It’s doubtful how many more folks are choosing to go outdoors and enjoy life, but one thing is for certain: there’s less showing up to play new titles. Whether it be from yet another studio buyout, followed by the inevitable layoffs after the new and previous owner(s) state how excited they are about the joining of families, or yet another failed launch leading to closures, there’s a new constant in the gaming industry of consistent bad news for developers and publishers.
The most recent, and far from being the only, in the last few weeks, is that Full Circle Studio is expected to lay off staff after player counts have plummeted for EA’s latest Skate game. The live service title is one of many where gaming audiences chose to move on from after launch, and six months in, numbers (per TechPowerUp, who has a deep rabbit hole of stories pertaining to this topic) are in the 2,000s. A similar number of players are all that’s left for Wildlight Entertainment’s free-to-play title, Highguard, which only just launched in January. An ex-developer for the game has already confirmed on social media that the majority of its team had been laid off.
Meanwhile, Sony, which had just revealed more God of War projects are in development, has closed Bluepoint Games, which was rumored to be working on an online multiplayer GoW title. It has also been announced that Tencent has closed its TiMi Montreal studio, which had previously released some moderately successful mobile titles, before it could launch its first AAA game. This was preceded by the closure of Spliced, a studio which NetEase had just put together.
Just yesterday, Nacon filed for insolvency following last week’s release of Styx: Blades of Glory. Nacon has experienced mixed levels of success with its titles, which include RoboCop, Hell Is Us, GreedFall 2, and its attempt to revive the Test Drive franchise with Test Drive Unlimited. The publisher said the following in its statement (per IGN).
“The aim of this procedure is to assess all possible solutions to ensure the sustainability of the Company’s activity under the best possible conditions, protect employees, and preserve jobs, while renegotiating with its creditors in a calm and constructive framework,”
– Nacon
Ubisoft, which continues to attempt to portray some semblance that everything is okay by making multiple new game announcements, presumably to appease its investors, laid off another 40 workers last week at its Toronto studio, following 500 laid off before, as part of its current restructuring strategy that could see as much as 18% of its total staff being cut.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though, as Arc Raiders continues to maintain a high player count, showing that while audiences have abandoned some titles, they are keen to play titles they enjoy, and perhaps studios need to focus more on that detail than on a checklist, formulaic approach. Meanwhile, the upcoming online multiplayer Horizon Hunters Gathering is about to enter Beta Testing, and Bungie’s Marathon is expected to finally launch in March, so we’ll just have to wait and see how these online games fare.