Is another crash inbound? Airtight games closes.

Developer Airtight Games has reportedly closed its Redmond office with no prior announcement, suggesting that the studio has ceased operations less than a month after launching its latest multiplatform game Murdered: Soul Suspect.

GeekWire visited the studio's former office yesterday and found a locked door and a sign advertising a "blow out sale" on the equipment within. GeekWire's attempts to contact company representatives were not answered. Joystiq also received no response during our attempts to follow up.

Airtight Games' credits include the Capcom-published action game Dark Void, Ouya roguelike Soul Fjord, and Quantum Conundrum, a first-person puzzler directed by Portal designer Kim Swift. The studio saw a round of layoffs in April, losing 14 employees as part of a "necessary restructuring."

THQ last year, rumors of crytek this year, and while not the best studio in the world another one has bitten the dust.

A comment that came from Joystiqs user obxbum41 caught my eye.

"I have stated this before in other forums, but I think we are heading into the same situation that happened in 1983. The videogame industry is heading for a crash. Too much glut right now and the COD gamers and dudebro gamers will destroy it. Take a look at the top 10 games. There simply is no innovation. It seems like every generation, they keep reinventing the wheel. I have become so bored with what is out now, I simply have gone back a couple of generations because the games now are just rehashes of what was out a few years ago.

Tired of the same game, just sprinkle a dash of something different here and there. Charge $50 for a season pass for rehashed maps. Nickle and diming gamers so they can level up in a game. Gaming is in a sad state of affairs and it doesn't look like it is getting better."

It seems like with what's already going on in generation 8 with every game basically getting a cross platform release and sequel after sequel it seems like the waves may be beginning to tremble.

What do you guys think?

well they didn't really make any popular or well received games.

Shame to hear about airtight games. QC and Murdered are both very interesting games when it comes to premise.

They could've turned out better gameplay-wise though, but the potential was there for them to improve... :(

Yeah it seems they made really "middle-tier" games.

Which are pretty much on their death bed at this point.

Murdered soul suspect was one of the worst games I've ever played.

sure the premise is interesting, but the actual execution is absolutely terrible. It's like a point and click adventure game without any of the thinking involved with ridiculously poor stealth sequences peppered throughout.

Considering all of those games were pretty big flops, I wouldn't consider this any sign of a pending collapse.

Survival of the fittest.

What about sequel after sequel. I mean the guy makes a point. The middle tier game is dead the indie has hit it's stride and there are 6 big publishers now

Activision, Ubisoft ( which keeps all their own games in house), Square, and EA, Sony and MS

I'm not a business guy by any means. But to have incredible inflated publishers pumping out sequel after sequel at this point and indies really closing the gap on what's kind of just reviving the 80's and 90's

Where do we go from there?

Paradox? Sega? 2K games? Stardock?

their games sucked good riddance

@blue_hazy_basic: Forgot a few :P Well I would bundle 2K with just into take two.

Nintendo? Bethesda?

you forgot 2k/rockstar

i think indies are the new mid tier games. i think the industry is better for it. Its better quality and not as expensive

and the quality isnt dipping IMO. if we are looking at re invention, then look towards indies....you want polish, then thats where AAA come in. Wasnt the 80s crash based on poor quality games flooding the market? i dont think its poor quality games that are flooding the market now...just not creative ones.

Failure bad enough to close your business happens in every industry.

Here's the problem with comparing the current market to the 80's crash. It wasn't nearly as mature an industry as it is now. (No I don't mean "age" mature, I mean the actual growth of it as a business) In the 80's you had nowhere near the amount of variety of platforms to do your gaming from and the amount/variety of people is much more diverse. Sure there are certain segments that will fall out of favor, but there are way too many people gaming for the industry to totally collapse.

And there goes my rational. Thanks for helping putting things in perspective guys!

I don't think a full-on crash is happening but I don't like the direction the industry is going. Far too much emphasis on the casual crowd.

I don't think gaming will ever crash. People love games too much.

Dark Void was underrated

Want it or not, indies are a sign that costs must decrease, innovation is still the best selling point, and AAA development should be re-thinked. A game selected to be budgeted so "generously" should be innovative first, and not just be a new number in a series that's already too long. There's no way the industry can be healthy in the long term if everyone plays it safe. But a crash is far-fetched. This is more about quality, diversity and avoiding too much concentration on few publishers and devs than anything else.

I don't think there will ever be another true gaming crash. Gaming is just way too popular and technology capable of playing games is just way too prevalent. I think it would be great if a few of the major publishers would go under because I absolutely loathe their business models, but even that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Such whiny, cry baby BS. The COD and dudebro gamers fault, right. Lets blame a segment of people for liking what they like, outnumbering us therefore companies cater to them. Be proactive in life. You see something, do something. Start making the games the high and mighty gamers want to play. Think about it, you'll be the savior of gaming!!!! In order for the crash to happen people need to stop buying games. That wont be one part of the consumers fault. If a guy only likes sci fi novels is it his fault? People like what they like. Some consumers only want to get a few hours a week online playing COD or Gears, or whatever.

I know they didn't specialise in co-op but damn I loved these guys and I will miss them.

Atleas Cliffy B is finally getting back to work.

If the topic is on that Dev, then the list of games they made is likely the reason why they might be closing.

If topic is on a collapse in the industry? Well, there might be some kind of collapse, but very different from what we saw in 83 (btw: greatly exaggerated that crash was).

There might be something happening, but it will likely only hit a certain segment of the industry Again, and likely the AAA tier one. Meaning that the mid tier we see comming back after Publishers terminated it last gen, will likely make it. It is not that we lack diversity in games, or the quality overall is godaweful, but you could argue that AAA tier games have gone to be lackluster in the actual gameplay department, or they became too expensive to try out new Things, leaving the games Vanilla and full of "same as last year" feelings.

But in that case we could argue that the crash already is happening abeit slowly, most of the Publishers of today are either suffering financially, already closed thier doors, or banking on just a few game series. Dev teams are getting closed down by the month.

A more likely scenario is that the industry and consumer is changing, and the Companies that change with it, survives, the ones that are rigid in the way they think, are dying out.

Heck I am wiling to bet that Capcom is the NeXT that will vanish. Abeit I will see it as a sign of Health, not a crash.

Gaming has much variety now, unlike 80s... Yes, maybe dudebro studio like EA, Activision will take big loss as gamer tire of rehash. Then maybe they will be force to innovate and change practice.

Innovative game like Demon/Dark Soul having greater success in dudebro era as gamer tire of annual military shooter. COD ghost sale was disappointing right?

Crash? The gaming industry is at it's most profitable and is still growing. It's changing, and there are some businesses that can't stay afloat (like in any industry) but to think we are anywhere close to a crash is silly.

How can you say that and ask if a video game crash is inbound?

I can ask that because if you have two complete polar opposite of games.

AAA big budget games and small indie games. When there's no middle to gravitate towards one or the other is going to start to suffer, causing a disruption somewhere.

It's a question that was asked.

"the waves MAY be beginning to tremble."
This doesn't mean HEY GUYS LOOKS SURFS UP THE WAVES ARE HERE, TIME TO RIDE INTO THE APOCALYPSE

I think a lot of studios need to down size, they seem to get into the position where they have one minor success then they start to double down on projects then if something goes wrong they go under.

They should make a game, then only expand once they have one successful title, seems to me a lot of these companies like to gamble rather they produce what sells which seems insane to me, you only gamble what you can afford to lose.

In this case though they just made shit games for too much money.

I don't see how one semi-decent developer closing up shop is an indication of anything.

Well THQ went out last year, and the crytek rumors have been floating around.

So a little more than one semi-decent developer.

Crytek deserves to have something happen to them. Seeing as they employ over 800 people...firing 30-50% of their workforce would be a good start.

I thought crytek does us military contracts???

Dark Void was not up to par at all. Soul Suspect wasn't fun either. I don't think it sold well either, I saw a website sell it for like 10 bucks not long ago. I suppose they've got some talent in there, but it's not enough I guess.

They made games, but nothing that caught the eye of the mass market. Shame, but I'm sure we will all live. Hope they find new jobs in the industry.

The only game that I liked from them was Quantum Conundrum and it was their best game. But the rest of their games wasn't good at all. Can't say I'm surprised that they shut down.

i think indie will replace middle tier. when i look at no mans sky, i dont see a $15 game. i see a $30-40 game.

middle tier was necessary back then, and especially on consoles because indies hasnt exploded as much as it has within the last couple of years.

i dont think you have anything to worry about unless off course you are like sniper4321 and hate anything with a wall or direction in your games lol

Poorly managed companies, that make poor decisions...

THQ invested heavily in HARDWARE - the U-Draw tablet was huge in expediting their demise. If they had just stuck with core IP's instead of shooting for the moon, they would have been fine (or at least probably still in business).

Crytek got in bed with EA, we all know what happens when companies partner up with EA.

Damn, as a passionate gamer, it's always a bit sad to see any game dev company go under. I'm sure the employees will be fine though, hopefully another company will employ them.

No no, I don't. Sometimes you just have to ask, is something happening? A lot of companies do have a high risk high reward treatment in this industry. I mean making a big bet can really hurt you/

What's happening is capitalism.

Seasons must change.

Yeah absolutely. Both games had a lot of promise, and I thought they would've learnt a lot from making them. It's a shame.

The gaming industry is seeing its biggest revenues ever.................

It is for sure changing however and there will be middle devs due to these indie houses creating great initial games.

We do need some new art direction and game play as well.

I don't see a crash coming anytime soon. The market isn't completely oversatuated with crappy games like it was back in 1983. There are a lot more Indie developers now they every there were before. We will still probably look more and more development studios though or they will get bought out by big named companies.

Why do you think innovation will save this industry ? Yes the top 10 games are not innovative but the dudebros are the ones spending money on games, they are the ones sustaining it. And most importantly, if the Industry didn't crash when THQ went down then why would it crash for one humble Studio ?

Video game industry is as likely to crash as the film industry at this point.

Even the best video games were fun for maybe 20 minutes in the early 1980's. It was an easy hobby to drop back then. Video games are way too entertaining now for there to ever be another crash.

I don't think I ever played one of their games, oh well.

Gaming is far too big for an 80's style crash. That quoted post is sure gloomy, but gives absolutely nothing that parallels the 80's crash. And almost all of his points are reflected in the movie, music, and TV industries of today. Lack of innovation and reliance on mega-franchises is all over media these days.

Gaming is changing, but it isn't going anywhere.

crash happen when people lose interest and stop buying game related stuff, not when random company making shitty niche games go out of business.