State of the Industry – Q3 2008
Posted On Friday, November 14th, 2008 By Jay
Over the past quarter there have been many news stories about studio closings.
Flagship Studios, developer of Hellgate:London and the acclaimed Mythos was recently closed over a year long fight. Emsemble Studios, developer of the critically accalimed Age of Empire series, was closed by Microsoft, with a new studio to form. THQ is also closing 5+ studios in the past quarter, due to fiscal reasons. And there are plenty more.
With all these closings, its a wonder that video game sales are up and projections look great! Ultimately, we’re asking the question; What does this mean?
What does it mean when a studio is closed? What products were they working on? Who was formally employed? Was it a necessary closing?
As the economy continues to correct due to global market corrections, it was only a matter of time before the video game industry felt a little pinch. And that’s what’s happening. We’re feeling a little pinch.
You see for the longest time many studios were putting out crap, and many studios continue to do so. Here’s a list of really questionable titles, released in the past 6 months. None of that list are over a metacritic score of 50. Here’s a number that many game players don’t ever see, there were more than 500 video games released in 2008 to date. That’s ALOT! Here’s a list of games that you may of heard of:
- World of Warcraft: WOTLK
- Fallout 3
- Fable 2
- Dead Space
- Standard EA sports license products # infinite
- Wizard 101
- Left 4 Dead
- Warhammer Online
That’s just a couple and I’ve missed many that actually deserve the recognition. But it doesn’t matter because 99% of the releases of this year are obscure and probably barely profitable.
Do we need this in the games industry? Do we want that in the games industry? Do we, as video game consumers, want sub-par video games to be published?
Heck NO! Trim the fat! Now, I’m not interested in nothing but WoW clones but those games that aren’t;
- Profitable or
- Reviewed well
They just take up space. I’m actually happy about the correction. It’ll make room for something worth buying!
