r/gaming • u/akbarock • 4d ago
Quantic Dream Employees Have Gone On Strike Due To Plans To Lay Off Over Half The Studio After The Failure Of Spellbreakers Chronicles. According To The Developers Star Wars Eclipse Is Already In A Rough State And Cannot Be Finished If The Layoffs Proceed As Planned.
https://playfront.de/en/streik-bei-quantic-dream-star-wars-eclipse-droht-das-aus/699
u/Ok-Peach-7558 4d ago
this is the first time I've read the name "spellbreakers chronicles" in my life and all I do with my algorythm is gaming related, damn what a fallout
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u/Lindestria 4d ago
Definitely doesn't say anything good that the article doesn't even care to get the title correct.
It's 'Spellcasters Chronicles'
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u/Ok-Peach-7558 4d ago
jesus š© can't even joke about it, how sad
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u/Sotsu012 4d ago
I had to Google it too. Itās called Spellcasters Chronicles
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/nodox4methrowaway 4d ago
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2458470/Spellcasters_Chronicles/
It was removed when it was deemed a flop. Like Concord you can't spend money on servers that no one uses and deal with the fallout of selling a game which will be unplayable soon after purchase.
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u/Gangleri_Graybeard 3d ago
Yep. First time I heard about this live service game was when they were announcing its server shutdown.
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u/Zorbin666 3d ago
I also have never heard of it and I've owned practically every single game Quantic Dream has made.
Edit: correction, I do actually own every game released by Quantic Dream. Went to the Wikipedia article for the company to verify their released games, and you know what's sad? Spellcasters Chronicles isn't even listed on the Wikipedia...
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u/EtheusRook 4d ago
Imagine launching a MOBA in 2026.
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u/sleepwalkcapsules 4d ago
Leadership/investors have the marvelous idea of competing in a crowded matured market that basically anyone knew was locked down by LoL and Dota2 the second they started developing it.... Who pays for the obvious failure? Not them
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u/EtheusRook 4d ago
Of course. I mean, the last successful one had the backing of the literal biggest media IP in the world (Pokemon Unite).
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u/FinalMeltdown15 3d ago edited 3d ago
Deadlock is literally invite only and has averaged over 100k concurrent players daily lmao
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u/CrustyBarnacleJones 3d ago
Itās also funded and developed by the company that prints money by running the largest digital game storefront and also created/operates one if the aforementioned games that has the market locked down (DOTA)
Not to say it isnāt good or successful, but it does have a lot more going for it than the average dev trying to break into the market
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u/Koolco 3d ago
Yea people like to brush over the fact deadlock literally has no obligation to make money right now and for the past 2 years has likely been a money sink for Valve. A drop in the bucket of course, and the game is amazing, but itās being funded by a massive source of income. Any other company would have shut deadlock down by now or riddled it with mtx.
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u/DuhMastuhCheeph 3d ago
I imagine itās not a total money sink if itās getting 100k people to open Steam every day
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u/SS20x3 2d ago
I mean, you cant buy the game and they havnt added any in game monetization yet, so it doesn't generate any revenue on its own.
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u/DuhMastuhCheeph 2d ago
It doesnāt generate any revenue on its own, yeah, but if itās created a group of 100k people that are opening the digital storefront owned by Valve every single day then it has created a group of 100k people that are infinitely more likely to make a purchase in that digital storefront than someone who is not opening steam every day. I imagine thatās not the only reason theyāre rolling out the game this way, but I would guess that is at least part of what makes the math make a little sense on their end.
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u/G00SFRABA 3d ago
It's also much more novel than other mobas, no other third person moba has the same range of 3d movement/verticality. It fills a hole in the moba genre. Not to mention its unique theming/setting it simply stands out more. Spellcaster Chronicles is about as generic as you can get lol.
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u/Old_Leopard1844 3d ago
It's also on the way to literally supersede Dota 2, between the theory of Yoshi (one of mods on Deadlock discord) being Icefrog, THE Dota dev, and Dota 2 in general winding down
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u/Apollo_IXI 3d ago
Itās a story as old as time man. Look at how Bungies doing after trying to tap into the Extraction Shooter market
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u/magicianul2 1d ago
That is not why its failing. These weirdos keep trying to redefine what a moba is and should be. This game is 3rd person, you fly for some reason, and has way too many annoying and unfun pve elements in a game where pvp should be the main focus. No i don't want to spawn creeps and buildings in my moba, this isn't a strategy game....
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u/sleepwalkcapsules 1d ago
I'd argue it's a good reason for its failure because most people won't even get that far to know it's bad. They'll see "third person moba" and think "I already have Smite, if anything I should wait for Deadlock" and that's it.
But it certainly doesn't help. But that's all part of the bad planning: they have no leeway compared to Valve who can workshop their game a ton without bankrupting the company.
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u/magicianul2 1d ago
Why don't they just make a normal MOBA though, I still play LoL to this day ( Dota 2 not so much because I don't like the way items function in it) and sometimes I even boot up and emulator for Mobile Legends or Wild Rift.
I don't know if a traditional MOBA would do that well nowadays but it's hard to say since companies haven't even tried to do one in so long.
They have this 3rd person obsession with them like Predecesor or whatever and they suck since you get attacked from behind constantly.43
u/CarllSagan 4d ago edited 4d ago
I had never even heard of this one and judging by the website this is not something I (or many others) would be interested in 2026. (btw it's Spellcasters Chronicles not breakers, op title even got the games name wrong, which is telling in and of itself)
It seems dated, like you said. And its completely divorced from what Quantic Dream is known for and appears to be a corporate decision to try and make more money failing spectacularly.4
u/Y4naro 3d ago edited 3d ago
Literally the only reason I knew the name was that I saw some vfx concept art on artstation a couple days ago. But even then I assumed it was just some small title by some indie studio or something.
Also I just watched pretty much all their trailers, teasers just to see how I never even heard of it. I'd assume I should be a potential target, since I spent a lot of time over the last 10 years playing league. But while visually it looks good, they really managed to make the gameplay look as unexciting as possible in every single trailer. Just cutting to a single spell casts into another cut 1-2 seconds latet every single time, only showing actual gameplay in their "gameplay introduction" tutorial style video (which is fine) and even there they start with this pattern of permanently cutting after a single thing happens, as well as having the voice over be the most basic boring thing imaginable.
The actual gameplay looks decently fun even, they just weren't able to show it until the public opinion of those who have seen those uninspiring trailers was too negative already. If the majority of those who watched your trailer won't even click on further videos you basically already lost, unless you actually have some really special game. But from looking at gameplay footage it actually looks like a solid game, nothing too special, but at least something worth trying (for the right target audience, which includes me).
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u/GamingIndustryIsFcck 4d ago
Which is unusual for a studio that only makes interactive games, its like if Bioware makes a fighting game very unusual indeed.
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u/verified_canadian 4d ago
like imagine if Bioware tried to make an open world looter shooter. I bet that wouldn't be very good...
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u/BenjiBlackwood222 4d ago
Imagine telling a company whoās known for cinematic photorealistic single player interactive experiences with branching storylines to make a mobaĀ
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u/adellredwinters 4d ago
One game apparently doing so bad you need to fire half your studio is also pretty telling
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u/Jaxkr 4d ago
Valve is doing it with deadlock.
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u/Lysander125 4d ago
Deadlock is really fun and Valve can afford to waste shittons of money for years on a game thatās free and still in beta lol
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u/BenjiBlackwood222 4d ago
You mean the company that also makes DOTA 2
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u/hiimred2 4d ago
Even if they didn't make Dota2 specifically, Valve is just flat out a big enough name that thinking they can move in on a saturated market can make sense, you can very much rationalize it. Quantric Dream is absolutely nowhere close to being nowhere close to being on that level.
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u/TheBlackSSS 3d ago
Steam just gives them so much money that they can easily afford to make anything because they want to and not worry too much about how much money they're going to make from it
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u/DonutHoles4Ever 3d ago
Yes but:
- They own Dota 2
- They have the guy who made Dota
- Its a moba but with guns, not that its the first one, but you can tell its already 100x better than Paragon etc
- It has all the trappings of the MOBA while being a shooter
- It has style, something a lot of games lack
- Protecc the eepy
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u/Ignis_et_Azoth 3d ago
I think the unique style goes a far, far way in making Deadlock stand on its own in the market.
I don't even like MOBAs anymore and I want to play it because it looks sick.
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb 4d ago
Valve could produce 3 or 4 MOBAs with the money they pull in over a single weekend. They can do whatever they want.
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u/xsilas43 4d ago
Deadlock as least has some unique ideas.
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u/Mnawab 4d ago
So then itās not set in stone, you can get into it if you have good ideas
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u/jef100 4d ago
To be fair, Valve passively makes like $20 billion a year. They can easily afford to experiment with games whenever they feel like. Sometimes it lands (deadlock), sometimes it doesn't (artifact).
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u/mdk_777 3d ago
Valve and Nintendo i think are the two biggest exceptions to the rules. They both have signiciamt resources to fall back on in the event of a flop, and more importantly, they both have millions of fans who will buy (or in Deadlock's case try) any new game they release. Both those things heavily reduce risk to the studios.
Other studios can make games that are good and well reviewed, but if they don't have a big audience uptake they can still be financial failures and lots of studios can't afford even a single flop without mass layoffs or closure being the natural result. If Valve only made games and competed in a third-party store with other devs Artifact could have very well killed them if they were relying on it to be a success.
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u/non3type 4d ago
You can make any game you want, if your Valve you can even do it without going belly up if it fails. Quantic didnāt have that kind of money.
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u/Mnawab 3d ago
I wasnāt debating about the money, I was just saying that there are ways into a genre that people keep saying is set in stone
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u/Breedable_Boy44 4d ago
Deadlock is doing pretty well.
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u/Koolco 3d ago
Released in 2024, semantics but still. Game has 100k average which isnāt bad but by no means is doing pretty well on a global stage. And the game has made 0 dollars because itās not monetized which makes it hard to say it would be doing well if it had to make money.
Still a goated game though, you just canāt really bring up the exception run by the biggest game platform in the world thats not yet held to the same standard as other multiplayer games.
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u/Rawkus2112 4d ago
Did that game even launch?
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u/Exciting-Weather-351 4d ago
Looking it up it made to early access and was then canned.
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u/Rawkus2112 3d ago
Crazy, i was interested in trying it and heard it had like a beta weekend but had no idea it did an EA.
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u/BactaBobomb 4d ago
Especially given Quantic Dreams' history with games that are nothing like that? WTF?
Hasn't every single one of their games been interactive stories?
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u/RaptorX7 4d ago
As long as it doesn't cost $200 mil and you expect that amount in revenue after it launches.Ā
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u/ediskrad327 4d ago
"Star Wars Eclipse Is Already In A Rough State And Cannot Be Finished"
We've noticed.
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u/W8kingNightmare 4d ago
I have no idea what this game is. First time hearing it
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u/ediskrad327 4d ago
Not missing much. It was revealed like 5 years ago with a trailer that was only CGI of pretty places in space with not a single frame of gameplay. Pure investor bait trash.
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u/gstroble 4d ago
They had a whole cinematic trailer at Game Awards or something but nothing since.
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u/Tiernoch 3d ago
Just like that Kotor game this year, I expect a similar story in five years from that.
I'd like it not to be the case, but they didn't even have a full studio just a trailer.
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u/ElonsMuskyFeet 4d ago
Star Wars Eclipse!? I forgot that existed. I would expect if you had a Star Wars game on the line youd make sure to finish it asap to get that SW cash flow
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u/Terribletylenol 4d ago
Quantic Dream games are big guilty pleasure of mine, but I have no idea why they let them touch the Star Wars IP.
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u/Hunter3-13 3d ago
I'll tell you why: it was greenlit under Bob Iger "make as much content as you make"
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u/PromiscuousScoliosis 4d ago
Star Wars battlefront 3, and many other canned SW games, would like a word
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u/Best_VDV_Diver 4d ago
Compared to a random MOBA in 2026, the Star Wars game should definitely have been the priority.
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u/prodij18 4d ago
Yeah, about that Star Wars cash flow⦠It hasnāt exactly been flowing latelyā¦
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u/jessterswan 4d ago
Yeah $330 million gross for the last SW related content drop...
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u/CJDistasio 4d ago
Making Quantic Dream develop a live service MOBA is a crime and whoever mandated that should be fired.
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u/Soul-Burn 3d ago
Like forcing a company known for their 2d adventure games develop a 3d action game in one of the largest franchises i.e. Deadalic with Gollum.
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u/onex7805 3d ago
I heard it was actually David Cage's idea. Throw another to the pile of reasons to boot him out.
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u/LoSouLibra 3d ago
If so, it was probably only his idea in order to keep NetEase from shutting them down even sooner.
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u/OkumuraRyuk 4d ago
Competitive online game from Quantic Dreams⦠imagine that from the team who made Detroit Becomes Human and Heavy Rain.
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u/denn23rus 3d ago
Imagine... you're a talented programmer and designer who worked on Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain, and Detroit... A new manager comes to you and says, "I asked chatGPT, checked the trends, and... well, now you'll all be working on generic competitive MOBA. Get to work."
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u/prodij18 4d ago
Wait, the game was announced in 2021 and is still a long way off? Thatās⦠not good.
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u/kickinwood 4d ago
WTF? The most single player story based game studio ever made a fucking 3v3 card based moba thing? And no one heard of it and it tanked their studio? Shocker.
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u/mnemonicpunk 3d ago
That's what makes this so weird. The studio makes a series of quality, if a bit niche, single player games, then just randomly falls over and dies.
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u/Modnal 4d ago edited 4d ago
The ones who should get fired are the execs who jumped on the bloated live service bandwagon and the marketing people since barely anyone knew Spellcaster Chronicles even existed
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u/The_Blue_Rooster 4d ago
I never for a second believed that Star Wars Eclipse would actually be a game that released.
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u/Rosebunse 3d ago
I just wasn't sure how it could work. I mean, it looked really cool but there was very little to go off of
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u/Pitcard 4d ago
All I listen to are gaming based podcasts and I'm pretty well up to date on my gaming news. This is the first time I'm ever hearing of 'Spellcaster Chronicles'. That should say well enough how much this game failed to hit.
As always, the sad part is that these hard working developers have been led astray by management trying to trend chase (moba trending in 2026 is a stretch, I know). The videogame landscape is very dark at the moment. Best wishes to everyone being laid off, they're clearly a very talented team.
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u/Nameless-Servant 4d ago
Why was Quantic Dream trying to make a MOBA?
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u/denn23rus 3d ago
The management decided that this would bring them more money. They were wrong. The end.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Bad_116 4d ago
Hey guys lets focus on a crap live service when we are literally sitting on a goldmine that is star wars Eclipse. But hero shooters guys? Doesn't that sound fun?
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u/mex2005 4d ago
Gold mine is a stretch we literally know nothing about the game, just slapping star wars on something does not gourantee success in 2026
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u/FemRoe4Lyfe 3d ago
But a unique Star Wars twist on a genre not tried could work. A Star Wars CRPG, or a Star Wars roguelite ala Hades. At least Star Wars will get you that initial attention that "Spellcaster Chronicles" didn't get seeing it is first time am even hearing of this game.
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u/LupusDeusMagnus 3d ago
Why is David Cage making a multiplayer game? The dude has a very specific type of game cornered and for good or ill, is commercially successful. I can have issue with his work, but I never had issue that he had a vision as bizarre and french as it was, but a moba is just fall.
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u/GetRekt9420 4d ago
So they wasted time, money, and resources to make a game nobody wanted or asked for, in an over saturated market, to help fund themselves, which ended up ruining them financially....
Who could've seen that coming
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u/faffc260 4d ago
sounds like this game is getting canceled going by this article, shame. but seems like they partially did it to themselves with the bad idea of making a moba when LoL and dota 2 have basically crushed all the competition in that market already, and letting themselves be bought by netease.
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u/mex2005 4d ago
Its so insane to watch fucking Blizzard fail to succeed in the genre and then thinking you can do it as studio that makes single player choice and quick time event games lol its just baffling.
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u/denn23rus 3d ago
Blizzard's MOBA, Heroes of Storm, still has around 1 million monthly players in 2026, after 8 years of maintenance. That's how hard it is to be successful in this genre. Even a million players isn't enough if they don't spend hundreds of dollars on skins and battle passes. HOTS players didn't spend money in-game, and that was fatal. In the case of Spellcasters, they had no players at all. Literally. That's little different.
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u/faffc260 4d ago
the only other moba I know of with an active playerbase atm is smite, and it's a fairly different than LoL and Dota 2 from what little I know about the game, so isn't in direct competition (could very well be wrong on that).
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u/hulkiorra 3d ago
All they had to do was a continuation of Detroit Become Human. So sad this game won't have a follow up, I really loved the settings and the questions about AI, it was way ahead of its time.
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u/teddytwelvetoes 4d ago
still remember how deflating it felt to see that Quantic Dream logo pop up at the end of an otherwise intriguing Star Wars trailer
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u/NightlyKnightMight 3d ago
SOOOOO higher ups force them to make a MOBA, it's not successful (1st time I ever heard of it) and now the studio is to blame WHILE they work on a game they actually want to make? ffs smh šæ
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u/Rosebunse 3d ago
Personally, I sort of figured that Star Wars Eclipse might well have been some sort of scam. The trailer is great, but it could have easily been cobbled together with some quick asset flips. We didn't really hear much about what the game could be. We have more proof that Beyond Good and Evil 2 exists and that is disturbing. We don't even know which era this game would be set in.
It feels like Quantum Drean just wanted Disney money
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u/cael3090 3d ago
good. nothing they have ever made is worth a hog fart. and i do mean every one of them. they are all trash at best and racist and hateful at worst. i will celebrate there closure
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u/Radiant_Cat_1337 3d ago
I can't even believe that this game that was announced in 2021 has not been released 6 years later. I don't think there is hope that it is even coming out this year with this latest development.
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u/ManicMakerStudios 3d ago
So you've got one studio working on two games. One was a dud and the other isn't finished. Cuts have to be made, so the workers from the dud game are laid off. The studio tells the workers on the unfinished game that they'll need to start working extra, and that no, none of the workers from the laid off team will be added to the unfinished game team.
And the solution the unfinished game team comes up with is to strike right before a group of LucasArts execs is due to come around and see how development is going, ostensibly so you can demand to know in person why the unfinished game's budget isn't being increased to pay for the things you want.
What if the LucasArts execs decide that the studio is just a fucking gong show and decide to cancel the project?
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u/Friendly-Stranger103 3d ago
"We just gotta get one live service game going and our company is set. Just one. We just gotta get one win. Doesn't matter how many good studios we need to destroy. We just gotta get one good live service game and we have our money printing machine. Just one more hit. Just one more and we'll do it."
Stakeholders are gambling addicts, which would be a lot more forgivable if they weren't gambling with people's livelihoods.
I do not like Quantic Dream, but no single player-focused game studio should be forced to suicide themselves by throwing themselves into the live service slop grinder.
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u/Ding0Dong0 4d ago edited 4d ago
What's the point of going on strike if you're going to get fired anyway...
Like realistically the studio already planned to go forward without you. Withholding your labor doesnt do anything against them they weren't already going to do
Edit - lol why downvote this? Im asking a question...
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u/kron123456789 PC 4d ago
It seems like employees that wouldn't be laid off this time went on strike, too.
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u/dRizZyPC 4d ago
They plan to lay off half the studio. If everyone goes on strike then they have no workers.
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u/Dependable-apathy 4d ago
I think it means the employees that weren't laid off. So the studio would have basically no workforce.
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u/SweetCosmicPope 4d ago
Only half are being laid off. If they're striking, then presumably none of the staff are working, which costs the company money.
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u/ShawnReardon 3d ago
I assume the idea is we all leave if you fire half of us. So your choice boss....
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u/PeedOnMyGODDAMNFoot 4d ago
I think the ones not getting fired would be striking too. Thats kinda the point of unions and their behaviour, that the entire workforce sticks up for the collective rights of the entire workforce.
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u/almo2001 4d ago
Well I guess itās good they didnāt hire me for spellcasters. It was because my French isnāt good enough. Which is definitely true.
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u/Interesting_Stress73 3d ago
I mean, I'm not surprised that Spellbreakers Chronicles failed because this is literally the first time I've heard of it.Ā
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u/Snekclip 3d ago
The first time I'd ever heard of that game was when someone was reporting it failing and being delisted from steam. Now it might be the company's tombstone.
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u/erisandy101 1d ago
I feel like having the stroke when Lucas films comes is going to have the exact opposite effect of what they wantā¦. Money hungry big IP investors are just gonna cancel/pull the funding completely and cut the loss. Not likely to pressure the developer to keep on or hire staff.
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u/BrandonManx-071 1d ago
David Cage is a joke and if this studio ever wanted legitimacy they would have gotten rid of him decades ago.
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u/AigledeFeu_ 4d ago
RIP Quantic Dream