this post was submitted on 10 May 2024
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The Real Reason Your Favourite Game Studios Are Getting Closed Instead Of Sold (www.thegamer.com)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] Xantharian_ocelot 97 points 6 months ago (3 children)

By shutting down a studio instead of selling it off or even letting it buy itself out, Microsoft ensures that no studio it has ever owned can become viable competition. Who cares about a diverse industry when you can keep all the IPs developed under your umbrella and shelve them for decades, instead of letting the studios that made them go on to work on their creative visions?

Article also mentions that it breaks the employees of those studios up so there is less chance of a competitor that makes another successful IP

[–] [email protected] 59 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Ironically if the developers band together and start another studio they would probably have Microsoft knocking on their door with an acquisition offer in a few years.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (2 children)

The trouble is the upfront capital though, but at the same time another publisher would surely bite at the thought of getting a talented studio's staff in one go?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

If only someone had money from their company being bought by Microsoft

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

hello welcome to my new venture capital firm: we specialise in funding game studios where 90% of the staff got fired in an acquisition turned shutdown

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Infinite money glitch

[–] captainlezbian 9 points 6 months ago

Microsoft getting back to the business strategy that made them successful

[–] [email protected] 89 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The real culprit is, surprise, late stage capitalism and unbridled greed. Who would've guessed?

An article that recognize the problem with our current economical system and didn't circle around the issue? Color me surprised

[–] Tylerdurdon 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

I looked everywhere in the box, but didn't find that color.

[–] Papergeist 4 points 6 months ago

Burnt Sienna

[–] platypus_plumba 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

He's asking for a water color painting of his surprised face looking at the article. Color him surprised please.

[–] snekerpimp 67 points 6 months ago (3 children)

EEE (embrace, extend, extinguish)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 months ago

Abso lutely. Microsoft and Google basically have a duopoly on corporate email and no one seems to care. I know this does seem relevant but trust me it is.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

That's what I was thinking the whole time. I mean, it's not that far of a guess.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Seems they're just skipping right to "extinguish".

[–] Boozilla 42 points 6 months ago (6 children)

I know a lot of indy game developers do their thing hoping to get rich from it. And there's nothing wrong with that. And they don't all do that. Some people just really love coding and creating, and just want to make a cool game. Nothing wrong with that, either.

But for once, I'd love to see some brilliant founder create a game studio that has some kind of poison pill clause that prevents it from ever going public or it's IP ever being purchased by a large mega-corp. And in my wettest of wet dreams, that idea becomes a meme.

Something tells me that here in the United States of Greed, such a thing is 'un-possible', legally speaking. Our whole corrupt system is set up to make half a dozen business bros get wealthier. They won't tolerate anything that jams a wrench into that machinery.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Something tells me that here in the United States of Greed, such a thing is ‘un-possible’, legally speaking.

It's not only possible it happens reasonably often. So often in fact that the "poison pill" idiom was created by companies who were doing just that.

Here's a Harvard Law paper on it.

[–] Boozilla 6 points 6 months ago

I had heard of this, and I appreciate the link to the paper. It's one reason I used the term. My understanding of it is that these seldom actually work in practice. It did not help Twitter, for example. I appreciate the counter-argument. I definitely want this to be a thing.

[–] Leuthil 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

There are plenty of small indie studios that won't sell out, we just don't know who they are.

[–] Boozilla 5 points 6 months ago

That's true. I would like to hear about them...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Or they're ConcernedApe

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I believe that company name is Valve.

[–] Boozilla 6 points 6 months ago (2 children)

TIL Valve has a poison pill clause. Cool.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't know that they have a poison pill clause but Gabe is a billionaire who doesn't seem to have interest in having external people direct the company. Thanks to Steam, valve can do what it wants. There is little benefit for them to go public given the extra scrutiny that comes with being a public company.

[–] Boozilla 7 points 6 months ago

Yeah, I love Gabe, and I love Steam. Even if it was created because he dropped that installation disk on the floor.

My dream is that the poison pill thing becomes very effective and very common, and I think some folks kind of missed the nuances. Which is fine, that's why we have a forum to hash this stuff out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

As far as any of us know, they don't. Even if they did in some company policy, they could just change it before selling themselves.

[–] captainlezbian 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There are two ways to solve for this: private ownership by a dedicated individual, and worker cooperative ownership with a strong culture.

[–] Boozilla 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Glad you brought up worker cooperatives. I have watched a few Richard Wolff videos and they sound awesome to me.

There's also this guy, who looks legit on paper, but I can't figure out if he really is legit or not. I hope he is...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employee-ownership-life-changing-for-family-60-minutes/

[–] captainlezbian 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I am Lemmy’s token syndicalist lol. I love democracy so much I think we should have it at work too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm sold, where do I sign up?

[–] captainlezbian 1 points 6 months ago

Probably a union hall. Maybe try the Wobblies. Definitely join me in propagandizing. But yeah organize in some way, you can probably find the hand of syndicalists somewhere in your local leftism scene, we’re notorious for being well organized as we’re where anarchism meets “ok but like we need a plan and some clear goals”.

[–] CitizenKong 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean, Larian is pretty much that. Instead of just doing Baldur's Gate 4 although Hasbro fired all their contact people and probably would have urged Larian to rush a sequel, they are instead during an IP of their own next and refuse to go public and/or get bought.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I mean, I got upset like everyone else at the news that they wouldn't be making more BG, but the longer I think about it, the longer I feel like it's the healthier choice. Like you said, Hasbro might have pressured them to rush out the next game, instead of giving them the creative space to make that game live up to the expectations.

[–] PopOfAfrica 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I've been doing some market analysis on the viability of indie projects. My brother and I are starting to develop a game after he's finished up his computer science degree (Im a graphics major BTW). Anyway I slice it, the only way to remain profitable would be to have a small team as possible.

I have no idea why a lot of these companies think that growth is actually going to be better for them in the indie space.

[–] Thcdenton 23 points 6 months ago

This is why I don't care about IPs anymore. As soon as one gets traction some suit shows up and fucks it up. Indie one-offs are best.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Not surprising. Also fucking Bethesda shelving their own best selling IP lol.

[–] AngryCommieKender 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Fallout, Elder Scrolls, or Both?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Mostly Elder Scrolls but Fallout now too is basically counting as shelved. And before anyone asks, no, MMO's aren't cutting it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The IP reason is such a stupid argument in my opinion, because most of the time the company either ends up doing fuck all with it, or teases with a possible return only to say "lol jk nevermind".

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

From the article:

By shutting down a studio instead of selling it off or even letting it buy itself out, Microsoft ensures that no studio it has ever owned can become viable competition.

They benefit by killing off art and culture that could replace or take attention away from the art and culture they already control and profit from. They don't need to profit from it directly.

[–] RizzRustbolt 12 points 6 months ago

Should the US corporate tax system have a cap on declareable losses?

Who knows?

[–] Tylerdurdon 9 points 6 months ago

The lesson for those folks selling out to Microsoft? This can never be undone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Would be cool to fight for a part in the contract about microsoft losing ip and trademark(assuming they try to be extra sneaky) rights or have them become public domain if the studio is shut down or the team is broken up too fast

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Corpo drones will never allow such things. Disney in particular will fight back like a rabid mouse.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Well I guess they don't want the studio or the talent bad enough, maybe I'm biased but for me it's been so rare for big studios to put out stuff that's actually really fun and innovative so I'd say they need those small studios and I'd love so much to see them be properly valued by big companies

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

This makes me feel even more uneasy about Double Fine's acquisition by Microsoft: I'm afraid that MS could someday deem the studio redundant and kill it rather than let employees buy it back just like Bungie was allowed to do back then.