After Forspoken flop, its studio is absorbed by Square Enix

boing
1

Originally published at: After Forspoken flop, its studio is absorbed by Square Enix | Boing Boing

…

1 Like
2

is that a roundabout way of saying people are moving desks? confusing…

Square Enix Holdings Co announces that it will merge its wholly owned subsidiary Luminous Productions Co, Ltd into its wholly owned subsidiary Square Enix Co, Ltd effective Monday, May 1, 2023,” the statement reads.

2 Likes
3

Hmm… kinda interesting.

I did try the demo when it came out, kinda bounced off it quick because it was a fairly generic action-RPG (Love RPGs, but not the action type).

Did find it odd that i only heard of it’s existence a week before that. I don’t hugely follow gaming news nowadays, but for a supposedly big game like this to drop out of nowhere for me was a surprise…

3 Likes
4

this one bad game was enough to, in essence, kill a studio. With the cost of triple-A games rising, smaller studios are now increasingly at risk of meeting a similar fate

Poor sales for a AAA game have been enough to kill a studio (or even a publisher) pretty much ever since the “AAA” category was created. What’s new is that AAA costs now mean even a good game can kill a studio, if the sales aren’t great. The size of the studios required to make AAA games, and the size of publishers required to raise AAA-dev levels of money (reportedly more than $75 million in this case) and absorb the blow when it doesn’t do well has gotten insane. I don’t know there are many (any) AAA studios that aren’t owned by publishers anymore, as a result.

The studio is “surviving” in the sense that the employees are (mostly) being kept on, and it’s unclear what exactly it means, but it sounds like it will definitely no longer exist as a distinct entity with its own creative direction, with workers either being scattered to other studios, or being absorbed by one particular studio (where, presumably, whoever was making creative decisions at Luminous won’t be, anymore).

3 Likes
5

I doubt they’re all moving desks. I’d suspect half or more are going to be laid off, and the remainder scattered to different teams.

1 Like
6

Right into the NFT department, I’m sure

1 Like
7

Or will it be AI art and neobiology both? Final Solar Hot Water maybe.

8

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.