by [name redacted]
Originally published in, I believe, the August issue of Play Magazine, split into a few blurbs across a two-page spread. I thought it rather worked in that format.
While everyone is freaking out about the economy, some trends are older and more reliable. Over the last decade, as the game industry has become big business and budgets have skyrocketed, yet everyone has continued to produce more less the same material, more and more groups and individuals have had to compromise.
Over just the last month, at least half a dozen developers have folded or bled staff members. Blaming sales of the latest Tomb Raider sequel, Crystal Dynamics laid off another 25 staff, following 30 layoffs earlier in the year. Preferring to centralize its QA operations, Rockstar has fired 10% of the staff at its New England subsidiary. Following the launch of America’s Army 3, the U.S. Army has closed its Emeryville, CA studio. Spyborg developer Bionic Games has seen an unspecified number of layoffs; in a brief statement, president Michael Haller played down the news.
Most troubling is Bionic Commando developer Grin, which has reportedly lost over 100 employees — more than half its workforce. The relative newcomer has seen positive press, but it seems like people just aren’t buying.
The Dark Age of Mythic
Partly as a result of major layoffs a few months back, on June 24th EA chose to merge Dark Age of Camelot developer Mythic with fairly new acquisition BioWare (itself once a beacon of independent development), forming a single internal “RPG group”. In the short term at least, the change will have little impact on either studio; each will retain its identity and staff, and finish its current projects. The only reported casualty is Mythic co-founder Mark Jacobs, who is leaving on apparently genial terms. (Reports suggest that lower staff are nevertheless a bit freaked out.)
The new supergroup is overseen by BioWare’s Ray Muzyka; Greg Zeschuk continues on at BioWare as as chief creative officer, while Mythic co-founder Rob Denton continues as COO of that wing.
id Finds a New Ego
In similar news, Bethesda parent Zenimax has acquired independent stalwart id Software. Co-founder John Carmack explained that more and more, id was having trouble shopping its games to publishers. The problem is, there are too many other talented people making first-person shooters these days, making id’s argument for funding a little trickier.
Though they were still doing okay, Carmack decided that id would do best to pull more development back in-house, and grow internally. To chance that, in a climate increasingly hostile to freelancing, would probably mean an acquisition. Of the options, Zenimax seemed the most promising. Bethesda’s and id’s strengths complement each other without competing; Zenimax is uncannily well-funded; and Carmack was impressed with Bethesda’s revival of the Fallout series.
In the short term, the neighbor studios will probably experience little bleed-over, either creatively or technologically. Though Carmack says there will “certainly” be cooperation of some sort, he intends to keep id as separate and distinct as he can.