It’s easy to forget sometimes that video games are a business, as well as a means of artistic expression and recreation. Even developers like Cave, whose sterling reputation is due almost entirely to its long-time devotion to the incredibly esoteric bullet-hell genre, have to make tough decisions in order to continue existing.
The Deathsmiles developer’s fiscal outlook isn’t shaping up to be quite what it had expected, and as a result the company will be placing unknown projects on hold in order to devote more resources to social gaming, Andriasang reports.
Originally expecting to earn ¥1.4 billion ($18.9 million) in sales between June 1 and November 30 2011, the company now anticipates earnings of ¥1.3 billion ($16.8 million), which has prompted Cave to change its forecasted operating gain of ¥10 million to an operating loss of ¥31 million for the period. Operational earnings for the entire year were lowered from ¥310 million to ¥50 million.
In a nutshell, people aren’t buying as many infuriatingly difficult games as expected, which is surprising considering how popular masochism has become recently.
Cave to put projects on hold, refocus on social gaming originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
