Re:EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis
by pandaman on Thursday March 05, 2015 @12:43AM
(#9149442)
>What I don't understand about that strategy is what prevents the acquired employees from re-forming as a new company?
Nothing prevents this, there had been many studios by former employees of a shut down studio (e.g. Ensemble -> Robot, Pandemic -> Killzone, Incognito -> Lightbox, Big Huge Games -> Impossible etc. etc). However, usually the reason a studio had been shut down was its poor performance and not some evil marketing plan so the respawned studios inherit the problems of the original studio complicated with the talent drain that happens during such a transition.
Re:EA Shuts Down ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims’ Developer Maxis
by interesting_att on Wednesday March 04, 2015 @09:48PM
(#9148942)
It is very difficult to get financing for a AAA game company since the industry is so hit-driven. Moreover, it'd be rather difficult to find investors just after the studio you worked for just shut down due to poor performance.
What I don't understand about that strategy is what prevents the acquired employees from re-forming as a new company? Are there non-competes in place? Is it difficult to get financing to form a AAA game company? I'm presuming that, regardless of what happens, it takes a while.