Compulsion Games pulls off management buyout and separates from Xbox | exclusive
gamesbeat.com
Compulsion Games, the maker of compelling gamers like South of Midnight, has pulled off a management buyout and is now separated from Xbox.
  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    2 days

    In a perfect world, lawmakers would make antitrust laws that prohibit platform holders from owning games studio. One could only dream.

    • minfapper@piefed.socialEnglish
      18 hours

      Now I’m actually curious about how things would work in your perfect world.

      The current gaming industry in the late stages, so it might be more productive to discuss the mid 2000s.

      The vast majority of platform exclusives were made by studios/publishers owned by the platform. Exclusives were in turn a very big part of the value proposition of consoles, causing people to buy them in the first place.

      If that had been outlawed by then, who would have produced the iconic games of each platform?

      • benjirenji@slrpnk.netEnglish
        11 hours

        Consoles would differ in hardware, ergonomics, style, market segment etc. not their games catalogue.

  • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2 days

    I decided to get this when I heard this! Always thought the game looked unique but didn’t know how I felt about buying from a pro-genocide company.

    EDIT: I’ll admit, I’m a little surprised by the downvotes. Did people believe Microsoft was ever anti-genocide?

    • BreakerSwitch@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2 days

      Yeah this is a wild comment to downvote given how direct Microsofts support of the Israeli genocide has been. They’ve literally been the ones enabling the surveillance that identifies targets

    • Hadriscus@jlai.luEnglish
      2 days

      Weird. Maybe Musk, Netanyahu and Trump are finally on Lemmy

  • Lemmayng@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3 days

    How does Xbox not see the PR disaster that is Compulsion Games releasing a game starring a black female protagonist, and being forced to buy it and the company’s freedom and independence?!

    • jacksilver@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3 days

      To be honest, having played both Contrast and South of Midnight, I’m not sure how the studio still exists. Neither of those games were bad, but they also weren’t anything beyond mediocre.

      South of Midnight might have hit harder if it came out in the 360 era, but it felt very dated on release. The only saving grace was some cool animation and the music.

      • popcar2@piefed.caEnglish
        2 days

        The problem isn’t really with the quality of the games, they’re decent additions to Xbox’s offerings.

        The problem is the rate at which they make new games, which is a bit of a disaster. They released THREE GAMES since the studio was founded in 2009 (17 years!!!)

        • Contrast (2013)
        • We Happy Few (2018)
        • South of Midnight (2025)

        I wish them the best of luck but out of all the studios Xbox threw away/wanted to shut down, this one was the least surprising, and I said the same thing when they announced the studios they were getting rid of.

      • Carighan Maconar@piefed.worldEnglish
        2 days

        Ah, IMO SoM is actually good. Quite good. It’s not super noteworthy, but it’s like the Riven games or so? Good AA stuff.

        • jacksilver@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2 days

          To me it wasn’t bad, but more like a 5/6 out of 10. I’m curious if you agree with that score and if not, what elevates it for you?

          Another issue I think the game had was it cost 100million (at least according to Microsoft). Regardless of the quality it certainly didn’t sell well enough.