posted on 26. 01. 2009 by Lori in Industry

The economy is fucking awesome

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As january is coming to an end, the first month of 2009 marked the end of renowned game studios such as EA Black Box (Skate, Need for Speed) and Free Radical (TimeSplitters, Haze). Additionally, both Sony and Microsoft had massive layoffs in their respective gaming divisions — I would even argue that the closing of Ensemble Studios (Halo Wars, Age of Empires) is partly due to the current state of the economy.

Unfortunately, tough times call for tough measures. Today, I would like to take the issue head-on and see what can be done to maybe avoid or lessen the impact of the crisis.

For the time being, new intellectual properties should — and probably will be — put on hold. As long as companies like EA are laying off employees by the thousand, we should not be gambling with creativity and fresh ideas, because after all, it is not what is consumed in times like these, when products with numbers at the ends of their titles evoke much quicker emotional reaction in potential customers, that being the reaching for their wallets. At the end of the day, job security, especially in these times, is far more important than creative freedom.

EARS’ Dead Space did not sell as well as it could have.

In a way, the industry, more than ever, needs auteurs, such as Glenn Schofield, executive producer for EA Redwood Shores’s survival horror shooter Dead Space: Admittedly, not the most original of titles, but solid through and through. People, who re-imagine games that people have loved in the past and re-brand them as titles they recognize.
Unfortunately, Dead Space tanked. Does Fallout 3 ring a bell? Damn-right it does, and EA should’ve done the exact same.
It is not a secret that Electronic Arts owns the rights to System Shock. Now, with some re-skinning and clever writing, why could Dead Space not be System Shock 3? If you do not like the idea, hear me out and stop living in the past — Companies need to make money. The outrage of the fanboys and the connoisseurs would have catapulted the game to instant cult status, while the execution and gameplay would’ve won over critics and gamers alike. After EA has accomplished this and brought the IP back into the general consciousness of gamers all over the world, they could’ve just remade System Shock 2 and sold Ken Levine’s old ideas to you for $ 59.99 and you would’ve gladly paid for it — let’s not pretend Ubisoft didn’t get away with doing the exact same thing with Prince of Persia, which is clearly inferior to Dead Space. Don’t you argue, Metacritic says I’m right.

System Shock is like a Big Daddy to BioShock.

Inarguably, the fourth quarter is the worst possible time to release anything even remotely different or new. Little Big Planet, Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space alike fell victim, some lesser than others, to this time of the year. Now you can tell me all about how Assassin’s Creed went on to sell 5 million copies with an October release date, but answer me this: Did Assassin’s Creed come out at the same time as Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Call of Duty 5 and Fallout 3?
Bioshock, also one of the most successful new IPs this generation, came out in August with no other game in sight. It didn’t hurt that Bioshock was awesome, either.
Can you see the god-damn pattern here?

The takeaway point here is, that companies should release awesome games at seemingly random points in the year.
If both Dante’s Inferno and Schaefer’s Brutal Legend (both EA) come out in the fourth quarter, we have not learned from past mistakes and we are doing both our bottom line as well as the games themselves a huge disservice.

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