9 Once-Beloved Video Game Developers That Fell From Grace
Oh, Bioware, what went wrong?
It must be insanely difficult being a game developer. Attempting to nail down a specific concept, set of gameplay mechanics and an overall purpose to your vision is one thing, but then - for the vast majority of cases - to set up deals with publishers, work out advertising budgets, kowtow to corporate demands and acknowledge marketing whims... soon enough that original vision can get sliced and diced into something else entirely.
You can pretty much count on one hand the amount of developers that double as publishers (Blizzard, Valve, CD Projekt RED and Nintendo), allowing total freedom when it comes to innovative game mechanics, whereas the vast majority get put through the wringer in an attempt to get their work to see the light of day.
Clearly over time, as the industry has grown exponentially into one of the world's most lucrative entertainment mediums, you can increase the various pressures surrounding these aforementioned elements by a factor of 10. And the results? Well, they aren't pretty.
Many of our favourite developers who helped initially shape gaming as a medium have gone through hard times, fallen into far more money-grubbing ways or abandoned some of their less 'bankable' IP - sometimes even all three.