Hades 2’s early access release is a resounding success in so many regards, and further proof that Supergiant games is the best of the best when it comes to indie dev studios.
But the release comes in the shadow of mass layoffs and studio closures in the industry.
Can the games industry take a leaf out of Supergiant’s book in the way companies are run? probably not…
articles:
The Secret To The Success Of Bastion, Pyre, And Hades: No Forced Crunch, Yes Forced Vacations – Nathan Grayson – Kotaku:
https://kotaku.com/the-secret-to-the-success-of-bastion-pyre-and-hades-1838082618
Mikami Reveals New Studio Plans, 3D Ambitions – Leigh Alexander – Game Developer:
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/mikami-reveals-new-studio-plans-3d-ambitions
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00:00-01:24 – intro + Hades 2 “review”
01:24-03:47 – Supergiant games
03:47-06:37 – Closure of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks
06:37-08:26 – Closure of Roll7 and Intercept Games
08:26-10:18 – Xbox live arcade
10:18-11:51 – Outro
source
Thank you all for the lovely response on this so far, I’m a little overwhelmed!
Gunna be cheeky and ask anyone to follow me over on Twitch if you so desire! I stream once a week ish, and it’s a nice community: twitch.tv/jakeitup
As someone with a lot of friends in the industry, the current state of working for a studio makes me want to tear my hair out.
In many ways I agree, indies are the future — it’s where we see new ideas and big stylistic swings — but I wish game devs who just want to work with a team on one thing and get dental coverage wouldn’t keep getting shafted like this
It's just… really frustrating to watch what's happening on the sidelines. Why isn't it there something we can all do about this? I mean… isn't there?
I get you don't care about profit, you want creative indie stuff. But you don't get 1 without the other. Baldur's Gate 3 would have never happened without DOS 1 and DOS 2 being a success. Hades 1+2 would have never happened without Bastion or Pyre or Transistor being a success. Each product not only inspires the next but funds the next. The idea of tent pole development in which your major franchises create the poles that hold up the tent so that smaller projects can be made IS USED. Often. But, those smaller projects still need to pull their weight. And with how risky creative projects are that means not just being profitable, but being highly profitable. Because if you want the studio to survive you need to fund not only future projects but you need to make enough to eat the cost of failures too. Each game needs to meet this level. Merely making your money back or being modestly profitable is a recipe for eventual failure. Larian Studios is a great example here. They almost went bankrupt many times. They are an example of survivorship bias. Decades of work culminating in BG 3 that had to pass many D20 rolls to get here. 9.5/10 times a company doing that does not make it. That is not a sustainable business plan.
Wild that Starfield flopped hard enough to kill a successful studio.
I'm curious to see if Microsoft's decision to shutter a bunch of studios will wind up shooting them in the foot in regards to acquiring new talent. I'd wager indie studios are less likely to sign contracts with big producers if they have a history of shutting down ones that they acquire, and since most indie studios aren't publicly traded, a contract that both parties agree to is the only way that I know a merger could or would happen.
1:54 anyobe else think that looks like the soul tonic from Hades 2? Maybe a small easter egg?
I love how mainstream this whole discussion is becoming. it used to be different, people used to not care because the next assassins creed, the next Need for Speed, next Fifa or Call of Duty would be a hit again, but I feel like we are reaching a point where the "too big to fail" IPs are so consistantly not the most fun games of the year that people are actually looking into the why.
Of course it is a deep well and because at the very bottom of it is the same structure that underlies our whole society it is very hard to look at it, but at least we are having this discussion now.
In my opinion the reason why we can't seem to get together to fight climate change or end stupid wars is actually connected to why AAA games kinda suck these days. Obviously this is not to say the failure of Anthem or whatever videogame sucked this year is of global importance, but I think that our profit driven society that is chasing perpetual growtth is the mechanism that produced both and while we can improve one or the other individually a lot real solutions would affect both in a way.
go back a few years and watch some old E3 or Game Awards and there is entire sections dedicated to the support of smaller studios and Indie games….
dont think we are going to see much of that anymore
Corporations are trying to take gaming into the "easy, repeatable, guaranteed" realm of gaming. They don't want new IPs, they don't want innovation or change. They want all gaming to be Call of Duty and they want new versions being sold at a premium every six months.
Their goals are diametrically opposed to creative ventures. Growth mentality does not work for artistic expression, especially in video games.
Y’all. Lets try and call studios AA. Big difference between a team of dozens in a AA studio and a 3 person industry team.
This was lovely, good insights and overview
"plays into range a bit more"
me swinging a great axe around: …. yeah…. range
Ive always said, once you make one good game, the next one is more of that, with new toys and a couple of spins and you got gold.
But theres a reason why indie ultimately stayed king. Once those triple A companies fully devolved into pure money machines, it was the beginning of the end.
What was once trailblazers, helmed by passionate people thay fought hard for their ideals and ambitions, slowly the leaders changed and became replaced with business men.
The issue is that companies aren't being run sustainably. Businesses are about maximizing quarterly shareholder profit in part, executives milking as much as they can and then moving elsewhere, and vulture capitalists strip-mining and liquidating whatever they can get away with. These games studios are not being closed because of anything they have done, or for logical business reasons. This is about the profit of individuals, at the expense of…well, everything else. The fact that it fucks over the company's development of new IPs is completely beside the point. They are NOT MAKING DECISIONS THAT ARE GOOD FOR THE COMPANY. that's not even their job. The people making these decisions don't play video games, and possibly don't even LIKE games. The same kind of people run Hollywood now and don't watch movies. It doesn't matter what the product is. it's about squeezing out value in the short term. It could be anything.
Silksong is surely coming this year right? 😅
Why would ceo's/upper management re-invest their profits in making their company better, when they can just take the profits, and say fuck the workers.
It does kind of feel like indie games have been taking center stage more lately. I’ve noticed my usual retinue of go-to games used to be mostly AAA, but over the last few years has slowly been replaced by a combination of older games and indie titles.
Oof reading nathan qoutes hard pass
Nah, dei got to this game, it hindered the devs creativity ,now we have this,dei should be illegal
I think what really confuses me is just a sense of like… Why shut down the ones that actually MAKE profit?
Like, Even the most cynical, capitalist part of my brain can't wrap my head around it. Like, putting on the CEO glasses…
Like alright, Arkane screws up majorly with a project they really shouldn't have been put to in the first place, but we hypothetically "Need" a studio or two to cut and absorb into a larger project so yea, whatever. Same with Intercept and Kerbal 2's poor reception.
But Tango? They've done nothing but smash hit after smash hit, with a fandom that would be devoted to keeping their eyes and ears out for literally anything they produce because they have public trust. There is literally no good reason to slash them. They're a powerhouse that even if they're not 343 levels of bighuge, they've got such loyalty that it's killing a golden goose. Like, the only possible thing I could think of would be to absorb their workers into a larger project, but then you could just have them work on your bigger project ANYWAY?
The big players lost it a decade ago, funnily it has an inverse relationship to the influence of shareholders.
Something I will add to the conversation, I dunno if anyone caught the iii initiative, but that seems to be a great platform moving indie games forward. I think people describe it like the E3 of indie games, and it's a very apt description. I hope it continues to shine a light on great upcoming indie games that deserve such recognition!
I think you are confused about what the term indie studio means.
And with discussions in the video being all over the place, with no conclusion, what was the point of the video?
Shocked that you aren't a bigger channel. This is so good!
less than 1k subs is criminal. This video was phenomenal!
To quote my good friend tony, Kapitalismos Fteei