The video game industry has a lot of bad projects and bad games, so it’s amazing when something ends up 1.) being released and 2.) being really, really good. Season: The Future Letter checked both boxes, when it arrived on PlayStation 5 and PC earlier this year to some enthusiastic reviews that praised the open world narrative game for its beautiful art and meditation on the past and how we do it. But that didn’t stop the studio behind it that it recently let go of more than half of its creators.
On June 20, the CEO of Scavengers Studio Amélie Lamarche sent an email to employees who were not ready to write when they started it eight years ago. That revealed it Weathera game about a woman documenting the world from her bicycle before an accident, had sold 60,000 copies in its first five months, apparently leaving the small, Montreal-based operation with no options.
“Considering the state of the national economy and WeatherAs a result of the financial situation, we have been left with no choice but to make the difficult decision to reduce the studio to a small, stable group of game developers,” he wrote in an email shared by the studio. my city. “Unfortunately, this means being separated from all but about sixteen members of the Scavengers Studio team.”
Those left behind will begin work on a new “game-driven” project that the studio says will offer financial and emotional support, as well as additional health benefits to those who have been laid off. “It’s not a decision I took lightly,” Lamarche said my city on the phone. “It’s been a few months just trying to see what we can do, who we can talk to, how we can spend more money.”
Launched in 2015, Scavengers heralded a free-to-play, post-apocalyptic action game. Darwin’s work at Microsoft’s 2017 Xbox Showcase. It was launched early the following year, with the indie studio moving on to its next project a few years later. That game, Weathermade quite a splash with its stunning trailer when it was unveiled at the 2020 Game Awards.
Months later, however, and expose by Gamesindustry.biz He also spoke about the working environment at the studio, led by director Simon Darveau and assisted by Lamarche. He temporarily resigned but was later reinstated after an external audit by Solertia Consulting Group he says he found no “sustained sexual or psychological abuse” at the studio. Darveau has been moved to director, and according to his LinkedIn page he left Scavengers earlier this year to become executive director at a new, unannounced studio.
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“If half of what [I know of Season] It’s true then that the game is going to be great, and I don’t want to take that away from all my friends who are working on it,” one former Scavengers developer said. he said Gamesindustry.biz at that time. “But I’m also uncomfortable with Scavengers being hailed as a fun, cool, indie, inclusive place.”
After two years, Weather in the end it came to great acclaim. Waypoint he called it “An artistic meditation on history and memory.” Polygon he wrote,”Weather it’s every little thing that we can have in a fast-paced life like the weather, and it’s one of my favorite sports in years.” And On the edge magazine gave the game a 9, praising the game’s thoughtful writing and effective dialogue choices.
But even though we arrived at the beginning of 2023, getting good reviews and having a timely contract with PlayStation, the game sold well. Lamarche would not disclose its budget or sales targets, but said a series of changes and discounts in the months following the launch failed to move the needle. Rising interest rates and economic uncertainty have not made the math any easier.
Will Game Pass exist or will a place on Sony’s PlayStation Plus game subscription make a difference? Lamarche declined to elaborate on the negotiations. And the Xbox and Switch ports that would have been contenders for Game of the Year now seem to be on hold with the rest of the staff pursuing the studio’s next project.
“The idea of making a decision is that I can keep the studio from making a decision if it can’t continue to do games,” Lamarche said. In his email to the staff, he mentioned that the next Scavengers game will be more Darwin’s workwhich may indicate a return to something with more of a game twist.
One thing he wanted to make clear is that the studio’s struggles are not a reflection of its talent. “Everyone who is affected Darwin or Weatherwe chose those people and they have been going through a lot of trouble with me in the last one [several] years,” he said. “They’re golden, so it doesn’t show how they’re doing, what’s going on.”
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