Ben-DutkaWell, Homefront wasn't bad at all and the sales were solid, but that couldn't save the developer.
THQ has revealed the sad news that they're being forced to close Kaos Studios, the designers that generated the aforementioned FPS as well as Frontlines: Fuel of War . The publisher also plans to shutter THQ Digital Warrington, which worked on Red Faction: Battlegrounds and Warhammer 40K: Kill Team . THQ is calling this "strategic realignment within its internal studio structure," which is standard corporate speak for unfortunate cutbacks. As for the employees, they've been alerted and they're free to interview at other THQ internal studios, including Montreal and and Toronto. We always feel most for the hard-working employees in such situations; it isn't necessarily all their fault when certain games don't come out well.
Anyway, this only further illustrates the competitive nature of the video game industry. Either produce top-quality stuff on a consistent basis, or pay for your lagging.
Yeah, it's too bad. These high stakes productions are pretty cut throat when they don't meet expectations.
My academic adviser at my university recommended that I didn't get a BA in 3D Animation and Game Design because the market is so competitive and hard to get a solid job in when coming out of school.
Instead, I'll be opting for a BS in Computer Science and a Minor in 3D animation. It means some harder courses but I'll be better loaded to deal with the variations in job climate.
Nick mentioned you were heading to school, my god man do you even sleep?
If you have enough experience, you can get a job anywhere. I'm working on an Associates for Game Design/Programming and I plan to develop a few Indie games and see how that goes.
The school quarter doesn't start until mid September. But I am brushing up on some math and programming skills in the mean time.
It'll make things easier once things get rolling.
I let Nick know I'll be making fewer contributions going forward.
Well, so much for being the next big dev to compete with actiblizzard for the number 1 spot!
Seriously guys, make some AAA games for once. I may still play Homefront one day, it's too bad the game won't get a chance to get better in the future.
Homefront's death knell comes as a result of a poor online experience. Odd, but gamers had to find out the hard way that the online component was broken from the get go. That, along with ridiculous vehicles just made for a poor experience. I for one am VERY glad I didn't buy it. I saw what I needed to see elsewhere and I never looked back.
However, I do regret hearing that game makers are losing their jobs. That never sits well does it? Here's hoping they can get something else in the field and learn from any mistakes.
Yeah, I saw this coming as the online was broken. I experienced it first hand and after 25 total PS3 reboots I said adios. It would hard freeze on me while I was waiting for other players in the lobby. I tried to plat this game by beating the SP on Guerrilla and it was only a 6 hour bland affair and I took my time. after beating the SP I tried to start trophy hunting in MP and wasn't able to. Their first patch made the MP worse. I would put money on it that THQ laid off KS because they couldn't fix the game at all or in time to keep players happy. It obviously sold well but it still had problems getting friends in the same game. I am just glad I was able to return it to Amazon for a full refund.
Whoa Space Marine is finally coming out? Kill Team as a spinoff?
Not bad, just wish I didn't have to play the good-too-shoes race, oh well at least it's not the imperial guard.
Last edited by Nerull on 6/14/2011 12:02:17 AM
I've won my share of 40K tournaments with Imperial Guard. So they're not that bad. Now the Tau on the other hand….
shame, the single player in homefront was great
shame.
all this talk of studio closures and such makes me wonder if that 2 years ive been spending in this game development AD was a good idea……..
ubis after them now, thats going to be interesting!
FPS developers working on a hardcore stealth game…….. what in earth could go wrong?
i swear to god ubi if you turn splinter cell 6 into another conviction every frog will be wiped off the face of the earth!
destroying assassins creed was bad enough!
it sucks when people loose their jobs, but there should be consequences for making bad games. it's sort of like natural selection working in the game enviroment. developers who make good games have a much better chance of surviving.
If that were true, then Running with Scissors would've been gone a long time ago. Yet they are still around. If any gaming company deserves to be shut down by making bad games, it's them. There are no others I can think of that are more deserving.
so then why did SOE get over half of its staff laid off?
DC universe online, EVE online are freaking awesome!
the agency was looking really good too!
sadly quality has absolutely NOTHING to do with your likelihood in keeping a job in this industry.
SOE has nothing to do with EVE Online. That's made by CCP. And yes it is freaking awesome.
Sucks to hear about more people losing their job.
Sucks that more developers are biting the dust, but nice that THQ is giving them a chance to stay within the company.
Shame to hear Homefront was so buggy, I was hoping the Homefront 2 would come out , & be mostly bug free from them learning their lessons on the first one.
Oh well…*sigh*
THQ needs to stop copy pasting the same shooters. When have they made anything original outside the shooting genre?
They need to re-imagine themselves and stop making games that just downright suck…
Why not try stuff like LBP, Flower/Journey, Shadow of Colossus. Something unique, different and of good quality?
I haven't bought a THQ game since the early Gamecube days.
the competitive nature of the game industry have nothing to do ith this, but this latest studio shutdown demonstrate how usustainable high production cost have become and how unaffordable it is to maintain an internal development capability.
In the case of this, Kaos just another case of the internal purging that have been going on for the past few years where big name publishers and console makers are restoring to cutting from the inside/firing employees in massive numbers(i'm looking at you Square Enix) in a effort to fight the ever escalating production cost and the cost of operating a internal studio. Other than that Kaos will not be the last and I predict we'll be seeing more.
I lost respect for THQ today. Claims have been made that the company has talked about making a sequel to Homefront today. THQ has no class.