This is the first podcast of 2021! It was also recorded a day before people decided to invade the US Capitol. How weird is that, hearing us blissfully unaware of insurrectionists who thought they could terrorize the US Senate?
Anyway, this week’s news includes:
Let us know what you think at the Facebook comment site.
Midway’s been around the industry for years, has decided to lay off up to 90 people and cut the Criminal project from their lineup. This is a long term plan of cost reduction by the board of directors to get down costs and keep the company running smoothly.
Their plan seems to be to develop games intelligently, by costing out each project and building what’s needed to make the company profitable without excessive cost. A company always runs best when it’s doing it wisely and looking to reduce overhead, unfortunately a company in a bit of trouble has to let go of employees to get their.
While this was a very difficult decision, we feel it was the right thing to do for the future of Midway,” said Matt Booty, interim CEO and president of Midway Games Inc.. “We view every game as an investment that must meet certain standards for quality, scheduling, and profitability. Midway remains committed to producing the highest quality entertainment, as evidenced by our strong holiday line-up which includes TNA iMPACT!, Blitz: The League II, and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe starring a team of MK characters and some of the most recognizable DC Comics personalities such as Batman, The Joker, and Superman.” (kotaku)
Hopefully this allows them some breathing room to get out of this sticky situation, we hate to see old names go down in history as failed.
This is the last podcast of 2018, and the next episode will be our Games of the Year announcement. Until then, we snark at Pewdiepie, and check some of the news ending the year.
This week’s news includes:
Let us know what your Game of the Year is.
Eidos was founded in 1990 and has been the king of its own destiny since its inception. As part of Square-Enix, Eidos and its destiny were called into question, would they continue to run the show or would they become one with Square-Enix. Square-Enix has come out to say they’ll be leaving Eidos to themselves and allow creativity to flow between the companies.
“This is an exciting beginning to what I believe will be an incredible journey. I am very happy that Phil Rogers has agreed to lead Eidos in what I see as an international marriage between our two companies, a marriage that will give birth to great things. Eidos is a content rich company and a culturally significant business to the Square Enix group.” (kotaku)
Square-Enix is playing it safe with this acquisition because this isn’t a great enviroment for shaking things up internally within a development studio. Eidos is well known for Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief and many other great projects and have built a solid foundation for the future.
A mind-share between these two groups is a powerful enemy to the competitors if they’re able to open a good dialog between the two companies and share resources, tools and engines. In a world of cost savings and salary cuts, leaning on each others resources to build a better product is a win.
At least we won’t have to call them Square-Enix-Edios because that’s just a mouthful!
