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

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.

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.

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.