THQ shut down Kaos Studios
polycounter lvl 18
Manhattan-based Kaos Studios -- developers of Frontlines: Fuel of War and Homefront -- has been closed. THQ confirmed the closure to Joystiq this afternoon, additionally noting that the company's UK-based studio, THQ Digital Warrington, has also been closed. The Warrington studio previously worked on Red Faction Battlegrounds and Warhammer 40K: Kill Team. A statement from THQ additionally explains that employees at each studio have been alerted.
Beyond a cursory note about "strategic realignment within its internal studio structure," no other specifics are given as to the why the studios were closed, but its not as though the closure of Kaos Studios was unexpected. In the meantime, Homefront development has been transferred to the company's Montreal studio. THQ also notes that the laid off employees will be given a chance to interview at other internal studios, such as Montreal and Toronto, though we get the feeling that won't be the best consolation. The full statement is available beyond the break.AGOURA HILLS, Calif., June 13, 2011 -- THQ confirmed today that it has made a strategic realignment within its internal studio structure and is in the process of closing two locations: the company's UK studio and KAOS studio in New York. Both studios' employees have been informed.
THQ continues its strategy of aligning the best industry talent with the company's marquee franchises. The Montreal studio will take over product development and overall creative management for the Homefront franchise. The Montreal studio actively collaborated with KAOS on Homefront.
The company continues to strengthen its internal creative development expertise and is actively hiring in many of its internal studios, including Montreal and Vancouver, Canada, as well as Austin, Texas. THQ's UK studio and KAOS employees will have the opportunity to interview for open positions with the company globally.
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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/13/thq-shutters-homefront-dev-kaos-studios-and-thq-digital-warringt/
Hope everyone lands on their feet. :thumbup:
Replies
It pains me to see talented studios getting picked up and dropped as the quarterly reports come in. Why do people support this abuse? I think I'd rather take lower pay at a studio that doesn't have a sword of Damocles hanging over it than working for a big publisher who could slash and burn me and all my friends at the slightest notion of a lower profit margin. Call me a foolish outsider, but I don't see the worth in being treated like a tool that can be cast away when it doesn't perform at 110% one day.
to all other studios - this is what you get for employing incompetent managers, directors and supervisors to lead a team of talented artists, animators and programmers.
In most cases this is exactly what a lot of small studios want. Their goal it to sell off to a large publisher and cash out. If the studio fails after that, they don't care. they still have a wod of cash and will try to start up another studio to start the cycle all over again.
there has been a divide among general Kaos staff and the Kaos management for a long long time. majority of the studio opposed the way management and directors planned and executed the development. things were slightly changing during the last 6 months of the development but almost 3 years were wasted before that.
the studio would have failed either way as long as it was managed/directed by those key people who shall remain nameless. so the big publisher buying out mentality has no ground here.
THQ as a publisher actually gave us money and support of a AAA studio to deliver a AAA game but the managers/directors of Kaos fucked it up and on top of that they maintained their denial on their wrong decisions time after time.
the general staff didn't get the big money for the buyout, the studio heads got that. so it wasn't like we the general staff benefited that much from Kaos being a big studio. sure, we got slightly higher salary compared to a small studio but that is nothing compared to what the managers/founders get during the buyout not to mention their bonuses.
To address Greevar:
Although big publishers are often perceived as these big evil entities they aren't often the cause of downfall. They may contribute, but often that is because they give you enough rope (money) to hang yourself with.
It's not abuse, it's business. Both sides have contractual obligations to hold up. The whole big guy vs. little guy framing is what most people jump to (cos it's easy) but it's far from reality and is often fueled by naivety. I was actually discussing this earlier with a colleague - it's good to cut things off early and spare everyone, corporate and studio, the pain of releasing something bound to be dead on arrival; not that that was the case with Homefront. Never assume that the studio (whether it just be management or the entire studio) is blameless, it's easy to do when there is an "evil corporate overlord" but at the end of the day that often doesn't reflect the situation on the ground.
From what I know Kaos took way to long to produce what, for the most part, was just another FPS based on the Unreal engine. It's also quite expensive to run a studio in New York. The investment THQ put into the game substantially outweighed what the game brought back in - I was in San Francisco last week and there were Homefront ads EVERYWHERE and I imagine they came at a pretty penny. You can't afford to do that unless your game is truly AAA.
On another note, it sucks that NYC no longer have a AAA developer operating here. It's an expensive city for sure but no more so than San Fran and LA!
I'm not posing my question as if I am directing all the blame on the evil corporation. I just see this happening a lot and it is showing a pattern that is has me concerned. Publisher buys a rising star studio, they make them run their best work into the ground, then they finally dump the studio once they've burned them out and fans are bored of the same old stuff the studio has been ordered to make over and over again. And the studios let them do it!
It's just a sad state of things that this happens so often and is becoming more frequent because people don't have as much disposable income to buy games.
It's kinda funny though, when I started my classes for Game dev, the instructor told us that the industry was doing great economically and was totally recession proof. That was 2006. Three years later, the same guy was telling me this is the worst time to get into the industry and it's actually not recession proof. It certainly made me question everything else I was told about the industry.
I want to get into it at some point (gotta build that damn portfolio! GRRR!), but I'm worried that when I finally do get in, my career may be cut short by a bunch of short-sighted suits that can't see past the current quarterly forecasts.
Flip that on it's head for a second. Publisher buys rising star studio that they think is hot shit. Rising star studio turns out to not have their shit together, takes tons of money, and produces nothing worth showing. Publishers has effectively burned all their investment then gets all the flak when the game fails. Not saying this is the case for Kaos but it's a point I feel is often unexamined.
Making the "suits" distinction is pointless, whether the publisher is suits or not they have the wallet. Quarterly forecasts, despite how one may feel, are just as much part of the business as anything else - ignoring them isn't going to make them not exist or be any less necessary. The halcyon days of game development are no longer with us for better or worse.
My experience comes from working for the big publishers - not trying to be downer, just very realistic about how the industry works
You're right, that scenario is entirely likely for some studios. I don't deny it happens. I just wasn't thinking along those lines because nobody had said anything to the effect that they were incompetent or mismanaged, so I assumed this was another story of a good studio being abused. I see now from other comments that the managers were the problem. So good luck to the regular joes in the company and the managers can suck a big ripe fart.
Thanks for the insight cheeseplus.
Really hope all affected lands on their feet.
Good luck to everyone, and I hope they land something bigger and better.
http://twitter.com/#!/CHSundberg/status/80632165070667776
yup, Avalanche is expanding to Manhattan, just a few blocks from Rock*
and as Christofer says, looking for lots of people
hope to see some polycounters on the mailing list in the future then! ;D
Eh? It's essentially Red Dawn. Hell, the Homefront storyline was written by the guy who penned Red Dawn! What's insulting about it? You find it preposterous that the U.S would ever be invaded? I'm sure the middle east is pretty fucking tired of being portrayed as terrorists, too. It's a video game, not reality. Either enjoy it or move along.