9 Amazing Video Game Developers Killed Off By Their Publishers

3. Westwood Studios

Dead Space 3
Westwood Studios

Founded: 1985

Defunct: 2003

What happened: One strike and you're out. That's the EA way, ladies and gentleman.

Nevermind the fact that, during the 90s, Westwood Studios was considered to be a bastion of video game quality (or, for that matter, that it was the creator of famed RTS franchise Command & Conquer), just three years after EA had acquired Westwood, the studio had been liquidated and its staff near-universally laid off.

The reason? None was ever explicitly specified, but the closure came not long after the launch of Command & Conquer: Renegade, Westwood's first-person spin-off set in the base-building universe. Lukewarm reviews and an unsatisfactory financial return didn't swing well with EA and, well, you know the rest.

Petroglyph Games - which still survives to this day - was formed by former Westwood devs, but EA retained the rights to C&C.

Sequels made in-house never attracted the same level of adoration as the series creator's efforts, though, and now, the franchise is all but extinguished. Cheers for that, EA.

In this post: 
Dead Space
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.