The process of making a video game and bringing it to market is an extremely risky one – developers can spend, say, a decade working on a new game, only for it to fall flat with critics and audiences alike.
And given the enormous financial resources that go into developing even modest games, sometimes a game flatlines so badly that it ends up causing the closure of the entire studio.
While some developers will have smaller cash cow projects in the works to keep them chugging along while also creating larger, more ambitious games, it’s also common for studios to put all of their eggs in one basket and bet the house on a bigger swing.
Yet in each of these instances it just didn’t pan out – each of these games were panned by critics for one reason or another, and more injuriously to the bottom line, potential customers were promptly scared off completely.
And so the dominoes continued to fall, with each of these studios being shuttered in short order, as soon as mere weeks after their game was released…
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 was sold as a major comeback for the legendary, much loved skating franchise, but anyone who was paying attention to the game’s marketing knew that it was really a rushed attempt by Activision to milk the Tony Hawk licensing agreement one last time before it ran out.
Despite the polish and finesse of the earlier games in the franchise, THPS5 was panned by critics and players alike for its buggy gameplay, poor controls, dated graphics, lack of content, and forgettable levels.
It was later revealed that the game was indeed developed in just a few short months to release before the Tony Hawk licensing deal expired.
Its commercial failure ultimately led to the closure of developer Robomodo, who previously made Tony Hawk spin-off games Ride and Shred, and went out of business less than a year after the release of THPS5.
Thankfully Activision seems to be putting considerably more respect on the Tony Hawk brand these days, at least.
发表回复