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What first party studios do you predict will be shut down in 2026?

whoever spent 5 years on this
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Hopefully none but u know Microsoft is gonna shutdown 2 studios by march like as ppl said double fine
 
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Wastelander92 said:
With a new year will come a new wave of layoffs as tech gets more into AI development. Which studios, specifically first party can you see getting axed next year? For me it's:
MS:
Compulsion
Double Fine
Ninja Theory

Sony:
Bend
MM
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Nintendo:
Retro Studios. they just dumped a massive stinky turd!!
 
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yurinka said:
All their games have been profitable, Sony won't shut down a studio just because they cancelled a game. All studios cancel games at some point, just that in most cases people outside the company often never know about they existed.
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Its not just cause a game got cancelled. They ousted their leaders and talent, the studio became a very dei oriented one and then had a game cancelled (originally the beginnings of days gone 2), then they were put on support for naughty dog because Sony felt new bend wasnt up to the task, which that game also got cancelled then finally their "we're a hot young team now, this our first game" also got cancelled.

Its a completely different studio with no projects under its belt now.

And it was entirely Sony's fault, they should of never ousted Garvin and Ross and should of absolutely greenlit a co-op Days Gone 2 which was the original plan.
 
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Nintendo won't ever have this problem, so it's just MS and Sony

For MS:
Turn 10 is redundant at this point
Playground is safe
343 or Halo studio, you name it, no matter how bad you think they operate, they'll never get axed, that would be admiting defeat
Bethesda is the only one safe from Zenimax
Any dev working on COD is safe, so IW, Raven, Treyarch
Whoever does Diablo is safe
I don't know much else

For Sony:
Bungie is done for, 3B down the toilet, pull the plug already or see that number getting bigger with every new failure
Media Molecule is cooked, they just don't know it
Bend is dead weight since they can't do shit and chasing gaas trash just keeps wasting time and money with nothing to show for
Asobi with a bit of luck will have a new game out before anything happens to them
PD is safe
Santa Monica is safe
Sucker Punch is safe
San Diego is a Third Party developer so they're safe
Housemarque is the MVP of this gen for Sony so they better don't do anything stupid with this studio
Insomniac is a Disney subsidiary at this point, so whatever
Bluepoint, with luck they get to do another remaster, so safe
Guerrilla will keep trying to make redhead plank of wood stay relevant, even tho the only cool thing about Horizon IP is the robodinos
ND can have the luxury of digging its own grave, so let's see how far it can go
 
Probably Double Fine unfortunately. I love their games, but I could totally see MS giving them the chop, as their games just don't sell.
 
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Those saying MM do know they are making a new game right? All their games are low budget, sell well and the studio itself is small (but very talented), they don't lose money on MM.
And Bend is massively used as a support studio as well as making their own games, any big PS first party release, look in the credits and Bend is probably there, in fact many of the Sony studios do collaborate and if one isn't working on a game itself or isn't using all staff then they support other studios, I can't see any Sony studios being shut down other than maybe Haven as that isn't used as support, they are a new studio and have a GAAS in the works which is risky.
 
midnightAI said:
Those saying MM do know they are making a new game right? All their games are low budget, sell well and the studio itself is small (but very talented), they don't lose money on MM.
And Bend is massively used as a support studio as well as making their own games, any big PS first party release, look in the credits and Bend is probably there, in fact many of the Sony studios do collaborate and if one isn't working on a game itself or isn't using all staff then they support other studios, I can't see any Sony studios being shut down other than maybe Haven as that isn't used as support, they are a new studio and have a GAAS in the works which is risky.
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Sell well? Last time a Media Molecule game sold was 2011. If they don't deliver with their next game they're getting shut down 100%.
 
I don't know about 2026 alone but I have a prediction of what I think may happen before 2030.

Bend
Firesprite
Haven
Media Molecule

Arkane
Beenox
Compulsion
Double Fine
High Moon
Inxile
Ninja Theory
Turn 10
Undead Labs
Zenimax Online

For the Microsoft Studios, not all of them will be straight up closures. Some will be consolidated into existing studios after another round of layoffs and cease to exist as separate teams. Like Zenimax Online, Turn 10, and Beenox. Some may achieve independence the way Toys For Bob did. Double Fine I think fits this.

I think ultimately, by 2030, Microsoft will be leaning even more heavily into Activision/Blizzard teams and a handful of their studios that work on big IP like Bethesda, Halo, iD, and Playground.

For Sony, they'll trim the fat of any teams that can't produce either commercial or critical hits. They'll be much more lenient about allowing teams to move away from pillar franchises than Microsoft but they'll still be expected to get results. Not spend 10 to 20 years "finding themselves".
 
Pretty much none of MS studios are safe, even Playground isn't completely safe and they can get hit with layoffs if MS decides to cancel Fable and order them to resume working only on Forza Horizon. Double Fine and Ninja Theory seem like the first ones to go, maybe Obsidian. Turn 10 can simply send their best employees to Playground and shut down as well.

Sony is a bigger mystery, I think they'll have patience even if Marathon flops and Bungie will simply focus on Destiny 3. Also if they haven't closed down Media Molecule yet they have no reason to do it now.
 
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Emmy Ator Best said:
Sell well? Last time a Media Molecule game sold was 2011. If they don't deliver with their next game they're getting shut down 100%.
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Huh? Dreams was released in 2020, they only have 100 employees and their budget for each game is tiny, they don't need massive sales.
 
midnightAI said:
Huh? Dreams was released in 2020, they only have 100 employees and their budget for each game is tiny, they don't need massive sales.
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Dreams didn't sell. We don't have official numbers but it should be under 2 million and when it took 7 years to make there's no way Sony was happy.
 
Fbh said:
Nah, that's Playground games, they also make the Forza Horizon games which are some of the most successful first party MS games.
Though yeah I could see them downsizing the team and basically cutting out everyone not involved in Forza
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Fair enough.

But one way or another, I don't see that Fable game ever seeing the light of day.
 
StueyDuck said:
Its not just cause a game got cancelled. They ousted their leaders and talent, the studio became a very dei oriented one and then had a game cancelled (originally the beginnings of days gone 2), then they were put on support for naughty dog because Sony felt new bend wasnt up to the task, which that game also got cancelled then finally their "we're a hot young team now, this our first game" also got cancelled.

Its a completely different studio with no projects under its belt now.

And it was entirely Sony's fault, they should of never ousted Garvin and Ross and should of absolutely greenlit a co-op Days Gone 2 which was the original plan.
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The creative director got fired/forced to leave the company, and the DG game director left because according to him didn't want to spend again 5-7 years in a row working in a single game because he will retire in a few years, so prefered to work in 2-3 shorter games instead (he went to Netherrealm). That's all, they can be easily replaced with either internal or external talent.

According to both of them, doing support for ND between projects (in this case between completing their original work on Days Gone and the start of the full production of the now cancelled new IP, which is what they did and not after the new IP was cancelled) is something they always did since the PS1 days, in the same way Naughty Dog also does support for them between project when needed. It had nothing to do with Days Gone, the new IP or these two guys leaving, it's something they do to keep a lot of people busy doing something since they complete their job in an internal project until their next internal project is ready to put them there.

According to both, Sony always has been very supporting with them even during the Days Gone reviews and early sales. Sony did approve the first project Bend pitched to them after Days Gone, which was the now cancelled new IP. Proving Sony was happy with Days Gone, also approved DLC, a PC port, a remaster and a movie adaptation.

Days Gone 2 never started because Bend decided to don't even pitch it to Sony. So its production never started because internal Bend heads wanted to make the new IP instead.

And no, having lost a couple people out of the over 150 that they are doesn't make them "a completely new studio" at all. Many people joins and leaves each AAA gamedev all the time, having removed 2 of them doesn't mean a big change because the other almost 1700 people who worked in the game (only around 10% from Bend) are also important and most of them will be there for their post-Days Gone projects.

midnightAI said:
Huh? Dreams was released in 2020, they only have 100 employees and their budget for each game is tiny, they don't need massive sales.
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They are a small team with a majority of the staff being juniors and interns or people that was hired as that. So it's a very cheap studio to run. And Dreams, like their previous games was profitable according to them, and won many awards.

So yes, make sure Sony is happy with them and did it in sales/revenue minimum just ok. If not, wouldn't have allowed them to spend 3 years adding post launch content and wouldn't have greenlighted their next game.

Media Molecule also reported in publicly available documents for the UK governement their studio specific detailed revenue and profit since they started until after releasing Dreams, and all the years were profitable, which means Dreams was profitable.
 
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It is going to be a real shame if Double Fine dies. That will suck.
Can you still play Brutal Legend online?
 
I wasn't selling any said:
Isn't that off the table after Death of the Outsider? Without some kind of a retcon or prequel what else there is to tell?
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Nah there's tons left to tell without retcons or prequels. Death of the Outsider wraps the Kaldwin era (Corvo/Emily/Billie arc) but the Void endures, as shown in Deathloop.

I know they are working on Blade but I really hope they come back to Dishonored next. Please give it to me Arkane. I think I'm gonna create a thread as a love letter to this series.
 
Emmy Ator Best said:
Dreams didn't sell. We don't have official numbers but it should be under 2 million and when it took 7 years to make there's no way Sony was happy.
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Read what Yurinka posted also, he's right, they are profitable and Sony green lit their next game so I;d say they are happy with MM wouldn't you say? MM is a breeding ground for creativity, their games are unique, the technology they create is also unique (the particle rendering in Bubblebath is pretty amazing and highly efficient, almost everything is rendered as particles/splats, that's what took up most of the dev time, the creation of a totally new, unique engine which will be used for their new game also one would assume), so without asking Sony directly, how do you know there is 'no way Sony was happy'?
And we don't have figures but it should be under 2 million? if we don't have figures how could you possibly know that? But even then, with a team this size, roughly 80 people working on Dreams towards the end, 2 million would be profitable even with 7 year development.
But you was the one who said they hadn't sold a game since 2011 and that is simply not true.
 
bitbydeath said:
Just to play it safe:

Obsidian Entertainment
343 Industries
The Coalition
Compulsion Games
Double Fine Productions
inXile Entertainment
Mojang Studios
Ninja Theory
Playground Games
Rare
Turn 10 Studios
Undead Labs
World's Edge
Bethesda Game Studios
ZeniMax Online Studios
id Software
Arkane Studios (Lyon)
MachineGames
Blizzard Entertainment
Activision Blizzard's Infinity Ward
Activision Blizzard's Treyarch
Activision Blizzard's Sledgehammer Games
Activision Blizzard's Raven Software
Activision Blizzard's Beenox
Activision Blizzard's High Moon Studios
Activision Blizzard's Elsewhere Entertainment
King
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maybe they would sell all that to sony as some package deal
 
ADiTAR said:
Retro Studios.
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Team Andromeda said:
Retro Studios or they will see massive layoffs
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Nah, even if Nintendo has lost faith in Retro's ability to spearhead their own titles, they still have tremendous value as a support studio. I think people underestimate just how lean Nintendo is compared to Sony and Microsoft and just how much they depend on utilizing their non-EPD studios to back up EPD for their major titles.

There are also some instances where these studios have talent with expertise in areas where NPD is deficient. This seems especially true of asset generation and some kinds of optimization, which is why you're constantly seeing Retro, Monolith, and Next Level Games credited in support roles on projects that you would expect to be done in-house (like Mario Kart and Zelda).

Nintendo might put Metroid Prime back on ice, but they're not going to shut the studio down.
 
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Compulsion games

They argue with their customers, and that's terrible of them.

They should have released Contrast on Switch. It's the company's only good game, and I enjoyed it.
 
KyoZz said:
rage GIF


I want my Dishonored 3
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I did too until I seen what they became with that last game. Leaned into the modern audience and it bit them hard. (it was there with prey too... But it was more subtle so people didn't pick up on it). It sucks as arkane was amazing back in the day. Arx fatalis, and dark messiah were 2 of my favorites.
 
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