Armello studio lays off over half its staff and 'indefinitely' pauses development on its ongoing early access game because 'almost all funding and investment has evaporated from the videogame industry
Armello studio lays off over half its staff and 'indefinitely' pauses development on its ongoing early access game because 'almost all funding and investment has evaporated from the videogame industry
League of Geeks is the latest studio to be struck by 2023's tidal wave of layoffs.
Apparently any further sales of the game will have a cut going to even the staff that was laid off.
That's commendable, but overall this is still an unfortunate development. I wonder if microtransactions in big games like apex and genshin are down this year? Is this an overall trend, or are people choosing to spend on one game, foregoing titles like Jumplight Odyssey for bigger spending on one (arguably less deserving) game.
31I wonder if microtransactions in big games like apex and genshin are down this year?
In Apex? Yes, and we know this from investor calls. Not sure about Genshin or Honkai, but even Fortnite is making less money. This appears to be an entire economy problem, not a video game problem. Perhaps related to inflation and consumers adapting their spending in response (a potential explanation I offer with no expertise to fall back on).
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It's sad, but I think that the massive explosion of really high-quality smaller games means there's ultimately less money to go around from buyers, all at the same time as big companies are consolidating funding into a few big-name series.
Anode Heart, Moonstone Island, Spirittea, My Time at Sandrock, Empty Shell, Quasimorph, Fae Farm, Sunkenland, Black Skylands, Techtonica, The Leviathan's Fantasy, Forever Skies, Ghostlore, Roots of Pacha, Stranded: Alien Dawn, Homestead Arcana, Terra Nil, Sifu, Industries of Titan...
All of those released this year. That's a LOT of really good small games (and that's just from the games I got), even if they're not all technically indie. I personally LOVE space games, as well as colony/group management sims, but Jumplight Odyssey just didn't feel like my vibe, sadly.
29I think that the massive explosion of really high-quality smaller games means there's ultimately less money to go around from buyers...
I don't think it's so much that, as it is getting lost in the crowd. I've never heard of this game until just now, and I haven't heard of half of the games you listed. There's plenty of money to go around (just look at how well the Steam Deck has done), but nobody will buy your game if people can't find it.
And that's why big companies often do well by default; they have massive advertising budgets, so reaching their share of the market is often much easier.
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This is the first I've heard of Jumplight Odyssey. It looks potentially cool, but $30 for an early access title is a big ask in a year completely saturated with banger games, and based on the reviews it seems to need a bit more time before it is really ready. I'm not surprised, then, that it didn't do as well as they hoped: if they hadn't just announced that they're stopping development, I would have put it on my wishlist to come back to in a year or two when it's feature-complete, and when hopefully I'm not in the middle of so many other games already. If that's a typical response, they probably didn't get many sales.
10For anyone who.ließ the setting, check out the Anime Spacebattleship Yamato 2199. It's fairly recent and there's an older one as well. This game is highly inspired by it.
6Well that's annoying. This is the first time I hear about this game and it looks kinda good. I hope the studio can turn around and restart development at some point
4That's unfortunate, I was honestly looking forward.to this
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