How the Mighty Have Fallen
Word on the street (if you missed the recent news) is that Rockstar is a dysfunctional studio that is collapsing internally. There is internal squabbling between the California studios and the demanding and out of touch NYC bosses, and quality controls are on the decline.
Rockstar is one of the premiere development studios with their ultra successful GTA franchise. I want to look at some of the best development studios and a potential path to ruin that has been taken by some previous fallen angels.
The great demise
What are the best studios out there at the moment? Blizzard and Valve obviously top the list, and Bioware, Rockstar and a few newcomers have entered the conversation. It is clear to me that while Blizzard is still on the upswing, Valve is in the danger zone where Rockstar resides.
Ion Storm was a famous studio in the past that had high hopes and failed, and while it didn’t have much of a track record, it was founded by part of the team from id. This lent it credibility, and investor faith was part of their undoing.
All the problems with Daikatana were mirrored closely by Duke Nukem Forever. While Valve’s backlog of successful games and track record of innovation is impressive, they are straying into that ‘too much perfection required’ realm that precedes failure.
Ion Storm had many successful releases, like Halo, Final Fantasy 1-12, Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto. Oh wait, that wasn't them at all
Valve can survive for longer as it’s self funded and well funded at that, and they have an established and successful team that constantly looks for new talent. On the downside, they have taken longer and longer to get the episodes of Half-Life 2 out the door, and it looks increasingly like Episode 3 is going to come out far beyond when it would be relevant and will only be interesting to fans of the story.
Valve is also falling into the trap of promising too much and while they have delivered thus far, Left 4 Dead 2 is arguably their weakest offering to date. Their collaboration with Electronic Arts is an unfortunate situation that seems to threaten their pure incentives, and the creator of their only innovative game of the past 5 years (Portal) recently left for reasons unknown.
Looking up
Blizzard, on the other hand, is still seeing potential upside. They have three well established franchises, two of which have recent offerings in the works that are distanced enough from previous iterations that gamer anticipation is high.
They have proven they have the magic touch for building MMO’s, and while WoW feels like lightning in a bottle in some ways, at least they’re not just milking their franchise. Rumors are that their new MMO in development is a completely unique new IP that is a MMOFPS a la Borderlands. I was excited for Diablo III but with this rumor, their new MMO takes top spot for most anticipated game from Blizzard.
While no company can stay on top forever, there are as of yet no signs that Blizzard is on the decline.
The current and still undisputed champion ...
Best of the rest
Will Bioware’s new owners kill their creativity? Signs from Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 point to no, but then again the development on those games began before the evil overlords at Electronic Arts had a say in development.
It is clear that Rockstar is at the beginning of the end. While GTA4 was well received by critics, the seeds of dissent began among the fan community. They can only milk the same equation so many times before Saints Row flies past.
Red Dead Redemption is an impending debacle (not necessarily in sales, but in profits / quality) and god only knows if the rest of their slate even exists anymore.
Will upcoming studios like Rocksteady, Pandemic and Vigil take their place at the top? Or will the big three continue their dominance? Hit up the comments.
