Industry news thread?

[samadriel]

I figured a thread for industry news might have some appeal.

I was fucking heartbroken by an email from Mimimi today saying that Shadow Gambit (which came out about a fortnight ago) will be the studio's last game, basically because they're becoming too big and expensive for the niche genre they specialise in (Commandos style stealth strategy)

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/shadow-gambit-studio-mimimi-are-closing-down-to-prioritize-our-well-being

. I haven't felt this pissed off at the folding of a games company since Sega had to stop making consoles; it kills me that the industry can pour endless military shooter deathmatches down our gullets and they just sell and sell and sell, while once again, brilliant, innovative game making goes insufficiently rewarded. I hope a splinter group forms from Mimimi and keeps the genre alive, because it would be a terrible waste for such brilliant designers not to be making stealth strategy games.

[Pink Gregory]

that's unfortunate, when they got the Desperados license I assumed that was a sign that they were becoming something of a feted developer, but I guess Desperados is fairly niche in the first place.  Even if another Commandos game got made you'd think the takeup would still be fairly minimal.

[Pink Gregory]

Makes you wonder what Larian are going to do after BG3.

[Ignatius_S]

Makes you wonder what Larian are going to do after BG3.

They're taking a break - the head of the studio discussed this publicly, last month.

He also said they're planning another Divinity game.

[Ignatius_S]

Sad news but given the reality of the industry and burnout, not entirely unexpected. The statement on the website was well-worded and emphasised the importance of quality of life.

[Lemming]

Sucks to hear about Mimimi, Desperados 3 was easily one of the best games of the past decade. I've been playing Shadow Gambit on and off and while it's not quite grabbed me in the way Desperados did, it's still a great game.

It's odd because there were a few articles not long ago about how they wanted to move away from the Commandos clone genre. Which is fair enough, but I suppose something's happened in the last few months that's made them just decide to pack it in entirely.

What's our hope for the future of the stealth strategy/real-time tactics genre now that Mimimi are gone? Stargate: Timekeepers is meant to be coming soon, but other than that, I think Mimimi were the only ones keeping the genre going.

[Pink Gregory]

Did Shadow Tactics/Desperadoes/Shadow Gambit get console releases at all?

[oggyraiding]

Did Shadow Tactics/Desperadoes/Shadow Gambit get console releases at all?

All three did.

[Pink Gregory]

All three did.

then hopefully they carved out a space for that kind of game

[samadriel]

What's our hope for the future of the stealth strategy/real-time tactics genre now that Mimimi are gone? Stargate: Timekeepers is meant to be coming soon, but other than that, I think Mimimi were the only ones keeping the genre going.

Oo, I didn't know about the Stargate game, I'll have to read up on that.  As I said in the OP, I hope some of Mimimi's ex-employees pull a GSC Gameworld or a Crytek and form a splinter group making their own stealth strategy game, with blackjack and hookers.  Or vampires (there seemed to be a handful of mutually unrelated Vampire the Masquerade games awhile back, I don't know why).  Or cyberpunk (I was hoping for something high-tech before Mimimi announced pirates for SG). 

[Ignatius_S]

Some reports that Embracer might be selling off Gearbox.

https://www.marketscreener.com/amp/quote/stock/EMBRACER-GROUP-AB-PUBL-61747448/news/Sweden-s-Embracer-weighs-options-for-Borderlands-maker-Gearbox-Entertainment-sources-44812472/

[samadriel]

Hello de facto stealth strategy thread! Just as I was wondering who was going to replace Mimimi in this genre, Kalypso announced the return of the Commandos series... and this time it's not some fucking FPS!

What do we know so far?

• it's an origin story.
• Although the graphics are a little crude at this stage, the art direction seems nice
• destructible terrain (the hangars), which is nothing new for Commandos, but they could expand on it.
• No more prerendered backdrops? C2 looked great,  but I think Mimimi have proven that 3D can look really good.

I don't know if I trust the devs, (I edited this post because initially I thought it was Pyro Studios making this, but I doubt they're around anymore) there's no guarantee that they've learned from the shitty Commandos 3, and IMO they don't understand the genre they created as much as Mimimi did (giving everyone the cigarette trick in C2 made the game design nicer for beginners, but it's ridiculously overpowered; Mimimi improved that strategy greatly in all their games by giving the equivalent trick to just one character per game. I hope maybe they'll headhunt a bunch of ex-Mimimi devs?

Edit:  oh,  here's some stuff,  but it doesn't tell you much else apart from that the game will have a freeze-and-plan thing like the Mimimi games (natch) ,  and there'll be 2 player co-op, both split screen and online,  which doesn't really interest me but a lot of more social gamers will love it.

https://www.dsogaming.com/news/commandos-origins-is-coming-to-pc-in-2024/

[Pink Gregory]

Microsoft bought ActiBlizzard then.

Outside of general anticapitalist sentiment - I mean you can't really say this is particularly worse than any other industry - I can't say I'm particularly arsed.  All the owned developers I care about (Arkane, Machine Games) have been under the umbrella for a while anyway and I don't have Microsoft hardware so hard to see how, personally, it will affect my gaming life.

Hard to see as well how Microsoft will take a particularly different tack to what ActiBlizz were already doing, in broad strokes. 

Obvs. consolidation isn't ideal overall, and this success could lead to other acquisitions but we're past the point of it being resisted.

[oggyraiding]

I think where they're going to be heavily scrutinised is that they promised to bring future CoDs to PS5, and also to the Switch, as a concession to prove it's not anticonsumer. Switch can't handle CoD, and PS5 versions are going to be examined to make sure there's parity with the Series X.

I like to think MS will detoxify ActiBlizz, but that might me being overly optimistic.

[Pink Gregory]

Is anyone really clamouring for CoD on Switch?  I guess it would sell enough on brand recognition even if the ports were below-par.  Sales is sales if you're getting a percentage I guess.

[oggyraiding]

I imagine there's people who would be into Warzone but portable, even if it looks and/or runs like absolute shite.

[Ignatius_S]

I think where they're going to be heavily scrutinised is that they promised to bring future CoDs to PS5, and also to the Switch, as a concession to prove it's not anticonsumer. Switch can't handle CoD, and PS5 versions are going to be examined to make sure there's parity with the Series X.

I like to think MS will detoxify ActiBlizz, but that might me being overly optimistic.

Microsoft signed a ten-year deal with Ubitus, a cloud-based service used for Switch versions of games - and realistically, that would be viable to get COD running.

Plus the next Switch is likely to be next year.

[Ignatius_S]

Is anyone really clamouring for CoD on Switch?  I guess it would sell enough on brand recognition even if the ports were below-par.  Sales is sales if you're getting a percentage I guess.

This is part of a long-term strategy. MS is wanting to better exploit a huge Nintendo user base and the companies have different target audiences.

[bgmnts]

Feel like this counts.

Bragging about their immense user base.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-67332123

Yet, cutting almost a fifth of staff:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66953910

Juicy lovely capitalism mmmmm gimme

[samadriel]

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2023/12/sega-says-its-a-good-time-to-revisit-its-treasure-trove-of-ip

What is all this?  Should I trust Sega because everyone says, say, Yakuza is good, or is this just a bunch of empty, idle talk that will result in cynical IP-mining rather than good games?

Hey, how hard can it be to make a good new Crazy Taxi? (Yah yah yah yah yah)

[Beagle 2]

If these reboots look like they do on that trailer but are kept as pure Sega arcade experiences without all the tedium of modern games then I'm very interested. I want to play new Golden Axe right now.

[Blinder Data]

a while ago i was chatting to a guy who said he worked for a video games company. i asked which one and he said he wasn't allowed to say. i whispered "...Rockstar?" but he didn't divulge a drop of gossip

is this normal in the industry? employees can't even tell people that they work for the company? or is it for super special companies (e.g. Rockstar)?

[gabrielconroy]

MIRock5tar

[Ignatius_S]

a while ago i was chatting to a guy who said he worked for a video games company. i asked which one and he said he wasn't allowed to say. i whispered "...Rockstar?" but he didn't divulge a drop of gossip

is this normal in the industry? employees can't even tell people that they work for the company? or is it for super special companies (e.g. Rockstar)?

There are some companies, who produce games or contribute to their development but whose involvement is kept secret, which can be for a range of reasons.

This may not be the best analogy but it fits one reasons why it happens - marketing. This is common in publishing - celebrity autobiographies, which usually employ ghostwriters in secret, is an obvious  example but it happens with creative work.  A friend of a friend of mine has worked for a prolific novelist and screenwriter, I think this was for one of their shows (but have a feeling they have worked for them on a few things), where they wrote the whole thing but the famous writer took sole credit for - the latter gave them a very vague story (sounded like it was more like a very rough sketch and most of the details hadn't been worked out) and they had to go from there. I believe that's how they have worked for years - their brand is so strong, that people will want to read or watch their 'work' in a way that something 'based on an idea by' wouldn't. A big company could find it easier to market a game as being entirely from them, than it being perceived as being dependent on outsourcing. In Japan, I believe this is quite common.

Some companies will produced white-label games, which other companies will use their own branding on. This is very common for a lot of online games, such a casino ones.

There are also times where a company will get credited for their involvement in a game but until that is made public, they can not say anything publicly. In the past, I've read that sometimes people were surprised to see that their studio was credited in the end.

[Beagle 2]

Interesting! I met a woman at a party once who worked for the Pokémon company and was asking her about how and why they are tied to Nintendo, just out of interest. She spilled the beans about something big and top secret they were working on, which to be honest I didn't really understand, but now realise was Pokémon Go, and I said I was a games journalist and thanked her for the info for a story I was working on. This was a joke I very quickly retracted when she went white as a sheet and looked like she was about to cry.

[samadriel]

Perhaps a Japanese example would be DIMPS, who very rarely ever get mentioned in FGC conversation,  but who are (were?) the beating heart behind Street Fighter (IV and V, at least;  their Wikipedia page doesn't mention VI).

[Kelvin]

I see Free Radical (timesplitters) have been shutttered, as result of Embracer Group's calamitous fuckup earlier this year.

[Inspector Norse]

I met a woman at a party once

*humblebrag*

she went white as a sheet and looked like she was about to cry.

Now that's the CaB way.

[Ignatius_S]

I see Free Radical (timesplitters) have been shutttered, as result of Embracer Group's calamitous fuckup earlier this year.

Yes - also in Embracer new this month, there has  been an unspecified number of New World Interactive staff that have lost their jobs this month.

At the end of last month (approximately) 50 people at Fishlabs have been laid off, which means the studio is less than half the size it was after the layoffs in September.  Earlier in November, it had been confirmed that 900 people had lost their jobs on the quarter.

[Ignatius_S]

Interesting! I met a woman at a party once who worked for the Pokémon company and was asking her about how and why they are tied to Nintendo, just out of interest. She spilled the beans about something big and top secret they were working on, which to be honest I didn't really understand, but now realise was Pokémon Go, and I said I was a games journalist and thanked her for the info for a story I was working on. This was a joke I very quickly retracted when she went white as a sheet and looked like she was about to cry.

Haha, that's a mean joke to play! I wouldn't be surprised that some people just say they can't talk about their work so they don't let anything slip.

I've read a couple of articles about secret game companies in the last - had a Quick Look and found this one - https://www.polygon.com/2015/9/30/9394355/the-secret-developers-of-the-video-game-industry

It's from 2015, so rather old but a fair bit of interesting information.