Were entering the video game dark ages.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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AAA devs are finding out there's no such thing as infinite money doesn't mean there are no good games. Look around and you might just realize they're actually the least interesting content out there. There are more games coming out per/day than at any other point in history. Take some initiative and you'll find something great.
I wonder how much of it is mismanagement on behalf of Microsoft itself, and how much of it is small-time devs suddenly getting more budget than they've ever seen before and deciding to get super ambitious with their next project and then having to scale it back when they can't actually handle the project?
It's what happened with EA and Anthem. Bioware suddenly got a shitload of money, couldn't hack it, had to scale back the project, and it all fell apart.
The problem in most big companies (and organisations or countries) is that leaders promote people who think like themselves or at least are very agreeable. And as time passes they end up surrounding themselves with yes-people; every bad idea is cheered on, because all the critics have been fired or are way down in the hierarchy.
And in that environment, everyone who actually understands how things work quits or gets quit. It's my understanding that there are large sections of code bases that MS just doesn't touch, because everyone who understood how they function is gone. Continuity of institutional knowledge is difficult in the best cases and impossible under leaders that discourage dissenting perspectives.
/gestures about wildly
So true. All those suck ups are at the top and the bosses overestimate themselves. What we need more smaller studios.
Eighteen months ago, I was an advocate for Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, because I didn't think anybody could have done a worse job than Bobby Kotick.
Phil Spencer has proven me wrong. This arsehole tried to shut down Tango Gameworks after they literally shadowdropped a critically acclaimed GOTY contender.
Never underestimate Phil Spencer.
Bizarre Creations had the misfortune of being owned by both of them before being shut down.
It really shows that something is fucked up in businessland that they're so bad at managing studios, when managing studios is literally all they fucking do.
Same with EA. It's just a wasteland of dead companies. The list of studios they've closed is bigger than the list of ones they still own.
I still kinda want Microsoft to buy Activision Blizzard, but not for altruistic reasons.
But Microsoft already bought Activision Blizzard.
Shows how much I care about the output of either company.
Freelancer 2. Will not forget.
They're really good at killing them though. I'll never forgive the death of Ensemble.
Don't forget they also murdered Rare.
I 100% believe the claim that Microsoft executives mistakenly thought they've just nabbed the Donkey Kong IP by acquiring Rare. Definitely seems like something some c-suite ghouls who are totally out of touch with the games industry would believe.
Also, I'm not sure how much of Rare's downfall was due to Microsoft's mismanagement or their core talent leaving to form other studios. Maybe a bit of both.
I assume a lot of the top level staff stick about until their contractually obliged period for getting a massive payday is over, and then look very closely at whether they actually want to be told what to do by a bunch of suits all day long.
Realistically they're working to make somebody else richer at that point, and there's only so much enthusiasm anyone can have for that. Certainly not enough for the long hours needed in the games industry.
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I couldn't believe it when they shut down the studio that did Hi-Fi Rush. They put out a great game that received universal praise, then shut them down like a few months later. Infuriating.
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Arkane Studios for me.
Also a crime. Not just a great game in their niche, but a long history of them.
We've bought these studios that are loved by gamers for their niche content.
What do you mean they're not making the next Fortnite? Shut them down immediately.
To be fair, Age of Empires III was bad, and the last project Ensemble was working on before they got shuttered was a Halo MMO.
Also, Robot Entertainment (the studio that rose from the ashes of Ensemble) were the initial developers of Age of Empires Online, which was P2W slop that 90% of players couldn't run because Games For Windows LIVE was a buggy crock of shit. And since then they've released nothing but Orcs Must Die games.
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But that is the whole point. You don't buy studios to make games, you buy them to get rid of competitors.
And for Microsoft, to get a back catalogue to ensure your subscription service remains attractive.
Obligatory.
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Yeah, remember when we had a proper alternative to twitch that had a better & faster Streaming Protocol called Mixer. Which was actually focussed on Gaming ??
Yeah it was run by Microsoft & then they killed it.
Then Glimesh revived it in a way& now it's dead too. Shame, it was OpenSource too
I'm not really all that bothered. Unlike movies, new start ups for making games happen a lot. When the greedy giants topple, like a forest something grows in the new patch of sunlight.
We probably wouldn't have expedition 33 if Ubisoft gave people a reason to stay
I wish that was true, but funding has dried up across the entire sector and that affects the viability of smaller studios more than it does the mega corps with bottomless warchests.
i don't believe the next video game collapse is going to be very pretty for anyone. also, most independent studios and developers make little to no money at all
its only the big publishers that are going to crash, so nothing of value will be lost.
Tell that to all the smaller studios that have already been decimated and forced to close because of their publishing/funding deals falling through over the last couple of years.
You don’t hear much about it because they’re smaller and/or working on things that hadn’t released yet, vs the occasional big media splashes from companies like MS doing more layoffs, but indies and AA are being gutted too.
It’s comforting to believe that only the biggest companies are struggling, but the industry as a whole is currently in active collapse from the inside out.
i know it's not the important part of your comment, but I must point out that indies will be fine because indies do not have publishing deals. If your studio is beholden to a publisher, then you are by definition not independent.
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“You’ll have GaaS and you’ll like it.”
Microsoft owns taco bell?
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