Whither the Publishers? (or Publishers Wither)
I mentioned in my new year's post that I saw three very ominous trends forming in 2008 that could seriously jeopardize the future of the genre. Not "kill" it... let's for once abandon the overused rhetoric about ever being dead. But you don't need to be dead to be suffering. Badly. And without some unforeseen boons in the coming months, that could very well be what we're facing. Of course, the troubling economic climate has many predicting doom and gloom on all fronts, but since the gaming industry is supposedly one of the few that's recession-proof, or at least recession-resistant, such financial uncertainty shouldn't be crippling in and of itself. In conjunction with other trends, however, the outlook becomes pretty bleak.
I'll explore the trends one by one in separate blogs, but for today the topic is: the sudden dearth of North American publishers.
For several years now, the three biggest North American publishers have been The Adventure Company, Lighthouse Interactive, and Got Game Entertainment. All three are still around, and will no doubt continue to publish adventures in 2009 and beyond. So far so good, but the first sign of trouble is the list of original adventures that the three companies combined have announced for the year to date:
Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
That's it. One game. One localized adventure (from Lighthouse) that's already been significantly delayed. Now, any or all of the companies could announce a slew of new adventures any day, and I'm not professing to know otherwise. I'm merely observing how unusual it is for all three not to have at least a few games on the visible horizon between them. Of the three, I have the least concern about Got Game. As a smaller company, it's been more inclined to function game-to-game over the years, never looking too far ahead but always having something on the go or in the works. Should Got Game unveil a new project any time soon, it'd be business as usual for them.
It's much stranger for TAC and Lighthouse to have such a bare (forecast) schedule for such an extended period. Having just published the high-profile A Vampyre Story over the Christmas season, perhaps TAC was simply pouring all its energy into its current properties before gearing up for an as-yet-unrevealed next wave. Perhaps. Or perhaps it's a sign of a company that's limiting its involvement. Last year was also the first in four that the company didn't produce a new Agatha Christie adventure, though the debut of the Hardy Boys series makes that a wash. Really it's been hard to get a read on TAC since DreamCatcher became part of the "JoWood Group". The merger/acquisition was made to solidify the strengths of both companies in each other's territories, but even that has proven to be a shaky proposition. Anyone know what happened to Everlight in the UK after its announcement of imminent release? Neither do we. Certainly JoWood's influence has done nothing to strengthen the genre's position in North America. But at least we can get the Gothic RPGs rebundled.
Lighthouse, meanwhile, made a big splash in the North American market not long ago and seemed poised to be a major genre player, but all of its recent activity has been in Europe. While that's great for Europe, it nevertheless represents a clear shift of focus. Is it any coincidence that the company was purchased by SilverBirch this year? It seems ironic that a buyout from a Canadian company would lead to reduced North American activity, but the results speak for themselves, and at least one prominent adventure proponent based in North America is no longer with the company. Have we seen the last of Lighthouse on this side of the ocean? Hard to say, but they certainly don't appear to be the genre champion they did so very recently.
But perhaps there are new champions to fill the void, no? Indeed, the re-emergence of Microïds as a significant contributor is one of the more promising signs in recent years. However, the jury is still out on its North American distribution prospects after its initial deal with Encore expires with the release of Still Life 2. Encore signed four titles that have been marketed aggressively as its "Mystery Adventure Games" series, with only one left to come. After that? Who knows. Probably not even Microïds or Encore at this point.
Other scheduling holes have been filled by various publishers over the years, from Viva to Strategy First to Aspyr. The concern is, none of them ever seem to come back for more, and at some point the well is going to run dry. One of the other genre mainstays, Tri Synergy, was bitten hard by the Limbo of the Lost plagiarism scandal, and has since failed to release one of its two planned adventures.
Now, don't get me wrong: North America is far from the be-all and end-all of the genre's success. But despite the disappointingly small audience, it's still ahead of the UK for English language distributors, and therein lies the trouble. Without at least North America secured as a viable market, we can probably kiss prospective localization efforts goodbye. Few publishers or indie developers will foot the bill for English versions of games no one will sell. So Blonde and Simon the Sorcerer 4 are recent but rare examples of those that have indeed released in the UK but not in North America, but anyone thinking that Eidos and Playlogic are going to carry the genre for long had better think again.
Digital distribution remains a ray of hope, if a somewhat divisive one. It's made great strides in a short time, but it's still in its infancy and clearly experiencing some growing pains. Regardless, that alone may not be enough to atone completely for the disappearance of physical product on store shelves, so the overall problem remains.
For now we can still look at the Hype-o-Meter and be enthused at the prospects. But I'll admit, no longer do I feel confident that we'll even see all ten at any given time. Oh, they'll be released in their native territories, but I suspect that more and more games will never reach English markets. Strictly off the top of my head, Tony Tough 2, Tanita, Goin' Downtown, Treasure Island, Tale of a Hero, Mozart, Edna & Harvey, and Ankh 3 are all well overdue, and smart money says some never make it. Will there be more, including those we currently take for granted?
So that's trend number one. Don't look now, but there are two more yet to come.
This article originally appeared in Adventure Gamers' now-defunct blog.
