10 Reasons The Video Game Industry Is Heading For Another Crash
9. The Loss Of Mid-Tier Development
Game companies are sadly disappearing at an alarming rate. In 2012 over 20 went bankrupt, including long-running studios like Hudson Soft, Psygnosis and Rockstar Vancouver/Barking Dog. The list of games those studios created is endless, but they include the creators of Bomberman, WipeOut, Lemmings, Max Payne 3, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and City of Heroes.
The biggest fall came at the end of 2012 with the demise of THQ. This wasn’t a company slowly slipping into obscurity, instead they were an established studio still making various big games. They had lucrative licenses for Warhammer 40,000 and the annual WWE titles, with popular ongoing franchises such as Saints Row and Red Faction to boot. Despite all of this, with game production budgets spiralling out of control and a string of new IPs that just didn't catch on, the company filed for bankruptcy and those other franchises were sold off to the highest bidder.
Since then a number of other companies have gone too. Even Crytek, developer of one of the first exclusive games for Xbox One, have cut it close, with reports of unpaid wages in their UK office. Should this continue, more and more of the established gaming industry will disappear as we head straight into crash territory.
Why are so many games companies going bust? Well...