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[Durin]

Most obvious one to shed, along with Double Fine.

Except at least Double Fine puts out more product, Ninja Theory took forever on a short non-replayable game whose best feature is the quality of the mo-cap during cutscenes.

They should've managed these studios better though.

 

[tomato shrub]

MSxbox and Sony Ps had allot of disastrous failures, woke and dei infestations and bad decisions in the west. Only Nintendo remain strong. Continue that Nintendo

thats why Nintendo fucks consumers twice as hard as everyone else

their main audience children just dont know any better

 

[LordOcidax]

Well, saying that PS is more profitable than ever is nothing but a fact. Despite many missteps, they still have a successful gaming division.

Comparing Sony and Microsoft at this point is just bad faith.

I am not comparing.. I am saying that whats the point for us as a gamers of Sony being profitable when they are closing studios.

 

[bender]

thats why Nintendo fucks consumers twice as hard as everyone else

their main audience children just dont know any better

 

[GudOlRub]

Phil really was cancer to the industry after all.

All these studios acquired and being annihilated

You may run, you may hide. Phill will buy and use you as target practice nonetheless.

 

[xrnzaaas]

What the fuck is Microslop doing with a random decision like that? You either shut down the studio soon AFTER Hellblade 2 turned out be a huge flop or BEFORE announcing Senua (if you're not sure they'll deliver and don't want to invest xx million again).

The only reasonable explanation is that the studio had Geoff release the trailer as a way to help them survive and find a new publisher... but it's more likely Microslop is just that dumb.

 

[bender]

What the fuck is Microslop doing with a random decision like that? You either shut down the studio soon AFTER Hellblade 2 turned out be a huge flop or BEFORE announcing Senua (if you're not sure they'll deliver and don't want to invest xx million again).

The only reasonable explanation is that the studio had Geoff release the trailer as a way to help them survive and find a new publisher... but it's more likely Microslop is just that dumb.

 

[yogaflame]

Well, saying that PS is more profitable than ever is nothing but a fact. Despite many missteps, they still have a successful gaming division.

Comparing Sony and Microsoft at this point is just bad faith.

Despite of many bad decisions from ryan and hulst, Sony has to be thankful that PS fans are very patient, hopeful, and loyal to the PS brand. But its also running thin.

 

[Moonjt9]

What a shitshow over at Microsoft. Absolute cancerous company.

 

[Lord Panda]

Colossal failure of leadership. Nutella's head should be the one that rolls as well.

 

[Dragon_Rocks]

A video gaming forum celebrating the closure of a gaming studio…

I hate to see anyone lose their livelihood but they were neither giving what consumers wanted nor what their own employer wanted. Hard to justify keeping them around.

 

[kaizenkko]

I am not comparing.. I am saying that whats the point for us as a gamers of Sony being profitable when they are closing studios.

Ask Xbox fans. I'm sure they'd love for the Xbox division to be in the same financial shape as PlayStation. If you own a console and like it, it's obviously better for the company behind it to be profitable rather than bleeding money like Microsoft, isn't it?

But I don't understand your point. Sony has made some terrible decisions this generation, but it hasn't made ONLY terrible decisions. Their best studios are still alive and developing games. Microsoft, on the other hand, is on the verge of laying off staff and shutting down a dozen studios.

There's no reason to downplay Sony's results. They have the numbers they do because they clearly got some things right. People are in their ecosystem and buying games for a reason, not by accident.

 

[Ashamam]

Now we know why all the influencers were gifted hardware last week. Just a little motivation to look on the bright side when they post about all this.

Bit of a waste of money imo, they would likely stay positive as the flesh melts off their bones as they stand in the house burning down.

 

[Three]

That's why people parroting the "record profits" are mostly useful brand idiots. When you actually dig into their "record" profits it's bleak as fuck. They're milking their current customers, are making new customers, and aren't selling games. When the majority of your profits are from subscriptions and MTX that's not a sustainable business model, much less something worth bragging about.

Sonytoo (tm)

How exactly did you dig into their record profits?

They reported an increase in game sales and most of their income is not from subscriptions. You could argue that Digital software and addon content may be heavily driven by mtx but that's no different for the likes of Valve/Steam probably even more so for them. They cite game software titles sold as increasing and contributing to the increase in sales, not mtx.

I am not comparing.. I am saying that whats the point for us as a gamers of Sony being profitable when they are closing studios.

By mentioning Evolution Studios from 10 years ago?

 

[tomato shrub]

I hate to see anyone lose their livelihood but they were neither giving what consumers wanted nor what their own employer wanted. Hard to justify keeping them around.

tbf their employer is a shizophrenic clown show

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

 

[Danjin44]

Times like this makes me glad I'm fan of "weeb" games.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

Perhaps the path to recovery should be 'make games people want' not insert ideology into shitty passion projects or genderswaps

 

[adamsapple]

Phil really was cancer to the industry after all.

All these studios acquired and being annihilated

Bruh how are people honestly saying this?

Phil was keeping the studios afloat, the quarter after he left, the AI suites and Satya have started gutting them.

 

[jshackles]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

As much as I wanna shit on western game developers in general, the correlation here doesn't equal causation. The only commonality these studios that are in trouble have is that they're all owned by Microsoft.

 

[LectureMaster]

Asha be like:

 

[LordCBH]

 

[LordOcidax]

By mentioning Evolution Studios from 10 years ago?

DriveClub is my favorite racing game, and feels it was yesterday, i didn't even know that was 10 years ago.

 

[Konnor]

We are truly witnessing the complete and absolute decline on Western corporations throughout the world, it never used to be such a pathetic clownshow before, Sony conference is a joke full of DEI trash and the same old, boring "cinematic" recipe for games, Microsoft promises games and then a few days later closes down the devs, one after another old legendary developers release mid af games, meanwhile, hardware corps are fleecing customers as they focus more and more on providing hardware for AI slop grifting companies. They are all deeply unserious

It has come to the point where I'm starting to root for Chinese corporations to save us from this hell

 

[Brucey]

Call me crazy, but I think they may potentially not be competently managed.

But I'm not sure yet, I'll be fully convinced if this keeps up for another 5 console launches.

#TooSoonToTell

 

[bender]

Times like this makes me glad I'm fan of "weeb" games.

 

[LordOcidax]

Ask Xbox fans. I'm sure they'd love for the Xbox division to be in the same financial shape as PlayStation. If you own a console and like it, it's obviously better for the company behind it to be profitable rather than bleeding money like Microsoft, isn't it?

But I don't understand your point. Sony has made some terrible decisions this generation, but it hasn't made ONLY terrible decisions. Their best studios are still alive and developing games. Microsoft, on the other hand, is on the verge of laying off staff and shutting down a dozen studios.

There's no reason to downplay Sony's results. They have the numbers they do because they clearly got some things right. People are in their ecosystem and buying games for a reason, not by accident.

If you drop the warrior cape for a second you will understand, i am against any company closing studios. I am not attacking Sony. Just saying that Sony while been profitable still closing studios too.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Call me crazy, but I think they may potentially not be competently managed.

But I'm not sure yet, I'll be fully convinced if this keeps up for another 5 console launches.

It's the tools.

 

[Three]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

That's not entirely true though. Tango Gameworks was Japanese. So was Japan Studios. Cancelled games, we've had those too, deep down, scalebound, NCSofts Project M. There are plenty, especially ones that just silently disappear.

 

[yogaflame]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

And the two poison of western gaming and all industry: Woke and twisted DEI

 

[Bridges]

I would actually tried Bleeding Edge if it had bots.

Huge misstep to not have that option. I can't believe devs are spending 6+ years of their lives on projects and not including backup plans like private lobbies or bots. BE was a good time at launch but it was already clear it had no future before the first post-launch character came out. In terms of fun it was leagues above Hellblade II, at least.

 

[Gaiff]

Colossal failure of leadership. Nutella's head should be the one that rolls as well.

Nah. Microsoft went from 300 billion to 3 trillion under his leadership. Xbox is practically a rounding error and he doesn't give a fuck about it.

He let Phil run it to the ground.

 

[digoutyoursoul]

Bleeding Edge
Hellblade 2

Yeah they haven't exactly been great let's be honest here , as much as I criticise Xbox , they are two disappointing games in my opinion.

 

[kaizenkko]

If you drop the warrior cape for a second you will understand, i am against any company closing studios. I am not attacking Sony. Just saying that Sony while been profitable still closing studios too.

And I agree with that. But it's not comparable to Microsoft. Not at all, not even close.

If Sony didn't have such a successful division, many more studios would have been shut down.

 

[SHAKEZ]

So that whole "Senua" game was like "please, please don't shoot we're making real game now, look!"

 

[deriks]

If Hellblade 2 was released alongside Series consoles I would complain about Microsoft cutting Ninja Theory, but since they took a lot of time and money to release a longer tech demo, I'm with Xbox on this. Too much promisses, too late to the party

 

[Konnor]

Also something else I wanted to mention real quick: anyone else realize that this bloodbath in studio closures, layoffs, cancelled games etc. is almost exclusively a Western problem, particularly in the AAA space?

Japan's going strong. South Korea & China are growing. The indie space is generally stable & healthy. It's almost as if all the bad shit is confined to Western publishers & studios. Once again, the Western games industry more or less chased fads and overinflated trends to attempt growing too big, too fast, and now everything's crashing down. Bad market practices, bad investment practices, bad market incentives tied to peddling socioeconomic messages that were not at all appealing to the vast majority of the customer base...everything (for Western games companies) is just falling apart.

I dunno how the Western AAA market as a whole recovers from this, and maybe it's a good thing if they don't. You still have some who are mostly impervious to this: Take-Two and Roblox are the two which immediately come to mind. But they are dwarfed by the sea of those who are highly compromised in one way or another.

Step 1: Hire a bunch of unqualified diversity hires in order to be on the right side of history™
Step 2: Extend the DEI tactics to characters and stories as you condescendingly lecture the disgusting white males that are your main audience, and declare that you don't need them anymore
Step3: ???
Step 4: Loss

 

[Gabe ♥]

Well... it was a bad game, schizofrenic shit.

If XBOX want to do the things right, they should acquire and revive "mudang two hearts" and "gangs of dragon"

 

[LiquidMetal14]

And to think, I've read on here on occasion that's it's Sony who runs their studios poorly. You see this and Microsoft says hold my beer

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

I hope this is a loud clear message for developers to stop making games for the mythical modern audience or prepare yourselves for unemployment.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

And to think, I've read on here on occasion that's it's Sony who runs their studios poorly. You see this and Microsoft says hold my beer

Yeah, I'm not sure the strategy of GaaS and endless genderswaps / lesbian adventures is a viable one long term either ... we'll see.

 

[kiphalfton]

Why the fuck did they announce Senua last week just to shut them down?

Because Xbox is savage.

Meanwhile, the CEO/etc. will probably be seen wasting millions of dollars a week from now at a lavish galla or some shit.

 

[nick776]

You'd have to be an utter moron to buy any new Xbox hardware now, if they do end up making anything new.

Been saying that myself. Only a total idiot would buy one.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Yeah, I'm not sure the strategy of GaaS and endless genderswaps / lesbian adventures is a viable one long term either ... we'll see.

I agree with you on this. Never a fan of the woke penetration. Historically speaking Sony has done well. Recently not as well but I'm glad they're reversing on some things like GaaS

 

[ADiTAR]

Western creative as a whole is in the shitter rn, however the pendulum is def swinging back even ever so slowly.

You see it with Hail Marry, but turds still remain like Supergirl.

At some point everyone will realize they want to make money again, and where that money is.

 

[nick776]

Now we know why all the influencers were gifted hardware last week. Just a little motivation to look on the bright side when they post about all this.

Bit of a waste of money imo, they would likely stay positive as the flesh melts off their bones as they stand in the house burning down.

First time hearing about this, what hardware were they gifted?

 

[Brucey]

First time hearing about this, what hardware were they gifted?

X25 anniversary models:

Xbox Fans Go Wild As Asha Sharma Gives Free Consoles To Everyone At FanFest LA

Watch the reaction here

www.purexbox.com

 

[Esquie]

We're talking about peoples' livelihoods here so you don't want to be callous but yeah, cut the fat. Chance after chance for these studios and they release flop after flop. Ninja Theory, Compulsion, Double Fine, they're all literally just burning money.

I bet Turn 10 gets hit as well, or they have them move to the Playground Forza team.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

We're talking about peoples' livelihoods here so you don't want to be callous but yeah, cut the fat. Chance after chance for these studios and they release flop after flop. Ninja Theory, Compulsion, Double Fine, they're all literally just burning money.

I bet Turn 10 gets hit as well, or they have them move to the Playground Forza team.

I thought Turn 10 already got canned?

 

[TheCrowsReaper]

Microsoft are the worst thing that has ever happened to gaming. A true cancer. They are nothing but poison for our great hobby. Vile and disgusting, they are.