Tales Of Kenzera: Zau Studio Is Reportedly Facing Layoffs

Maybe launching into gamepass and playstation plus day one had something to do with it, didn't get enough revenue from sales as the majority of players were playing it on a subscription service instead.

Rough to see all of these EA Originals devs continually shedding talent, despite the revenue share reportedly being very generous to developers and most of these games getting decent marketing at the least. Immortals, Rocket Arena, Zau and Knockout City all faced similar issues, while It Takes Two is still breaking milestones and received GOTY awards.

With none of these games being necessarily bad and Take Two’s Private Division seemingly being a skeleton crew, I do fear that more games with the scope of most of these aren’t going to be taken on more in the future, especially with AAA devs greenlighting less games, hoping for bigger swings and Embracer trying to fill that mantle, but ended up going into trashfire mode.

That sucks. Great game and it’s obvious a lot of love was put into creating it. I hope those impacted land on their feet and that the dev is able to keep the doors open and make more games.

A shame really. This is the state of small developers, it’s all or nothing. If they’re a subsidiary then they’re shut down. If they’re independent then the banks come calling.

@UltimateOtaku91 It actually only launched on PS Plus Extra and not GamePass. But got pretty mediocre reviews so who knows what happened sales wise.

Yeah, that tracks

@awp69 Actually, the correct word is decent not mediocre. The game holds a 76 metascore indicting generally favorable reviews.

That is not mediocre.

In the end the developers need to make a good game, this game is just okay, and with the abudant of great indie games, an okay game just doesn't cut it anymore.

Kind of expected this to happen. I've played through the game and it had interesting setting. But gameplay/progress/combat was most generic of generic metroidvanias. It was just so by the numbers, no mystery or discovery challenge. I'm sorry, but in a market full of good metroidvanias, there was just nothing to separate it and make it stick out.

@Fangleman32 76 is more average than decent on metacritic. The videogame average is around 74, and that probably includes some borderline shovelwares

@Fangleman32 You have to think about the many indie games that release and how many of them don't find instant success like other popular titles, many of them end up failing due to a number of reasons. I suggest you look up "Why most indie games fail" on Youtube to get a good idea of how the market works.

Regardless of whatever score it got, not many people are interested in a game like this. Especially, when there are dozens of other indie games that have managed to compete and capture people's attention.

It doesn't matter how much they follow social trends, what specific type of race or gender that have their character be and try to market with that, or how high of a score they've gotten on their DEI index in order to get funding. At the end of the day, the basic consumer is more interest on the merit and uniqueness of a game, and if they see a game that looks like a generic mobile title, they simply ignore it and search for something more interesting.

That's not just me, that's the cold cynical truth of it all.

The money that they used to pay Sweet Baby Inc for pointless consultation should have go to the real development of the game instead -_-

@fenlix If you read about how they tried to get money out of the Black Myth Wukong developer, you start to understand what kind of company they truly are. They can't gaslight us into thinking they're as benevolent as they say they are.

This game has a very A very good art style, In plays just fine. This game is also one of the most bland meh Metroidvanias is I’ve ever played

@fenlix Love the assumptions there. You don't have any facts about the money they spent there or how that consultation even affected the game but "DEI bad". Each conspiracy theory that gets made up about stuff like this is stupider than the last.

While Abubakar Salim thinks people that look like him in the game development industry are expected to "just sit down, be quiet, and just accept the fact that you're outsiders". I wonder how Pete Brisbourne and Jordan Smee feel now that they are outsiders and do not look like Abubakar Salim. I suppose Jordan and Pete were the first in a diverse and equitable range of layoffs that unrepresented and unemployed all groups fairly and evenly. I'm sure Sweet Baby Inc wouldn't want it any other way.

I think with prince of Persia being excellent and this coming near the same time people didn't want to double dip into the same metroidvania formula. Plus the reviews I read all said, "cool world design, bland progression and OK gameplay." With the amount of games out just OK or decent is a tough sell.

@russell-marlow @fenlix If you could link some actual articles and/or interviews rather than waving your hands up in the air, saying "Wololo!" I MIGHT consider the idea that what Sweet Baby does is a negative and not just "They worked on game, game isn't good, thus SBI = Bad"

A game company with layoffs after a project is complete and shipped!? Stop the presses!!

Plus, like, the game was mid'n'stuff, so... that's gonna make it harder to stay afloat.

@russell-marlow Thanks, but I have zero idea what all of that has to do with my original comment. I just said calling the game mediocre when the it got decent reviews is not accurate.

You took it a whole new level. "That's not just me, that's the cold cynical truth of it all."

Dude, I wasn't even being emotional when I made that comment. I just disagreed with someone's label. Good grief man.

@jowy_sw As far as I know, Sweet Baby Inc isn't a charity, so of course they are charging money, and considering they have big companies such as Ubisoft and EA as clients, I doubt they are cheap.

I wonder if this was more corporate penny pinching or if they genuinely can’t afford to keep them?

It’s very hard to tell at the moment

@fenlix Again, you are just assuming. In the end they are also a consulting firm with less than 20 employees. And they are also not the biggest necessity to have for game development.

What you are saying is closer to a conspiracy theory than the truth. The only "fact" you have is "DEI bad".

Got it for free on PS+ and just couldn't get into it. I normally love platformers and especially metroidvanias, but this one didn't click with me. The voice acting is really bad imo and I don't care about the characters. Having a massive backlog already, I just moved on.

@Fangleman32 Past due reply, I'm just saying that's how current video games maintain relevance and how they sell, which is basically how the free markets works.

@NatiaAdamo SBI bad because they coerce companies to give them money. One of the lead people in SBI has publicly said in a GDC conference video if you don't believe me.

But sure, listen to what gaming news articles have to say because if it wasn't clear already that they have a bias and are trying to save face when pressed about serious questions regarding what they do and try to gaslight everyone into thinking they need to be mandatory for every game and don't stir trouble when others disagree with them. I have seen evidence that proves this in tweets and replies with some of the staff.

I honestly trust Youtubers who honestly talk about this rather than a bunch of paid off gaming journalists who will sugar coat anything they write about. Most people have gotten tired of pointless gaming news sites that don't maintain any journalistic integrity, which is why websites like Kotaku are slowly shutting down.

So without trying to sound mean in response to your ignorant comment, please tell me you don't do legit research without actually telling me you don't because it's blatantly obvious where you get your facts from. I at the very least try to look up evidence from different sources that aren't from paid off websites.

@russell-marlow Well then, where IS this evidence? The GDC conference video for example, surely you could at least tell me what the title of it is and the timestamp of the comment made by the executive.

Also, what are the sources that AREN'T from "paid off websites"? You make it seem like it's easier to list off who isn't "paid off" than who are "paid-off".

@NatiaAdamo It's a video from Twitter. I couldn't find anything on Youtube except some reactions, so hope this helps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq86DnmX2xY

Here's the Twitter clip: https://x.com/GamesNosh/status/1764802262017183761

When I say "paid off websites" I mean gaming journos who are covering for SBI because they show way too much good faith in them despite what they claim they do.