High Voltage Studios worked on The Conduit 1/2 and Tournament of Legends, but it seems that the developer is having trouble finding a publisher for new titles. According to a developer who works at the studio, after recent layoffs all the remaining workers are polishing up Conduit 2, getting it ready to ship.
This means that their other project called “The Grinder” may be canceled, the main reason is that they can’t find a publisher for the title. Why did they start laying people off? According to the developer it was because no publishers wanted to pick up their other projects, so they had to fire staff they did not need. Does not look good for High Voltage Software at the moment.
[Source: GoNintendo]
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I watched a minuite or so of Grinder, Nothing amazing.
I don't find High Voltage, high in quality.
If they were a good studio they would've fought with the real players on the real consoles 360/PS3, exploiting the niche of FPS and Fighting Games with subpar games on Wii will not make them memorable or great.
So whatever, for all I care they might as well not exist.
Well, from what I understand from hearing from those in the industry, when there is a gap between game releases, specifically from a release of a game to one that's still in development, they tend to lay off those who's work is finished. Although, that is partly expected, especially with small developers. Keeping them around will lose them more money (faster). It's like what Hayes said about "restructuring", that's at least how I read it.
Although, yeah, that gap is something you'd try not to get in to and avoid it at all possible. Some companies function like that, though.
Don't get me wrong. Those are indeed layoffs which are a bad sign, but more telling is something like with EA and established companies that do shut down quicker than these other companies. It's been happening a lot, and it feels like all these hardware plans and projects are stalling for the eventual bubble burst.
Eh, there are a lot politics that go on behind the scene, too… I don't know, what do you think?
I'm a big Conduit player myself and I gotta say it's one of the greatest wii games I own. The multiplayer is so well done on the wii platform and it's only gonna get better for conduit 2.
Imo SEGA losing high voltage would be a big loss. Even if they didn't sell that good in the past. High Voltage come off as passionate game designers.