All employees of Annapurna Interactive (Stray, Outer Wilds) resign en masse after requesting to stay independent and owner said No.
Looks like it's actually the workers who bring value, and not the owner.
Funny how that works.
I mean, I'm not sure how well this particular case will prove that point. They are a publisher and they've (at least so far) insisted that they will rehire and honour existing contracts. I'm not an expert in the field but I don't see this hugely impacting any upcoming games' quality.
Really not a great example for that.
This is the equivalent of a salesperson leaving the company because their branch was getting made redundant. And the parent company said that all former customers will know who to send emails to imminently (basically the other branch). So basically Michael Scott made a big deal about leaving and everyone was immediately told to just email Jim and Dwight instead.
Time will tell what happens to The 25 People Formerly Known As API. But considering that publishing inherently requires a large source of cash...
If this team reformed under a new brand they would have the proven track record and clout in the industry to score a lot of funding money - assuming they didn't just want to self-fund on loan (and a bank would likely be pretty receptive to that).
All the value (outside of the IP held by the company) is in the people that resigned. This is an excellent move and I hope more employees feel empowered to make moves like this to ensure an equitable share in decision making and revenue distribution.
People don't leave good work environments en masse. Good for them for standing up for what they believe in.
Billionaires screwing everything up yet again? Color me surprised.
Publisher of Stray and outer wilds
Finally the owner who thinks he runs the company can run the company and get the job done way better than anyone else.
So can they now just get together and open a new studio and work the same as if nothing changed?
They were a publisher, not a game studio. They will not be able to work as if nothing changed because they will not have the same contracts to work with.
You got a lot of automatic down votes in the thread because too many people haven't reasoned it out that they didn't make the games. They only published the games other companies/studios made.
If they have the capital/loaned the capital, and have the willingness to, yes.
Good for them.
Yikes. Doesn’t looks good for the Remedy collab.