www.bloomberg.com
It's apparently 25-30% (they are larger than I thought).
Yeah that's what I originally thought too until I seen that tweet.
Gaming is an odd business in that you got games that takes years to make and cost a lot of money, but the roles needed are hit and miss pending what role someone has and at what point in the game making it's in. Also, the industry is basically all or nothing project driven kind of work where the game can be a giant seller or a flop. And it seems a lot of studios live by the skin of their teeth of survival whether their latest project is a winner or not in hopes they survive their next 5 year project. It's also an industry that seems to have lots of contractor work due to this, so on one hand the company needs to be nimble and cost effective, but a FT worker costs more and provides experience and stability throughout the project.
Poor management from both the development and publishing side, I think. Unrealistic goals and short sided deals play a role too, but I would probably lump those in with poor management as well, as they are ultimately responsible for them.
Saw a comment by shinobi, at around the time Until Dawn remaster came up, that Ballistic Moon was already in production of a second game (he shot down it being Until Dawn 2 though). So hopefully they have a good enough pipeline that they could absorb a small part of the laid off employees.
If you look at their games library, just about all of them the past 10 years I dont think sell a ton as a whole, but they all seem to involve a lot of production value and actors. So there's no way their games are dirt cheap to make so they can survive on low sales.
Stole my joke. Came here to say the same.
Honestly Sony would have been a better fit had there been any interest in a buyout. Until dawn, Rush of blood, Switchback. They had worked with them on several games. A lot of the staff went to a new studio called Ballistic Moon (who's working on UD remake) anyway so that's probably the only reason they didn't get bought out. I hope they land on their feet, maybe reform the team if Ballistic Moon is still hiring.
And not just 350 people. 350 people on the corporate payroll as an employee. So it's not like SM Games is talking about contractors since those people dont get laid off. Now that I think of, their payroll might even be more than 350 people pending how many contractors they use too at any given time. It might even be 400 or 500.
I'll be surprised if their games are expensive to make.If you look at their games library, just about all of them the past 10 years I dont think sell a ton as a whole, but they all seem to involve a lot of production value and actors. So there's no way their games are dirt cheap to make so they can survive on low sales.
Most of the stuff they've made lately I've never heard of. They have a series of games called Dark Pictures Anthology that come out once per year.
Supermassive Games - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I get their past success. Own the games. But they were putting out those Anthology games almost yearly. For GamePass to really be a success, they'd need like 5 studios putting out AA quality games almost yearly, to have content in-between the bigger releases. PS isn't relying on subscriptions but if they wanted to make higher quality, higher funded games, then yea, playstation would have been a better fit. I'm judging based on the content they were making recently.
Spot on.
I think the problem with these companies making their specialized games is that they make too many of them. The market is only so big for the kinds of games Supermassive and Telltale make. But look at ther game history and after a successful starter game, they go ape shit making them annually. There must had been time Telltale was making 2-3 of these kinds of games per year overlapping each other. Different franchise license, similar kind of game. Total saturation then followed by major decline.
Yup.
Yeah, Project Bates, also a horror game and in the works since 2020. Given the timelines, it might see a release 12 to 18 months after the Until Dawn remake and around the same time as Firesprite's own horror game, Project Heartbreak, as well.
I assumed Project Bates was the UD remaster
I am also not very familiar with these games, but I also had a few years where I didn't follow gaming news.Most of the stuff they've made lately I've never heard of. They have a series of games called Dark Pictures Anthology that come out once per year.
Supermassive Games - Wikipedia
Industry wide mismanagement.
