You forgot Rare on that list.
I hate that Team Bondi released a fucking awesome game, and just gets canned. So tough.
But are those the types of games that need to sell a million in order for the publisher/developer to do well? I look at something like Yakuza. Those games have never sold a million units and the mainline titles usually sell around 500k. That may seem like a low number compared to other major titles, but that's been enough for Sega to allow them to create their own studio. I can't imagine them doing that unless the sales were at a point where they're making a decent profit on the titles. You also have the Tales titles. I remember people saying that Xillia looked like a HD Wii title. And some even speculated that it was originally a Wii game that was turned into a PS3 title. So if it was a Wii title then that means that they managed to cut back on costs while creating the third best selling game in the franchise.
It just really doesn't seem like Japanese developers bet big on games that aren't surefire big sellers. Square's obviously going to put a lot of money into FF, DQ and KH because they know that they're going to sell millions. They took a shot at putting a large chunk of money into an unproven IP (TLR) earlier this gen, but it seems like they've backed off from doing that since then. Capcom has really been the only company that gambles a lot with unproven games and big budgets. They've done that with Dead Rising, Lost Planet and they're currently betting big on Dragon's Dogma. But they really seem to be the only one that's constantly willing to take that gamble.
That's an issue with the Western market. You really don't see many Japanese developers attempting to compete with that model. They develop low or mid-range console titles (in terms of budget) and they also develop handheld titles. The lack of handheld titles from Western studios is something that really sticks out. When they do develop the titles they often just come across as being something that they really don't care about. Just look at most of UBI's titles from their major franchises.
Here's another Home space from them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ii6HM4_uYY
I'd like to note that while Western developers don't make handheld titles, they do make downloadable, iOS, social, and free 2 play titles.When discussing the Japanese market at large, I totally agree. It is much easier for the majority of lower-tier publishers and developers to stay alive with the usual low sales and staying at a lower tech level.
But let's not ignore the fact that climbing the tech ladder does impact several major Japanese developers (and their publishers). We're looking at reduced sales at the sales ceiling for each generation in Japan for all the major tech driven systems. The PSP has no million sellers other than the Monster Hunter Portable series. The PS3 has no million sellers other than FFXIII. Current Vita games are not even breaking 100k. Yet at the top end of the spectrum those games aren't costing less to make, but more.
I expect that list to triple next gen.
Graphics/budgets do not need to accelerate.
Oh, Bright Light also closed.
That's the big question for me next gen, can developers and console maufacturers find a way to reduce the amount of budget inflation. Because if it goes up anything like this gen, a lot of devs are going under and most won't be able to compete.
If I had to guess, I would say that there are probably more people working in video game development now than ever before in history.Much of this talent has been reconstituted in to social/portable gaming. I'd be more interested in knowing if there are more or less game development staff now than there was in 2006.
In other words, I can imagine that there are legitimately less people making games today, but I can also imagine that much of this is simply evidence of a slow migration away from consoles and towards other types of platforms.
There are a lot of devs on that list that had great successes.I thought team bondi had a huge success with LA NOIRE.
I expect that list to triple next gen.
Graphics/budgets do not need to accelerate.
Define small. When Bizarre was gone, there were news of a few new small groups that popped up. But when you're dealing with places that are 1-2 man teams, then what happened to the remaining staff?I know this is kinda not with the topic but Im curious how many studios have been created since 2006 including smaller ones.
I thought team bondi had a huge success with LA NOIRE.
Also, these closing aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be. How about someone do the same for 2000-2006? see how many closed also.
What kind of thinking is this?
Graphics and budgets should not improve because studios are closing? No thank you. Survival of the fittest.
Define small. When Bizarre was gone, there were news of a few new small groups that popped up. But when you're dealing with places that are 1-2 man teams, then what happened to the remaining staff?
Clover Studios (Capcom) - 2006
What kind of thinking is this?
Graphics and budgets should not improve because studios are closing? No thank you. Survival of the fittest.
What a sad list. Who owns Bomberman now?
No, they shouldn't.
Everyone doesn't drive a Ferrari to work do they?
Not every game needs to be a 40 million seller with bump mapped nipple hair.
What kind of thinking is this?
Graphics and budgets should not improve because studios are closing? No thank you. Survival of the fittest.
FASA : ( I want 343i/Certain Affinity to resurrect the rumored 5 nearly finished maps Shadowrun had and release them to download, I'd pay so much money for those.
Hollywood releases tons of flops. The hits pay for nearly everything. People sometimes suggest that game revenue tops box office, which is astoundingly short-sighted. Hollywood has so many revenue streams for their product. Theater box office, DVDs, pay-per-view, pay cable, airplane viewing, hotel pay per view -- and that's just for the actual product. Throw in product placement, arcane tax manipulation that would put Quebec-located game studios to shame, licensed merchandising...It's not much different than any other industry. If you are spending millions of dollars and releasing flops, you cannot stay expect to stay around much longer.
Hah! Yes, though for the founders of studios that were acquired by the major publishers, the acquisition is probably a gigantic success.Key to success: Don't be owned by a major publisher.
Even Rockstar's not going to put up with a dev studio culture that dysfunctional.I hate that Team Bondi released a fucking awesome game, and just gets canned. So tough.
And then back on the first hand, we should tally up the number of downsized developers too. A studio that doesn't close, but goes from 400 to 100 people (Radical, for example) has lost a lot of people.I know this is kinda not with the topic but Im curious how many studios have been created since 2006 including smaller ones.
Saddest one on the list. Platinum hasn't come close to matching Clover's brilliance either.
FASA : ( I want 343i/Certain Affinity to resurrect the rumored 5 nearly finished maps Shadowrun had and release them to download, I'd pay so much money for those.
I wouldn't say that Square Enix has really backed off from doing it either. They have a brand new action RPG on UE3 which they're hiring extensively for, which is meant to be a big worldwide game. They're also investing heavily on their brand new next-generation internal engine, which indicates that they're following in Capcom's footsteps. Let's not forget that Versus isn't even out yet, and FFXIII-2 failed to sell even a million in Japan.
Sega has Binary Domain coming up, which is something they really want to push internationally to sell over a million. They're expecting Bayonetta-level success there, after having failed massively with Vanquish. If they were content on recycling Yakuza year after year, they wouldn't have taken on a project like Binary Domain. This indicates that they do want to push for larger titles which can do well on a bigger scale.
MGS is in a total clusterfuck position now. Considering it's one of the only franchises supporting Konami in consumer games sales, the last few releases certainly haven't been peachy at all. I don't think it's realistic to ignore all that's going on and say that it's not affecting Japan at all. It definitely is, just on a different scale.
The big players in Japan have high operating costs, and even if selling 500k might be enough to make a single project like Yakuza profitable, there is always a question of whether just being profitable for that project is enough to offset the other losses they make from the tons of other titles Sega releases which might not have broken even at all. That is why big publishers need solid dependable franchises which can sell millions, so they can always fall back on that even if somehow during a year nothing else makes money.
If you include studios with major layoffs and/or major course correction, you would be surprised who else is on it.boggling that Silicon Knights isn't on this list.