The gaming industry is cyclical. It is a well-oiled machine that pumps out a new product every month. Developers make the games, publishers give money to the developers to make the games and the whole industry moves like clockwork. The gaming industry is also restricted by the confines of business practices and the economy. So when a product isn’t moving the numbers or a new idea isn’t generating some kind of revenue to make up for the costs, the development studio usually does not last long. These are the stories of game development studios that were once in the limelight but have gone through some difficult times as of January 2012.
Kaos Studios, developers of Homefront and Frontlines: Fuel of War, were shut down last year by publisher THQ. Homefront, the developer’s last game, sold 1 million units, which is a very profitable milestone in the gaming industry. Gamespot reported on May 3, 2011, that Homefront had shipped 2.6 million copies while THQ lost $136.1 million. I can only assume that the reason Kaos Studios was shut down was because THQ was forced to shut it down because they were going downhill. But what will happen to the Homefront franchise? Eurogamer.net says that Crytek, developers of the Crysis franchise, will be developing a Homefront sequel.
Speaking of THQ, in January it was rumored that THQ was going under and their entire 2013 and 2014 lineup of games and a Massively Multiplayer Online game, similar to World of Warcraft, had been cancelled. But on Jan. 16, THQ released an official statement saying that these rumors were nothing more than speculation and hearsay. IGN editor, Colin Campbell, wrote that THQ’s closure would be bad news for gamers. “A world without THQ means more power in the hands of companies that, frankly, are doing way less to introduce new ideas and new games into the ecosystem.” This would be a terrible occurrence in a gaming industry that relies on innovation to propel it further. THQ’s closure would send a message to all other publishers that taking risks is a poor financial decision.
Bizarre Creations, developers of the Project Gotham Racing franchise and 007:Blood Stone, was bought by Activision after leaving Microsoft. They made two games that weren’t sequels or franchised and they went under in February 2011. Pandemic Studios, developers of the Star Wars: Battlefront franchise and Mercenaries franchise, went under in 2009 after they made their last game, The Saboteur. Hudson, developers of the popular Bomberman franchise, will also be going under as of March 1, 2012. This blog merely serves as a public service announcement for the developers that tried to make it in a bad economy but didn’t. I tip my hat to their efforts and I can only hope that the employees and programmers get hired by other game development studios
Send me an email at shfawcet@asu.edu with any game developers I may have forgotten in this blog.
