Farewell to an Australian Games Industry Icon

7Dec/075

Farewell to an Australian Games Industry Icon

I received a bit of sad news from "He who must not be named" this morning. It appears that Aussie game developer Auran are struggling to stay afloat, and will most likely close. This isn't good news for the Aussie contingent of the games industry, and is an indication of how cut-throat the industry can be.

But let's be honest, while it's sad to hear that they're in strife, it isn't really a surprise.

Before I went to the UK for a couple of years (partly to get a foot in the door of the games industry) I had contacted Auran many times. A few times I had been told that I was going to have an interview for a programming position. This would be followed up with them putting recruitment on hold while the company restructures and sorts itself out. Afterwards, they decide not to take on anyone without any experience in the industry. It was a frustrating time for me as a budding game developer, but I took it on the chin.

Having an interest in the games industry, I continued to monitor everything that happened to the Australian games companies. One thing that was almost constant was that Auran were always struggling to come up with good titles, and they consistanly under-delivered. Their titles (such as Trainz) were just plain boring. The quality was sub-standard. They shipped their titles late. These were clear signs that they were struggling.

There were also evidence that grants from the government were also helping them stay alive - another sign of desparation. Obviously the funds from the sales of the games weren't enough to sustain them.

Of course, I am partially speculating I have never worked for Auran, but from the rumblings around the web and their recent history it's pretty easy to conclude that all wasn't well.

Then they released Fury, an all-singing all-dancing MMO. It hasn't really been received well. Due to its poor performance, Auran are telling its employees to start looking for other work. It's amazing that a company that came out with something as amazing as Dark Reign back in 1997 could end up in this situation.

So, sad I am to see it happen. Surprised, I am not. If anything, I am surprised that they have managed to last so long in an industry which is incredibly unforgiving. One amazing game isn't enough to keep a game company alive.

I'm also surprised to see people comment on stories like this and say things like:

Your studio releases one sub-par game and you're looking for another job... which using means moving halfway across the country or to another country entirely.

One sub-par game? Come on. What about Trainz Classics, Trainz Driver, Trains 2004/2006? They all sucked. Bridge IT had potential, but again never really gained a foothold. Other than Dark Reign, you can't really say much for Auran's portfolio.

As a parting note, I'd like to send out a (potentially harsh) shot to the Australian games industry: It's time to raise the bar! Let's focus on game quality. Let's stop pretending that we're playing with the big boys when we're not. We've got some of the brightest minds in the industry working for us, and some amazing gaming talent out there. We can do so much more than we're currenlty doing. A few one-hit-wonders isn't convincing enough! If we're going to stay alive in this industry we have no choice.

All flames welcome

PS. Before you ask, no I don't currently work in the games industry

Filed under: Being in the Industry, Games Leave a comment

OJ

There's no doubt that Auran's lifespan was increased because of the Gov. support. They're not the only ones who have been supported though. Krome studios got a bit of an injection of cash a while ago, and I don't think it was the only one. Granted, they produced a few more titles that actually sold, but it's still surprising that they got the cash when other smaller studios could have been better off with it (such as the underrated Halfbrick Studios).

There's no doubt that the industry here has to lift it's game (pun intended).
Vault-Co

Auran. Don't even get me started.

I can't believe they lasted that long. That's the real miracle.

Australians always jump the gun. Before they act like big time developers (whatever that means) they first need to put out decent games.

The Queensland public sector has poured countless millions of dollars into Auran long after they ceased making a profit. Many, many, many years ago. Auran hasn't been anything but a socialist playschool for at least eight years.
OJ

This is another interesting problem mate. The industry is in a sticky spot. Part of the reason that so many developers go under is because the cost of building games is so high, and yet the returns are so low. This is partly because of the distribution model and partly because the publishers take a huge chunk of the income.

If game developers could cut out either of these two middle-men they'd end up seeing a lot more income and hence the risk of poor sales wouldn't quite hurt them so much. Using things like Steam would help, but that doesn't really cut it for console games which have to be fried to discs and shoved on a shelf. With larger companies pre-purchasing shelf space in the game shops (such as EB games and Wal-mart) the little players have no chance of getting their kit on the shelves unless they go through those publishers as well. The result is a huge cut in their income.

How do you solve it? Well, game companies are scared of creating new IP for fear of it not selling. Instead they're bleeding franchises dry because they "know" they'll get sales. We need more new IP, we need games at a lower cost which increases the appeal for more people and hence more people will buy them. We need the cost of consoles to come down. We need game companies to realise that a 50-hour epic FPS with the latest and greatest graphics isn't required for the game to be a hit. Companies would be able to produce a lot more games for a smaller cost if they stopped trying to produce a Lord-of-the-Rings-sized title every time they fired up their compiler/modeller.

Take a look at Rag Doll Kung Fu and Geometry Wars. They were both huge hits, and yet were nowhere near the size of titles such as Assassin's Creed.

Anyhooo, regardless of my views, I can't see anything changing. It's a shame, but it's the way it is. It just baffles me that this can happen in an industry which out-performs the box office every year.
Keef

I mean more recently than the car industry. Should really have swapped those two paragraphs round...
Keef

It is a great shame. It's happened in virtually every industry though if you think about it.

What about the old days of the car industry? There used to be dozens of UK companies producing vehicles (hundreds around the world), and over the decades they all closed or bought up until nearly every car built today is made by about half a dozen companies.

The same thing seems to be happening in games. There used to be oodles of companies in the UK making games and in this very decade, most of them have shut down, leaving just the big boys and a few struggling smaller companies left.

I guess more recently, the same thing happened with the dotcom boom. Typical boom-bust mechanics of economics.

Still, a great shame for the people involved. I can understand to some extent why the quality would have been lower as they're trying desperately to hit publisher deadlines to keep the paycheques coming in. Perhaps standing up to the publishers and saying "No way dudes, this ain't getting done this year to any kind of quaility" might be the way, but I can see that just ends up with the contract going elsewhere.

Rock Hard place

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