If only these studios didn't keep seeing purges of their experienced talent in the wake of "creative differences" and shitty workplace conditions.
It used to be the norm that someone would find a place to make their career and stay at the same company until they retired from working entirely. The games industry has a widespread problem where corpo capitalists at the publishers are driving the creatives that work at the dev studios insane with crazy work crunches, demands to change the art in ways that make the most profit but don't align with the creatives' visions for the art, and shrug off consumer complaints/criticisms before blaming the creatives when unrealistic sales expectations aren't met and closing studios as punishment.
Because god forbid EA, or Activision, or any of these other major publishers focus on publishing games rather than trying to own every IP and development studio or would ever entertain the idea of letting an "underperforming" studio go back to being independent (that's how the whole Jason West/Vince Zampella shit happened; they wanted to regain ownership of Infinity Ward and take "Modern Warfare" somewhere else, but Activision wouldn't let either the studio nor the brand go without a massive legal fight)... They'd rather fire everyone, hoarde the IP (that they'll never do anything with), and just sit on the old company's name & legacy so no one else can utilize them.
demands to change the art in ways that make the most profit but don't align with the creatives' visions for the art,
That gray-skinned demon person that was featured prominently in the last Dragon Age game begs to differ. She was ugly in ways that wouldn't lead anyone to think "Oh, this will be profitable" and I'm fairly certain the creatives got what they wanted on-screen.
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