Report – 20-40 people laid off at Raven Software

Is it the on line play thats killing these studios?
People tend to buy a few games now and spend months playing on line only.

Shitty game from Activision?

Is this a surprise these days? sometimes i can’t believe these guys made Jedi Outcast 2 with Vicarious Visions.

About time.

Now they just have to cut High Moon, Beenox and Radical. And somehow unlobotomize Bizarre Creations.

@1 Nope, it’s the fact that they make shit games.

@3
Right so.
Its normally a good reason.

@3 Not that I know this first-hand, but Singularity’s meant to be very good according to some people I’ve talked to.

@1

In general I figure its second hand game sales.

Only the biggest of names get their triple A titles ordered from Gamestop, Game, etc in bulk. The rest get lower preorder pushes with the idea that instead ofnew copies, the stores will push second hand ones.

I also figure that too many games trying to cash in on the FPS market can’t help. There is only room for so many top tier big sellers.

Also, I think you are correct. With online being such a big part of gaming and games requiring such an investment from the consumer end, most of us are only going to buy one or two online shooters. I own BFBC2 and Halo Reach. I intend to stay upto date as possible with the DLC in those said games. And I have no desire to invest in another game trying to do the samething. It isn’t just the 60usd price tag, but the enevitble 30-60usd in dlc. Per game.

And lastly, there is the what some are calling the shit effect. that is to say that next to the production values of a CoD, BFBC2, or a Halo most average games are going to look like shit. In terms graphics, features, community size, whatever.

Like I said only so much room for trip A games.

shouldnt make shite

Singularity wasn’t anything remarkable, but it sure as hell wasn’t shit either.

Sold pretty horribly according to VGChartz, though: http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=singularity

I reckon you make a few valid points OG.
It appears to be a cruel business atm.
I got halo reach on launch and still have only 2 missions done but 26 hours multi.
12 months ago I would have hardly touched multi.
I reckon the on line gaming is having some effect.

shame .. i really loved Singularity

@8 That’s true, I got ahead of myself on that one. I was thinking about the menagerie of hopeless developers that Activision keeps around. The sad truth is that while Raven might not have missed the mark completely, they still haven’t hit it for years.

Is there room for average shooters these days?

Singularity was a good game, what killed it was the dead online. If the game had no online would be a possible platinum people alot more people would’ve buy it.

A lot more people would have bought it if it wasn’t silent snuck on to shelves.

The game sold so poorly because Activision only spends their money on two games: Call of Duty and WoW. No other gets the same marketing campaign as these.

I was the only person at my local Gamestop who pre-ordered it. Some of the Emps there didn’t even know what it was. It had absolutely no advertising in my area, and just came out silently.

I knew about it because I paid attention to gaming sites like these, but your casual gamer, they had no clue, and there is no way they were going to drop $65 US on an Unknown.

They should have Pimped it better, in fact I can’t remember off the top of my head if there was even a Demo!

The game had a slight, budget Half-Life feel to it, so I enjoyed it. But, if your not going to let people know about this game it should have been a budget title, priced around $39.99 US, then people would have taken a chance on it!

In fact the game doesn’t really end, so I was hoping there would be a Sing2

@15 : thank hod i am not the only one who liked this game
i also want to be a sequel for that game…i think it will never happen

They don’t deserve that. Just give me my Jedi Knight 3 and Elite Force 3.

Singularity could’ve really done with a demo. And possibly some marketing. And maybe it might’ve done better if Acti hadn’t shoved it out the door without even mentioning it to anyone like they were somehow embarrassed about it.

Singularity certainly wasn’t supported very well, but that has to be because they didn’t believe in it to start out with.

The only thing you get from massively publicizing a mediocre game is the idea that you’re trying to shove crap down peoples throats, and I think they’re in hot enough water as it is with the last few Guitar Heros.

What are they gonna say? “The next run of the mill shooter from Raven, known for these other run of the mill shooters”?

Still, I suppose they could’ve dropped a few trailers and what not. Chances are they were already doomed before they finished this game, though.

@15 Much agreed.

you think this game got no coverage look up MorphX thats a game with no coverage, the most stealthiest release lately, though that game is published by 505 games which pretty much means its going to be crap as well

Oh man, I *loved* Raven’s output back in the ’90s. Just about every third-person runny-jumpy-climby-fighty game ever owes a *huge* debt of gratitude to Heretic 2 for showing them how it’s supposed to be done. JK2:JO and JK:JA were spectacular games that still hold up remarkably well even today. Plus that Alverine Origins game really wasn’t half-bad – I really enjoyed my time with game. I’m sure corporate mismanagement is to blame here.