Executives: How Hard is it to Stop F***ing Up?

gamesreviews.com:

There was a time when I’d write about games. Now I write about how industry executives keep stepping on rakes.

I should preface this by saying I’m not the multimillionaire executive of a trillion dollar company, so perhaps the line between “making customers happy” and “destroying an entire brand in a fire” is thinner than you might think.

Xbox this week shuttered two popular studios for reasons beyond public comprehension. There are probably reasons, but their marketing policy makes giving a simple answer impossible, and therefore speculation overruns sensible discussion. It’s the latest own goal following the woefully handled announcement that some Xbox games would be coming to other platforms.  That’s after two rounds of layoffs. Oh, and the biggest tech purchase of all time in Activision. Sorry, biggest tech purchase of all time so far. Meanwhile, they’ve yet to have a popularly received major game this generation.

And while that’s the worst of the bunch by a mile, other companies are in no position to gloat. Sony have suffered with a generation of remakes and remasters, coolly received sequels and odd decisions. They’re currently in the midst of their own controversy in which they are choosing not to sell PC games to people who live in places where PSN isn’t available in an effort to bolster their MAUs – nearly 120 countries. That’s after studio closures and lay-offs of their own.

Look to any corner of the industry and you’ll see delays, expense, stresses, cracks and misery. Except for Nintendo, who have all this to look forward to alongside the more powerful Switch 2.

Some of this isn’t the fault of execs. Game development is hard and getting harder. But some of it is baffling.

Listen, the games industry isn’t unique. The entire creative industry has decided creativity is expensive, and that industry can’t support it. If you own a billion dollar IP you’ll probably be safe – PROBABLY – but good luck convincing people to buy books, games, movies or music if