Arkedo studio, the French team behind Hell Yeah! are now out of business according to their blog. They basically stated they won’t be developing anymore games due to the fact that they don’t have anymore employees due to not having enough money. Seems that Hell Yeah! cost the developers too much to make. They also stated that they have two little games completed and might release them later on.
The founders said they are moving on, one of them wants to enter publishing while the other wants to start a new mini-studio. It really sucks when developers go out of business, hopefully SEGA will take some of the employees and start a small digital studio. I mean, why not? I’m sure SEGA liked working together, no? Your thoughts?
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poor arkedo. Hell yeah was great
Hell Yeah WAS great. If they have nothing to lose, why not release those last two games?
Sega doesn’t have much going for it anymore just now it seems, take a look at their lineup for 2013, quite a withdrawal compared to other years.
Yet another example of Digital not exactly paying off.
It’s too bad, I loved the game and would have liked to have seen what Arkedo would do next.
I don’t think it has anything to do with digital media. Same exact scenarios happen with physical media.
The game just wasn’t a hit in sales, despite being good.
But digital was supposed to be immune to these types of issues. It isn’t, and I’ve been saying that for a long time.
Publishers/developers may save some $$ on digital-only games but if a modest 2D sidescroller isn’t profitable enough to keep a company afloat then I don’t see what difference Digital will make when we start getting *really* expensive games released exclusive to Digital.
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No, digital release games was suppose to be smaller budget games that wouldn’t break even if sold in stores. You have to buy shelf space, print booklets/covers and ship stuff.
Its suppose to be a more cost efficient way, not ‘immune’ you and guaranteeing you make your money back. If releasing digital titles guaranteed you a profit then everyone would release a digital title.
Sadly in the end of the day it all comes down to how your game does.
Check out this quote from Epic Games, who say that you won’t even have to MARKET digital games, they’re supposed to be such a sure thing;
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“The market is inefficient now,” he continued. “You run ads on television so that people walk into a retail store, buy a piece of plastic and stick it into their digitally connected device. I think we have a lot of latitude – publishers and developers alike – to increase the efficiency of that. Once you have a game, it’s available pervasively online, and your devices are all Internet-connected, do you really need to run television ads to get people to find it at the top of the App Store?”
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http://www.edge-online.com/news/epic-on-the-industrys-giant-leap-to-next-gen/
A lot of people are saying things like this…. that we only have such large marketing budgets because games are bought at retail, and that once we’re all-digital quirky indie games will have more of a shot….and I dunno.
I understand that in principle digital is less risky due to certain things but in a store your game gets more exposure, and I really do believe that the fact that gamers know that they can trade their games in (and use the money from trade-ins to buy games at discounted prices) increases sales…I think that’ll always be a disadvantage to digital. Obviously a lot of people disagree with me, but we’ll see.
I think it’s pretty telling that Sega’s retail game profits totally eclipsed their digital ones in what was supposed to be their “big digital year.” And their biggest game was sold for $40, so ….so much for the idea that retail prices are “inflexible.”
Man….are SEGA cursed this year or something?
First it was the whole Level 5 thing, then Gearbox ripping them off and now Arkedo are out of business?
The only good thing (or not) to come out for SEGA was buying Relic (at the expense of THQ).
Many people assert stuff like this…. that people solely have got this sort of huge advertising financial constraints since online games tend to be purchased at list, knowing that the moment we’re all-digital quirky indie online games can have a lot more of a shot…. and also My spouse and i dunno.