Developer Eurocom Closes

[Brad]

This surely isn't the right place for me to post this but the discussion has led to it. When I play some of the indie games made by two guys over the course of a year (I'm generalising) I am forced to look at some of the AAA titles that have had 300 people working on them for 2 years and think WTF have you all been doing in that time? I'm sure the answer is the beurocracy no doubt present in large corps.

[FelixofMars]

There are more than you think and some of the new studios do expand and some of the older ones contract. The UK industry is always volatile and to be honest its been better than it has been in say 2010-2011.

Off the top of my head:

Rockstar (they have about 4 studios not just North)
Jagex
Frontier
Sumo
Sony
Microsoft (includes Rare & Lionhead)
Natural Motion
Media Molecule

I dare say there are more.

Plus there are mid sized studios like Ninja Theory & Supermassive. Not to mention all the 1-20 man teams.

In terms of BIG UK studios who is there left?

Rockstar North
Rare
Criterion
Lionhead
Codemasters

Anymore?

Kind of depressing.

As for CTN's comment about Activision and their handling of small studios; I fully agree. First Bizarre, now this. Stinks.

[teddymeow]

I forgot about Sumo and Sony's various dotted about.

[FelixofMars]

Yeah some of the larger games has a lot of churn (people quit) and publishers that only have to look at the box to get a name on it. This sometime happens with indie games under publisher control as well if you look at some of the XBLA games for example. The studio will be 20 people but the credits will be in the 100's.

But you point is there a huge amount of beurocracy, I would say almost certainly. I don't think the industry was ready for going from 20 people to having to have bigger teams. At the same time there was lots of waste and the tools where not in place. I keep reading the analysts and some honchos saying it will get worse and bigger teams but really they need to spend time making the tool chains easier. I would want to see less people being able to do more stuff, I wasted so much time twiddling my thumbs on developing larger games.

This surely isn't the right place for me to post this but the discussion has led to it. When I play some of the indie games made by two guys over the course of a year (I'm generalising) I am forced to look at some of the AAA titles that have had 300 people working on them for 2 years and think WTF have you all been doing in that time? I'm sure the answer is the beurocracy no doubt present in large corps.

[Kit]

In terms of BIG UK studios who is there left?

Rockstar North
Rare
Criterion
Lionhead
Codemasters

Anymore?

Kind of depressing.

As for CTN's comment about Activision and their handling of small studios; I fully agree. First Bizarre, now this. Stinks.

Rocksteady is another big one. Sure they'll be expanding given the success of their recent games.

[chopemon]

Don't forget Team Ninja and Supermassive.

[Brad]

Don't forget Team Ninja and Supermassive.

We didn't!

Plus there are mid sized studios like Ninja Theory & Supermassive. Not to mention all the 1-20 man teams.

[chopemon]

Lesson learned kids, don't skim read the thread.

[dataDave]

So hard to know what the world in general thinks but for me, I'm really disillusioned with the majority of mainstream games, big blockbusters. To the point I rarely even bother looking at them.

You're part of a very niche group of gamers. Looks at the sales charts to see how the majority think. They only care about war and footy. Real games are becoming a thing of the past, look at Platinum Games' output and how well that sells. Catering to a small pocket in the market doesn't make sense financially to a publisher that has $_$ for eyes. This is a dangerous situation for people that like real games, and not the vast majority of **** that gets put out for the 'core' gamer massive. Hopefully Nintendo will continue to cater towards that smaller pocket without a prejudice over niche output, like they are doing with Bayo 2.

[egparadigm]

Just noticed this had happened ? what a shame! The developer worked for years on James Bond, trying to emulate the work of Rare, and they finally managed it with GoldenEye on Wii/Reloaded, only to close a few months later!