How Mission Creep Killed a Gaming Studio

Nerval's Lobster writes: Over at Kotaku, there's an interesting story about the reported demise of Darkside Game Studios, a game-development firm that thought it finally had a shot at the big time only to collapse once its project requirements spun out of control. Darkside got a chance to show off its own stuff with a proposed remake of Phantom Dust, an action-strategy game that became something of a cult favorite. Microsoft, which offered Darkside the budget to make the game, had a very specific list of requirements for the actual gameplay. The problem, as Kotaku describes, is those requirements shifted after the project was well underway. Darkside needed more developers, artists, and other skilled tech pros to finish the game with its expanded requirements, but (anonymous sources claimed) Microsoft refused to offer up more money to actually hire the necessary people. As a result, the game's development imploded, reportedly followed by the studio. What's the lesson in all this? It's one of the oldest in the book: Escalating and unanticipated requirements, especially without added budget to meet those requirements, can have devastating effects on both a project and the larger software company.

Comments

I blame sales

[Anonymous Coward]

In my years of Software Dev, the pressure has always been coming from sales. They push and push for new features, some go so far as to go around the Software Director and try and get the developers to sneak in features as a favor to them. In my last job, it was so ridiculous that I watched the Sales Director actually convince the CEO that she could do a better job than the Software Dev Dir. She literally stole the project from IT so Sales could have whatever they asked for. Of course, it didn't quite work out for her.

In a company focused on IT and software, I expect better from upper management to control their managers and directors from making these classic mistakes. In smaller companies where IT is a support, I can understand when CEOs and Execs who don't know IT make the mistake over and over again.