Video game companies are bad | Phoenix Labs sack circa 100 staff

shy guy 64 wrote:well this backs up my theory that everyone in the industry is drunk and or high

Well if RedEye in EDGE was any indication back in the day (early 2000s), that would be a correct hypothesis.

Doom-mongers already predicting the demise of Ninja Theory, on the basis that MS aren't promoting Hellblade 2 enough.

https://www.eurogamer.net/hellblade-2-i ... more-noise

I can't recall a key gaming platform manufacturer being hammered so much and so widely as Microsoft is at present.

Eurogamer wrote:The philosophy of a great video game platform holder is that it makes money in order to make more consoles and more games. The philosophy of Microsoft - and by dint of that, Xbox - is evidently that it only makes consoles and games in order to make money. Like so many businesses owned by gigantic, publicly-traded mega-companies, Xbox is now stuck in a cycle of thinking back-to-front. It, and I suspect much of the video game world, no longer knows why it exists.

Source: Eurogamer

VGC wrote:It’s now clear that when Microsoft completed its $75 billion buyout of Activision–Blizzard in October last year, it fundamentally changed the makeup of its Xbox division and, in the process, put all of its other studios in jeopardy.

Source: VGC

Kotaku wrote:Some time ago, Xbox promised it would invest in its creators and allow them to make the distinct worlds that they wanted to create. At the time, I would’ve told you that Xbox might nurture those teams and games, since it clearly saw enough value in them to purchase them outright. This week, Xbox not only reneged on that commitment, but went so far as to punish the very people it once emboldened to dream big. That isn’t leadership, it’s cowardice, and unfortunately, that appears to be Xbox’s future.

Source: Kotaku

The shutdown of Tango Gameworks, the studio behind Hi-Fi Rush, has surprised people the most. The game was considered an Xbox hit, winning praise among critics and making its way to PS5 earlier this year. Even Microsoft was happy with Hi-Fi Rush...
...Did Hi-Fi Rush really not meet that bar? Now, there will be inevitable questions about what other Xbox games aren’t “best positioned for success.”

Source: The Verge

ITSMILNER wrote:

twitter.com/verge/status/1788355578797904275

Today, one day after Microsoft announced that it would shut down four of its games studios, Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, held a town hall to discuss the division's future goals. "We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards," Booty told employees, according to internal remarks shared with The Verge.

For some listeners on the call, it was a surprising goal: Microsoft had just shut down the Japanese developer Tango Gameworks, which was coming off the small, prestigious hit title Hi-Fi Rush.

You couldn’t make it up what the hell is going on over at MS?

They don’t have a clue do they?

rinks wrote:Doom-mongers already predicting the demise of Ninja Theory, on the basis that MS aren't promoting Hellblade 2 enough.

https://www.eurogamer.net/hellblade-2-i ... more-noise

7 years to make, by the studios admission, a short game (which I will add, is not a bad thing at all in the age of humongous games becoming the norm) isn’t exactly great form, I’m sure it’ll be amazing and it’ll be a visual treat, but it’s a long time to work on one short game, I think one of the things that might save them this time around is that they were probably a very cheap studio to buy compared to a lot of the others, have a small amount of staff etc. Of course they could still get axed, which would be a shame.

Edit, I would like to add that taking 7 years to make the game they want isn’t a bad thing, if they were an independent studio, but being owned by Microsoft when they’re culling studios, 1 game in 7 years isn’t a lot.

Warner Bros. Says the Failure of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League Contributed to a $200 Million Hit to Revenue

https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... s-confirms

Maybe Rocksteady next on the chopping block.

Monkey Man wrote:

Warner Bros. Says the Failure of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League Contributed to a $200 Million Hit to Revenue

https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... s-confirms

Maybe Rocksteady next on the chopping block.

And yet Warner Bros have said that the ongoing, "live" type of game is what they will be focusing on!

I'm not actually against ongoing, live games; I play one of them pretty much all of the time. Of course, they have to be entertaining, long-lasting and with reasonable costs, though.

twitter.com/CaveJohnson/status/1788387592037417323

What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

Monkey Man wrote:

Warner Bros. Says the Failure of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League Contributed to a $200 Million Hit to Revenue

https://www.ign.com/articles/suicide-sq ... s-confirms

Maybe Rocksteady next on the chopping block.

Good, it's not been the same since he stopped using IanF as a username.

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

Aperture Laboratories is the company in Portal 1 and 2

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

This gave me a good laugh, thank you.

at least glados didn't kill 'em

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

It's a good parody account then These days it can be hard to tell the difference sadly.

Robbo-92 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

It's a good parody account then These days it can be hard to tell the difference sadly.

I take it you've not played the Portal games?

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

It's a good parody account then These days it can be hard to tell the difference sadly.

I take it you've not played the Portal games?

I have not

Robbo-92 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

It's a good parody account then These days it can be hard to tell the difference sadly.

These days, if you don't understand a parody, you get arrested and thrown in jail.*

*that's a slightly altered Stewart Lee joke posted as a parody btw. Nobody is going to jail just for that because the jails are too full of English people.

Moggy wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

Robbo-92 wrote:What a way to find out you’re about to be made redundant

That post is a parody account making fun of the companies doing the layoffs.

It's a good parody account then These days it can be hard to tell the difference sadly.

These days, if you don't understand a parody, you get arrested and thrown in jail.*

*that's a slightly altered Stewart Lee joke posted as a parody btw. Nobody is going to jail just for that because the jails are too full of English people.

Why are English people in jail?