In another sad piece of news for the industry, developer Humanoid Origin has announced its closure. The Canadian studio was formed in 2021 by former BioWare veteran Casey Hudson, and it was working on a "character-driven" AAA sci-fi title.
Previously, Hudson had been the director of the original Mass Effect trilogy — a position that inspired confidence in this new sci-fi project at Humanoid Origin.
Unfortunately, it sounds like the developer couldn't navigate what has been — and continues to be — an incredibly unstable time for the industry.
"Despite efforts to shield the studio from broader challenges in the industry, an unexpected shortfall of funding left us unable to sustain operations," reads a statement from the studio.
"We’re heartbroken that we will not be able to bring our new science-fiction universe to completion. Our main concern at this time however is for our team, and we are committed to supporting them in their transition to new employment," it continues.
Given that Humanoid Origin was pushing for hires just six months ago, this is a brutal turn of events, and highlights just how difficult game development can be. Naturally, we wish everyone at the studio all the best for the future.
Did you have high hopes for Humanoid Origin's sci-fi project? Reach for the stars in the comments section below.
[source linkedin.com]
Comments 15
This sucks and my heart goes out for all who lost their jobs, hoping them all to get back on their feet asap.
We still have exodus to look forward to when it comes to ex bioware devs so I won’t lament this loss on the creative side just yet, but would’ve been nice to see the concept arts turn into something.
I didn't know of its existence.
Sad to hear a AAA character driven game didn't come to fruition.
That’s incredibly disappointing, I reckon that a new sci-fi rpg epic would’ve been a game that appealed to a wide swathe of todays gamers too.
Unfortunate news for sure. Hopefully these folks can land on their feet. Maybe contact some of their old colleagues working Exudus?
Had me worried with the title. I thought it was about Archetype Entertainment and Exodus.
The reality is if you are a proven industry veteran will a killer resume in this day and age you almost have to crowd fund or Kickstart (which I am a big fan of tbh) to have a chance. That isn't a full proof answer...that direction has many caveats. But loans from private equity firms or publishers with shareholders has become a very volatile way to try and survive
Shame, seems all by design.
Why would anyone want to invest in the current video game market when a large portion of the market are super toxic aggressive haters who will campaigns for a games failure and then revel in it? It is not an attractive proposition right now, “gamers” punching themselves in the face everyday, they don’t even get it.
@ChrisDeku Is it a large portion though? Or rather (as with so many other things) a small but very vocal minority?
Same outcome on the morale of developers, arguably.
This is sad news in any case. It just seems like the industry is being ritually gutted at the moment.
@ChrisDeku The people you are describing aren't gamers. They are "activists". No true fan would try to kill the art that they love...
@ChrisDeku I don't think investors care much about what people say online either way. At the end of the day it's about what people buy.
It's an industry with a ton of talented developers but also where people are still playing and enjoying the games they were playing 5 years ago
While the thing to say is that I feel so sorry for everyone involved I don’t really. There highly qualified and will walk in to all kind of well paid tech jobs. There’s been a correction in the last few years as there’s just a ridiculous amount of studios making games
Casey Hudson got lucky with Mass Effect then his ego ruined it. After that he jumped around because people realized he wasn't that good. At this point he's more like a cancer. I hope that now panicking Bioware doesn't bring him back thinking he will make things good. We know what happened to ME3 because of him.
At least Exodus has the proper Bioware vibe from the past.
Removed - inappropriate
After the underperformance of many AAA games in the past couple years, it is reasonable for platform holders and major companies to evaluate what gamers have been buying and what they have been avoiding. It’s just not financially feasible to fund 100-400 million dollar games without a good bet that they will be successful. My guess is that we will see a great number of games currently in development be cancelled, and possibly shuttering of more studios through the next year.
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