*sigh* Such is the life in the gaming industry. The project I was just on got cancelled. It came as a surprise to us since we had a date with a publisher this week to show off our lovely vertical slice. But we didn't even make it that far. The powers-that-be made a tough call and declared our project too risky.
It was a huge surprise to all of us, given the timing and the incredible progress we'd made in the past month. But given that it was an original IP, in an unfamiliar genre, with an uncertain audience, in an unstable market... well... it's easy to see why the safer path is going to be followed.
I'm sure that this is happening at a lot of companies out there. I know that the Vivendi-Activision merger left a lot of projects orphaned as they trimmed the fat and went with the safe bets. A lot of the more risky titles were left looking for new publishers.
You think we're seeing a lot of sequels in the market right now? Wait another 2 years when the effect of today's economy will show on the games that are being launched. Sequels, re-skins and licenced IPs. At least from the big companies, that is. I really hope that all the start-ups and indie developers will be able to weather the economic changes.
Rayna's Shared Newsy Bits
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
From project to project
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4 comments:
I'm sorry to hear it got canceled. I have no idea how this stuff works but is there a possibility it can get picked back up in the future?
It's certainly a possibility, the project that got cancelled had already been resurrected once:) There are a lot of people in our studio who would love to see it happen eventually.
Last week I've got my fourth project canceled based on the same reasons. The sad thing is that I've kind of got used to it. :)
In support of indie developers in these economic times, i have been sifting through all the offerings on Steam - i've even purchased a few. Honestly, at around ~ 7.50 € a pop, even if i only play a given game for a few hours, it's worth it. :)
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