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[Bartski]

Goodbye Roll7, you deserved so much better

I was stunned this morning to read about the sudden closure of award-winning British studio Roll7 by parent company Tak…

www.eurogamer.net

It's a double-blow because of what Roll7 represented and which we're now apparently losing. Roll7 made startlingly original games, and it brought a sense of independent experimentation and imagination to a high-end market. You only have to look at 2022's OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome to see what I mean. Both games are dazzlingly bright and creative. OlliOlli World took the 2D skateboarding concept pioneered by the studio to fever dream-levels - to alien worlds and bright pink colour-drenched playgrounds. Rollerdrome was even wilder: a rollerskating game but also an arena combat game, with a trick mechanic that slows time so you can aim at enemies, and that reloads your guns. These aren't just new games, they're new ideas. That's the output we're losing here.

What's galling is that it's this kind of game, and the perceived value of it, that Private Division and Take-Two are apparently OK with sacrificing. Of all the games and studios on their books, these are the ones that can go. Granted, Roll7 games might not have been money-spinners like Grand Theft Auto Online is, but is that all that matters? Rollerdrome passed over a million players just last month. And we're not talking about the latent drain of a huge team here too - we're talking about 60 people, which is how big Roll7 was when I spoke to Ribbins and Yiannikaris at the end of last year. I bet that kind of expenditure barely registers next to Rockstar's - or next to some of the compensation packages received by Take-Two's leadership. The top two executives split compensation packages worth $72m last year.

http://80.lv/articles/game-developers-are-angry-with-take-two-s-closure-of-roll7-intercept-games/

 

[StueyDuck]

Having finally gotten to rollerdrome since it came to plus... that's one helluva overrated game. People were acting like it was amazing when it was kind of ok at best.

The olliolli games are legit fantastic though so it sucks that the studio is getting shuttered

Also all the Journos really pushing the bafta angle is silly. Who cares if they won a bafta there's no law that when you win an award that you can do no wrong and have absolute immunity. Game Journos remain the biggest idiots in gaming.

 

[Hrk69]

What a fucking shame. The OlliOlli games are so much fun.

 

[Hudo]

T2 is a really weird company. That whole corporation is hard carried by one IP, Grand Theft Auto. And it seems T2 have no desire to "stabilize" their business by making some more games.

 

[Shut0wen]

What a fucking shame. The OlliOlli games are so much fun.

Out of all the studios being closed this one makes me angry, its the fact that they signed with t2 for financial secuity is just sad

 

[Shut0wen]

T2 is a really weird company. That whole corporation is hard carried by one IP, Grand Theft Auto. And it seems T2 have no desire to "stabilize" their business by making some more games.

Tbf i appreciate there privwte division, theyve made some ok games but yeah they really are carried by gta and there inhouse team consists of nothing but mafia and borderlands, they literally wont risk anything unless its made by rockstar

 

[John Bilbo]

I played the shit out of OlliOlli on PS Vita. I've got the second on Steam but have not delved into it yet.

I wish all the best to the devs.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Granted, Roll7 games might not have been money-spinners like Grand Theft Auto Online is, but is that all that matters?

 

[Revolutionary]

Edit: Because some folks seem to be mentally challenged and unable to read past the first sentence of the tweet: the issue isn't some bullshit holiday.

"we're striving to build an inclusive workforce" in current year (and considering recent events and studio heads + CMs admitting they're actually racist) implies that they're hiring based on skin color and/or whatever they've affixed to their Twitter profiles

Use your brain, people.


Original post as follows:
Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

 

[Edder1]

Out of all the studios being closed this one makes me angry, its the fact that they signed with t2 for financial secuity is just sad

The joke is on them for signing with Tale2 for "financial security".

 

[ozz ex machina]

Having finally gotten to rollerdrome since it came to plus... that's one helluva overrated game. People were acting like it was amazing when it was kind of ok at best.

The olliolli games are legit fantastic though so it sucks that the studio is getting shuttered

Also all the Journos really pushing the bafta angle is silly. Who cares if they won a bafta there's no law that when you win an award that you can do no wrong and have absolute immunity. Game Journos remain the biggest idiots in gaming.

Came here to post this. I was seriously underwhelmed by rollerdrome. Really boring and poor gameplay loop.

 

[StueyDuck]

Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

Olliolli world was pretty "modern audiences" as well. Didn't enjoy it much.

But olliolli 1 and 2 on any form of handheld is some of the most addictive shit there is. I Highly recommend them

 

[Edder1]

Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

Good riddance

 

[Kiya's Guard]

Damm, sad news. I loved olliollie on the vita

 

[STARSBarry]

The fact everyone is talking about there prior title and not this Bafta Award winning one tells you all you need to know as to why they were shut down.

 

[Hugare]

Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

So celebrating International Women's Day is now considered "woke"?

GAF is becoming a parody of itself

The studio was great. Loved all of their games.

 

[FunkMiller]

Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

Oh, grow the fuck up.

The problem with this story is the rapacious cunts at executive level and shareholders, not the game devs.

But by all means, keep whining about people making games with chicks in, and ignore the true assholes in this industry. You're cucked out to CEOs and tech bros, and you don't even know it.

Save the anti-woke crap for threads that deserve it.

 

[Hudo]

Tbf i appreciate there privwte division, theyve made some ok games but yeah they really are carried by gta and there inhouse team consists of nothing but mafia and borderlands, they literally wont risk anything unless its made by rockstar

I dunno if it's true but it really feels as if Private Division is on the backburner for quite some time now. They don't have a lot of projects. And the projects they do publish are rather small games.

 

[Larxia]

That's really a shame, Rollerdrome was absolutely fantastic, and I'm confused by some of the posts here.
I think it has one of the best arcade / scoring gameplay I've ever played, it's incredibly satisfying if you're someone who enjoys over the top action / scoring like SSX and such. It feels like playing as John Wick in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, you can really pull off some super satisfying move and it feels super good.

I do think however that the game plays a LOT better with mouse & keyboard, because of how you can instantly turn around, aim freely while doing tricks etc, it's a much more fast paced with mouse & keyboard and the game isn't as fun with a controller, it's a lot slower with a controller.

I really loved it and it's one of my favorite arcade games.

 

[Chukhopops]

I didn’t like any of their games but it’s still ridiculous to see this kind of unnecessary closures.

I was also worried about The Outer Worlds 2 but it turns out it’s not published by Private Division.

 

[poppabk]

Never played any of their games but this is one of their last tweets:

Plus having goals like this:
"Working with organizations to support the rights of the LGBTIQ community, and to increase that community’s representation in our industry."

Oh wait that is from Take Two corporate, the people you are cheering on for closing this studio.

 

[crackajack]

Have not played Rollerdrome yet and did not like Olliolli on Vita one bit, but sounds fucked up if their last game was okayish successful. Companies always want to grow, but if it is just small profit/growth, it is killed, to focus on the more promising big growth. It just feels weird and the focus on just AAA(A) with practically all big publishers hurts to watch. I guess Devolver and maybe someone new might grow to become what T2, Ubi, EA etc were once before they all inflated themselves with their breakout hits. But anything with a bit of success gets swalloed now anyway and even on top mergers and acquisitions happen.

 

[Revolutionary]

So celebrating International Women's Day is now considered "woke"?

GAF is becoming a parody of itself

The studio was great. Loved all of their games.

Absolutely hilarious that you thought that was the issue in the tweet. You know, sometimes it's important to read past the first sentence before reacting.

 

[StereoVsn]

Take 2 are basically just as bad as MS, Google or any other corpos.

They really just have the sports gambling simulator under the guise of basketball and GTA for profit, that’s it.

For all the shit EA takes, they at least try by publishing some other titles.

 

[StueyDuck]

So celebrating International Women's Day is now considered "woke"?

GAF is becoming a parody of itself

The studio was great. Loved all of their games.

Oh, grow the fuck up.

The problem with this story is the rapacious cunts at executive level and shareholders, not the game devs.

But by all means, keep whining about people making games with chicks in, and ignore the true assholes in this industry. You're cucked out to CEOs and tech bros, and you don't even know it.

Save the anti-woke crap for threads that deserve it.

I mean you guys are allowed to disagree with his opinion, but this new toxic, vitriolic attitude users are having towards those who mention anything woke is getting kind of scarily Resetera on here.

he has an opinion, you either agree or disagree, say as much and then move on.

The aggressive angry responses some of you have towards these things are a bit crazy.

This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of behaviour on here, I was even a target of this behaviour on the fallout tv series review thread.

don't need to insult the person and attack them, just say you disagree that it is a woke issue.

 

[FunkMiller]

I mean you guys are allowed to disagree with his opinion, but this new toxic vitriolic attitude users are having towards those who mention anything woke is getting kind of scarily Resetera on here.

he has an opinion, you either agree or disagree, say as much and then move on.

The like aggressive angry responses some of you have towards these things are a bit crazy.

This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of behaviour on here, I was even a target of this behaviour on the fallout tv series review thread.

don't need to insult the person and attack them, just say you disagree that it is a woke issue.

Don't be ridiculous. In threads about 'woke' stuff it's absolutely fine to drag game devs for doing it. But this thread is about a game dev being shut down by greedy fucking corporate scumbags. Has nothing to do with 'wokery' - and the guy who forces the subject round to it for no good reason is going way off topic. Which is annoying, because this shit needs to be talked about and highlighted, without someone derailing the conversation with culture war bollocks.

 

[StueyDuck]

Don't be ridiculous. In threads about 'woke' stuff it's absolutely fine to drag game devs for doing it. But this thread is about a game dev being shut down by greedy fucking corporate scumbags. Has nothing to do with 'wokery' - and the guy who forces the subject round to it for no good reason is going way off topic. Which is annoying, because this shit needs to be talked about and highlighted, without someone derailing the conversation with culture war bollocks.

just say you disagree then. you are acting obnoxiously defensive about someone's opinion.

 

[Shut0wen]

I dunno if it's true but it really feels as if Private Division is on the backburner for quite some time now. They don't have a lot of projects. And the projects they do publish are rather small games.

I mean the games been small is the whole point, there all double A games but yeah i think the only project they have is the one from gamefreak and id say there only successful game was outerworlds the rest havnt done that good sale wise

 

[FunkMiller]

just say you disagree then. you are acting obnoxiously defensive about someone's opinion.

Or, alternatively, let's not support people derailing threads.

 

[Revolutionary]

I mean you guys are allowed to disagree with his opinion, but this new toxic, vitriolic attitude users are having towards those who mention anything woke is getting kind of scarily Resetera on here.

he has an opinion, you either agree or disagree, say as much and then move on.

The aggressive angry responses some of you have towards these things are a bit crazy.

This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of behaviour on here, I was even a target of this behaviour on the fallout tv series review thread.

don't need to insult the person and attack them, just say you disagree that it is a woke issue.

Thank you for pointing out that FunkMiller quoted me. I've had him on ignore for quite some time because of him being a generally obnoxious idiot in every comic book related thread on Off-Topic. "Grow the fuck up" is hilarious irony coming from him.

 

[StueyDuck]

Or, alternatively, let's not support people derailing threads.

are you the thread police?

the thread only became derailed from you and others being angry.

most people would of just ignored it or, like myself, had their own opinion on what was said.

 

[Braag]

Shame. But still, when you are owned by a megacorp, you either make a lot of money or you get shut down. Winning awards wont save you ass when the higher ups are only interested in the numbers.
Staying independent is really the only answer, if you're capable.

 

[Ozriel]

International Women’s Day has been a thing since the early 20th century and has been mainstream for decades.

Going bananas about something as benign as IWD is the Era thing to do and is pretty much the ‘woke’ bullshit some of you profess to hate.

 

[Shifty1897]

The joke is on them for signing with Tale2 for "financial security".

Agree. If you want to be an indie studio that sticks around, make good and profitable games.

If you want to be an indie studio that makes good and profitable games and then closes, sell out to a mega corporation.

 

[Ozriel]

Back on topic, I think now the line in the sand has been drawn, these small studios that are tied to publishers need to focus on profit margins as much as possible.

 

[Punished Miku]

Starting to feel like this team has some unusually strong journalist connections. I'll never forget how much Shill Up was trying to sell people on Rollerdrome, acting like it was literally GOTY. I got it day 1. It's massively underwhelming. Didn't make it more than a few hours. Tried it again on GP recently, and had the same reaction. BAFTA's are a joke if you've ever checked out their picks, and it's weird to see so many people freaking out about that like it exempts you from economics.

 

[rofif]

Rollerdrome had pretty good gameplay but everything around it sucked ass

 

[Ozriel]

Agree. If you want to be an indie studio that sticks around, make good and profitable games.

If you want to be an indie studio that makes good and profitable games and then closes, sell out to a mega corporation.

‘Make profitable games’ is Easier said than done, and I think they sold around the pandemic time when gaming was booming and every publisher was promising mega benefits.

After what happened with Embracer and with this round of layoffs, I’m sure most indies will be much more hesitant to sell out.

 

[tommib]

So celebrating International Women's Day is now considered "woke"?

GAF is becoming a parody of itself

The studio was great. Loved all of their games.

These were quality games and it’s just another nail in the coffin of AA. We’re moving rapidly to an industrialised AAA global product future and GAF acts like 8 chan because of a woman’s day tweet sent by community managers.

Off the deep end.

 

[StueyDuck]

Rollerdrome had pretty good gameplay but everything around it sucked ass

Starting to feel like this team has some unusually strong journalist connections. I'll never forget how much Shill Up was trying to sell people on Rollerdrome, acting like it was literally GOTY. I got it day 1. It's massively underwhelming. Didn't make it more than a few hours. Tried it again on GP recently, and had the same reaction. BAFTA's are a joke if you've ever checked out their picks, and it's weird to see so many people freaking out about that like it exempts you from economics.

The game lacked a decent flow state, for lack of a decent term.

the mechanics were sound and the controls were sound but the actual act of chaining all the elements together to make something fun just isn't there. Again I am a bit surprised it's this heavily award winning beloved indie title. but maybe i was oversold and went into the game with too high of expectations, who knows.

 

[Punished Miku]

The game lacked a decent flow state, for lack of a decent term.

the mechanics were sounds and the controls were sound but the actual act of chaining all the elements together to make something fun just isn't there. Again I am a bit surprised it's this heavily award winning beloved indie title. but maybe i was oversold and went into the game with too high of expectations, who knows.

I wanted to like it, it's just not that fun. You don't have to worry about foot placement at all when landing tricks, unlike Tony Hawk. Maybe that's for the best since you're also shooting, but it made most of the traversal feel floaty and irrelevant. I didn't have any sense of real weight or momentum when landing or jumping. Shooting was tolerable. Enemies had unusually accurate aim, so you just were doing that timed dodge most of the time. Art style was really good. I've certainly played WORSE games, but this just wasn't something I felt any need to stick with and I tried to twice.

 

[CityHunter1981]

it’s crazy to think that 2 executives got 70 million bonus last year. The world is just not fair, if they would have „just“ taken 10 million, they could have easily used the money to save the jobs of the impacted people. But no, the execs need their new yachts, cars and have to fly first class.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

The game lacked a decent flow state, for lack of a decent term.

the mechanics were sounds and the controls were sound but the actual act of chaining all the elements together to make something fun just isn't there. Again I am a bit surprised it's this heavily award winning beloved indie title. but maybe i was oversold and went into the game with too high of expectations, who knows.

My exact take. It was one of those "less than the sum of its parts" experiences. I liked all the elements but somehow actually playing it just wasn't fun nor interesting for me.

But at least they tried some new shit so this is still frustrating. Arkane, Mimimi and several others who had unique ideas and their particular style all gone so yea, this trend isn't good for anyone unless you like playing depressingly board-room-ed AAA Experience Game #264 exclusively.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

are you the thread police?

the thread only became derailed from you and others being angry.

most people would of just ignored it or, like myself, had their own opinion on what was said.

you sound woke. thumbs down.

 

[StueyDuck]

you sound woke. thumbs down.

Don't you derail this thread. I'm telling mom

 

[Roman Empire]

T2 is a really weird company. That whole corporation is hard carried by one IP, Grand Theft Auto. And it seems T2 have no desire to "stabilize" their business by making some more games.

You are right for most of your statement. Their sports line up actually does make relatively good money with things NBA 2K, WWE 2K.

Still, GTA carries this company by the balls.

 

[Hudo]

Their sports line up actually does make relatively good money with things NBA 2K, WWE 2K.

Well, fuck. You are right. I've honestly forgotten about their sports games.

Edit: Glory to the Roman Empire

 

[Soodanim]

Absolutely hilarious that you thought that was the issue in the tweet. You know, sometimes it's important to read past the first sentence before reacting.

You post a tweet and that gif with no further explanation then act superior when people pick up on the main topic of the tweet instead of a secondary sentence. It is in no way a stretch that people will infer the subject of a posted tweet to be the subject of the disapproval and for it to be asserted to be relevant to the topic of the company's closure. I don't even agree with the tweet and its obviously shallow peacocking, but you went about it poorly then acted smug because people didn't read your mind. The misunderstanding is entirely on you mate. If you want people to read, write something in the first place.

I mean you guys are allowed to disagree with his opinion, but this new toxic, vitriolic attitude users are having towards those who mention anything woke is getting kind of scarily Resetera on here.

he has an opinion, you either agree or disagree, say as much and then move on.

The aggressive angry responses some of you have towards these things are a bit crazy.

This isn't the first time I've seen this sort of behaviour on here, I was even a target of this behaviour on the fallout tv series review thread.

don't need to insult the person and attack them, just say you disagree that it is a woke issue.

Ironically, people jumping on any opportunity to be anti-woke regardless of context reminds me of how Era's worst look at everything through a certain lens. I'm not surprised people are getting sick of it and calling it out. As FM said:

Save the anti-woke crap for threads that deserve it.

I don't think that's an unreasonable point to make.

 

[Magic Carpet]

Maybe Netflix can acquire them and merge them with the Guys who made Oxenfree.

 

[Bartski]

Rollerdome never clicked with me but OlliOlli World is such an amazing, pure positive vibes game. I never finished it but maybe now it's the time.