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In Memoriam: Twelve studios we lost in 2011

by Ben Gilbert on Dec 1st 2011 11:00PM

Beyond the game industry's expected annual layoffs and studio closures, 2011 saw a variety of surprisingly high-profile devs shut their doors ... forever. From Geometry Wars/Project Gotham Racing dev house Bizarre Creations in the UK to LA Noire creator Team Bondi in Australia and even Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom devs Game Republic in Japan, it wasn't a good year to need a stable job in game development.

IGN has a rundown of twelve especially notable losses (including the aforementioned studios, sans Game Republic), which run the gamut of industry publishers. As it turns out, it's not one particular publisher that's especially willing to cut studios in the face of financial loss -- it's all of them.

[Image credit: Flickr user 'age_six_racer']

Source: IGN

Tags: bizarre, bizarre-creations, game-republic, microsoft, nintendo, pc, playstation, ps3, team-bondie, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (27)

Good luck to all those that previously worked at these studios.

*to all those except Brendan McNamara.

Perhaps, but they couldn't have all been quality candidates.

Personally I'd rather invest my 'good luck' with the fresh young graduates every year who have new ideas and strong momentum. Sometimes you have to fire a few people to make some openings.

I think we should also have a moment of silence for the forthcoming passing of GamePro

http://www.techgadgetsguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/SadMario.jpg

@Stevetrop Man of Mystery
What's a magazine?

@Squawk

Something that provides us with articles and images of new games, new devs, new systems, and at times boobs when we are on the can

@Stevetrop Man of Mystery

Funny, I call that my cell phone.

Finding out that Game Republic closed down really hurt. Brave Story for the PSP is still one of the prettiest games on the system. I also really enjoyed Folklore. I've yet to get around to playing Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, but I did buy it when it first came out.

@FinalFantasyXIIIsucks

I like Majin quite a bit. It had a lot of rough edges and the ending was flawed, but the buddy story was engaging and the Metroidvania aspects of the game were satisfying. I guess we won't be seeing a sequel though.

The only one that is completely inexplicable is Team Bondi, how can you lose your job after an amazing job like LA Noire is really impossible to understand......

@Hunter141072
They didn't lose their jobs. They quit and are suing the publisher. And hopefully they win because working conditions like that are inexcusable.

@Hunter141072

I'd assume because of the horrible working conditions during its' creation or layoffs, im honestly not sure either.

Good luck to all those who have been "restructured".

But to be honest, a lot of you were doomed to fail. I mean look at some of the games made by these studios.

@Squawk
Well um - LA Noire, PGR, Geometry Wars, Blur and Majin were all great when I played them - maybe you mean others, but it sucks that talented people get affected by this stuff

@Squawk

It was more they had zero advertising than anything else, from the names I see on the list

*Sniff*
For Michael :C

@Squawk

Jokes on you. He neve said anything about magazines.

Damn it I meant to buy Geo Wars and Majin.

What about Surreal and Snowblind?

Proof that high production costs (everything has to look ultra realistic and in HD!) and slow sales are killing the gaming industry.

Maybe Apple was right all along, indie developers (with their small budgets) are the future? It's very reminiscent of the Atari and NES days, when gaming was just a hobby that was done for fun, and not pure profit.

Sad times indeed. I recently bought a PS3 and am already getting bored with it. Too many games are about style, not substance (though Saints Row 3 is just pure fun). Looks like I'll stick to handhelds and Wii...

@tendoboy1984
Yep that's a problem with current games. There are some amazing games out there but they're a bit hard to find.

There's little incentive to spend millions developing new and original ip when those that do are crushed beneath the boot heel of "safe" established franchises.

IGN have something against Game Republic?

Overall, a bad year for Australia.

If the game was awful, then the developer is at fault. If a bad idea was handed to the devs or it was mis-managed or poorly marketed, that's the publisher's fault.

Perhaps it's not as simple as that in all cases, but some of these shutdowns seem like they targeted the wrong moron(s).

Good luck to all the good devs out there.

From the source article:

"...but it's safe to assume, given an astonishing 90% of the team was laid off, that Daggerdale didn't do big numbers on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, or PC. "

Daggerdale never made it to PSN!! Why do so many sites list it as published on PSN, when it never was?! Bedlam collapsed before it got ported over!

Bizarre Creations closing was a bummer. Blur was a pretty good game released at the wrong time.

@Starcade Bizarre Creations was doing interesting stuff beyond the original Xbox. Anyone else remember Metropolis Street Racee on Dreamcast? It's old granddaddy of all the PGR games.

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In Memoriam: Twelve studios we lost in 2011

Reader Comments (27)

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:11PM bloodlinejake said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:02AM Oddgirl said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:47AM jsx92 said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:20PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:48PM Squawk said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:48AM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:28PM aarontuyet said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:22PM FinalFantasyXIIIsucks said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:17AM freaparn said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:29PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:44PM Squawk said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:45PM Dooliss said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:41PM Squawk said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:50PM Halwende said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:58AM Mr Meow Meow said

Posted: Dec 1st 2011 11:43PM arucious said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:24AM Captaindrek1 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:33AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 12:59AM alzagor said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:27AM tendoboy1984 said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 1:52AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 7:37AM BrainZero said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 3:37AM Fuzunga said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:39AM StrangeDNA said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 10:47AM Dizazter said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 11:07AM Starcade said

Posted: Dec 2nd 2011 2:05PM StrangeDNA said

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