The Games that Kill Development Studios

Want a good laugh? Just think back to all of those published reports that laid out an imminent death for gaming as we knew it, either for game consoles or PCs. Of course, we all know that gaming is at its healthiest point right now (although, sales were down a bit in 2009), and there’s a sheer number of titles to choose from. Just look at Modern Warfare 2, which recently broke through the $1B revenue barrier. Gaming is dead? Hah!

But to be fair, the gaming industry does see a lot of death in some form or another, whether it be a character death inside of a game, or a more serious death… the closing down of a development studio. Over the years, there have been some quality developers that have closed shop, and not just entire studios, but also a single key person if that has to be the case.

If a development studio shuts down, or a project lead gets the boot, you can believe that it had to do with an underwhelming game. This has happened far too often in the past, and even recently, we’ve seen some top-rate developers and studios make some major changes. Develop Online helps us put everything into perspective with a look at some of the biggest shutdowns the industry has seen, and man, this isn’t my kind of trip down memory lane.

The most recent development studio shake-up would likely be 3D Realms, which for over ten years, failed to deliver its most hyped game, Duke Nukem Forever. The studio still exists, but its future is unknown. And then there’s Enter the Matrix, developed by Shiny and published by Activision. I hate to admit that I own this game for the Nintendo GameCube, but I can vouch for its truly horrible and unexciting game play, not to mention buggy design.

Probably my favorite mention on this list would be Daikatana, which still remains as a game that I can’t bear to bash. I was so hyped for it back in the day, and even when I got my hands on a copy, I think the hype warped my brain, because I ended up having a lot of fun with it. Sure, it had issues, and because of those issues, the game received an average rating of 53. Ouch.

Daikatana was originally planned to be released in time for Christmas 1997. It was based on the Quake engine, and early advertising consisted of a blood red poster with the words “John Romero is about to make you his bitch”. But when id Software showcased the much-improved Quake II engine, Ion Storm realised that it would need to upgrade. The switchover, and a range of design challenges, led to delay after delay. Daikatana was finally released in June 2000, over two and a half years late.