Seeing a developer close its doors is a sad sight to witness. The lost talent, the huge amount of time invested in its wares, and the projects that will never see the light of day; even more than in the wider business world, the loss of a creative company is something so much more than striking a name from the list at Companies House.
Seeing a developer close its doors when you know people who work there is worse. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but there’s the sense of worry when the news first breaks, and then sorrow as Twitter then lights up and the realisation of what is happening sinks in. At that point all you can do is send your best to those concerned and wish them well.
Over the last couple of years this, and a number of other close scares, has happened to me more times than I care for. This week it was the sad news that Realtime Worlds had not only cut loose a number of staff but eventually sunk into administration.
After the success of Crackdown, very few doubted their followup, APB: a large scale, online game that attempted to merge the sandbox qualities of the aforementioned title with a more gritty world in which games of cops and robbers ran rampant. Unfortunately the public didn’t bite, reflecting badly on the balance sheet of a company that invested heavily in an area of gaming that doesn’t come cheap.
Their situation highlights the tightrope that so many developers walk. Striving to create a triple-A product, millions upon millions of pounds are sunk into infrastructure, team numbers and hardware, but if that game doesn’t sell well then it could all go horribly wrong. And the worse thing is, in most situations, there’s nothing you can do to mitigate such circumstances; you could produce the highest rated game on Metacritic, but nothing guarantees financial success.
It’s a fragile existence at times, and one that explains why so many studios are more than happy to be bought up by publishers or sign up to long term publishing deals; you can’t put a price on stability.
We wish all those at Realtime Worlds, and everyone else affected recently, all the best.
I make my living as a programmer at a British games developer. In my spare time I try and spread myself between writing, gaming, drumming, goalkeeping, rolling dice and keeping my hair blue. Somewhere around that my wife fits in.
Disclaimer: the views expressed are my own and do not neccessarily reflect those of my employer. "
