The games industry is so strange. It does things that make no sense in any other business.
Take Gas Powered Games, the team behind Supreme Commander, which was a big hit. The expansion, Forged Alliance did very well, and then Supreme Commander 2 flopped and that was the end of them.
That's like Toyota releasing a new car model that people don't like, and all of a sudden they have to close shop entirely.
It seems every game studio is perpetually teetering on the brink of bankruptcy #gamedev
@Calined That's fair. Just went through the list and I conveniently forgot that they made Demigod after that, as well as Age of Empires online, both who appear to be well received.
I guess that makes it all the more strange though. Studio that made popular games shuts down for... reasons?
@ninovandermark Grab a copy of Press Reset by Jason Schreier. He documented struggles of many game developers and many game studios, the reasons that led to closure of many of them and to related lay offs.
Spoiler warning - The reasons don't make sense to a regular person. It is not enough to be profitable, if you're not generating exponential profits to your stake holders.
People with money don't care about games, they care about having more money.
@jakub_neruda That doesn't sound surprising.
My optimistic side believes that making games sustainable at all levels of funding is possible.
The pessimist in me realizes that most investors are looking for continual massive growth, and that will continue to drive much of how the games industry will continue to operate.
A more apt comparison might be Hollywood movies rather than the automotive industry. Large budgets are often the result of larger expected returns.
@ninovandermark Game development is indeed sustainable. You can look up game dev youtuber Orange Pixel. He is a solo dev for over 15 years, releases three small games each year and makes a living of it. And he managed to pull that off without having a huge hit beforehand.
I could see it working even for a small company with just a handful of employees, each having an equal stake in the company. Like-minded people can set to seek sustainable revenue instead of exponentially-growing one.
But that could only work without external investors which in turn is also very stressful as a single failed release could rock the whole ship.
Unless a developer strikes something huge like Hollow Knight, Minecraft, or Stardew Valley that makes them financially secure for the rest of the life.
Nino van der Mark
Calined
Jakub Neruda