Don't let the fallen be forgotten.
December 1, 2011
No doubts about it, 2011 was one of the best years in gaming history. Great games released consistently throughout the entire year, with many stretching their legs with awesome DLC. Despite the nonstop onslaught of impressive releases, there's been a dark fog looming over 2011 since it started; the death of development studios.
The industry lost a lot of game developers this year. For many people working on the games we love, this year sucked.
Some studios ran out of money, some met the execution of their publishers, and some died of their own doing. We've also seen Sony, Silicon Knights, Harmonix, Activision, 2K, THQ, Ignition and Zipper Interactive, dish out an alarming amount of layoffs in the past 12 months. Gaming is a harsh business. On average, one developer shut down per month in 2011 -- and that's worth remembering.
1988-2011
Known for: Project Gotham Racing, Blur, Geometry Wars
What happened?: Here's a studio with a weird life. Bizarre blew up on the original Xbox with its terrific Project Gotham Racing, and then again on Xbox 360 when Geometry Wars became an Xbox Live Arcade obsession. The Club wasn't the hit it expected to be, but it proved Bizarre had some neat ideas knocking around in its head. They'd proved their worth, these guys and girls, so when Activision acquired them in 2007 they had a bit of creative freedom. They went back to racing with Blur, which was fairly well-received but was yet again a financial failure. Activision marked Bizarre's death when it put them on a James Bond game, Blood Stone. Bizarre had done decent with third-person shooting and it understood driving, but Blood Stone flopped too.
After uncertainty surrounding its future in late 2010, Activision killed Bizarre Creations when nobody stepped up to buy it. Some members have since joined forces for a mobile game startup called Hogrocket.
Blur was good, but apparently not good enough.
2003-2011
Known for: LA Noire
What happened?: Well, this happened. The long hours, high stress, and gruelling working conditions at Team Bondi led to a considerable number of employees bailing on LA Noire's development. Coupled with a rocky relationship with Rockstar, whose creative conflict and deadline demands purportedly caused deeper trouble with the developer, Team Bondi's future was anything but bright after LA Noire's release. Shortly after launch, Bondi became insolvent and entered administration. This was the death rattle, and Team Bondi shut down before it could secure a deal for its next project.
2005-2011
Known for: Turok, Tron: Evolution
What happened?: After two disappointing releases (the Turok revival and a Tron movie tie-in), Vancouver-based Propaganda looked like it was finally on track to deliver on its immense potential. Sadly, the project that could have proved the studio's true talent, Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned, wascanned in late 2010. This left Propaganda without any projects as Disney "restructured" the staff (see: fired 70 people).
1998-2011
Known for: Pure, Split Second, Moto GP
What happened?: After crippling layoffs hit Black Rock, Disney Interactive shut down the developer just one year after buying it. Why? Disney crushed the staff to realign its business strategies, yadda-yadda-corporate-speak. What it looks like is Disney banked on an outstanding studio that soon turned out to be a bad business decision. Black Rock's last game, Split Second, had the misfortune of releasing on the same day as Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake. The game kicked ass, but it couldn't hold its own at retail -- in its first month, Split Second failed to make even 100K sales. Black Rock's previous racer, Pure, also struggled to succeed despite its top-notch quality. Black Rock was a studio with great ideas and better execution. It's a shame we'll never see another Split Second, or what else this crew could have done down the line.
2006-2011
Known for: Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale
What happened?: With Scratch: The Ultimate DJ perma-canceled, the only major release under the Bedlam banner was a disappointing, downloadable D&D dungeon crawler. Bedlam was working to double-up with Atari on a game based on the pen-and-paper Gamma World series, but it's safe to assume, given an astonishing 90% of the team was laid off, that Daggerdale didn't do big numbers on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, or PC.
2007-2011
Known for: Bodycount
What happened?: Development of Codemasters Guildford's first and only shipped game was...troubled. It showed poorly at press events, so Codemasters delayed it to put it back on track. It wasn't enough. The company's general manager and the project's executive producer abandoned ship shortly before Creative Director Stuart Black's scheduled departure in fall 2010. Bodycount was ambitious but couldn't live up to its goals, both critically and financially. Speculation would leave us to believe it tanked and Codemasters killed its Guildford branch to cut its losses, but the official word was the company wanted to focus on racing games.
Mixed reviews didn't do Bodycount many favors. Actually, Bodycount didn't do Bodycount many favors.
EA Visceral Melbourne
2008-2011
Known for: Dante's Inferno, Dead Space 2, The Godfather 2
What happened?: EA shut down this division of the Visceral Games studio (which still has offices in California, Montreal, and Shanghai) because it didn't see profits in Melbourne's future. Rumor had it for a while Melbourne was working on a Jack the Ripper game for Xbox 360 and PS3. We later found out the team was working on a multiplayer shooter called Blood Dust, whosetrailer leak gave it away. Some members of the debunked studio migrated Stateside to take new jobs with EA, but the fate of its original work remains uncertain.
1996-2011
Known for: MX vs. ATV Alive, Cars, ATV Offroad Fury
What happened?: After MX vs. ATV Alive -- which had limited content and a criminal DLC structure -- THQ opted to cease production of the annual racing series altogether. Consequentially, this meant the end for the Phoenix arm of THQ, formerly Rainbow Studios. It was the sole developer on the series. This was, of course, part of a big ol' internal restructuring initiative at THQ. Are we noticing a pattern between "poor performance" and "strategic realignment" in developers yet?
2003-2011
Known for: Red Faction: Battlegrounds, Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team
What happened?: Like its sister studio in Phoenix, Warrington fell victim to the corporate card shuffling at THQ. Its two downloadable games -- accompaniments to THQ's big-brand properties -- weren't exactly smash hits, and were met with middling reviews. The Warrington dev house closed in June, a whole month before its last game, Kill Team, released. Without huge games to bring in big bucks, it was a natural, if unfortunate, decision for THQ to shut down in Warrington.
2003-2011
Known for: Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Avengers (canceled)
What happened?: Just in time to shutter in the wake of strateg--never mind, you know why it closed shop.After years of working on crummy kids games (based on awesome Nickelodeon cartoons), and the cancelation and reassignment of its Warhammer 40K: Space Marine, Studio Oz finally earned its big break. Before it closed, Oz was working on the film tie-in for Marvel's The Avengers. The first-person action game had promise, but we'll never see the Aussie's intended take on it.
2006-2011
Known for: Homefront, Frontlines: Fuel of War
What happened?: This is one that still doesn't sit quite right with us. Homefront is a troubled game, sure, but it brought in a sick bank for THQ. The homeland invasion FPS was a massive success, made millions, and was the last thing Kaos would work on. It was marketed well, and it was marketed for a long time, so maybe the budget's to blame for Kaos' closure? This one doesn't sit quite right with us when it comes to the whole who-to-close choices under THQ's restructuring. The publishing giant has since handed the sequel over to Crytek -- hopefully Homefront doesn't cripple or destroy them, too.
1995-2011
Known for: de Blob, Marvel Super Hero Squad, Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
What happened?: It's another THQ studio. Take a guess.
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