The talent didn’t vanish, it moved. A lot of it went to smaller studios, and that’s where some of the best western games of the last few years came from: Baldur’s Gate 3, Hades II, Clair Obscur. The big publishers are struggling. Western gaming isn’t.
This. Anybody in the working world, especially corporate, know that if the company holds back great talent, they will move elsewhere. EA, Sony, Xbox aren't the only publishers so devs have either gone to the other ones or self publish.
IO did get hit hard by Microsoft recently though. They pulled the plug on a contract right after 007 on a project, a friend of mine lost her job and the 007 bonus from sales, just like that. I can't remember if it was a third or half the staff must go. The big ones still control the money for the smaller ones, far 2 often.
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u/The_Poop_Shooter 7h ago
The talent didn’t vanish, it moved. A lot of it went to smaller studios, and that’s where some of the best western games of the last few years came from: Baldur’s Gate 3, Hades II, Clair Obscur. The big publishers are struggling. Western gaming isn’t.