Making videogames doesn’t just require ingenuity, artistic talent across a swath of disciplines, taste, and creative vision. It also requires obscene amounts of money. Even 2008’s indie poster child, Braid, took an investment of $180,000 to actually finish and distribute via Xbox Live Arcade. Making games reliant on cutting edge technology (Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and high-end PC titles) costs tens of millions of dollars and we’re starting to see the high cost of development start to take its toll on independent developers and big publishers alike. Just look at Cole’s round-up of the videogame-industry-death-toll to gain insight on just what high development cost coupled with a flagging economy can do.
The latest casualty is particularly sad, however. Free Radical, the studio responsible for the excellent TimeSplitters trilogy, the underappreciated Second Sight, and the critical-commercial fiasco Haze, have reportedly locked their doors. The staff, according to multiple UK press outlets, has been barred from entering their offices without explanation.
This news is tragic. Free Radical was founded by David Doak (pictured), Steve Ellis, and a number of other former Rare staffers responsible for GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark. But Free Radical’s greatest contribution to videogame design was paying its staff overtime. Game publishers and developers have a reputation industry wide for working their employees to the bone to meet milestone and shipment deadlines. Instead of being paid overtime, employees are typically compensated with bonuses, albeit bonuses that they may not receive if the game doesn’t succeed on release. In October 2007, Free Radical decided that this was no way to run a business fueled by creativity, so they started paying all employees overtime wages. One year after instituting this progressive pay structure, their one release is a critical and commercial failure and, as a result, they’ve seemingly had to shut down.
61FPS salutes everyone over at Free Radical. I look forward to seeing your work in the future, wherever you all end up.
(Link: Edge, Eurogamer, CVG)
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The Sky is Falling: Gaming Industry Job Cuts Roundup