Dev of cancelled Life By You game shares some information, including just two weeks notice of cancellation after being given the thumbs-up a few weeks prior
linkedin.com
I cannot share specific numbers, but I can say that we had an internal metric we were aiming for that had been approved, and that we exceeded that number by a significant portion. We also got a thumbs up a few weeks before launch.
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This would destroy me if this happened to me. The publisher thinks lowly enough of the team and product that they won't launch it, but not so lowly that they don't release the IP (perhaps even at a price) to the developers.
I got a friend in game dev. They've worked for 3 companies over 6 years. None of the titles they have worked on were ever released.
The title they're currently working on has had its funding cut (by Embracer Group) and the CEO of the studio is desperately trying to find another source of funding. Everyday they go into work expecting to be told the studio is shutting down.
Game dev certainly seems to suck the souls out of creative people who just want to make something fun.
Embracer treats studios like they are disposable. They killed Volition (Saint's Row), Free Radical (TimeSpltters) plus a bunch of other studios. All of that was because their $2 billion deal with the Saudi Government fell through. Some studios managed to escape when one of the Saber Interactive original owners bought back a bunch of studios. They recently killed Pieces Interactive (Alone in the Dark).
If a studio is owned by Embracer, they are lucky if they will be around in 5 years.
Taking a page out of the EA Playbook it seems...
For profit software companies (and those who are all abput revenue and shareholders and whatnot) are a pain to the industry at large. If it were not fot the profit motive, this world would be radically different.
Capitalism is a mistake.
I hope we can destroy it soon.