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[jcorb]

It's obviously super, super shitty that the industry is in such a state that even successful teams are being closed. Having gone through a layoff recently myself, I know firsthand how much that can affect your life.

But I suppose part of me wonders, if you're a team that works really well together, and you're already producing content... what would prevent you from collectively banding together and just starting a new team to work on a new project?

I'd started a small LLC a few years ago, and while it was absolutely a stressful endeavor, I was also the only person involved initially. I would think having a team working in unison, you would be able to start a new company extremely quickly.

Logistically, I suppose the biggest impediments would be not having a lot of capital to start with. But if you can show you're a group of people who've proven they can produce games that net money, I would *think* you would be able to secure a substantial loan.

But I've also never started a larger company before, and having never worked in the gaming industry, maybe there are a lot of factors I'm not considering or overlooking?

 

[JCK75]

I mean they could make a kickstarter for a project.. But I'm guessing they want to keep paying bills/feeding their families so have a resume that would land them in another studio

 

[baphomet]

The amount of money to start one is prohibitive these days.

Unless you're making indie stuff.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

What makes a studio isn't just the employees. You have the equipment, tools engine, documentation, building, IP, e.t.c.

You can bring the old crew back together but you're going to have to create the tech stack from scratch from memory. At best you could sublease the space that was previously utilized and potentially buy the equipment back, but the tech stack and documentation... gone.

Even if you use something like Unreal Engine, any customizations aren't coming with you. All of the assets you've built in the past... gone...

 

[ElRenoRaven]

Yea pretty much just money. Hell look at how many folks have started their own studios and sometimes multiple times. After all as mentioned above you're basically having to start from scratch again and that isn't cheap.

 

[Topher]

My understanding is that studios get bought primarily for the IP.

 

[adamsapple]

The talent may as well gather and form a new studio but they will not retain the rights or licenses to the IP they made before, that would stay with the publisher. Unless the publisher specifically relinquishes them.

 

[SidViscous]

They close studios because they are losing the publishers money, you'd have to be pretty stupid to then risk your own money with the exact same team. What tends to happen is some of the talent will stick together and make their own team, and leave the people who didn't bring much to the table to.. well, go somewhere else.

If you look into the history of Bizarre Creations, you'll see a lot of them did go on to form other studios, which then failed, and some poor souls even repeated the process a third time, despite making solid games at every studio they formed. It's tough out there.

 

[CamHostage]

They close studios because they are losing the publishers money, you'd have to be pretty stupid to then risk your own money with the exact same team.

Eh, there are lots of different factors to why a studio closes, i wouldn't say the typical reason even is, "We're awful together. "

However, you are right that if a company was shut down in tough economic times, you are up against it trying to get a new investor to believe you won't lose their money too.

 

[Dazraell]

I mean, there were some studios which have risen on the ashes of the closed studios, but the catch here is that they no longer have the backing of the publisher, access to the IP they were working, their offices and technology they were using. So you basically have to start over, which is not an easy task

Obsidian and inXile are good example as they were founded after Black Isle Studios and Interplay were closed by people who worked there. inXile even managed to secure rights to one of Interplay's games (The Bard's Tale)

 

[Kataploom]

I guess it's money... And actually that happens sometimes I guess, like some people burnt out of AAA wanting to still make games join and do their thing, but it's far from a secure investment

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Livin' that github life:
Money.
A product to work on.
Staff to work on said product.

If you are going the whole in person office thing:
A whole lot of Money.
A product to work on
Staff to work on said product.

 

[kruis]

It's obviously super, super shitty that the industry is in such a state that even successful teams are being closed. Having gone through a layoff recently myself, I know firsthand how much that can affect your life.

But I suppose part of me wonders, if you're a team that works really well together, and you're already producing content... what would prevent you from collectively banding together and just starting a new team to work on a new project?

The problem with game development is that you'll only reap the rewards of all that work at the very end: when the game is done and being sold.

I think you can now see the problem even when a small studio like Tango Gameworks is shut down. That studio had 35 employees. If you keep that whole group together in order to create a new game, you need financing to pay the salaries for 35 people for 3-4 years, rent office space in Tokyo, buy computer equipment, office supplies, etc. You'd need $5 million a year to keep that team of people working together and there's no guarantee at all that a $15-20 million investment to let TG create a new AA+ game will be profitable in the end.

 

[Chukhopops]

- crowdfunding money now tends to favor smaller projects, you rarely see big multi-million fundraisers and even that wouldn’t be enough to run a project from start to finish;
- publisher owns whatever IPs you were working on so you have to switch your project to a lesser known white label equivalent;
- interest rates are high so money is overall more expensive to get;
- publisher will probably to retain and reassign some people from the closing studio so you may lose important people.

 

[SaintALia]

People do that all the time in the game industry. The studio doesn't even have to close either, just some people can just up and leave and poach some staff, like what happened to Armature Studios and Retro. But just because you can leave, even if you do manage to start up a next company, there's no guarantee your projects make it, or have luck in finding decent publishers who won't leave you high and dry.

Armature is still around, but the biggest game they ever made was ReCore, and I remember people expected big things from that studio, it was like the core team of OG Metroid Prime after all.

Lots of studios just crash and burn though, and Kickstarter usually doesn't cover the budget for a lot of games projects. The initial capital to start a videogame company would be the least of your problems in the overall fuckery of the videogame industry I would think. I've seen so many great studios just go up in flames over the years and heard so many fucked up stories about them. Pour out some for Bullfrog, Acclaim, Silicon Graphics, Core Design, Left Field Productions, Factor 5 and so many many more....

 

[Last Hearth]

The same thing that’s preventing you from playing games all day and never show up for work. Money.

 

[Shakka43]

You hear about "Spiritual successor" and "from the developers of X game" all the time from the indie scene and many times they just crash and burn with no games to show for. Keeping Studios afloat without proper backing is hard as hell, more so these days.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

$$$$$$

 

[SHA]

Being smarter than the younger devs, it's the Tech industry, unfortunately, you're defined by your skills, not your age, if you can't figure it out then you're not the right person to stay relevant in the industry.

 

[Pelta88]

Something like “Theory Ninja”

 

[OGM_Madness]

I mean, what’s stopping Sony from grabbing the studio behind Hi-Fi Rush, renamed them to Bolero Game Studios and releasing a rhythm-based action-adventure game with Cel-shaded graphics called Lo-Fi Hyperdrive?

 

[Schmendrick]

If only....

 

[Gambit2483]

My understanding is that studios get bought primarily for the IP.

That's primarily true for the Western gaming industry and why it's eventually going to die a slow death.

They don't value talent, only IP. They buy a studio for the IP then close the studio and either 1. Do nothing with the IP or 2. Try to recreate the magic of the IP with a new studio that has no team chemistry, synergy or talent needed to work together the way the previous team did.

Just look at how MS screwed up with RARE and then The Initiative when trying to bring back a dead RARE IP (i.e. Perfect Dark) That's how to NOT create a new studio to develop an existing IP.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Money...

It's something crazy like $10,000 per head per month to cover salary overheads and keep the lights on. That probably doesn't even cover middle-ware tool royalties/subscriptions etc..

If your studio just got closed then your entire codebase, toolchain and engine are the property of the studio's former owner. So you'll be starting from scratch, on your own personal dime. If you're aiming for AAA, it'll be 2 years of start-up costs before you even get into full production on your next game.