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Kotaku: Xbox Compulsion Games reportedly shutting down, Arkane Studios could be the second studio

spons said:
Also, Double Fine's problem is that they haven't really developed a shit game, it's just that they have zero audience for their products as they generally make something they'd play instead of focusing on what people would play. Authorship isn't really a thing in games and there's a lot of give when it comes to pleasing consumers.

So I'm surprised they're not the first one on the chopping block (although they don't deserve it).
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Starbase df 9 or whatever that was called says hi.

Although I think that was before their MS days.

Edit : Spacebase df9
 
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They have no IP of value, and no name recognition, so they are obviously the most vulnerable. Double-Fine they'll probably just gut and keep the name.
 
By the way, the racist woman who made the "white male gamers were a mistake" statement -who Compulsion hired as their community manager- was later begging for a bartending job on linkedin after her contract at Compulsion ended. Womp womp.
 
OctopusBox said:
Obsidian has made a Fallout game before. They'll just stick them on Fallout duty to make Fallout games to release 5 years after the show stops being popular.
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Obsidian in the recent past has refused to develop games with more than 100 people. They like working on smaller projects. But that is why both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 are super average. Obsidian could actually make a good game if they dedicated the full resources of the studio

Microsoft needs to put a gun to their head and tell them to develop a proper AAA Fallout game or else mass layoffs. Microsoft can't wait until 2035 for the next Fallout. It would be malpractice
 
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Black_Stride said:
P.S They sent South of Midnight out to die.
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It never had a chance. I remember the first time I saw it at whatever game show they unveiled it. I thought it was cringe material, and apparently I wasn't alone.

These teams can keep cranking out their Sweet Baby Inc crap if that's what floats their boat, but they need to get their resumes in order.
 
In have no idea why they bought them.

ChuckeRearmed said:
Go woke go broke.
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It's not like their first game was good.
We Happy Few had a cool concept and visuals and people were excited for it when they thought it was going to be like a new Bioshock.
But it's a 60 metascore game with an all time peak of 3k players on steam.
 
Fbh said:
In have no idea why they bought them.



It's not like their first game was good.
We Happy Few had a cool concept and visuals and people were excited for it when they thought it was going to be like a new Bioshock.
But it's a 60 metascore game with an all time peak of 3k players on steam.
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We Happy Few is HORRIBLE
 
unfashionable said:
Sounds like this didnt help

South of Midnight reached an all-time peak of 1,436 concurrent players on Steam
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Bungie:

fake-sleep.gif
 
It took them 7 damn years to make one lousy Gamepass filler game. What an absolute joke.

Imagine spending 7 years working in a cushy well-paying job on some passion project, funded by your rich parent company, with zero concern whether the market even wants the thing you're making.

Oh well, hope you geniuses had a backup plan for when rich uncle Microsoft inevitably got tired of flushing money down the toilet.
 
spons said:
What are they even working on right now?
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Probably a follow up to Avowed. I quite enjoyed the first one, but it did have some pretty big issues that need to be addressed in any future follow up.

I think Obsidian will stick around because Grounded seems pretty popular? And they seem to be a decently efficient studio for the most part.
 
I think Obsidian making a Fallout or TES without someone else doing most of the work for them is simply beyond them. It is obviously how they should have been deployed, if they could be trusted to do it.

Speaking of Obsidian and racism at MS studios: I believe the 'We got too many crusty white dudes in this field' guy is still at Obsidian. You know what to do, Asha.
 
spons said:
it's just that they have zero audience for their products as they generally make something they'd play instead of focusing on what people would play
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Tbh that's why I really like DF even if I don't care for a good chunk of what they put out.

Though if I was an owner like MS id likely feel VERY different about it.
 
Fbh said:
In have no idea why they bought them.



It's not like their first game was good.
We Happy Few had a cool concept and visuals and people were excited for it when they thought it was going to be like a new Bioshock.
But it's a 60 metascore game with an all time peak of 3k players on steam.
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diffusionx said:
We Happy Few is HORRIBLE
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The biggest problem with We Happy Few IMO is simply that it wasn't clear what the game actually was. As Fbh Fbh stated everybody thought it was a new Bioshock type game with a retro 60s UK aesthetic. I personally thought this looked amazing but then the game came out and it was like some survival-ish procedurally generated "action adventure" and I lost all interest.

All Compulsion has is aesthetics. Contrast was cool but not very good, We Happy Few obviously has great aesthetics but not much else, and South of Midnight is visually great but as a game it's shit.
 
calico said:
I think Obsidian making a Fallout or TES without someone else doing most of the work for them is simply beyond them. It is obviously how they should have been deployed, if they could be trusted to do it.

Speaking of Obsidian and racism at MS studios: I believe the 'We got too many crusty white dudes in this field' guy is still at Obsidian. You know what to do, Asha.
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Yeah, for Obsidian instead of Avower or TOW2 they should work with IPs that sell.
 
Thats unfortunate. I happened to give South of Midnight a try since it was on GP and it ended up becoming one of my favorite games of the year. It was surprisingly enjoyable.
 
They did say in their last report that they will cut smaller games and focus on AAA big budget games , so it's not a surprise, I even expect they will shutdown double fine as well
 
Black_Stride said:
There next game was probably 3 to 5 years out at best.
Not shocked.

Though would be nice if they could afford to go independent and buy themselves out of Microsoft.

Closing studios outright should never be the answer..............except Haven.



P.S They sent South of Midnight out to die.
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They would be bankrupt in an hour.
 
Sephimoth said:
Shoulda made good games!
South of Mid

Not sure I understand why studios get shuttered rather than just 'released'?
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Good point. Let someone else put them up and buy them.

DenchDeckard said:
Unfortunately, in this current climate they would probably be seen as the low hanging fruit.

I remember playing through contrast, I think it might have been on the PS4 at launch or ps plus. Or was it Xbox live. It wasn't really a very good game. We happy few was panned and south of midnight is supposed to be fine, I suppose?

Rough, but I can't see how this can be the catastrophic news that the french journalist was talking about. Compulsion games is no where near the level of other recent studio closures.
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I think the PS4 was called Contact. It was a good indie game.
 
hououinkyouma00 said:
The biggest problem with We Happy Few IMO is simply that it wasn't clear what the game actually was. As Fbh Fbh stated everybody thought it was a new Bioshock type game with a retro 60s UK aesthetic. I personally thought this looked amazing but then the game came out and it was like some survival-ish procedurally generated "action adventure" and I lost all interest.
Click to expand...

Yup. I was so excited for it based on the trailers. Bought it and almost immediately realized I was fucking baited. Hated this studio ever since.
 
I just searched the story of South of midnight and this is what it said:

South of Midnight follows Hazel Flood, a young woman in the devastated, impoverished town of Prospero, Louisiana. After a catastrophic hurricane causes massive flooding, Hazel's home is destroyed and her mother, Lacey Flood, is swept away.

Setting out to rescue her mother, Hazel discovers that the storm has torn the veil between the material world and a shadowed, magical reality. She awakens ancient powers and becomes a Weaver—someone who can see the magical threads of the world, mend broken bonds, and heal the lingering traumas of restless spirits.

I mean that sounds absolutely fucking lame as hell for a "video game", it reads like a documentary on Peacock. I lately been thinking of the appeal as a kid and how exactly would this fucking stupid ass story even remotely be interesting to kids? What are these people doing that makes this trash? Good riddance, they need to be bagging groceries not making games.
 
Hollywood Hitman said:
I just searched the story of South of midnight and this is what it said:

South of Midnight follows Hazel Flood, a young woman in the devastated, impoverished town of Prospero, Louisiana. After a catastrophic hurricane causes massive flooding, Hazel's home is destroyed and her mother, Lacey Flood, is swept away.

Setting out to rescue her mother, Hazel discovers that the storm has torn the veil between the material world and a shadowed, magical reality. She awakens ancient powers and becomes a Weaver—someone who can see the magical threads of the world, mend broken bonds, and heal the lingering traumas of restless spirits.

I mean that sounds absolutely fucking lame as hell for a "video game", it reads like a documentary on Peacock. I lately been thinking of the appeal as a kid and how exactly would this fucking stupid ass story even remotely be interesting to kids? What are these people doing that makes this trash? Good riddance, they need to be bagging groceries not making games.
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well the appeal supposed to be the fact that she was black and it was based on southern mythology.
 
Hollywood Hitman said:
I just searched the story of South of midnight and this is what it said:

South of Midnight follows Hazel Flood, a young woman in the devastated, impoverished town of Prospero, Louisiana. After a catastrophic hurricane causes massive flooding, Hazel's home is destroyed and her mother, Lacey Flood, is swept away.

Setting out to rescue her mother, Hazel discovers that the storm has torn the veil between the material world and a shadowed, magical reality. She awakens ancient powers and becomes a Weaver—someone who can see the magical threads of the world, mend broken bonds, and heal the lingering traumas of restless spirits.

I mean that sounds absolutely fucking lame as hell for a "video game", it reads like a documentary on Peacock. I lately been thinking of the appeal as a kid and how exactly would this fucking stupid ass story even remotely be interesting to kids? What are these people doing that makes this trash? Good riddance, they need to be bagging groceries not making games.
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Its based on old Louisiana supersititions. It makes more sense when playing the game.
 
Sephimoth said:
Shoulda made good games!
South of Mid

Not sure I understand why studios get shuttered rather than just 'released'?
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I guess the equipment and the office space has value to MS to recoup something.

And of course whatever work and IPs MS own they want to retain in case it has future value.

What MS want is to get rid of the salary bill and sell or use anything else thats left.

Yeah in the great scheme it's not much money, but to an accountant somewhere in MS that retained value will contribute to a bonus eventually.

I guess the staff can all agree to go meet somewhere on Monday and start up a continuity studio.

But they'll have lost whatever IPs and work they did while MS was footing the bill, so they'll be starting from scratch.
 
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Another one of those arthouse studios like DF. Making games that nobody wants to play. And some of their games are poorly reviewed too.

Give them credit. When they got rich uncle MS floating the bill every year, you can coast for years before someone notices and takes action.

Absolutely no different than sitting in on business meetings. The people working in the biggest departments and accounts gets the most scrutiny and talk all hour. While the guy in charge of small responsibilities hides at the back of them room hoping nobody notices or asks him questions what's going on with his duties. He'll just keep his mouth shut all hour trying to survive another monthly meeting.

But at some point, somebody always notices. Especially when new management comes in and looks at everything for the first time to see what's happening.

We Happy Few started development in 2014. Add in SoM. So in 12 years, you got this on Steam.

zxpbIC5Z3JR3szm2.jpg
 
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The art work and graphics were good if not great. The combat was atrocious. Even though you could skip it. They needed better combat, more unlocksbles, more,outfits, more dlc. They just didn't support it.
 
ChuckeRearmed said:
No idea. But just like with a lot of IPs like Star Wars etc. the idea was that there is a mythological "modern" audience.
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Put it this way.

If you're rich with money or have parents that pay for everything, you can daydream all day, while mowing the lawn for half an hour is like the biggest accomplishment in life.

But if you're in survival mode for cash and got to pay rent/mortgage bills, you do your best job at work to ensure the pay stubs keep coming in and maybe get a promotion to make more money.

Take a guess which situation studios like DF and Compulsion are in.
 
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Hollywood Hitman said:
I just searched the story of South of midnight and this is what it said:

South of Midnight follows Hazel Flood, a young woman in the devastated, impoverished town of Prospero, Louisiana. After a catastrophic hurricane causes massive flooding, Hazel's home is destroyed and her mother, Lacey Flood, is swept away.

Setting out to rescue her mother, Hazel discovers that the storm has torn the veil between the material world and a shadowed, magical reality. She awakens ancient powers and becomes a Weaver—someone who can see the magical threads of the world, mend broken bonds, and heal the lingering traumas of restless spirits.

I mean that sounds absolutely fucking lame as hell for a "video game", it reads like a documentary on Peacock. I lately been thinking of the appeal as a kid and how exactly would this fucking stupid ass story even remotely be interesting to kids? What are these people doing that makes this trash? Good riddance, they need to be bagging groceries not making games.
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I don't think it sounds bad really, it could have been fine. The art style killed the game utterly
 
I mean, if they had to cut, it'd make sense that it'd be the division with the least traction. It never felt like they were delivering a lot and their projects weren't 90+.
 
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