Possibility Space Closes As Studio Head Effectively Blames Upcoming Article For The Closure | MMORPG

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Possibility Space Closes As Studio Head Effectively Blames Upcoming Article For The Closure | MMORPG.com

ArenaNet Co-founder Jeff Strain's new studio, Possibility Space, has been closed, closely following the fate of another of Strain's studios, Crop Circle Games. In an email obtained by press, the CEO effectively blames employees speaking for an upcoming article for the reasons surrounding the closure.

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Lobotomist

He is full of sh...t

You dont close game that you worked 3 years on, just because someone leaked some screenshots. That is most ridiculous lie excuse I heard in long time.

Arglebargle

This certainly has odd, maybe even weird, written all over it.

Scot

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Kyleran

Lobotomist said:

He is full of sh...t

You dont close game that you worked 3 years on, just because someone leaked some screenshots. That is most ridiculous lie excuse I heard in long time.

Well he claims during conversations with the game's backers about the leaked information the backers decided they couldn't see investing any more money into the projects.

Odds are good the decision not to continue had already been made before Strain ever met with them, but the leaked information provided a convenient excuse for all parties.

Kyleran

Scot said:

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Capital markets are drying up due to a combination of many economic factors along with a diminished fevor to invest in gaming as countless "innovations" such as crypto, VR, AR, haven't really panned out as the investors were promised.

Scot

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Capital markets are drying up due to a combination of many economic factors along with a diminished fevor to invest in gaming as countless "innovations" such as crypto, VR, AR, haven't really panned out as the investors were promised.

Sure, there's economic factors at play here, but if we are seeing "monetarization fatigue" as I have seen some gaming journalists speculate, we may see a sea change in what players are prepared to play. I doubt that will happen, but I can but hope it will.

cheyane

I am glad crypto games are failing but VR could have been good. I cannot use it because of my motion sickness issues being exacerbated by it but I am sure it would have made a lot of players happy. It still needs a lot more development for it to really catch on.

The fact that your perception after playing is screwed up for a bit does not help. I mean no one wants to feel disorientated if they have to go make dinner. Cutting onions can be a live and death gambit when your sense of depth is impaired. As soon as I get my kitchen robot I won't have to worry about that.

harken33

Kyleran said:

Lobotomist said:

He is full of sh...t

You dont close game that you worked 3 years on, just because someone leaked some screenshots. That is most ridiculous lie excuse I heard in long time.

Well he claims during conversations with the game's backers about the leaked information the backers decided they couldn't see investing any more money into the projects.

Odds are good the decision not to continue had already been made before Strain ever met with them, but the leaked information provided a convenient excuse for all parties.

Yeah, pretty sure you are right, and he had decided this before talking to the investor, the investor information being leaked more than the game information seems to be the excuse.

From reading his and his wife’s letters the anger is palpable, just jumps off the page. These are not worded as a clear headed, multi business creator that has been working in the field for decades. I *almost* think this is less about money and more about people leaking information behind the scenes that somehow was a slight / negatively impacted his wife and was taken personally as some kind of betrayal.

This office closing is scorched earth, salt the fields afterwards level for all involved.

Jeff Strain and Wife – How many developers are going to trust working for any future startup he does; how many current developers will want to work with him if he joins an existing company? Seems radioactive now.

The Employees – Now unexpectedly unemployed in an industry already suffering from massive layoffs, with the added issue of the Possibility Space in your resume leading future prospective employers to wonder if you break NDA’s. Not sure how important NDA’s are in the game development industry but I know they are pretty serious where I work.

Xiaoki

Scot said:

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Capital markets are drying up due to a combination of many economic factors along with a diminished fevor to invest in gaming as countless "innovations" such as crypto, VR, AR, haven't really panned out as the investors were promised.

Sure, there's economic factors at play here, but if we are seeing "monetarization fatigue" as I have seen some gaming journalists speculate, we may see a sea change in what players are prepared to play. I doubt that will happen, but I can but hope it will.

Monetization fatigue? What the hell are you talking about? What does this, in any way, have to do with monetization?

Or, are you just posting about "I heard gaming journalists talking about monetization fatigue" in every topic, even when it clearly doesn't fit?

Their investor didn't think the product was going to make money, so he pulled the funding and with no money the company had to close. Something like that is not new.

It's also funny to keep posting about monetization fatigue when Mihoyo, a company that specializes in extreme gacha, has become the most valuable developer in the world.

cheyane

I linked a whole bunch of videos on that Genshin thread where the amount spent on gacha games is staggering. What monetisation fatigue if anything it's on overdrive. People cannot wait to spend it looks like from the figures.

Neoyoshi

What the hell were these game studios even working on?

OldKingLog

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Capital markets are drying up due to a combination of many economic factors along with a diminished fevor to invest in gaming as countless "innovations" such as crypto, VR, AR, haven't really panned out as the investors were promised.

And in return this has left less investors for what we, ahem, jaded old bastard gamers would call normal games.

Also ...

"Snitches get stitches ... bitches!"

                                        - Jeff Strain

Kyleran

OldKingLog said:

Kyleran said:

Scot said:

Well apparently all the gaming industry needs to do is to pare back staff numbers to pre-corvid levels "refocus" and everything is going to be fine. Not looking like that to me, ever more lay offs, project cancellations and studios closing make it look like players are have finally worked out that gambling cash shops, live service and early access are a big bag of cr*p.

Capital markets are drying up due to a combination of many economic factors along with a diminished fevor to invest in gaming as countless "innovations" such as crypto, VR, AR, haven't really panned out as the investors were promised.

And in return this has left less investors for what we, ahem, jaded old bastard gamers would call normal games.

Also ...

"Snitches get stitches ... bitches!"

                                        - Jeff Strain

Sounds like a lyric from Hollywood Undead or Deuce.

Neoyoshi

I can't help but feel like mayhaps game developers should start thinking about different careers, hell working at a grocery store has more stability, and i promise you, they need the help.. o__o

Scot

Xiaoki said:

Monetization fatigue? What the hell are you talking about? What does this, in any way, have to do with monetization?

Or, are you just posting about "I heard gaming journalists talking about monetization fatigue" in every topic, even when it clearly doesn't fit?

Their investor didn't think the product was going to make money, so he pulled the funding and with no money the company had to close. Something like that is not new.

It's also funny to keep posting about monetization fatigue when Mihoyo, a company that specializes in extreme gacha, has become the most valuable developer in the world.

And investors take no notice of reports that live service etc is not the money spinner it once was? Let me put it to you like this, how much more of this will we see before you think "actually there may be more to this than meets the eye."?

Because I can tell you where I would accept that there is nothing more to this than you mention. We have seen downturns like this before, though never such a large one to my memory. They have never lasted more than a couple of years, this one will. So, if this downturn ends sometime next year I will be quite happy to say I was wrong.

Xiaoki

Scot said:

Xiaoki said:

Monetization fatigue? What the hell are you talking about? What does this, in any way, have to do with monetization?

Or, are you just posting about "I heard gaming journalists talking about monetization fatigue" in every topic, even when it clearly doesn't fit?

Their investor didn't think the product was going to make money, so he pulled the funding and with no money the company had to close. Something like that is not new.

It's also funny to keep posting about monetization fatigue when Mihoyo, a company that specializes in extreme gacha, has become the most valuable developer in the world.

And investors take no notice of reports that live service etc is not the money spinner it once was? Let me put it to you like this, how much more of this will we see before you think "actually there may be more to this than meets the eye."?

Because I can tell you where I would accept that there is nothing more to this than you mention. We have seen downturns like this before, though never such a large one to my memory. They have never lasted more than a couple of years, this one will. So, if this downturn ends sometime next year I will be quite happy to say I was wrong.

What was that about Live Service games?

Live Service games with lots of microtransactions are the top grossing games in the world.

What investors are going to see is some mobile piece of crap like Honor of Kings making $1.5 billion in one year.

Or CoD Warzone making $5 million per day.

Kyleran

For every game which sees huge success there are hundreds if not thousands of also rans which quickly fade away.

Investors are definitely walking away from the gaming industry (some others as well of course) unless an idea shows strong  promise of being a financial success.

Kazuhiro

Funny part is... The upcoming article in question is from "kotaku". Noone even looks at Kotaku anymore since it turned into nothing more than a political agenda website. So noone would have ever seen the article anyway.

Wargfoot

They probably weren't using BlockChain.
That technology will save gaming.

Xiaoki

Kyleran said:

For every game which sees huge success there are hundreds if not thousands of also rans which quickly fade away.

Investors are definitely walking away from the gaming industry (some others as well of course) unless an idea shows strong  promise of being a financial success.

Investors are definitely not walking away from video games.

Video game revenue was $184 billion in 2023.

And nearly half of that was from Asia.

But, I guess investors walking away from American video games and to Asian video games would be seen as walking away entirely by some.

Kyleran

Will let smarter people explain the situation 

"Without resorting to the usual doomsaying about the hypercasual market, it still represents a massive portion of global installs, accounting for 26% of all mobile games in 2023. A few years ago, almost every project had the potential to soar. But currently, out of a thousand new games, there might not be a single hit.

The majority of installs continue to cluster around older projects, which publishers have developed and supported for years using a model akin to games-as-a-service. Yes, working in this market is both possible and necessary (our corporate group alone garnered more than two billion installs last year), but it's also essential to realistically assess the profitability of this sector.

The casual market has witnessed a similar shift. Previously, it was feasible to secure funding for a prototype without any metrics, primarily because the success rate among such projects was about one in 10-15. Nowadays, it's rare for companies to invest in projects without preliminary metrics. Exceptions exist for teams with an impressive background, but this doesn't mitigate the extremely high competition in the market. This all implies that it's nearly impossible for a small, young team to launch a successful project. There are success stories in the market, but focusing on them would be to fall for the classic survivor bias. Market growth has slowed, advertising effectiveness has decreased, and margins have normalized."

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/why-its-become-harder-to-raise-investments-in-mobile-game-development-in-2024

Elidien_ga

One interesting thing I have been noticing recently is what I call the Tik Tok trend with games. A big game launches, either in early access or some beta state, it creates a big social media rush, sells a bunch of copies, but then within 4-6 weeks players have fled like rats from a sinking ship. It does not seem like some games have any staying power anymore and I think that can be debated heavily as to why (my speculation is players are getting very weary of the early access launch, add miniscule content every 6-9 months and still take years to launch).

I think investors are watching this and very, very cautious right now especially when even big names and established series are lagging behind. I think its a very volatile market right now.

Wargfoot

PalWorld peaked at 2,101,867 three months ago.
In the past two weeks the peak has been 128,000.

It has lost ~95% of its player base in 3 months.

I guess this is good for making money, but if you're a developer that wants a long-term project and a vibrant active community for years then you need to chase a different demographic.

Kyleran

I would be remiss if I didn't point out that investors appear to still be all in if one uses the right buzzwords.

“The Avalon universe prioritizes delivering an immersive gameplay experience by combining cutting-edge tech like Unreal Engine 5 with AI-assisted user-generated content systems. Our focus on a no-code solution enables players to create game logic effortlessly. Plus, our upcoming NFT collection will introduce AI-powered avatar NFTs, adding another layer of innovation.”

Plenty more garbage like that in the full article on MOP.  Bleh.

https://massivelyop.com/2024/04/16/metaverse-mmo-avalon-gets-10m-investment-talks-up-its-game-features-ai-tools-and-web3/

Aeander

Wargfoot said:

PalWorld peaked at 2,101,867 three months ago.
In the past two weeks the peak has been 128,000.

It has lost ~95% of its player base in 3 months.

I guess this is good for making money, but if you're a developer that wants a long-term project and a vibrant active community for years then you need to chase a different demographic.

To a point that's normal, especially when you've got that big of a launch pool.

Not that I'm qualified to speak for Palworld. I bounced off it in about 20 minutes. I don't think it's bad or anything. I just inherently hate survival games and I don't think it's possible to overcome that bias.