The games industry has been at a relatively low point recently, with news of big studios like Monolith (Shadow of Mordor) getting shut down and several games losing millions of dollars.
With NetEase recently shutting down Ouka Studios, Visions of Mana co-director Kenji Ozawa has decided to launch his own studio with the intent to run things differently than all the other giant studios that have been getting massive layoffs. The big change? Don’t make the developers suffer for management’s actions.
‘Management Needs to Protect Creators’
One recent observation by insiders regarding the game industry is that developers seem to lose their jobs when management makes big decisions that lead to a game's failure.
When a major project fails, a studio full of developers is shut down, while the bigwigs in management seem to just move from job to job—and they earn much more money.
After NetEase decided to close down Ouka, Ozawa’s co-director Ryosuke Yoshida may have jumped over to Square Enix, but Ozawa himself decided to just launch a new studio with the noble intent to prioritize the developers. Talking to Automaton, Ozawa explains that developers have been made to suffer for someone else’s mistakes regarding these huge layoffs. The site writes:
“Although management is in charge of making high-level decisions (such as approving game projects and making investments), it’s the creators who are held accountable when a management-related mistake occurs, which often results in layoffs. Ozawa stresses that this puts too much responsibility on the shoulders of individual developers, who don’t have a say in companywide decision-making.”
Ozawa’s new Studio Sasanqua is shaking things up by integrating management and development, which are supposed to be separate entities within a company. The studio is said to be funded by Ozawa himself, and he says he’s ready to assume responsibility if a project fails because of poor management. “Management needs to protect creators,” Ozawa says.
The Case of WB Games
One recent company that’s experienced many losses and layoffs is WB Games. This company has canceled Wonder Woman and closed the studio Monolith. It has also shut down MultiVersus and its developer, Player First Games.
While a lot of people thought they had some great potential, industry insiders have said that the blame should likely fall on the shoulders of recently exited WB Games head David Haddad—whose tenure as head has only seen the success of Hogwarts Legacy while the rest of the studios' projects had languished due to trend-chasing—specifically the live-service attempts with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and the recently mentioned MultiVersus.
It’s not clear what the future holds for WB, but a lot of people have lost jobs, and everyone is looking for someone to blame.
Studio Sasanqua is expected to focus on small games first, but its promise to focus on a different dynamic between management and creative should set a standard for other studios moving forward.