In a sad development, the entire workforce for 38 Studios and Big Huge Games has been laid off. The reason given being financial issues. We feel for the the now-unemployed developers of such a fun, unique title and hope they find work soon.
Despite having no stake in the matter, no connection to the problem and no first-hand knowledge of the events leading up the the layoffs, I still find myself a little angry. That a game like KoA couldn’t find a large enough audience to keep it’s developers afloat is a sad state of affairs. It drives me crazy that oft-simple, oft-repetitive Facebook and “casual” games can rake in millions of dollars while something like KoA becomes a failure so large it kills two companies. That is in may ways tied to the games’ costs, I understand that. Farmville wasn’t developed on the (possibly bloated) budget Kingdoms of Amalur was so it didn’t have the same amount of revenue required to balance the books. Still, it makes more money then KoA ever will, and that’s just depressing.
Last thought: for those who think I’m taking shots at “casual” games, I guess I kind of am. I’ve never been a fan of them. That said, doing so is not my goal, and I’m just using them for a point of reference.
Alphasim out.
