Uhoh. This is not good news: Lionhead have announced that their internal studio set-up is to change and reduce, possibly following bad sales of Black & White 2 and The Movies.
On an aside, did anyone see any marketing for either title, ever? Beyond on blogs? Because I didn't.
From TheMoviesPlanet:
We understand that Lionhead have had a company meeting today, where the decision was taken to downsize the company from 3 studios to just the 2, which means the loss of approx 100 people. We assume this is due to the poor sales figures of both The Movies and Black & White 2. ..
What does this mean for The Movies? Basically, there will NOT be anymore The Movies Expansion Packs or the like. As we previously reported, the first Expansion Pack that will be released for The Movies, entitled "Stunts & Effects", will also be its last. The Movies Online we understand will continue, however there will be no additional content made for The Prop Shop.
What a terrible shame. The Movies is a fab game with many, many layers. Like a big, playable onion. It's also timeless - it'll be as playable in 3 years as it is now. It's also creative. But bugger me, it seems to be very unsupported by its publisher and is in trouble, mere months after release.
How can this be?
It's not the end of Lionhead however: seems they have a giant Plan up their sleeve that will use the best of the best of the people they already employ:
Over the last few months Lionhead has been working on plans for a new AAA world class game. As work on a number of its titles draws to a close, a pool of 100 super talented developers at Lionhead are available to create a new super team at Lionhead. This will be in addition to an existing team which is working on an amazing next generation title. This strategy was presented to Lionhead this morning in a company meeting but sadly it will mean some redundancies.
Difficult times for a talented UK indie. I hope they pull through.
Damn I knew i should have bought Black and White 2.
I take full responsibility for this tragedy.
Posted by: Cris | March 03, 2006 at 11:55
Saw the marketing for Black & White 2 on the tubes but never saw anything for The Movies. I did buy it though and spent at leat 4 hours playing it...
Posted by: Tom | March 03, 2006 at 13:10
The Movies failed because it's called The Movies but the gameplay turns out to be The Studio Management Executive. My girlfriend was utterly hyped by the concept and sat down to play the demo, but the moment she was told to build her first toilet block she gave up.
Some movies, usually bad ones, get released without screening to critics. Some games would be advised not to release demos.
Posted by: James Wallis | March 03, 2006 at 14:09
Black and White 2 had ads all over the place - they just weren't very clear what they were for which kinda defeated the purpose. I was totally disappointed by the game anyway, so no great loss there.
I think you're right, haven't seen much marketing for The Movies. It is great fun in Sandbox mode because you can spend hours just making a movie without all that Theme-Studio nonsense. The game mode is pants though - it's more a machinima tool than a game. Sad to hear there will be no further development. That game could live on indefinitely if they released an easy tool to make and import custom props/costumes/etc.
Posted by: Weefz | March 03, 2006 at 14:49
The Movies couldn't figure out what it wanted to be, and didn't do either thing (simulation of the business / creating machinima) brilliantly well. It did both *quite* well, but not enough to satisfy either hardcore crowd IMO (the tycoon lot / the Sims players).
Still, I agree, marketing on it was pretty poor. But then isn't Activision a bit screwed at the moment anyway?
Regardless, will miss it - thought that ultimately it could do really well with enough expansions.
Posted by: Stephen | March 03, 2006 at 17:45
Yeah, I didn't even know Black and White 2 came out or I would have bought it.
Posted by: MiseryNotes | March 03, 2006 at 17:51
Black and White 2 is possibly the most frustrating game I ever purchased. It crashed on install, randomly crashed on load, and ran like a slide-show (terrible, terrible frames-per-second). After constant calls to EA tech support, they advised me to just return the game, because it was known to have incompatibilities with my video card and motherboard.
Lionhead has a lot of creative talent but their games have never really delivered on what they promise. Multiplayer was cut from B&W2, despite being in the original B&W. The "shape your world" features were cut from Fable and the final game was damn short to play through. I didn't buy The Movies because of those two bad experiences, which feels like a shame, because it seems like a really unusual and innovative game.
I hope that by cutting their overhead, and focusing on fewer games at a time, they can polish their future games up to match the hype that always preceeds them.
Posted by: QSilver | March 03, 2006 at 22:04
I've not tried Black and White 2, but i have Black and White, and i must say it makes my top 10 games of all time!! I'll get Black and White 2 for the mac once i have the money and the time lol.
Posted by: Cris | March 04, 2006 at 09:41
As far as marketing goes, I picked up a demo disc of The Movies at the theater where I saw Narnia. Unfortunately, it just showed the character creation part of the game and had me very unplussed.
Posted by: Deg | March 04, 2006 at 20:47