Company News Big, Huge, Epic, Impossible and Disappointing

[Zed]

Tags: 38 Studios; Big Huge Games; Epic Games; Impossible Games; Infinity Blade: Dungeons

As you may or may not know, Big Huge Games (developers of mega-mediocre Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning) collapsed when 38 Studios crashed and burned not too long ago. In the wake of all that drama, Epic Games (of various Unreal-titles and lesser console shooters) played the good Samaritans and picked up some former Big Huge Games developers.

The result? A new subsidiary development studio called Impossible Games. Sadly, their first game will be an iOS title called Infinity Blade: Dungeons, but who knows what the future holds.

Didn't they get the "PC gaming is hot" memo?

 

[Curious_Tongue]

yay

 

[Crooked Bee]

I'm really glad for the ex-BHG employees and Ian Frazier in particular, but of course it would've been better if they were working on a PC and not iOS game. Maybe after that.

 

[JarlFrank]

Why is it that all dev companies who go under but somehow manage to still save themselves, or get saved, turn to handheld or social games?

Same happened to the German devs behind Drakensang, who are now too making shitty browser games.

Who even cares about that kind of shit.

 

[Infinitron]

Why is it that all dev companies who go under but somehow manage to still save themselves, or get saved, turn to handheld or social games?

I think Swen Vincke answered this question in his blog post, more or less

 

[sea]

Not really surprising, but I'm happy they all found work. I've never played Infinity Blade and I know a lot of people will yell "decline!" but really, getting a job in the games industry is tough and it's great that things worked out for (some of) Big Huge Games, at least in a manner of speaking.

Why is it that all dev companies who go under but somehow manage to still save themselves, or get saved, turn to handheld or social games?

Same happened to the German devs behind Drakensang, who are now too making shitty browser games.

Who even cares about that kind of shit.

Because budgets are lower and so are expectations for the platform. The idea is that you reduce dev costs by making games that... well, cost less, and can be released more frequently, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket. Even if you don't hit it big, it's better than competing directly with, say, BioWare or another larger dev who has 20 times the budget you do.

Of course, a lot of devs go under because those markets are still extremely competitive. A game like Drakensang costs millions to make, and unless it can make those millions back it simply isn't viable to keep making games like it, unless your goal is to go out of business.

 

[JarlFrank]

But why do none of them try to go for a mid-budget PC niche genre? There would be a considerable audience for niche RPGs, and they're starved for games - there are almost none that cater to that niche!
Your graphics can be mid to low quality, nobody would care if your game looked like it was made in 2004, and it's even likely that many will buy it even if it's mediocre just because there are so few games coming out that are made for this target group.

It would be a market segment with almost no competition and low to medium costs. But nobody seems to realize that there are alternatives to "AAA+++" and "casual games".

 

[Telengard]

Because the big companies have raised the bar for everyone. Low budget these days is 5 million dollars, and mid is 20. That's way out of the reach of most people, which means they have to go to someone else for investment. Say, a publisher. A publisher whose money comes with "recommendations."

The publisher, then, is staffed by business execs who often don't really know video games, and make their choices based on looking at the market trends to see what's currently hitting big, so they can cash in.

 

[Monocause]

@JF:

What you're writing is the reason I expect many people in the industry to be watching Wasteland 2 and other middle-tier (with fairly low budget but not exactly 'indie' or 'bedroom' too) projects really carefully. If WL2 is a financial success many similar outfits will follow their footsteps, with kickstarter or small financial publisher backing, and the fairly low-budget niche gaming market will slowly saturate.

 

[Phelot]

Isn't WL2 already a financial success so long as they actually finish it? I mean, all those people essentially already bought it.

 

[l3loodAngel]

Maybe after that.

Wishful thinking.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

But why do none of them try to go for a mid-budget PC niche genre? There would be a considerable audience for niche RPGs, and they're starved for games - there are almost none that cater to that niche!
Your graphics can be mid to low quality, nobody would care if your game looked like it was made in 2004, and it's even likely that many will buy it even if it's mediocre just because there are so few games coming out that are made for this target group.

It would be a market segment with almost no competition and low to medium costs. But nobody seems to realize that there are alternatives to "AAA+++" and "casual games".

That's why I get the shits when certain people bash the concept of the Ouya. I was hoping for a platform that encouraged games that were between "AAA" and "casual" for consoles. It will probably never happen of course, but I like to imagine the possibility at least.

 

[Metro]

But why do none of them try to go for a mid-budget PC niche genre?

Because the audience there is actually sophisticated and discriminating and it takes effort to please them versus the slop you can feed the pigs who gorge on iOS crap.

 

[Irxy]

Hmm, Amalur is a crappy game, don't care much for the Big Huge guys.

 

[tuluse]

Isn't WL2 already a financial success so long as they actually finish it? I mean, all those people essentially already bought it.

Well there are degrees of success. I think InXile is hoping to make enough money they don't need to ask kickstarter for money for their next project, or at the very least not have the entire budget based on donations.

But yeah, that 3 million dollars is employing a bunch of people for a year and a half, as long as the game comes out it is a success to some degree, as you said.

But why do none of them try to go for a mid-budget PC niche genre?

Because the audience there is actually sophisticated and discriminating and it takes effort to please them versus the slop you can feed the pigs who gorge on iOS crap.

While this is true, at least you know what your audience wants and can plan around that. No one has any idea what will get people to spend money on these free to play mobile games because they're all the same.

 

[Metro]

My point was not that it is a matter of knowing what your audience wants but the amount of work required to actually produce it. Developers can throw darts at a board in designing iOS games because the expectations are low and you don't have to be very creative or spend a lot of time in production.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

this is karmic retribution for not making rise of nations 2