Majesco Quits the Major Leagues

Next Generation reports that Majesco, publisher of titles such as Psychonauts and Advent Rising, has quit making AAA titles in favour of value games. From the article: "Company president Jesse Sutton said, 'This has been a difficult year. We entered the premium console market with high expectation for success, but as a result of a variety of factors we were not able to meet our expectations. Recently, we evaluated our product portfolio and have sold or cancelled most of our premium console titles that were scheduled for release in 2006 and beyond.'" Another case of a company making a good game (that no one bought) and then going under. Shame to see them go.

Comments

Question

[Stormwatch]

How much did they advertise those titles?

Re:Question

[Supurcell]

I saw a good number of Psychonauts TV commercials a few months ago. It would seem that that is a big deal considering most games don't get advertised on TV.

Going Under? That's not fair

[Supurcell]

Hey, maybe they will continue to produce some decent games. Just because they are going to be spending less money developing their games doesn't mean they will be going under. I think Serious Sam proved that a budget game doesn't have to suck, while it was just a shooting gallery they did have co-op, which seems to be a largely ignored feature these days.

Maker?

[transiit]

Majesco didn't make Psychonauts, Double Fine did.

Majesco produced it as in "published/distributed" it.

So I wouldn't worry too much about the loss of creative content to the industry, worry more about smaller studios having one less outlet to get their games out to a wider audience.

Not that big of a loss

[thegamebiz]

Majesco only published Psychonauts. Double Fine Productions developed Psychonauts, and I'm sure any game Tim Schafer is behind will find a home at some publisher. The other games they did publish weren't spectacular. Advent Rising was even pretty bad -- ambitious and had potential -- but was overall pretty bad.

Plus they only published that game as well, in fact the most recent game they developed was Texas Hold 'Em for the Nintendo DS. Here's they're development history as well as the link to their entire portfolio.

Per IGN.com:

Games Developed

• Game Boy Advance

Cartoon Network Speedway/Cartoon Network Block Party Double Game Pack
F/A 18 Super Hornet
GBA Video: Cartoon Network Collection Volume 1
GBA Video: Codename: Kids Next Door Volume 1
GBA Video: Disney Channel Collection Volume 1
GBA Video: Disney Channel Collection Volume 2
GBA Video: Dora the Explorer Volume 1
GBA Video: Nicktoons Collection Volume 1
GBA Video: SpongeBob SquarePants Volume 2
GBA Video: SpongeBob SquarePants Volume 3
GBA Video: Strawberry Shortcake Volume 1
GBA Video: Yu-Gi-Oh! Volume 1
Golden Nugget Casino
Monster Trucks/Quad Desert Fury Double Game Pack
Operation Armored Liberty
Texas Hold 'Em Poker/Golden Nugget Casino Double Game Pack

• Game Boy Color

Battleship
Frogger 2
Galaga
Galaxian
Missile Command
Monopoly
NASCAR Heat
Q*Bert
Super Breakout
Tom and Jerry

• Nintendo DS

Golden Nugget Casino DS
Texas Hold 'Em Poker

• PC

Drake

• Xbox

Ultra Bust-A-Move

Full Company Profile and Games Published/Developed

Re: Not that big of a loss

[MrJack5304]

Double Fine Productions developed Psychonauts, and I'm sure any game Tim Schafer is behind will find a home at some publisher.

If I remember correctly, Tim Schafer got dumped by Microsoft and tried to find a home for Psychonauts and noone wanted to take a risk on it. Pyschonauts almost didn't see the light of day and Majesco came to the rescue.

Personally I worry that there aren't going to be smaller publishers looking to take a risk on games like this in the future and will all ultimately fall out of the market. It is frightening to think that EA and bigger publishers would sooner put out a crapass, cookie-cutter movie based game than something as amazing as Psychonauts.

Re: Not that big of a loss

[despisethesun]

Thanks for the link, I figured they were behind Nanostray. That was a good game but way too short.

Also, I wonder if this means that A Boy and His Blob is cancelled. I was looking forward to it.

Budget games

[Chuck Chunder]

I remember back when full price games for my Commodore 64 cost 10 pounds but you could get budget games for 1.99 which were often just as much fun (if not more) than full price ones.

No... this can't be!

[Channard]

Where am I supposed to get my huge-busted vampiric redheaded heroine fix now?

Re:No... this can't be!

[Master Asia]

Weeeeell, there is this movie...with a reasonably-busted redhead, made by this german doctor....

Shame to see them go?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zonk, have you heard of Majesco? They are a *huge* publisher. They have published hundreds of value titles. They put their toe in the water with AAA and realized it's a mug's game. They're not going anywhere. They've just decided to focus on their core competences.

Re:Shame to see them go?

[gdulli]

In "gaming "journalism"", a company not making the kind of titles you respect means they've "gone under" or something.

Games are too expensive

[Threni]

Make'm the same cost as music CDs and I'll buy one or two a month. Make them £35-50 and I'll buy maybe a couple a year and spend the rest of my playing time on my current console games, MAME etc.

Re:Games are too expensive

[Raenex]

Games are too expensive, and that is why renting is a good option. Not sure about the UK(?), but there are a ton of online rental sites in the US.

I heard their ads on the alternative radio station

[Blackwulf]

I'd be driving home during the afternoon rush hour and I heard several ads, both prerecorded and read by the DJ, for both Advent Rising and Psychonauts, Majesco's recent "AAA titles". I tend to never, ever hear about video games on that station.

Their downfall was definately not their lack of advertising.

Ads

[randomizer9]

I remember seeing quite a few full-page ads in EGM for Psychonauts, as well as some TV commercials on G4. I even have a deck of Psychonauts playing cards. I'd say the marketing was there, it was just another one of those Great Games That Nobody Played.

Bastard

[MrCopilot]

Uwe Boll claims another victim.