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OddWorld Inhabitants Leaving the Gaming Industry 40

Posted by Zonk from the see-you-around-abe dept.
Via Games*Design*Art*Culture*, a link to a Hollywood reporter story breaking the news that Oddworld Inhabitants is closing up shop in the games industry. Owner Lanning is apparently going to move the company into movies and TV, as a result of sour experiences in the current gaming industry environment. From the article: "As game production costs rise, publishers want more sure bets because with rising costs come rising risks. What we see is an industry which is rapidly discouraging innovation because people don't want to take chances on more innovative types of titles."
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OddWorld Inhabitants Leaving the Gaming Industry More

OddWorld Inhabitants Leaving the Gaming Industry

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  • Gaming is a victim of its own success (Score:4, Insightful)

    by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @12:12PM (#12262236)
    The demand for ever more sophisticated plots, depth-of-gaming-worlds, realism, and whiz-bang physics/graphics engines seems to be pushing gaming into a bad place. Fortunately, gaming will always have room for simple, but innovative, games (of the Tetris-style) that don't demand Hollywood-style budgets and Hollywood-style realism. Perhaps what is really happening is that the gaming world will fragment into a high-budget FPS market (run by a risk-averse management) and a low-budget, high-concept gaming market.

    IANAG, but I wonder if open source will be able to create a rich online FPS game/MMORG that offers the rich world-depth of a big-budget game without the need for millions of dollars in development labor.
    • Probably not, since there is a lot of high quality open source programmers, but a high budget game doesn't just need programmers, it needs artists, sound effect designers, etc. etc. And those types of people aren't, in general, in the whole open source movement...
      • Back when the Amiga ruled the earth, the scene was rife with graphic artists and musicians. Not all of them were equally good, but nonetheless there were some real quality people there. Linux has done next to nothing to attract these people, for some reason.

        Personally I believe what the open source world needs is a bunch of good, simple tools. For the Amiga these were Soundtracker and DeluxePaint 2. For Linux we would need similar tools, and some extra's like a 3D modeller, and a distribution to bring it

        • That's because the Amiga created those graphic artists and muscians. The idea of a computer graphic artist didn't really exist before the Amiga.

          As the Amiga died, the people who really loved graphics either stayed with it (I knew one person who was still using her Amiga in around y2K to do her painting) or moved to the Mac.

          Most artist types don't care about the OS. They just want to paint or make music. Linux is probably the single worst choice for those folks. Even if you DID get good software for it
      • "And those types of people aren't, in general, in the whole open source movement..."

        Well, that depends on how they're recruited. Artists etc need a portfolio to get a job. The best type of portfolio to develop is the kind where you've done work on a project. An artist that's in-between jobs or trying to break into the industry would be an ideal candidate to work on an Open Source game. That is, more or less, what I did. I did some pro-bono work for a garage game. Since there were no real deadline

    • IANAG, but I wonder if open source will be able to create a rich online FPS game/MMORG that offers the rich world-depth of a big-budget game without the need for millions of dollars in development labor.

      Well there are MUDs. Been around for a while. Most of themare low on the graphics, but are involving none the less.
    • Oxymoron of the day:

      Hollywood-style realism.
    • "IANAG, but I wonder if open source will be able to create a rich online FPS game/MMORG that offers the rich world-depth of a big-budget game without the need for millions of dollars in development labor."

      Well, you could always check out Once [once.net.nz]. It's pretty idealistic, and they really need code ragers and artists bad, but the idea's there. Apart from questions surrounding "who the hell's going to fund all this 'width!?" I think an open source Massive game holds potential to deliver fun, rather than somethi

    • No, Lanning is a victim of his own failures (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In 2000 Lanning was all over the PS2 as being "too hard to develop on". They ditched the PS2 and turned it into a political move, going to X-Box with huge fanfare.

      Now they're closing shop because their X-Box games needing porting back to PS2 and they'd made it impossible. It's no different to what small developers like Mucky Foot were doing one project previously - developing on the PC when their primary market was PS1, and forcing a poor backport - but this wasn't some fly-by-night Guildford spinoff, it

  • how is that different (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AdiBean ( 653963 ) <bean@ad[ ]ceddec ... m ['van' in gap]> on Sunday April 17, 2005 @12:12PM (#12262239)
    "What we see is an industry which is rapidly discouraging innovation because people don't want to take chances on more innovative types of titles."

    They are going to be disappointed. This is already a very accurate description of the TV and motion picture industries.
    • Except you can make a good (photorealistic, too!) movie if you have a good script, a few talented actor friends, maybe a musician friend, and a $3000 digital camcorder. It's hard to do that with games.

  • Just like every other industry? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Red Moose ( 31712 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @12:13PM (#12262243)
    This is a shame. A real example of creativity as a basis for games was the adventure type of game. It had nice artwork but relied on a lot more in depth thought to create a good one as the entire perception of the game came from the story. E.g., that's why even Hitchhiker's Guide text game was entertaining and actually good.

    That was an early warning sign, IMHO. The same thing has happened in movies for example, where we are treated to endless $100 million budget movies that make $500 million, but are shit basically. Same thing happens in pharmaceutical research where money goes to replicating me-too generic drugs (e.g., fluoxetine) to cash in instead of *actually* being innovative.

    Car industry? Same thing. Besides genuinely new or advanced driving, we are basically in the same metal cages we had in 1950, except with lots of plastic and electronics to massage our fat asses. Mercedes makes rain-sensor wipers, then eveyone else has it too. Lexus installs runflats, well so does BMW. All the same, different brands.

    Maybe it's more to do with ever extending globalisation as EA and their ilk eat up the small developer, sort of like say MGM or 20th Century Fox, or Daimler-Benz eating up Chrysler and everything in every industry eventually becomes under one banner.

    Hang on, that's just like Microsoft buying up all the competition.

    • While there is a disturbing trend to making large, fuel inefficient cars coming over North Amercia (modern Honda Civics are the size of the 1980s Honda Accord; modern Accords are the size of some NA cars from the 80s), there is still some innovation. Have you driven a Honda Insight? That car doesn't get 70mpg because it's traditional.
    • While I know that Lanning and the Oddworld people have had major headaches in the past and I respect their desire for creative vision in a videogame setting, I've always seen them as a movie production company in games. Their characters and cinematics have always been strong, and their gameplay has always been just OK. Generally where their gameplay shined was in regions that were setting up or paying off cinematic visual moments. I'm actually looking forward to this transition, with all due respect to t
    • Ummm...I disagree.

      First, what was "an early warning sign"?...it's unclear from your post.

      2 - movies) You are true in saying that studios have a constant flow of high-budget movies that are carefully created to be sure-fire successes...BUT, that doesn't mean there aren't other people making and successfully selling and distributing low-budget independent films. Look around, and you'll find at least one independent film theater near most well-sized cities. Go to a video rental place, and you'll see lots o

  • Bad marketing (Score:3, Interesting)

    by -kertrats- ( 718219 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @12:15PM (#12262256) Journal
    As they talk about in the article, they've been the victim of horrible marketing. I didnt even know Stranger had come out, which it apparently has. When that's the level of people's notice of you, you can't really succeed.
    • Someplace I read that Stranger wasn't going to be ported to all platforms immediately. When this reached greedy higher-ups, the advertising budget was slashed. It's no wonder you didn't hear about the title.

      The gaming industry is a close family relation to the RIAA and MPAA, just without a cute acronym. The same thirst for money though.
    • Stranger's Wrath was a sleeper- along the lines of Metal Arms...but better. Hell- it was FIRST and THIRD person...so it was at least twice as good!

      This was one of the best games I have played in the last few years. I enjoyed the entire thing all the way through. It never got boring, and looked awesome all the way through.

      Too bad people didn't buy Stranger's Wrath in droves, because I would like to see a lot more from them.

  • A shame (Score:2, Insightful)

    by durtbag ( 694991 )
    It's really too bad when something like this happens. Just like the MPAA and the RIAA before them, the videogames industry is driving out the truly creative people. I understand that a business is there to make money, but the people in the trenches would like there effort to have some lasting value. It's games like Katamari Damacy that keep things interesting. Hopefully inovation doesn't become as sparce as the music and movie industries

    • Re:A shame (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      [rant on stale ideas, big business squeezing out the little guy, need for creative spark] KATAMARI DAMACY! [closing line ignoring some unavoidable realities in the industry, including that Katamari Damacy was made by Namco and succeeds only because it is $20]

      ---

      [Japanese phrase with mundane meaning]

      • Re:A shame (Score:3, Informative)

        by black mariah ( 654971 )
        closing line ignoring some unavoidable realities in the industry, including that Katamari Damacy was made by Namco and succeeds only because it is $20
        Yeah, the whole rant about big business was bullshit, but a $20 price point doesn't mean a game will sell worth a fuck. Katamari sold because of a combination of cheap and good that you rarely see. The word of mouth on that one was un-fucking-believeable.
      • Even that doesn't always work.

        Whiplash! [teamxbox.com] was funny as all get-out, sold for 20$, and yet, didn't even make a dent in sales.

        I don't know what went wrong. Probably a lack of word-of-mouth, though I told all my friends about it and absolutely adore that game (it's wickedly funny humor on a very well written platform style game).

        So the "sell cheap by a major studio" trick doesn't always work.
    • Yeah, I'd have to agree. Stuff Like Wild 9, Katamari Damacy, Alien Soldier, does keep Gaming interesting. You can only re-invent the wheel so many times...

  • The solution... or at least the start of one (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @12:59PM (#12262529)
    Once again, the answer lies somewhere in Internet distribution. Cut the risk-averse publisher out of the equation and get some nontraditional sources of capital, and the developer (with grassroots marketing support) is free to explore new avenues of creativity. If a game turns out to be successful through Internet distribution, then the developer can contract with a distributor to make hard copies of the game for brick-and-mortar sales.

    • Once again, the answer lies somewhere in Internet distribution.

      I think that's part of the solution, because it's tied to budget. Here's the main problem with different/original games right now:

      Non-mass-market titles should not get mass-market budgets.

      That's taken for granted in movies. If you're spending $100 million, you need to be making Armageddon. If you're spending $10 million, you can make Gods and Monsters. In games, though, most games get similar budgets. A studio often allocates $8 million
    • That's not a solution, because for many game companies, the publisher is fronting the development money. There aren't many companies out there like Valve, id, and Blizzard that can afford to produce a big game on their own, and there aren't a lot of venture capitalists and banks clamoring to loan money to independent game developers.

      The real cost in games right now is artists. Detailed models with detailed animation and textures that look good at high resolutions take a lot of time and money. Add in a simi
  • Hey! Don't they owe us....6.2 more games?

  • Game topic without PA links? (Score:3, Funny)

    by UWC ( 664779 ) on Sunday April 17, 2005 @02:26PM (#12263070)
    What's going on?!

    Ah, here we go:
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2000-10 -23&res=l [penny-arcade.com]
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2001-10 -08&res=l [penny-arcade.com]

  • I have the urge to pat them on the shoulder and say "sorry!" in a squeaky voice.
  • Maybe they should've started the article by saying, "we didnt made lots of money with our last game because it was too innovative and we blame society, game "X" blah, blah, blah"

    Their game didnt sold so well, not because they werent innovative (probably thats the only reason of their few sales anyway) it just wasnt very good, the Platform part wasnt really that original, easy or fun to play (it felt and played as a ps1 game) and as soon as you started to feel comfortable with the FPS (which was the one tha

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