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Buzz! developer lays off 20 in rebuilding phase; ex-staff form Full Moon studio
Within in the past two weeks, approximately 20 employees of Relentless Software -- makers of quiz game franchise Buzz! and charming puzzler The Blue Toad Murder Files -- were let go. The developer announced as much this week, with director and co-founder Andrew Eades telling GamesIndustry.biz, "We have recently restructured the company to work on a variety of different projects and different platforms." According to Eades, the layoffs are part of the studio's previously revealed plans to reshape itself into a multiplatform developer. In fact, Relentless is actually hiring new staff as part of its rebuilding effort. "Our real strategy going forward is to change the company from a disc-based, console games company only -- which is what we were; we were only PlayStation 3; we were only console; we were only quiz, in fact. We wanted to change the company to have much more breadth and embrace the new digital platforms we saw coming in," Eades reiterated. Thankfully, just as quickly as the layoffs took place, a new studio was born out of the bad news: Full Moon. Representative Kalvin Lyle told GI.biz that "no animosity" is felt towards Relentless, and that some of the Full Moon staff are even looking forward to working with their old coworkers in the future. "I can't speak for everyone, but I think we're trying to make the best of it," Lyle said. Full Moon will focus on "casual gaming and digital distribution," though no projects are in the works just yet. Beyond news of the restructuring, Relentless announced its next project, an iPhone quiz title (shock!) named Quiz Climber. The game has players answering questions in order to advance up friends' leaderboards, represented by a tree in the game. EA-owned Chillingo will publish the title and says the game will arrive sometime this spring. [Image credit: jaygooby]
'Buzz' dev Relentless expands digital strategy as PlayStation exclusivity deal ends
Relentless Software, the UK-based creator of the Buzz! trivia games for PlayStation platforms, is now free from an exclusivity deal with Sony and looking to pursue a digital distribution strategy that would bring its games to a wide range of internet-connected devices. "That's my aim," co-founder Andrew Eades told GamesIndustry.biz, "to make games for anyone who has a TV." "The whole retail market is becoming very much about pillar titles for a hardcore audience," said Eades, citing Activision's perennial standout Call of Duty and its difficult to match, multimillion dollar budget as good reason to move away form the disc-based business, "so we have to find a new way to get to our audience, and that is digital, episodic, various different platforms, including PlayStation -- that remains our main platform." The platform-exclusivity deal with Sony ended on good terms last year, and Relentless will continue to look to PlayStation Network for long-term revenue in its new, fremium-based Buzz!: Quiz Player iteration, along with ongoing sales of its self-published episodic mystery game, Blue Toad Murder Files, which debuted on PSN in late 2009. (It was released for PC in November.) "The interesting thing we've found out with Blue Toad is that, almost a year after its first launch, we're still selling it in different ways," Eades explained. "We've had a sixty percent uplift in sales through the Advent Calendar Theme Bundle pack. You can't do this on disc." This realization appears to be the guiding light in the studio's new focus to expand its digital distribution efforts to more platforms. Relentless is at work on a new game for next year, to be followed by the launch of a new IP. "PlayStations and Xboxes have a place under many people's TVs, but there's also satellite boxes, Apple TVs, Google TVs, internet-connected TVs," Eades observed. "They all have more and more computational power, and that's all we need -- that processor power to deliver our games and the internet connection to distribute them -- and we're in the living room just as any broadcast TV is." [Image source: Relentless]
Buzz! developer says PlayStation Home is starting to realize its potential
Andrew Eades, executive director of Buzz! developer Relentless Software, recently had a few nonplussed things to say to VideoGamer.com about Sony's virtual social hub, PlayStation Home. Specifically, he remarked, "Home doesn't appeal to me personally that much," adding that he doesn't know why the experience appeals to people. Though he might not be its biggest fan, Eades later added that Home still has room to grow, and that only now is it "realizing its potential." Eades suggested that Sony focus on "[building] the tools to allow people to create content for it," mentioning that his studio has plans for "a game we're considering doing which only could work in Home." It's just a wild guess, but we're picturing a multiplayer trivia title with heavy crossdressing elements.
