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List of studios closed since 2006

duckroll

Member
All i'm really saying is that it seems like the model in Japan is a lot more stable than the model in the West. This is largely because they can balance the low and mid-range titles with the larger budget titles. I think that's where the big difference is (along with the handheld example that I gave earlier). That market really doesn't seem to exist in the West, and that ends up forcing those developers to bet big or go home. So you see THQ pumping 35-50m into Homefront just so it can be mentioned in the same breath as Battlefield and Call of Duty.

I don't really agree here. It might simply be perceived this way because there are more visible smaller JP publishers and developers, and at the same time all the well known big western publishers happen to compete on the blockbuster level. There is really no actual real world reason why you cannot operate a smaller western publisher/developer making games with a team of 30-60 people at most, releasing games which sell 200-500k, and still make a healthy profit.

The reason why the big western publishers chase after multi-million sales is because they operate on a business model of expansion, growth and increasingly high returns. They are public companies and they want to increase their public value by dominating mindshare in the public's eye. When these companies fail, like THQ has, it is just poor business management and unrealistic expectations. No one forced them into this position, they forced themselves.
 

Ravidrath

Member
digital anvil :(

I knew some people there, and... I wish I could say I was surprised they closed?

They really didn't seem to know much about shipping games, which is strange given the talent they had... but then again, they all came from Origin. They were also the most negative bunch of people I've seen in the industry - a palpable, acute anti-Origin bitterness permeated that company, but it was just directed to complaining and not competing.

I heard some insane stories about Chris Roberts. He was completely distracted with the castle he was building, and apparently his "direction" was generally limited to things like "I don't like green - make it blue." An employee at the time told me that was the entirety of his contribution to... whatever that space RTS they made that was cut and later released by UbiSoft. Which was apparently pretty good in the end, if I recall?

In '96 or '97, I saw an early demo of Tony Zurovec's (head of the Crusader team) new game, Loose Cannon. I was pretty blown away at the time, and looking back... man, it could've been something. When I saw it, it was basically shaping up to be GTA3... six years early. Fully 3D, open world mission-based mercenary gameplay. It looked like they had a great engine, great tools and there was a core of a game there... but they just floundered for years instead of finishing it.

If I had to guess what happened, I'd say there was just too much money. They threw a lot of cash around to get people there and told people they were the best and had made it. I guess the the employees believed it and got too comfortable, and so there wasn't any drive to finish.
 

Vinci

Danish
What kind of thinking is this?



Graphics and budgets should not improve because studios are closing? No thank you. Survival of the fittest.

I actually agree with this, as insane as that might be to people who know my opinion of things. But... I personally believe the reason why people bitch and moan about the price of retail console titles is that the market is flooded with a lot of similar content, thereby lowering the value of each release, particularly those appearing within a certain timeframe of another one. This also leads to people carrying tabs with used game stores in order to keep up with the frequency of releases.

I used to think game publishers would eventually figure this out and diversify, but that hasn't happened to the extent I assumed it would. Therefore, perhaps they'll need to be raked across the coals by another rise in budgets to force them into making wise decisions.

So yes, raise the budgets. Let these companies perish. Eventually there won't be as many making the sort of games you want, thereby increasing the value of those which do appear and allowing more sustainable business models to be adopted by the spin-offs of those companies.
 

Almighty

Member
All i'm really saying is that it seems like the model in Japan is a lot more stable than the model in the West. This is largely because they can balance the low and mid-range titles with the larger budget titles. I think that's where the big difference is (along with the handheld example that I gave earlier). That market really doesn't seem to exist in the West, and that ends up forcing those developers to bet big or go home. So you see THQ pumping 35-50m into Homefront just so it can be mentioned in the same breath as Battlefield and Call of Duty.

Some publishers/devs just need to accept or realize that they don't need to compete with Uncharted, Call of Duty, Gears etc. in terms of budget. And the gaming media actually needs to support those developers by giving their games coverage. You see Japanese sites/mags giving a lot of attention to titles that have small budgets (like Nippon Ichi or Gust titles) and that obviously helps them in the long run.

I think that that market does exist in the West its just on platforms that most gamers and therefor the gaming media doesn't pay much attention to. Personally I can think of quite a few PC devs that make titles that fall into what I would consider mid to low end range and from what i can tell do pretty well. I am assuming that there are even more that make games that are in areas I generally don't pay much attention to (F2P, social, etc) do to personal taste. Also I don't want to forget to mention that it seems like indie titles also seem to be doing pretty well on the PC. So the low end might be doing pretty well as well.

I think the problem from what I can see is that for whatever reason the mid tier for consoles has pretty much disappeared. Though in all honesty that might be a good thing for me as a PC gamer since it seems that while it is declining on the consoles it is getting better on the PC.

That at least is how I interpret what I have read over the years I could be off.
 
I think that that market does exist in the West its just on platforms that most gamers and therefor the gaming media doesn't pay much attention to. Personally I can think of quite a few PC devs that make titles that fall into what I would consider mid to low end range and from what i can tell do pretty well. I am assuming that there are even more that make games that are in areas I generally don't pay much attention to (F2P, social, etc) do to personal taste. Also I don't want to forget to mention that it seems like indie titles also seem to be doing pretty well on the PC. So the low end might be doing pretty well as well.

I think the problem from what I can see is that for whatever reason the mid tier for consoles has pretty much disappeared. Though in all honesty that might be a good thing for me as a PC gamer since it seems that while it is declining on the consoles it is getting better on the PC.

That at least is how I interpret what I have read over the years I could be off.

The mid tier never dissapeared from consoles, it just costs exactly the same as high quality games and thus isn't able to compete.

Variable pricing structures would go a long way to allow for more experimentation and more business models to flourish.

XBLA and Steam are a good beginning, but they aren't nearly enough yet.
 

stonedwal

Member
A few more Australian ones to add to the pack

Beam Software/Melbourne House. Sold by Atari to Krome Studios in 2007 and became Krome Studios Melbourne. Shuttered in October 2010, not long after their 30th anniversary. Deserves to be listed separately from Krome due to their history on the Spectrum/C64 in the 80s, SNES and PC in the 90s, and the awesome Le Mans 24 Hours and Transformers last decade. Though they did make a lot of bad NES games for LJN and Acclaim.

Redtribe. Started in 2007 or so, developed three games (Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal, Space Chimps and Jumper: Griffin's Story), ran out of money between projects.

IR Gurus/Transmission Games. Used to make AFL games, cricket games and Heroes Over Europe/of the Pacific. Was working on Sin City for Red Mile, license lost, studio down the gurgler not long after, but most of the people wound up working for Trickstar Games.
 

Coolwhip

Banned
That list will grow very fast with the next console if developers keep thinking they need to make games like weak movies. With more GRAPHICS, voice acting etc. The studios that realise simple, innovative games with 1% of the budget work just aswell, if not better will do fine.
 

wondermega

Member
underground development (used to be z-axis, they did aggressive inline, bmx xxx, and thrasher skateboarding way back in the day)
also surreal software, I believe..? and tilted mill & blue fang have pretty much bit the dust by now.. also thought that I heard collision was gone as well, and for that matter epicenter studios too.
 
you can throw action forms (of "carnivores" fame) up there if we're just chalking them up. they went dormant sometime after releasing cryostasis, one of my favourite games of the last five years, and since their website is now just a rampant malware hole, i think it's safe to call them dead.

yep. they are gone. as are a TON of other russian studios inside this timeframe. most of the studios 1C published games for, and several buka and russobit published as well.

1C have halted almost all internal development. and are mostly only doing localisation of american/european trash for the russian market now. gabe newell is very happy about this.
 

Almighty

Member
The mid tier never dissapeared from consoles, it just costs exactly the same as high quality games and thus isn't able to compete.

Variable pricing structures would go a long way to allow for more experimentation and more business models to flourish.

XBLA and Steam are a good beginning, but they aren't nearly enough yet.

It seems pretty sparse to me if I am being honest. Now I won't say that I know every game that releases on the consoles, but from doing a quick search it seems that most of the games fall into either high end big budget block busters or low end bargin or indie games. There are a couple middle of the road titles, but they seem to be few and far between.

It looks even worse when I think back and compare it to the previous generation(s). The Ps2 seemed to have plenty of mid tier titles for example.

You are right though in that something needs to be done(I just don't know what exactly) to allow mid ranged titles to thrive once again on the consoles.
 
Team Bondi :'(

Can't say I was surprised, McNamara was bound to run out of money the way he burned through cash like it was nothing, plus their game design had always been subpar at best.

I am surprised however that Ninja Theory is still around.

Pandemic and bigBIG bring particularly poignant tears to my eyes.

*sniff*

BigBig shutting down was pretty sad, Pandemic's case is proof that one bad game can sink a studio with a decent history.

Clover's closure should be blamed solely on Capcom as an incompetent publisher in terms of managing one of the most talented studio in history, hopefully karma will come back and bite Capcom in the ass once and for all.
 

sublimit

Banned
Man,so many great names in the OP's list... :(
solid-snake-saluting-in-metal-gear-solid-4.jpg
 

djtiesto

is beloved, despite what anyone might say
Flight Plan closed??? :( :( :( The Summon Night series was awesome!

That, Clover, CING, Hudson and IREM hit me the hardest.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Hudson hit me like a ton of bricks...

Was hudson getting eaten/repurposed a bigger deal in Japan? It'd almost be like SEGA being bought by capcom and only making facebook games, but I haven't seen the western community caring very much...

It also seemed to come out of freaking nowhere.

Non-licensed Hudson titles that broke 75k in Japan starting from 2005:
Momotarou Dentetsu (several installments)
Far East of Eden III
Sudoku Gridmaster
Fishing Master
Deca Sports (Deca Sports 1: 275k -> Decade Sports 2: 109k -> Deca Sports 3: 8k)
Karaoke Joysound (1: 250k -> 2: 90k -> 3: 20k)

Irrelevant publisher. Not remotely on the same league as Sega. Sega had, for example, 25 separate titles break 200k in that period of time. Or 78 titles break 75k.

Edit: Because someone notified me I'd be lynched over this, I need to be very clear here when I say I'm not judging the quality of their titles or their historical legacy or anyone's emotional connection to Hudson. They simply weren't an ongoing business concern as a publisher (MD aside). So really as long as Konami sells MD--and I think that MD is a good fit for social stuff--Konami is already leveraging Hudson's only business strength.
 

lupinko

Member
Half of Midway studios were bought by Warner Bros. Midway Chicago (now NetherRealms), Surreal Software and Midway San Diego. The latter was since bought by THQ and I think they are working on the UFC games.

THQ San Diego made WWE All-Stars, the UFC games are made by Yuke's.
 

Shaheed79

dabbled in the jelly
The irony about this list is that many bigger developers and VG "journalist" tried to put the blame on the Wii for so many publishers losing money, firing personnel and closing studios instead of the incredibly bloated budgets HD gaming brought to the forefront.

One last point: yes, this list is depressing, but I'm pretty sure the list of studios created from 2006-2012 is much longer than the one below.

While this is undoubtedly true, you can not really compare the vast majority of those new studios to the ones they were replacing since most of the new studios only make small iOS, Droid and social network type games.

I have no umbrage for 4.99 games and the studios that make them but most of those new game studios have very little in common with the ones the industry lost who made medium to large budget games.

Even the shovel-ware developers, every once in a while got to work on or graduated to making bigger more respectable retail projects.

It's like losing a Sony Vita someone buys you an Atari Lynx as a replacement.
 

Brashnir

Member
While this is undoubtedly true, you can not really compare the vast majority of those new studios to the ones they were replacing since most of the new studios only make small iOS, Droid and social network type games.

I have no umbrage for 4.99 games and the studios that make them but most of those new game studios have very little in common with the ones the industry lost who made medium to large budget games.

Even the shovel-ware developers, every once in a while got to work on or graduated to making bigger more respectable retail projects.

It's like losing a Sony Vita someone buys you an Atari Lynx as a replacement.

While it's true that these smaller developers often have little in common with the bigger studios that have closed, an impressive number of quality titles over the past several years have come from these small teams.

In some cases it's a negative, but in some ways, creative minds have been freed from the shackles of mid-tier corporate development. The good ideas coming from the indie space eventually make their way into projects from bigger developers -- such as Minecraft's success being an inspiration for Fortnite.
 

TedNindo

Member
I didn't know MS also closed ACES. I'm pretty much sure Microsoft Flight is gonna suck now.

To bad really. Because there aren't a lot of studios left that make propper flight simulators.
 
It seems pretty sparse to me if I am being honest. Now I won't say that I know every game that releases on the consoles, but from doing a quick search it seems that most of the games fall into either high end big budget block busters or low end bargin or indie games. There are a couple middle of the road titles, but they seem to be few and far between.

It looks even worse when I think back and compare it to the previous generation(s). The Ps2 seemed to have plenty of mid tier titles for example.

You are right though in that something needs to be done(I just don't know what exactly) to allow mid ranged titles to thrive once again on the consoles.

It's definetly true that those games are far less in numbers this generation as are the publishers who bring them out.

Also I want to make clear that I don't consider mid tier games to be inherently worse than top tier games. More often than not games are considered top tier by budget and marketing alone, not by merit of their own quality.


If you ask me, the biggest blow to mid tier developers and publishers was the ridiculous focus on franchises more than any move to HD (even if one could argue that it was that move to HD which has brought us to this franchise dominated market of today). In the current business model, only franchises really are able to thrive, while new IPs are as fragile as never before.

Everything is turned into a franchise for lack of trust in a varied IP catalogue.
You get iteration after iteration, and everyone and their dog wants to make trilogies and epic franchises spanning multiple installments out of everything.

That shit alone doesn't allow mid tier publishers to have any sort of market penetration as they are all too busy trying to get some major franchises off the ground with no financial war chest to support them.
 
In some cases it's a negative, but in some ways, creative minds have been freed from the shackles of mid-tier corporate development. The good ideas coming from the indie space eventually make their way into projects from bigger developers -- such as Minecraft's success being an inspiration for Fortnite.
I look at that as the exception than the rule. I've seen firsthand where the creative minds said fuck it, and go to a more stable environment: artists pack up and go towards animation studios; programmers pack up and move towards general software development. The temptation for more stability and greater pay may far exceed the desire to be in game development.
 

kswiston

Member
I still don't get why Ensemble was closed. From what I can tell, every game they ever made was at least a million seller. Halo Wars was the best selling console RTS game ever (not saying much, I know). Their Age of Empires games sold 20million copies in a little over a decade.
 

Brashnir

Member
I look at that as the exception than the rule. I've seen firsthand where the creative minds said fuck it, and go to a more stable environment: artists pack up and go towards animation studios; programmers pack up and move towards general software development. The temptation for more stability and greater pay may far exceed the desire to be in game development.

I'm looking at it from a game-output perspective, not from looking at individuals and their career choices.

The fact is that tons and tons of games are coming out nowadays from smaller developers. Some of these games are exceptional. Some are even creative and industry-transforming. History doesn't remember the guy who took the safe job and worked on a forgettable project.
 

Gaspode_T

Member
Add Hudson Soft to the list, they were regulated by Konami to be the social game arm of Konami but now they are getting completely shut down and will cease to exist after 3/1. end of an era. Hope news picks up of this and some articles are written, their impact on industry was not small.
 

kr2t0s

Member
Paradox - made Thrill Kill, Wu Tang, X-Men, Backyard Wrestling and Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.

I believe by the time they closed they were absorbed into Midway and may have been called Midway LA?
 
The problem is that it's survival of the biggest. I'm quite confident that there are many developers who have better ideas and/or more talent than, say, most EA developers have. But there's a problem: the first step in competing with EA is 1) Have 50 Million dollars to invest, develop, and market a game. The number of studios which have this at their disposal is very low.

This is why most creative markets with extremely high budgets (like console games, but also like movies) are also noted for creative stagnation. There's little reason for EA/Activision/Etc. to innovate when they only realistically have about 5 other competitors. Even very large companies like THQ cannot consistently compete, let alone anyone smaller.

So it really depends on what you consider to be the most important: innovation and creativity, or high production values? Because those two qualities are directly at odds in virtually every medium.

All of this is very true, and of a lot of different industries.

People always talk about free and fair competition and survival of the fittest in business, but truly free competition would never waste resources attempting to be fair. The concept that a free competitive system could function as an even playing field affected only by talent, effort, and desire is pure idealism and in reality proves to be ironic when put into practice.

Businesses don't survive because they have great ideas and innovation, they survive because they find ways to make or borrow more money than they have to spend; great ideas and innovation are merely another potential means to an end. As a company gets bigger, many things such as credit, leverage, stability, politics, all give them a leg up over smaller companies. Joe Blow can't wake up one morning and simply through force of will and desire start a production company. Everything business is and always has been about available resources and how to connect them and those that wish to use them. Nowadays however it's more like how to get between those resources and those that wish to use them, and how to stay there.

I suppose though that the reality of the world throughout human history is that millions of ideas perish before ever being heard, and talent is wasted constantly and in tremendous volumes.
 

Rufus

Member
Nowadays however it's more like how to get between those resources and those that wish to use them, and how to stay there.
Ha. This is why I feel that MMOs and 'social' games are the most devious pieces of entertainment ever devised. MMOs with monthly subscriptions especially thrive on monopolizing those 15$ of your monthly entertainment budget and big amounts of your time by offering something you want and a billion other things that target your compulsions, like a scab you can't help picking at. Social gaming on Facebook uses your voice to produce it's own word of mouth and then there's the whole tit-for-tat mechanic built into them, which uses 'being a nice person' to its advantage. Yeah of course I'm going to help out a friend on his imaginary, worthless farm. It's fucking ingenious. but I despise this type of design so, so much.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
I still don't get why Ensemble was closed. From what I can tell, every game they ever made was at least a million seller. Halo Wars was the best selling console RTS game ever (not saying much, I know). Their Age of Empires games sold 20million copies in a little over a decade.

Microsoft just got tired of running an RTS Studio.
 

Brashnir

Member
All of this is very true, and of a lot of different industries.

People always talk about free and fair competition and survival of the fittest in business, but truly free competition would never waste resources attempting to be fair. The concept that a free competitive system could function as an even playing field affected only by talent, effort, and desire is pure idealism and in reality proves to be ironic when put into practice.

Businesses don't survive because they have great ideas and innovation, they survive because they find ways to make or borrow more money than they have to spend; great ideas and innovation are merely another potential means to an end. As a company gets bigger, many things such as credit, leverage, stability, politics, all give them a leg up over smaller companies. Joe Blow can't wake up one morning and simply through force of will and desire start a production company. Everything business is and always has been about available resources and how to connect them and those that wish to use them. Nowadays however it's more like how to get between those resources and those that wish to use them, and how to stay there.

I suppose though that the reality of the world throughout human history is that millions of ideas perish before ever being heard, and talent is wasted constantly and in tremendous volumes.


I think you make some solid points overall, but I wanted to respond specifically to the bolded. First - Who is Joe Blow here? Is it some guy who may have a good idea, but knows nothing about programming or art or anything related to game design, or is it a guy who has an idea and the knowledge of how to implement it? Because if it's the latter, he certainly can do so, and many people have done just that. Now, he's not going to have the resources to put out a game that challenges the blockbuster franchises out there, but he could certainly release a smaller project on Steam or XBLIG, and if it gets seen by the right people, PSN or XBLA.

Some fantastic games in recent memory have come from one or a handful of guys setting out on their own and making a game. As years go by, these small teams that create hits may even grow and begin to put out bigger projects.

To the final bolded part - this is absolutely true in so many mediums. When art becomes business, so much quality and inspiration gets completely ignored. Sometimes they don't even get to a point where anyone who can make the idea reality even sees them. Sometimes they're seen and misunderstood. Sometimes they're even seen, understood and developed, yet fail to find or resonate with their audience for one reason or another.

It's both hard to conceptualize a great new idea when presented to you, and equally hard to transition those ideas into a marketable and profitable product. It's what makes these small teams so important for the future of the industry.
 

Ravidrath

Member
Microsoft just got tired of running an RTS Studio.

No, they were just looking to reduce overhead because of a depressed stock price.

Word also has it that there were managerial disputes with Bruce Shelley, and Ensemble's royalty agreement was too good by today's standards - closing the studio was really the only way to resolve both.
 

hwalker84

Member
Bizarre Creations (Activision) - 2010/2011
Black Rock (Disney) - 2011
Carbonated Games - 2008
Clover Studios (Capcom) - 2006
Digital Anvil - 2006
EA Chicago - 2007
Ensemble Studios (Microsoft) - 2008
FASA (Microsoft) - 2007
Pandemic Australia (EA) - 2009
Pandemic LA (EA) - 2009

dawson-crying.gif
 

bluemax

Banned
You can throw my former employer Savage Games on the list.

While the studio was "acquired" last year it was effectively shut down the year before.

I'm willing to bet there are a lot of similarly sized studios not on this list who didn't get major announcements of their closure.


underground development (used to be z-axis, they did aggressive inline, bmx xxx, and thrasher skateboarding way back in the day)
also surreal software, I believe..? and tilted mill & blue fang have pretty much bit the dust by now.. also thought that I heard collision was gone as well, and for that matter epicenter studios too.

Last I heard Collision studios was still around. They were actually across the parking lot from us. Their office was tiny and I felt bad for the people working there, but then again they outlasted us.


I'd love to see these plotted on a map.

Just go to GameDevMap.com, pretty much every studio on that map no longer exists.
 
I still don't get why Ensemble was closed. From what I can tell, every game they ever made was at least a million seller. Halo Wars was the best selling console RTS game ever (not saying much, I know). Their Age of Empires games sold 20million copies in a little over a decade.

Politics mostly. It isn't talked about much but there is an on going war between the os division and the entertainment division at Microsoft. They try to starve each others resources and close different shops to get an advantage.
 
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