel was announced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFlyingGerbil Posted August 23, 2012 Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 Still most upset about Cing going under with Nintedno buying them. They'd have made a great 2nd party developer for Nintendo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted August 23, 2012 Report Share Posted August 23, 2012 laying off the creator of Plants vs Zombies days after the sequel was announced. The weirdest thing about all of this is this rumor about the sequel http://www.shacknews.com/article/75203/rumor-popcap-preparing-plants-vs-zombies-multiplayer-shooter It sounds too crazy to be anything other than bullshit but... just think about it for a second... what if it isn't?! That's a new level of stupidity right there. One that I didn't think was possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 In other Bioware related news: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/177892/BioWares_founding_doctors_have_resigned.php#.UFjW7LXA8t4 I think we can all guess that given the recent changes of Bioware going from one studio to 7 and the consistent decline of quality they may be jumping ship before it fully sinks. They're going into consulting and beer interviews. (Which isn't as wild a step given they went from being physicians to game developers) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheRevanchist Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 This is what you do when you have an assload of money and get tired of dealing with people trying to tell you what to do. You do nothing, but call it something, because you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 "Bioware" isn't really going from one studio to 7 though. It's just other studios being *renamed* Bioware. EA2D being an example off the top of my head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 And Mythic Entertainment and whatever studio is making Generals 2. I'm a big propopent of the "Bioware is a brand not a studio" so you're kinda preaching to the choir on that topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted September 18, 2012 Report Share Posted September 18, 2012 Yeah, they're trying to turn into a brand something that isn't really one. Slapping the name on that new studio working on C&C was just weird and stupid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted September 24, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2012 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/178156/PopCap_closes_Dublin_offices_lays_off_96_staff.php PopCap Dublin have laid off a bunch of staff. But on the flipside EA are opening up 300 positions in their Irish customer support centre. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted September 28, 2012 Report Share Posted September 28, 2012 It's a shame about Studio Liverpool but Bioware is a brand (or a label) now as opposed to a studio. EA consistently does this before things go sour. Fairly certain Maxis, Mythic etc all became brands. PopCap is a brand too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 http://www.develop-online.net/news/42264/Layoffs-strike-Fable-developer-Lionhead And this too, but there's no names to it so it might not be true, but given some of the true tales I have heard it probably isn't far off. http://trenchescomic.com/tales/post/have-a-great-time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2012 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/180005/Breaking_Mass_layoffs_closures_at_Zynga.php Zynga have laid off one of their studios rather abruptly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 26, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2012 http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/lionhead-layoffs/ Schafer has a few words on the topic of "standard" lay-offs at end of projects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/19/thq-filing-for-bankruptcy-selling-off-assets/ And THQ is filing for bankruptcy. But it seems as if from a consumer point of view we'll likely not see anything change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted December 20, 2012 Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 At least with the current set of games. I'm worried about what would come afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2013 http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-29-warren-spectors-juntion-point-studios-shuttered Junction Point, creator of Epic Mickey, has been closed. Folks have noted that it's timed suspiciously close to announcement of Disney Infinite. Also seen speculation Spector might be picked up by Valve, which is reasonable speculation. Quite a creative veteran. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baconrath Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 (edited) http://www.1up.com/features/kazuma-kujo-interview-keeping-irem Irem closed their video game sector (they still make slot machines and stuff) back in 2011 after the tsunami, but a bunch of them got back together to form the company known as Granzella. RIP Steambot Chronicles 2 ;_; Edited February 1, 2013 by Baconrath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 http://www.develop-online.net/news/43222/Impossible-closed-6-months-after-launch Same team involved in two collapsing studios in less than a year. Can't be a good reputation to have. Given the terms of the split it's hardly like Epic couldn't keep them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 18, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2013 http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=749234 John Ricititliolio.lo has resigned/fired as CEO of EA. It seemed somewhat inevitable given regardless of whether you attribute the various issues of late with EA to "vocal minority" or not, EA is losing money and that does speak to investors and board members. One fun line of speculation I've seen raised however is that John Ric might be the last vestige of "old style" EA-ness in the face of DS3 Micro-Transactions, SimCity "always online-socialness", and Real Racing 3 type stuff and so they're bumping him off to get someone more pliable. Though that somewhat falls flat when you take into account that John took back over from Larry Probst in 2007 (which'd be the year that Bioware-Pandemic was acquired in still iffy scenario*) and it's from about that period onward that EA starting bringing in the day one DLC n project $10 n etc etc. So it's equally possible it's the reverse. I guess it's a bit of a knife edge which way it could go, those kind of things could scale back in the face of them seemingly not working, or they could ramp up in the face of them not working enough. It'll be fun to see who is the next CEO of EA to lead them into 8th gen. Gotta say, laying him off amidst the SImCity thing, which is hitting national news outlets not just speciality press, is brilliant timing :/ *for those not up to speed: prior to his EA CEO'ship John worked form a company called Elevation Partners, with whom Bioware and Pandemic were forged into a single company, VG Holding Corp, to find a buyer. John then became CEO of EA and lo and behold EA bought VG Holding Corp. And the rest we know is history. (but if you don't know that history Pandemic was closed and Bioware went through asexual reproduction and currently accounts for 8.56% of studios on the planet and rising) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 3, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/04/03/disney-shuts-down-game-publisher-lucasarts/ LucasArts being closed by Disney. Makes sense given the last few games have been pretty naf (their last being Kinect Star Wars which was the mocking point of E3 past few years.) They will still be licensing Star Wars elements, so as a publisher it's still sort of around (so stuff like Battlefront 3, Lego Star Wars, etc are still on the table, they just won't be made by an internal studio.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 Sucks for those that lost their jobs, but personally I can't say I'm sorry to see the studio go... Their recent games have all been painfully unexceptional and 1313 was looking like it would continue that trend. Maybe now that they're licensing we can start getting good Star Wars games again. Hopefully Obsidian give that pitch of theirs another shot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Heart Posted April 3, 2013 Report Share Posted April 3, 2013 Kinect Star Wars wasn't actually by an internal studio (nor were the LEGO or Battlefront games ever by internal studios). Most of Lucasarts' recent fare has just been published by them, rather than developed. So, no more publishing or developing, I assume. To the best of my knowledge, Star Wars 1313 was the only new thing they were handling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted April 4, 2013 Report Share Posted April 4, 2013 All I know is that if Disney liked KOTOR 2, Obsidian wants to make a new Star Wars RPG. DO IT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted April 4, 2013 Report Share Posted April 4, 2013 Obsidian already has too much shit to do right now. Give them a few years. Though I'd rather see them work with something original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted April 4, 2013 Report Share Posted April 4, 2013 What are they doing besides the Kickstarter RPG? That's not a snarky question I'm curious. I mean for them one game might be enough as they have to prove they can make a game that can run without crashing. Sour memories for me as a save file for KOTOR 2, the only one I was using recetly, got corrupted for no reason and i couldn't play the game anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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