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Kotaku: Xbox Compulsion Games reportedly shutting down, Arkane Studios could be the second studio
Alan Wake
Member
Not surprising if true. Been waiting for this for some time now. I was actually a bit hyped when Compulsion were acquired, thought they had potential after Contrast and We Happy Few. South of Midnight had some strengths (atmosphere and soundtrack) but was overall too weak and took forever to make.
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analog_future
Resident Crybaby
The game has great reviews from both professionals and people who played it. If it didn't have mass appeal, that's Microsoft's fault for publishing it, not Compulsion for developing a great game.
squallbr
Member
We happy PHILLWe happy few.
Avid Reading Horse
Member
Majima Everywhere System
Member
Compulsorywokeshit Games, am I right fellas?
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uncreativename
Gold Member
tbf my understanding is that a lot of those little games from that period didn't cost very much to make. Like also Massive Chalice and Hack n' Slash (which was actually a cool game imo)
MarV0
Member
Some people hate on the Steam concurrent players threads failing to realise how valuable it is.
Such indicator won't be available forever and once its gone all we'll be left with is the current flavour of the month corporate speak.
Its by far the most accurate predictor of a future studio closure and franchise abandonment.
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ToadMan
Member
They wanted to make a space station dwarf fortress with this.
But then, they abandoned it suddenly nowhere near complete and bug ridden after taking people's money and making promises. It got a major spanking for that.
uncreativename
Gold Member
That sucks
. There's a reason why Dwarf Fortress made it to the Museum of Modern Art, it's an incredible work of art that took years and years. Not something you can do in a short dev cycle on a limited budget, as I guess Double Fine found out.iirc Massive Chalice had sort of a similar problem. They stayed within their scope, but that ended up disappointing people, because they accidentally ended up competing with Crusader Kings in the minds of fans. Partway through the kickstarter the devs noticed that backers were talking about Crusader Kings, which they'd never played, so they made a kickstarter development video where they tried playing Crusader Kings 2. Partway through they had to say something along the lines of "Wow, this is insane. We can't do anything quite like this, guys."
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
Since this happened yesterday has this been confirmed anywhere or just another for real this time type of rumor?
Magic-DEI-Hire
Gold Member
Nothing confirmed solid as of yet
OctopusBox
Neo Member
That's pretty much what I was getting at. I think Xbox is about to become what Activision was, a bunch of teams working on the biggest sellers and maybe a few mid-tier games for game pass fodder, unless it's cheaper to just make deals for game pass filler stuff.
Bridges
Member
For real.
The other devs from that batch at least made some degree of sense
Playground - Already making 1st party titles with Forza Horizon
Undead Labs - Already making 1st party titles with State of Decay
Ninja Theory - A little odd but had made critically successful action titles like (the then recent success) Hellblade
And then you get
Compulsion - Only made two games which both were received mixed to poorly. Is best known for an E3 trailer for We Happy Few that was not accurate at all to what that game actually was. Purchased because Phil and co were highly impressed by their Cajun third person fantasy game that ended up being the unimpressive South of Midnight.
I wanted to believe that with proper funding maybe that studio could be much more but in reality I think it is one of the most obvious indicators that Xbox leadership does not understand what makes an appealing game. How anyone could look at Compulsion and think they were a must have is crazy to me.
This sounds terrible but if any studio from them has to go, it has to be them. Every other studio has past or current success and lots of potential to wow again in the future. Compulsion has never made anything worthy of a 1st party portfolio
WoodyStare
Member
Alan Wake
Member
The setting was really cool. I like games placed in the south (a reason why I also enjoyed the most recent Alone in the Dark). But South of Midnight is just not a fun game to play. You can even skip the fighting altogether to it's like the studio knew it wasn't fun.
AmuroChan
Member
Releasing a studio generally requires a MBO. If the management of the studio doesn't have the capital to actually keep the studio afloat post-release, then it becomes moot. Shutting down the studio is faster and cleaner for the parent company, and they can write that off in their taxes.
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MayaXG
Member
This is on Phil. You can't have passion projects that costs tens of millions of dollars to make. South of Midnight should never have been greenlit. I love the game, but a studio has to earn the right to make passion projects. This isn't the film industry. Every AAA game costs tens of millions to make.
mayham2199
Member
The problem with all of this is once you start telling studios what to do talented people start to walk. Sure the people who can't afford to leave won't but the people who can and who matter will.
If Todd Howard doesn't want anyone else working on Fallout do you think he's just going to take MS telling him to F off laying down? They've already lost some of the talent at Bethesda as it is.
SEGAvangelist
Member
Bridges
Member
Lionhead was a prestigious studio that was responsible for one of the IP most closely associated with the Xbox brand.
Compulsion has released three multiplat games that weren't anything spectacular and didn't sell well.
Compulsion is uniquely unimpressive in their current portfolio. The first round of recent closures should've been them and The Initiative instead of Tango and Arkane Austin.
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
I can not imagine greenlighting South of Midnight. That game had such a low ceiling even if everything hit right.
hououinkyouma00
Gold Member
Yeah, I'm glad I waited to pick it up and was able to find out what it was before dropping money. I eventually tried it via Game Pass and found it incredibly boring.
IntentionalPun
Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
What do you even mean by this?
Topher
Identifies as young
Believe he means spun off like Toys for Bob. Think Tango as well
//DEVIL//
Member
was it this studio where the art director bitched at Twitter because anti-woke people called him out, and he turned to a whore?
If that's the studio, then good riddance. I saw people on twitter telling him the game will flop, and he will get fired. Glad to see it happening. If I see him flipping burgers at McDonald's, I'll personally throw a burger on his ugly face.
If that's the studio, then good riddance. I saw people on twitter telling him the game will flop, and he will get fired. Glad to see it happening. If I see him flipping burgers at McDonald's, I'll personally throw a burger on his ugly face.
N30RYU
Member
To me, just looks like Sharma is nothing more than a handpicked employee, hired to cut and salvage whatever can be salvaged before Microsoft dismantles XBOX (not Xbox) and it reverts to being Microsoft Game Studios again.
She wields a smile as easily as she wields an axe to chop and cut whatever she deems necessary to avoid being beheaded... Phil at least was a gamer.
She wields a smile as easily as she wields an axe to chop and cut whatever she deems necessary to avoid being beheaded... Phil at least was a gamer.
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CoreyFlawless
Member
It wasn't even a game pass filler. No one care to play it
Thebonehead
Gold Member
Yeah - I could have played this for free via PC gamepass, but it held no interest for me at all, and I'm partial to a shit game, having several hundred hours in Ark, and 7 Days to Die
coachmcguirk91
Member
It is better than Xbox losing 10's of millions of dollars greenliting games like Avowed or South of Midnight. Games that have very little chance of ever turning a profit. It is not financially feasible for studios like Obsidian to exist as is
And honestly, Todd Howard leaving Bethesda would probably be for the best at this point. He ran Bethesda into the ground before being acquired by Microsoft. Starfield underperformed. Bethesda sticking with Creative Engine for Elder Scrolls 6 is a massive mistake. It feels like the game industry has passed Todd Howard by
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It has 76 on OC it hasn't great reviews even looking at the aggregate score, and don't even mention that this score is inflated due to game being woke garbage
Hudo
Member
Congratulations, you're predestined for an Xbox leadership position.
Esquie
Member
Right when I saw the first trailer of South of Midnight I knew it would be a massive flop. I think everyone with a brain did. Phil or Booty or whoever greenlit these types of games, I think it was Booty who was in charge or 1st party studios, but whoever did it is a fucking moron in terms of their business sense.
Unless Tim Schaefer's game is a new Banjo or something, Double Fine should be next. What in the flying fuck were Keeper and Kiln?
Unless Tim Schaefer's game is a new Banjo or something, Double Fine should be next. What in the flying fuck were Keeper and Kiln?
playbignbox
Member
South of Midnight might be a good game, but since it was being consulted by Sweet Baby Inc., I didn't even want to try it, even though I was a Game Pass subscriber at the time.
analog_future
Resident Crybaby
What's woke about it? Please share.
analog_future
Resident Crybaby
Keeper was freaking incredible.
Ya'll bitch about "no one taking risks" and "every game is the same" and "what happened to creativity in this industry" and then all rag on every game that actually tries to do something different.
It's so tiresome.
kiphalfton
Member
This.
I don't know why people here expect others to know every game dev and the games they made/make.
Topher
Identifies as young
hear you
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Called it.
Compulsion have had two barely-average/mediocre games over the span of the past two decades (South of Midnight, and the game they put out before that). Spent some 7-8 years on South of Mid, and got barely any traction in sales or even on Game Pass.
Technical skill-wise they don't bring anything to the table that studios like Playground, Coalition, and Ninja Theory don't already offer, and Compulsion simply don't have any cache among core gamers the way, say, Double Fine (Tim Schafer) does. So shutting them down won't incur much blowback in terms of MS trying to build rapport with remaining diehards or the core gaming audiences.
It's basically a win-win for them as far as they'd be concerned. I figure a good number of Compulsion staff will find positions in other studios, start their own, or transition out of the games industry but find good-paying work in adjacent industries. But yeah, out of the MS studios currently around, Compulsion would be the easiest to shut down and justify why.
Funny thing is Miramax put out a lot of bangers and a good many made money. They funded Tarantino's films during the era IIRC, and stuff like Get Shorty & Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead.
If Compulsion put out stuff like that, they'd be secured.
These execs don't give two shits about the "culture war", so any thing any side thinks is validating "their side" is almost 100% purely incidental.
That said, coincidentally a lot of studios like Compulsion pushing games like South of Midnight are going to incidentally be among the first to get gutted. Not in service of some agenda, but to improve margins and market performance.
Compulsion have had two barely-average/mediocre games over the span of the past two decades (South of Midnight, and the game they put out before that). Spent some 7-8 years on South of Mid, and got barely any traction in sales or even on Game Pass.
Technical skill-wise they don't bring anything to the table that studios like Playground, Coalition, and Ninja Theory don't already offer, and Compulsion simply don't have any cache among core gamers the way, say, Double Fine (Tim Schafer) does. So shutting them down won't incur much blowback in terms of MS trying to build rapport with remaining diehards or the core gaming audiences.
It's basically a win-win for them as far as they'd be concerned. I figure a good number of Compulsion staff will find positions in other studios, start their own, or transition out of the games industry but find good-paying work in adjacent industries. But yeah, out of the MS studios currently around, Compulsion would be the easiest to shut down and justify why.
Funny thing is Miramax put out a lot of bangers and a good many made money. They funded Tarantino's films during the era IIRC, and stuff like Get Shorty & Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead.
If Compulsion put out stuff like that, they'd be secured.
These execs don't give two shits about the "culture war", so any thing any side thinks is validating "their side" is almost 100% purely incidental.
That said, coincidentally a lot of studios like Compulsion pushing games like South of Midnight are going to incidentally be among the first to get gutted. Not in service of some agenda, but to improve margins and market performance.
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JoeBlack2027
Member
Not surprising. Not great
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Esquie
Member
Oh come on. You just clumsily walk around for 4 hours as a light house. Some of the visuals were ok but that's about it.
analog_future
Resident Crybaby
That's not true at all. There's puzzles, exploration, story. It's in the same genre as a game like Journey or Sword of the Sea.
Topher
Identifies as young
Fun game. Think it overstayed its welcome when you are nothing but the light but overall I enjoyed it.
