REACTION - Player First Games getting bought out by Warner Bros. would be exciting if we weren’t living through an employment purge
Nervous mgee.
By Jonathan Garrett
26/07/24
At almost any other point, news that a dedicated team of devs with a flawed but promising title had been given job security and a funding cushion from an enormous publisher would be cause for revelry. But after an endless stream of studio closures and job cuts that have decimated many previously secure corners of the industry, we can’t help but feel somewhat uneven about Player First Games’ acquisition by Warner Bros.
MultiVersus is a hit, and was smartly retired for a minute after its initial unveiling to ensure it relaunched in a better state. There’s still potential hitching issues that need to be addressed, as in game performance is generally quite uneven. But this is a team that deserves a safety net, and there’s clearly enough IP to leverage that’ll keep them in business for some time.
But if recent moves by many big publishers are any indication, no-one is truly safe from the axe, especially at a time when some companies are becoming more risk averse. I sincerely hope that Player First Games become well established within Warner Bros. studio structure, and are given the chance to shine.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
