Report: Transmission Games ceases communications with more than 20 staff
by Randy Nelson 
{ Oct 2nd 2009 at 12:00AM }
The developer has not publicly addressed the layoffs or its reasoning behind them, but its latest title has met with mediocre reviews averaging a full 10 points lower than its previous game in aggregate scores. We'll keep our eyes on the studio in case of any executive bail outs.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
[Tre (TM), who is forever confused] [blogs at trespeak.tumblr.com] @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:04AM
Another ship sinking slowly... I don't know how many have sunk, but it's too many this year.
Martin @ Oct 2nd 2009 9:18AM
And out of the ashes of everyone seems to come two new studios. I haven't been keeping a tally but I'd bet more have been created than dissolved.
E.J. @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:05AM
I surely hope that the Metacritic score was not their reason to cut the studio.
:(
Jrinswand @ Oct 2nd 2009 9:45AM
Me too. In the game development community, much too high an emphasis is placed on high Metacritic scores. It is one of the things that will kill the industry unless something is done about it.
CTC XBL-supapaypamawio [Planeteer | Power of the Anti-Fanboy Bitch Slap] @ Oct 2nd 2009 10:00AM
Don't be so dramatic. The industry will be just fine.
Jrinswand @ Oct 2nd 2009 10:11AM
No, I'm serious. It's a big problem and it has really been stifling creativity in the industry the last several years. Development companies are afraid to take risks and add new features to their games because their publishers/investors force them to hit a certain Metacritic score. When they add a new feature to their game, they have to ask questions like "How will the implementation of this new feature affect our game? Is it worth it to try something new and get a lower score?" Unfortunately, unless the studio already has a ton of money from previous high-selling games, it often is not.
It's not just Metacritic either. It is review scores in general. While these things can help consumers, they can be really bad for developers.
And I'm not saying that Metacritic is going to single-handedly kill the video game industry. The video game industry will probably never go away. But there are many types of death. I would rather the video game industry outright die than suffer creative death.
CTC XBL-supapaypamawio [Planeteer | Power of the Anti-Fanboy Bitch Slap] @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:40PM
Well considering that in the last several years we've seen some really great games, I'm fine with that. I don't think anyone has stopped being creative or not willing to try new things either. Guitar Hero and Rock Band have both created new ways to play and people have gone out and bought $200+ instrument sets for them. Lots of Wii games have come out with different ways to play and done fine. There are quite a few Wii games that have done horrible on Metacritic yet gone on to sell millions.
BigD145 @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:09AM
They had no other projects, so they were sacked?
Tom Kalinske, CEO. @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:11AM
"Development staff" could mean anything. And how big is their total staff to begin with?
Yan @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:35AM
"Report: Transmission Games ceases communications with more than 20 staff"
I took the title literally, for a moment. That would be really unprofessional to simply stop communicating with your employees.
dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Oct 2nd 2009 9:14AM
Yeah, that was... kind of a shitty joke, really.
MystileArmor @ Oct 2nd 2009 12:59AM
There must be alot of Milton's working there or something...
...
..
.
Anyone seen my stapler?
Cloud_ST @ Oct 2nd 2009 1:08AM
No one remembers that movie anymore,great times.
WiredKnight: Keeper of Threads @ Oct 2nd 2009 4:33AM
I remember. In fact I stole something too, call it a going-away present.
Michael @ Oct 2nd 2009 6:50AM
i love your avatar lol
Slashee the Cow @ Oct 2nd 2009 1:10AM
They used to be called IR Gurus, not IR Games.
Azariel_z @ Oct 2nd 2009 2:42AM
I dont prefer the "dog fights " type of games, they are too much of arcade, and less ( almost non existant ) of simualtion, ...
Thats why I love IL 2 STURMOVIK type of flight combat simulator :-), but lets be honest, kids today want to plug and play, "dont think too much " type of games... or repetitive tasks that rewards you with virtual nonexistent gold, and 'powers"... If you do game that stays on the middle, not so serious but a bit boring... bad rating.
West @ Oct 2nd 2009 4:21AM
Yeah, I recently found STURMOVIK on steam for $10. Great game...once I figured out how to actually get off the ground (I don't have any peddles!). Wish I'd heard of it sooner. Not too sure about the new one though...
Perk @ Oct 2nd 2009 5:46AM
There's a reason IL-2 was a commercial success while none of the lightweight games seem to amount to much.
Flight sims are HARD to do well. However, there's a big community of older flight-sim buffs, so the few high-fidelity sims that actually get released tend to sell lots of copies.
The trouble is, there's a really large lead time and up front development cost on good sims, and most of the big publishers aren't interested in anything but quick turn arounds anymore unless it's a top tier game (Halo, GTA, etc). The only reason Blackshark got made is that Eagle Dynamics was able to adapt the game from the mil-spec version that Kamov had already paid them to develop. 1c:Maddox has basically been co-opted by Ubisoft into doing other shorter term projects, so who knows when Battle of Britain is going to be finished. Microsoft laid off the entire Aces team last year too, so I'd suspect there's not going to be an FS11 in the near future...
Here's hoping some of the smaller devs will be able to sneak a couple of decent Sims through in the next few years and keep my rudder pedals moving.
Douche Bigalow @ Oct 2nd 2009 6:47PM
I loooove helicopter sims, but BlackShark really isn't a very good game. As a simulator it's good, but as a game it's very weak.
Makes me wish they'd handed the simulator over to an actual game studio.
Azariel_z @ Oct 2nd 2009 5:50AM
@perk.. you have Rudder pedals? YOU HAVE RUDDER PEDALS???
Frostblade10 @ Oct 2nd 2009 7:01AM
Wow there really isn't much news.
captainprotonx @ Oct 2nd 2009 8:59AM
Anybody ever thing there are too many studios? I mean, it seems every game has a unique studio behind the work.
In other words: over saturation.
Start cutting the fat.