A new report found that a third of studios acquired by larger companies since 2000 have shut down.
Layoffs and closures have become uncomfortably frequent nowadays; sometimes it’s almost every month that you hear about some kind of layoffs and studio closures. The biggest one in recent times was BioWare, but there have been so many gems that have been lost over the years, mostly recently.
Roughly 60% of Over 350 Acquired Studios Have Declined or Shut Down
A report from Sebastian Cordoso (via TechSpot) reveals that a third of all acquired studios since 2000 have been shut down. The investigation spans over 362 studios that have been acquired since 2000, and close to 60% of them have declined or shut down. The data reveals that only 12.4% (45 studios) have thrived, 27.3% (99 studios) are stable, 26.2% (95 studios) have declined, and 34% (123 studios) have shuttered.
More Insider Gaming: Mass Effect’s Petition Has More Traction Than The ‘Save Physical Games’ Petition
The report also breaks down the studios shut down by company, with Activision Blizzard topping the charts by shutting down all 17 acquired studios. Thunderful and Disney follow, and at the other end of the list are studios like Nintendo, Krafton, and Kadokawa that haven’t shut down any of the studios they have acquired. Other companies such as Microsoft have shut down 63% of acquired studios; Ubisoft has closed 62%, Take-Two and Epic Games are at 60%, and Sony is at 58%.
Interestingly, only two acquired studios in the census have been closed between 2019 and 2022, and there have been 71 studio closures in the past 46 months.
What are your thoughts on one-third of all acquired studios since 2000 shutting down? Leave your thoughts down in the comments, and join the official Insider Gaming Discord server.
For more from Insider Gaming, read about Fragmentary Order devs starting their ‘Prime Batch’ program. Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Comments