Couchpotato

Couchpotato

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Embracer close Volition, developer of Red Faction and Saints Row

Embracer Group have announced that they're closing down Volition, the Illinois, US-based developer best known today for…
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Not really surprised given their last few games were bombs. I loved the older Saints Row games but the latest spin-off and sequel were terrible. So audios developer.
 
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Yeah, not really a surprise at this point. Volitions last good game was Saints Row 4 in 2013, followed by a stand-alone add-on two years later. Since then they have underperformed. The move from Deep Silver to Gearbox made it clear, Embracer didn't know what to do with them. Then the crisis came ...
With 220 employees volition certainly burns 25M$ per year, maybe even twice that - I'm not quite sure how expensive the state they're in is. This brings Embracer a good deal closer to their cost reduction target.
 
Next up is Beamdog after poor sales of Mythforce.
www.gamedeveloper.com

Embracer cuts jobs at Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition developer Beamdog

Embracer purchased the studio for an undisclosed fee in April 2022.
www.gamedeveloper.com www.gamedeveloper.com
The Swedish conglomerate purchased Beamdog for an undisclosed fee through its Aspyr Media subsidiary in April 2022. Now, according to multiple Linkedin posts from former Beamdog staffers, the company has laid off 26 members of the dev team including producers, artists, and QA staff.

Former Beamdog associate producer Misia Bloniarz noted that "on Friday, 26 people were laid off at Beamdog and I unfortunately am one of them." The news was corroborated by those affected including the studio's former QA manager Erin McIntyre and associate graphic artist Jill Hollet.

"Regrettably, as part of the Embracer Group's ongoing restructuring initiative, Beamdog made the difficult decision to release 26 employees, myself among them," wrote Hollet. "I am incredibly grateful to them for affording me the opportunity to embark upon my professional journey in the industry. It has been an honor to collaborate with such exceptional individuals during my time there."
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End-stage capitalism baby. Anything of any value will be owned by some money managers that don't give a shit if they're managing turds, games, housing or money.
They want it all. They will bleed it dry. And discard the husk after they're done with it. And move on to the next thing.

I guess I didn't have much hope for that possible Legacy of Kain reboot.
 
Reminds me of a retail job the PR says your now part of a big family yet in meetings were told if you don't like it here you can quit, as they have people to replace you.
 
Yes. I understand that business is nothing personal, but I learnt the hard way that the 'family' was a one-way notion only. Sure, you can give all you've got when there's a difficult project and it will be appreciated (sometimes), but just don't expect to get any help in return when the roles are reversed.
 
All of the measures so far, with the exception of closing Volition, were only saving peanuts for the company. Each of them created negative press though. I'm starting to think Embracer was ill advised to use salami tactics and be selective about staff reduction. They should have done what the big boys usually do: Fire 10% of their staff (and close several studios) and then be done with it.
Embracer hid their cost reduction and optimization target somewhere in their latest financial report. I don't recall the details, but it was several hundred million $ this business year. So massive changes are coming, even though they are obviously optimising whatever they can and concentrate on healthy growth too.
 
Couchpotato said:
And add Crystal Dynamics to the list of fired employees as well.
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Crystal Dynamics is a big studio. In that context their blood loss is minimal.

I wish the fired employees all the best and I hope they all land on their feet.
They all worked in brand management & marketing, plus 1 in IT. With the next Tomb Raider several years away, and the Tomb Raider IP basically licensed to Amazon, one could argue these employees were not essential for the development of the game. Amazon will be in charge of most brand related things for the next game(s), with Embracer more concentrating on a controlling function, to ensure the brand doesn't get damaged.

The situation at Beamdog is much more critical. They'd better find out how to earn money, and soon.
 
Beamdog is a cautionary tale on how not to do game develepment. Only reason their still in business is because of the remasters. They always fail with original projects.

They should work on a modern RPG like Neverwinter, or something like BG again.
 
I read in an interview with the Plaion ( = the former Koch Media / Deep Silver) boss that his branch is also expected to participate in the restructuring - despite a record year with Dead Island 2 and growing business in Partner Publishing*.

*: Plaion is probably the biggest retail games distributor in Europe. They move physical boxes for ActiBlizz, Paradox and a gazillion well known publishers including many from Japan. They offer many additional services too.
 
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