Strange bedfellows and the future of video games publishing
A recent survey out of GDC has revealed that, as we could probably have expected, it's bad out there. The survey, among other things, shows that roughly 1 in 10 people in the games industry were laid off last year. All in all, it looks like around 14,600 people were laid off in 2024, either due to typical corporate nonsense or full studio closures (Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Firewalk Studios, etc.).
We have also been watching some changes in the publishing scene: when Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks was shutdown by Microsoft, at least some of the team was able to be acquired by Krafton, the PUBG people. We're also seeing a shift in the publisher playfield: Annapurna Interactive cratered, Netflix continues to push forward into games, and gaming's nouveau riche are taking a swing.
Last year, Surgent Studios, founded by Abubakar Salim (perhaps most well-known as the voice of Bayek in Assassin's Creed: Origins), released their first game: Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. It was a fun enough Metroidvania with an emotive story and refreshing Afro-futurist aesthetic. The game came out to generally positive reviews and seemed to sell well enough (based on Salim's tweets at the time), but after only three months, most of the team was laid off.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU was published by EA under it's EA Originals label, so it's impossible to know what their success metrics were, but it's easy to guess that a team hitting its goals and making the publisher happy doesn't need to do layoffs. Usually.
In a gaming industry where bigger, cinematic blockbusters tend to be what the hardcore gaming audience latches onto, the 7.5/10 Metroidvania with some heart is rarely destined for fame. Especially when it comes out weeks after Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, arguably one of last year's best games, let alone Metroidvanias.
But there's a glimmer of hope for a few indie studios out there, including Surgent. Eurogamer is reporting this morning that Surgent Studios has partnered with Pocketpair to publish their next game. The news feels eerily similar to Tango Gameworks' surprise acquisition by Krafton. I can understand a bit of apprehension on both of these decisions: Hi-Fi Rush is nothing like lovingly-janky battle royale PubG, nor does it fit with the Dead Space inspired Callisto Protocol. The same can be said for Tales of Kenzera: ZAU; Pocketpair, makers of PalWorld, doesn't necessarily have a stable of games that are original.
As publishers and developers contend with the astronomical human toll of making the games we love to play, we're starting to see the monoliths buckle under the pressure of generating shareholder value. We grimace every time a team is shut down in the name of "redundancy" or "market conditions," but—ever so slowly—change is coming. Just not how I expected.
The big meme we always see is "I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less and I'm not kidding." In most instances, I agree with this sentiment; puddle reflections and photogrammetry doesn't sell me on a game...the game part does. While Sony and Microsoft duke it out on who can spend the most money on a game (Call of Duty or Spider-Man), there are teams like Pocketpair who had a surprise windfall on a Pokemon-with-guns game. If Microsoft and Sony aren't interested in making a tight, emotional adventure game, someone should. I get why Pocketpair moved in: there is an opportunity here.
Should we be suspect of a publisher like Pocketpair who had their big break with a pretty blatant copy? Sure. But, let's not snobbishly turn up our nose at the nouveau riche simply because they didn't attain their millions in a way we see fit. We should scrutinize these deals; after all, we tend to forget the second bit of that meme: "made by people who are paid more to work less." It's obvious that the team behind Tales of Kenzera: ZAU have more stories to tell and I want to see them, hopefully this new partnership allows them to do so in a sustainable way.
I suspect that this is a glimpse at the future of the gaming business. As the industry consolidates its big players into smaller and smaller camps, all that's left are self-published indies or indie studios that made it big and are pivoting to support or publishing. You see this with Innersloth, developers of Among Us, creating Outersloth, a games fund, or Finji, makers of Night in the Woods and the upcoming Usual Jane. Self-publishing can only go so far, so why wouldn't these studios with huge successes lend their expertise and clout to help publish other games?
Yes, times are weird and we're starting to see some very strange bedfellows, but hey, at least it wasn't Tencent...or THQ Nordic?
