Square Enix snuffs out Luminous, the studio behind Forspoken

pcgamer.com:

Luminous Productions, the team behind this year's powerfully middling Forspoken, is going quietly into that good night. In a tweet posted yesterday, the studio announced that, «Beginning on May 1,» it would «join Square Enix to deliver new, innovative gaming experiences across the globe». In other words, it's being folded into its parent company and ceasing to exist as a separate entity.

An Update from Luminous Productions pic.twitter.com/fbDENflRhjFebruary 28, 2023

In the two months between now and May 1, Luminous says it'll be «entirely focused on Forspoken,» and that it's «currently working on the previously announced patch to address overall game performance». Given that some of Forspoken's previous patches(opens in new tab) didn't really do much to optimise the game for some players, we'd better hope this last one is a doozy. The studio also said that Forspoken's upcoming DLC—In Tanta We Trust—remains «on track for release this summer».

For obvious reasons, Luminous tries to present this as a positive move for the company, but there's a trace of something elegiac in its released statement. When Luminous was established, the announcement reads, "[Its] vision was to make AAA games that fused technology and artistry to deliver completely new play experiences. Having the chance to do just that has been a dream come true". The company probably won't get the chance to try its hand at a Forspoken 2 for a long time yet, if ever.

Square Enix said the decision was about «further [bolstering] the competitive prowess of the Group’s development studios» in its own announcement of the merger(opens in new tab), but it's hard not to see this as driven by the muted response to Forspoken, which drew a large shrug of the shoulders