The story of the game makes way more sense now. A group of friends doing their best to stay positive and achieve their goals in the face of inevitable death…
Every one of the employees that were let go should band together and start their own studio, and kickstart a project while the iron is hot with so many fans enjoying the gem they put together.
Exactly, so many new studios are being made with successful projects. I think there is a new wave of being a more independent creator in the game space.
Or just ask nintendo to allow them to make Mana-style games for the switch 2. (do this now while their skills are still fresh instead of rusty) Similar to how Platinum was able to save Bayonetta by getting nintendo to publish the second and third games. This will give nintendo switch 2 more advantage since many people feel the tone of this game suits the console. At the end of the day: we just want the developers to be treated well.
@@hungerxhunger2548 bummer. Spiritual successor to the Mana games then? (sort of like how Fallout games were spiritual successor to the Wasteland games)
This is unfortunately, common practice in the gaming industry as a whole, especially if they're publicly traded on the stock market. Devs, especially the people at the bottom of totem pole that make everything like artists, animators, programmers...etc; they're the first on the chopping block, with only the execs at the top or game design leads who oversee a team usually staying, if they're lucky. We're nothing more than a monkey with a typewriter or wrench to them, who is then thrown back out into the wild when they're done with us. It's even worse if you're a "contractor", a.k.a. full-time temporary employees who don't get any health/dental benefits; they usually make up the majority of the team and bounce around from studio to studio in between projects, just to make ends meet. The game dev industry is a meat grinder, and it's devs are the meat for the investor vultures. It's one of the main reasons why I left the whole game dev industry after a decade of being a 3D modeler. The other reasons besides zero job stability were shit pay, and long-ass hours to meet milestones and deadlines. I developed an energy drink addiction drinking two cans a day from that lifestyle, after being only a coffee drinker (one small cup per day). And also zero social life because you could be working for 72 hours straight, up to 100 hours per week. Some of my former colleagues even slept under their desk overnight.
I think nintendo should headhunt the talent and get them to make switch exclives which have the Mana formula. Like how Sony got From Software to make Bloodbourne for them. Nintendo then eventually works out more deal with them if the game does well. (give them some job stability)
The story had been updated with the following: "According to Bloomberg writer Takashi Mochizuki, NetEase Games has been cutting staff at Ouka Studios since the spring." So these devs were actually in the process of being gutted well before the game release. It's a shame because this is the most joyful, comfy and fun experience I have had with a game so far this year and I'm only three hours in. I hope everyone responsible has an opportunity to contribute to a follow-up. And I'm confident that there will be a follow-up; the Steam peak number of players is already at 4,500 and it's not even the weekend. Trials peaked just shy of 6,800 and did well enough across all platforms to justify this game...I also suspect that Visions will be a launch title for Switch 2, which would further boost sales, but that's just speculation.
Layoffs happen, but that is entirely different from the entire studio being gutted and reduced to ash the same day your four year project finishes. There is no excusing it. But I like to think some of them saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out.
The game being on Switch 2 is a pretty good guess. Not that the Switch couldn't handle but, damn this deserves to look this good. I'm very sure even Nintendo is willing to publish the game themselves on the Switch 2.
@@jimcarrey2866 Nintendo should give the developers a job to make Mana spiritual successor. Make it exclusive. The reputation they got making this title will help them amoung Mana fans. Nintendo is in the game industry for the long term. They need more JRPG guys. Maybe even give them a chance to make a Zelda RPG. (using characters from the Zelda franchise and placing them in a new world)
Wow. The game is awesome too. Been playing it all day. The games industry, mainly publishers, is ridiculously vicious to the people that pour their sweat and blood into creating the games we play.
I bought my copy at full price to support these guys. Such a bad timing eh? As I said: nintendo should head hunt the talent behind this and get them making some switch 2 Mana spiritual sucessor where nintendo control the IP. (similar to how they got Bayonetta 2 and 3 under their stable of games after paying for the publishing for platinum) I don't think nintendo will cave into woke agenda too so they have good reputation amoung japnese gamers. (unlike Sony)
First video of yours that I've stumbled upon. Impressed by the historical context you've shown with regard to this very sad story. Earned my subscription without a doubt.
This is the perfect corporate plan. Release a great game and fire the dev team. Don't need to pay to keep the Devs around while taking all of the money the game brings in.
Not so perfect though. If they think developers are so expendable, you are bleeding out your talent. Those talents may one day united and make greater product then you which eventually kill your soulless corp.
@@fishyfinthing8854 business owners don't care. They are getting a quick return in their investment and are able to then invest into more safer areas. Let's not forget developers are not without blame for failure of blame for bad games. We've seen a lot of bad games being released after going through 5 years or longer dev.
I’m a Chinese, I am a fan of hardcore action games , I played all souls games. I didn’t purchase Wukong yet, but I bought Visions of Mana on launch and loving it. Just saying , their data isn’t everything.
I agree with you, people shouldn't boycott this game to avoid netease, they should buy it to show Square Enix the support that they deserve and hopefully they help out that studio. People should boycott marvel rivals if anything to really show netease that they're jerks and screw them over for doing this
Agreed, as a Marvel Fan its not such a hard choice to boycott Marvel Rivals, especially because its entirely made by NetEase, so a sure fire Boycott. I wonder what games they also have, i guess a boycott of every game they make would also show a good statement of with great power comes great responsiblity and choice do have consequences. Oh well, they do not even have good games, well easy boycott.
I feel sorry for them as a Mana series fanboy that I am. But I worked as engineer contractor and there's some projects that are covered under project PO. Once that project is completed, I should look for another PO, if no other project appears, I would be fired or sent to home until new project PO is requested
There was a pod cast recently were a developer said that ceo and parent company would let people go just to boost profit margins to satisfy share holders.
I just purchased the game and I'm having a blast. I loved the series since Secret of Mana and this is a worthy addition to the franchise. And I'm hearing this NOW?!
Glad to find your channel and some mana love. Beautiful series. Companies and investors keep putting money first. I wonder if we will get to an age where we don't need money.
I am also so angry to hear this, I saw this news earlier today while just casually looking for general Mana lore stuff while playing through VoM. I pre-ordered VoM, I pre-ordered the Trials of Mana remake and bought the Switch collection, I've bought FFA, Sword of Mana, Adevntures of Mana, and even Secret of Mana on mobile, Children of Mana on DS, Dawn of Mana on PS2. And yet, even trying to "vote with my wallet" of what I want to see more of these games don't even get a chance to live. What are they even judging the shut down on? Preorders? Day one sales? UGH. I'm basically just feeling like not buying any more Square Enix stuff anymore. Wasn't interested in FF16. Canceled my FFXIV sub after the latest expansion because it seemed so "copy-paste"d. And they can't even keep Mana stuff alive... If they wanted tons of sales maybe they should have gotten a big studio and spent more money on making something AAA, but I don't want AAA Mana, I'm fine with B-game Mana. But they can't expect B-game Mana to make AAA-game money. AGH. I'm just ranting now lol. Sorry!!
AND! I really enjoyed Forspoken! And its DLC! And I'm really disappointed that that studio was closed, too. It was clear that Forspoken's release was rushed because the ending ended up being like a walk around narration thing to tie up everything. What's the point of even making games if they're not going to be letting finished products ship, and then immediately shutting down the company? Feels like there could be an easier way. -_-
Worth mentioning that Square-Enix aren't the ones making this decision. They're the publisher, but not the parent company deciding to close the studio.
I, too, loved forspoken. I am on the front lines of the forspoken defense force 😅 And yeah, XIV is a whole other problem. I thought Visions was gonna be SqEx's first love bomb with a much bigger budget for Mana, and while it WAS bigger, it still doesn't seem to be quite where I thought it would be. Visions is still likely my personal GotY though. I hope people still support it through all this nonsense
@@SolaceAndDread After that Forspoken DLC I wanted to know more about the world! And the gameplay was a lot of fun. I am enjoying VoM, I'll probably end up running through it a bunch of times like I did with the Trials of Mana remake. I'm on Chapter 5 so far.
I bought Trials recently, bc I thought it looked amazing, to prepare for Visions. So it'd probably take me a couple of months t buy Visions. It doesn't matter anymore but, I'll buy it this weekend to show support. This game looks twice as better than Trials.
Didn't even know about this, didn't even expect it. Had a friend telling me about how good the mana series is and how excited they are to play this. I was thinking about picking it up, but now I will be picking it up eventually.
I intend to pick up Visions of Mana digitally during the holiday season with my Christmas Steam money this year that I'm gifted by my family each year during both said Holiday Season alongside also on my birthday during the spring with birthday Steam money.
Damn I been playing this since it released and did not know this I feel for those who got booted an hope and wish nothing but the best for those devs um about 20hrs into visions of mana and im having a blast playing this
I hope the Visions of Mana Dev's can find someone that's more respectful to them, I bought the game and I'm loving every single second, it's an absolutely incredible adventure with great combat and gameplay and has become quite dear to my heart, there's so much love put into this game
I was considering buying this game to support a game that looks like it was not for the modern audience for once, even though I'm not in the market for a new game right now due to lack of free time. However after hearing they shut down the studio, I'll just wait until I have time or it's on sale.
OMG,I was so looking forward to this game. This seems odd, I am sad! China is struggling, lots of outside businesses leaving the country. A lot of people out of work.
One door closing means another door opens. I have faith that good talents will always be sought after. They will find another place where they are appreciated
I was about to buy this game today because I'm a fan of secret of Mana, but learned about the developers getting shut down. I still want to play this, but will wait until it's on sale at a big discount instead because they shut down the developers.
What?!?!?!? The game is freaking amazing!!!! Why they shutting down!?!? I can't believe this! This is an outrage! Why would they shut down a good studio?! Even if you succeed, you still fail!. That's messed up!
Apparently it might be because of the success of wukong. Chinese companies are realizing they don't need to export themselves to make games for other companies, they can just make their own games with chinese devs in china. So all the chinese companies (netease, tencent etc.) are getting out of japan and closing shop to build studios in china to make AAA games. That also means companies like square enix won't be able to outsource games anymore to chinese people.
Im 99.9% convinced this game will be a launch title for the Switch 2. Its only 34gb on my PS5. So that tells me theres lots of compression techniques being used. Im ony an hour and a half in, and the art so far is beautiful. I would think the data would be at least 50gb+. They shrunk it down for the Switch 2.
Well i have 20 hours and this game is very disappointing compared trails of mana, the best part this game is the begging after you progress the story gets worst, specifically the combat system feels very auto combat and magic power pollution on the screen, horrible rendering graphics cut scenes and frame rate problems and 3 crashes.
I like the Game, in my opinion it catches the arts of Mana and I’m enjoying the gameplay, have already dropped about 70 hrs, but I’m playing on Hard Mode.
I know it won't happen, but in an ideal world I wish SquareEnix would save the studio to continue working in the series. This game was definitely a step in the right direction...
@Sotsu they got paid up to this point, but instead of starting a new project, the are rewarded with unemployment. I am pretty sure this is a Japanese studio, so that is life ending in the current job market.
Honestly, irs not bad, I mean would you rather be making a dud game Concord for 8 years, fail, or finish a game you enjoyed, move on to new game, better company.
I was so sure that this would get a Switch 2 release. Now it sounds like it will be lucky to receive post-launch support. I'm still happy to have bought and played the game but I'm saddened by the news.
we all know why the studio was closed. its because the director said he wouldn't make the game for a modern audience in mind and targets fans of the series instead.
This is just sad man. This is my first Mana game and it's, not joking, the best game I've played this year. I bought it after playing the demo. Daaaamn.
Makes me even more pissed. Square Enix is also shit. They did this to star ocean divine force. They prepared shipping my CE of this game last week and spent until today to ship. I wont even be able to play this game until wednesday. And i bought a CE! Purchased day of announcement too. I feel the gaming industry is crumbling
And to caveat one point tho, like many people have said i wish nintendo gobbled this company up like the did with monolith soft. Nintendo would take better care of them than SE. Theyve let monolith soft make 4 beautiful games after SE and bandai namco fucked them over after gears and saga. If ouka stuido got assimilated into nintendo i can see switch 2 having xeno and mana and that would be great imo
My only anti-Nintendo sentiment is that this game wouldn't exist the way it does now if they had to take switch hardware into consideration. But after switch 2 releases I'll feel similar to how you do, provided it's near the same level of strength as current gen
@@JimC1984 SE nothing to do with Netease beyond contracting a studio they own to make a game. That's it. Nothing you said makes sense that includes SE screwing over Monolilith who didn't even exist as studio until a few of the team members when there. Neoither SE or Bandai shut them down like what is happening here
I'm worried having no Switch version is going to hurt this game. All my friends that i got interested are waiting on a "Switch 2 version" and it's a sentiment i see in discussions about this game a lot. A very significant portion of Trials of Manas sales were on Switch too, that's probably where a lot of the people that would have bought this are. For the record i bought it on Steam and will double dip if a Switch 2 version ever came out just to have a physical cart. I see mostly praise for this game and i hope it'll be a cult hit that gathers steam over time at least.
Wait, I'm confused ! Isn't Mana a Square Enix IP ? What does NetEase come to do in this ? Are they contracted by Square, and in turns subcontracted Studio Ouka to develop the game ? And how do we show respect to studio Ouka while burning down everything at NetEase ? Asking for a friend.
@@jjstarrprod so Square Enix owns the IP, the contracted development out to Ouka Studios. Ouka is owned by NetEase. Once Ouka completed their commitment to Square Enix, NetEase shut them down. (So yes, exactly what you said) Honor Ouka by buying the game. The director of the game and of Ouka Studios was very passionate about the game. NetEase can be hurt by not buying future games from them or their subsidiaries.
This is very disappointing. Just got the game myself and have been enjoying it. None of these devs deserved to be let go. Where is my money going then? To the corpos that just fired the folks that made this great game I just bought? That just disgusts me even more. edit: You're right, purchasing the game did still support the devs so it's not like I'll try a refund or anything. It's sad that the devs probably didn't get the money they deserve, but I'm also a long time fan of the Mana series and would love for it to continue.
I had my eyes on this game for a while but I need to save money for a PS5. Nevertheless I decided to try the demo and I loved it very quickly! It's so sad this happened to the developers.
I have a critical bug with some party members. They are invisible into village and the queen that joined my party member is invisible outside of cities and combat. I died because she won't help in combat. Anyone else got this issue?
Coming to the realization that Jrpg's will most likely drastically decrease come next generation due to low sales/support. Don't worry though guys gamers will still buy the next Cod and Madden every year though so least we'll always have that yay..
That can't be good. A day after Visions of Mana has been launched and the gaming company who made it is being shut down. This company has worked so hard on this game and yet all of their hard work is going for nothing.
This shit is so fucking sad anymore. You make a shit game, you get dissolved. You make a complete banger with great reviews and hype? You get dissolved. This is exactly what happened to Tango studios. Also for it being their first game, this is astounding work and to snuff that out in its infancy is baffling. Awesome work as always, will def give y'all a follow on twitter.
Oh my that’s really devastating and really😈😈😈 one reason to buy the game in my opinion to support the developers ❤ was really hoping the game would get ported to differ systems but now that probably won’t happen sadly😭 I’m buying it, the developers deserve the support Blooming corporate political social bloot☠️☠️👻 good games and game developers get the shaft😩 yet games and game deveopelors that make literally BS train wrecks get the golden spoon😩 are you blooming kitten me this is so messed up.
Just bought visions of MANA of steam (mainly because I was afraid of it becoming delisted after its dev shuts down) even worse is the steam page doesn't even list its actual dev it lists square enix as its dev, talk about a slap in the face
What pisses me off is the people who paid for this game gets the news it's getting shut down not even 24 hours later, and screw you if you want a refund
Two guesses: 1. Something could be happening in the Chinese market that could lead to NetEase pulling out of more and more Western studios. Maybe the success of Wukong could've played into that, like with the idea of developing games locally in China only now. 2. They just saw the pile of money coming in from the massive and well earning fanbase and ran with it. Whatever it is, who ever controls NetEase is probably not seeing a future where that company will get a lot of Western interaction in the future, because the implications of this move are dire either way. Thanks for letting us know!
I do feel bad for the employees for losing their jobs, but is it much different from a movie studio getting rid of all extras/cameramen/actors/wardrobe after a movie is finished shooting? I wonder if they are just giving up on their other projects which may or may not have worked? This seems to be common practice with video games re: programmers. I am not saying it is ok, please don't blast me too bad for saying this.
The story of the game makes way more sense now.
A group of friends doing their best to stay positive and achieve their goals in the face of inevitable death…
Lol omfg
😢😭🤧🤧
Wow.. that's pretty sad.
Hopefully Square-Enix scoops up most of these devs. Visions of Mana is PHENOMENAL and these devs deserve way better than this!
The handholding is not fun.
Nah they are jobless now, corporates will not give a single fck about these people
Kind of explains why they didn't add multi-player. For mana game to be played solo only, sad times.
@@youareacoward8459game is great . Stfu
@@youareacoward8459it’s made for all gamers, even for young kids, just don’t play it
Every one of the employees that were let go should band together and start their own studio, and kickstart a project while the iron is hot with so many fans enjoying the gem they put together.
agree whole-heartedly!!!
Exactly, so many new studios are being made with successful projects. I think there is a new wave of being a more independent creator in the game space.
Or just ask nintendo to allow them to make Mana-style games for the switch 2. (do this now while their skills are still fresh instead of rusty) Similar to how Platinum was able to save Bayonetta by getting nintendo to publish the second and third games. This will give nintendo switch 2 more advantage since many people feel the tone of this game suits the console. At the end of the day: we just want the developers to be treated well.
@@UToobUsername01They don't own the IP.
@@hungerxhunger2548 bummer. Spiritual successor to the Mana games then? (sort of like how Fallout games were spiritual successor to the Wasteland games)
I am so glad you made this video. This kind of heartbreaking story needs to be spread by passionate people with a voice.
This is unfortunately, common practice in the gaming industry as a whole, especially if they're publicly traded on the stock market. Devs, especially the people at the bottom of totem pole that make everything like artists, animators, programmers...etc; they're the first on the chopping block, with only the execs at the top or game design leads who oversee a team usually staying, if they're lucky. We're nothing more than a monkey with a typewriter or wrench to them, who is then thrown back out into the wild when they're done with us. It's even worse if you're a "contractor", a.k.a. full-time temporary employees who don't get any health/dental benefits; they usually make up the majority of the team and bounce around from studio to studio in between projects, just to make ends meet. The game dev industry is a meat grinder, and it's devs are the meat for the investor vultures. It's one of the main reasons why I left the whole game dev industry after a decade of being a 3D modeler. The other reasons besides zero job stability were shit pay, and long-ass hours to meet milestones and deadlines. I developed an energy drink addiction drinking two cans a day from that lifestyle, after being only a coffee drinker (one small cup per day). And also zero social life because you could be working for 72 hours straight, up to 100 hours per week. Some of my former colleagues even slept under their desk overnight.
I think nintendo should headhunt the talent and get them to make switch exclives which have the Mana formula. Like how Sony got From Software to make Bloodbourne for them. Nintendo then eventually works out more deal with them if the game does well. (give them some job stability)
The story had been updated with the following: "According to Bloomberg writer Takashi Mochizuki, NetEase Games has been cutting staff at Ouka Studios since the spring."
So these devs were actually in the process of being gutted well before the game release. It's a shame because this is the most joyful, comfy and fun experience I have had with a game so far this year and I'm only three hours in. I hope everyone responsible has an opportunity to contribute to a follow-up. And I'm confident that there will be a follow-up; the Steam peak number of players is already at 4,500 and it's not even the weekend. Trials peaked just shy of 6,800 and did well enough across all platforms to justify this game...I also suspect that Visions will be a launch title for Switch 2, which would further boost sales, but that's just speculation.
Layoffs happen, but that is entirely different from the entire studio being gutted and reduced to ash the same day your four year project finishes. There is no excusing it.
But I like to think some of them saw the writing on the wall and got the hell out.
I also don't think it will make it to switch 2 specifically because of this. :-(
@@SolaceAndDreadSquare-Enix owns the IP and I'm assuming they could have another studio handle the port, so I'm going to remain optimistic for now!
The game being on Switch 2 is a pretty good guess. Not that the Switch couldn't handle but, damn this deserves to look this good. I'm very sure even Nintendo is willing to publish the game themselves on the Switch 2.
@@jimcarrey2866 Nintendo should give the developers a job to make Mana spiritual successor. Make it exclusive. The reputation they got making this title will help them amoung Mana fans. Nintendo is in the game industry for the long term. They need more JRPG guys. Maybe even give them a chance to make a Zelda RPG. (using characters from the Zelda franchise and placing them in a new world)
Wow. The game is awesome too. Been playing it all day. The games industry, mainly publishers, is ridiculously vicious to the people that pour their sweat and blood into creating the games we play.
Dude, that's horrible. SoM was my fav snes growing up. VoM is pretty dang good - such a tragedy...
hope you still pick it up?
This is so sad I bought the game today and it's beautiful they put their hearts in to it, The Devs deserve so much better.
I bought my copy at full price to support these guys. Such a bad timing eh? As I said: nintendo should head hunt the talent behind this and get them making some switch 2 Mana spiritual sucessor where nintendo control the IP. (similar to how they got Bayonetta 2 and 3 under their stable of games after paying for the publishing for platinum) I don't think nintendo will cave into woke agenda too so they have good reputation amoung japnese gamers. (unlike Sony)
Time to become a pirate again, shiver me timbers!
First video of yours that I've stumbled upon. Impressed by the historical context you've shown with regard to this very sad story. Earned my subscription without a doubt.
Same here
This is the perfect corporate plan. Release a great game and fire the dev team. Don't need to pay to keep the Devs around while taking all of the money the game brings in.
Not so perfect though. If they think developers are so expendable, you are bleeding out your talent. Those talents may one day united and make greater product then you which eventually kill your soulless corp.
@@fishyfinthing8854 business owners don't care. They are getting a quick return in their investment and are able to then invest into more safer areas. Let's not forget developers are not without blame for failure of blame for bad games. We've seen a lot of bad games being released after going through 5 years or longer dev.
I’m a Chinese, I am a fan of hardcore action games , I played all souls games. I didn’t purchase Wukong yet, but I bought Visions of Mana on launch and loving it. Just saying , their data isn’t everything.
hey bro, we are same think i did't hired Wukong yet too. but i hired Visions of Mana
Feel happy i preorderd it from GameStop last month. Picked it up today with my steelbook on PS5.
I didn't even know there was a steelbook!
@@SolaceAndDread it's a GameStop exclusive in the US. I guess it may come with the collector's edition?
No!!!! I didn’t realize this game came out yesterday. Why didn’t Square enix push this more!!!!
Doing the Lord's work. Nice to meet you SD, love the breakdown and relaxing ambience. Subbed and looking forward to watching more of your videos.
I agree with you, people shouldn't boycott this game to avoid netease, they should buy it to show Square Enix the support that they deserve and hopefully they help out that studio. People should boycott marvel rivals if anything to really show netease that they're jerks and screw them over for doing this
Agreed, as a Marvel Fan its not such a hard choice to boycott Marvel Rivals, especially because its entirely made by NetEase, so a sure fire Boycott. I wonder what games they also have, i guess a boycott of every game they make would also show a good statement of with great power comes great responsiblity and choice do have consequences.
Oh well, they do not even have good games, well easy boycott.
Thank you for talking about this… So important to raise awareness of the business practices behind the games we play and love!
Welcome to modern gaming studios. The team probably refused to add microtransactions or something
I feel sorry for them as a Mana series fanboy that I am. But I worked as engineer contractor and there's some projects that are covered under project PO. Once that project is completed, I should look for another PO, if no other project appears, I would be fired or sent to home until new project PO is requested
There was a pod cast recently were a developer said that ceo and parent company would let people go just to boost profit margins to satisfy share holders.
I just purchased the game and I'm having a blast. I loved the series since Secret of Mana and this is a worthy addition to the franchise.
And I'm hearing this NOW?!
They went out with dignity and pride in their work. Visions of Mana looks phenomenal. It’s crazy. They should be getting rewarded.
It’s an absolutely beautiful game so I’m shocked to hear this, but I won’t stop playing.
I didn't even know they closed until this vid.
Glad to find your channel and some mana love. Beautiful series. Companies and investors keep putting money first. I wonder if we will get to an age where we don't need money.
I am also so angry to hear this, I saw this news earlier today while just casually looking for general Mana lore stuff while playing through VoM.
I pre-ordered VoM, I pre-ordered the Trials of Mana remake and bought the Switch collection, I've bought FFA, Sword of Mana, Adevntures of Mana, and even Secret of Mana on mobile, Children of Mana on DS, Dawn of Mana on PS2. And yet, even trying to "vote with my wallet" of what I want to see more of these games don't even get a chance to live. What are they even judging the shut down on? Preorders? Day one sales? UGH.
I'm basically just feeling like not buying any more Square Enix stuff anymore. Wasn't interested in FF16. Canceled my FFXIV sub after the latest expansion because it seemed so "copy-paste"d. And they can't even keep Mana stuff alive... If they wanted tons of sales maybe they should have gotten a big studio and spent more money on making something AAA, but I don't want AAA Mana, I'm fine with B-game Mana. But they can't expect B-game Mana to make AAA-game money. AGH. I'm just ranting now lol. Sorry!!
AND! I really enjoyed Forspoken! And its DLC! And I'm really disappointed that that studio was closed, too. It was clear that Forspoken's release was rushed because the ending ended up being like a walk around narration thing to tie up everything. What's the point of even making games if they're not going to be letting finished products ship, and then immediately shutting down the company? Feels like there could be an easier way. -_-
Worth mentioning that Square-Enix aren't the ones making this decision. They're the publisher, but not the parent company deciding to close the studio.
@@derrickcrowe3888 Yeah true, but they haven't treated the Mana series very good.
I, too, loved forspoken. I am on the front lines of the forspoken defense force 😅
And yeah, XIV is a whole other problem. I thought Visions was gonna be SqEx's first love bomb with a much bigger budget for Mana, and while it WAS bigger, it still doesn't seem to be quite where I thought it would be.
Visions is still likely my personal GotY though. I hope people still support it through all this nonsense
@@SolaceAndDread After that Forspoken DLC I wanted to know more about the world! And the gameplay was a lot of fun.
I am enjoying VoM, I'll probably end up running through it a bunch of times like I did with the Trials of Mana remake. I'm on Chapter 5 so far.
It is uncomfortably fitting that the studio was sacrificed to breathe new life into the Mana series.
When you said Zhongguo... I was like... sounds about right. I used to work for a Chinese pharmaceutical
I just bought the game today from Amazon and it broke my heart to hear this sad News it doesn't make sense
Wait what? Always thought this game was developed by SE themselves. Can SE hire all of the developers? What the f.
A lot of companies nowadays are outsourcing their development work.
Yeah I thought Square Enix was the developer and publisher. I hope Square Enix can turn this around
Isn't the gaming industry just lovely?
I bought Trials recently, bc I thought it looked amazing, to prepare for Visions. So it'd probably take me a couple of months t buy Visions. It doesn't matter anymore but, I'll buy it this weekend to show support. This game looks twice as better than Trials.
Didn't even know about this, didn't even expect it. Had a friend telling me about how good the mana series is and how excited they are to play this. I was thinking about picking it up, but now I will be picking it up eventually.
I intend to pick up Visions of Mana digitally during the holiday season with my Christmas Steam money this year that I'm gifted by my family each year during both said Holiday Season alongside also on my birthday during the spring with birthday Steam money.
Damn I been playing this since it released and did not know this I feel for those who got booted an hope and wish nothing but the best for those devs um about 20hrs into visions of mana and im having a blast playing this
I hope the Visions of Mana Dev's can find someone that's more respectful to them, I bought the game and I'm loving every single second, it's an absolutely incredible adventure with great combat and gameplay and has become quite dear to my heart, there's so much love put into this game
I was considering buying this game to support a game that looks like it was not for the modern audience for once, even though I'm not in the market for a new game right now due to lack of free time. However after hearing they shut down the studio, I'll just wait until I have time or it's on sale.
* rage noises *
*Sympathetic grunts*
Holy knife in the back!
OMG,I was so looking forward to this game. This seems odd, I am sad! China is struggling, lots of outside businesses leaving the country. A lot of people out of work.
One door closing means another door opens. I have faith that good talents will always be sought after. They will find another place where they are appreciated
I was about to buy this game today because I'm a fan of secret of Mana, but learned about the developers getting shut down. I still want to play this, but will wait until it's on sale at a big discount instead because they shut down the developers.
Thank you so much for this important video on such a sad topic :,( This horrible decision is such awful news.
What?!?!?!? The game is freaking amazing!!!! Why they shutting down!?!? I can't believe this! This is an outrage! Why would they shut down a good studio?! Even if you succeed, you still fail!. That's messed up!
Apparently it might be because of the success of wukong. Chinese companies are realizing they don't need to export themselves to make games for other companies, they can just make their own games with chinese devs in china. So all the chinese companies (netease, tencent etc.) are getting out of japan and closing shop to build studios in china to make AAA games.
That also means companies like square enix won't be able to outsource games anymore to chinese people.
Im 99.9% convinced this game will be a launch title for the Switch 2. Its only 34gb on my PS5. So that tells me theres lots of compression techniques being used. Im ony an hour and a half in, and the art so far is beautiful. I would think the data would be at least 50gb+. They shrunk it down for the Switch 2.
I believed that too until this. :-(
@@SolaceAndDread Shiver Entertainment can do it easily.
No good deed goes unpunished, indeed.
To be Honest I haven't heard nobody talking about this game.which is never a good sign. I'm still waiting for my copy in the mail.
Well i have 20 hours and this game is very disappointing compared trails of mana, the best part this game is the begging after you progress the story gets worst, specifically the combat system feels very auto combat and magic power pollution on the screen, horrible rendering graphics cut scenes and frame rate problems and 3 crashes.
I like the Game, in my opinion it catches the arts of Mana and I’m enjoying the gameplay, have already dropped about 70 hrs, but I’m playing on Hard Mode.
I know it won't happen, but in an ideal world I wish SquareEnix would save the studio to continue working in the series. This game was definitely a step in the right direction...
But time flows like a river... and history repeats...
I sure won't be buying a game knowing they rewarded this hard work with unemployment. Fuck that.
So I bet you'll still be playing marvel rivals huh. That's the game you should boycott, not visions of mana.
And at the same time it's like you don't want to praise the work they put in it
@@RoodyOh but the dev doesnt even exist anymore right? You basically giving money to the one who fuck over the dev
@Sotsu they got paid up to this point, but instead of starting a new project, the are rewarded with unemployment. I am pretty sure this is a Japanese studio, so that is life ending in the current job market.
Honestly, irs not bad, I mean would you rather be making a dud game Concord for 8 years, fail, or finish a game you enjoyed, move on to new game, better company.
I preordered a long time ago.. Keep the faith!
I was so sure that this would get a Switch 2 release. Now it sounds like it will be lucky to receive post-launch support. I'm still happy to have bought and played the game but I'm saddened by the news.
we all know why the studio was closed. its because the director said he wouldn't make the game for a modern audience in mind and targets fans of the series instead.
This is just sad man. This is my first Mana game and it's, not joking, the best game I've played this year. I bought it after playing the demo.
Daaaamn.
Makes me even more pissed. Square Enix is also shit. They did this to star ocean divine force. They prepared shipping my CE of this game last week and spent until today to ship. I wont even be able to play this game until wednesday. And i bought a CE! Purchased day of announcement too.
I feel the gaming industry is crumbling
And to caveat one point tho, like many people have said i wish nintendo gobbled this company up like the did with monolith soft. Nintendo would take better care of them than SE. Theyve let monolith soft make 4 beautiful games after SE and bandai namco fucked them over after gears and saga. If ouka stuido got assimilated into nintendo i can see switch 2 having xeno and mana and that would be great imo
My only anti-Nintendo sentiment is that this game wouldn't exist the way it does now if they had to take switch hardware into consideration. But after switch 2 releases I'll feel similar to how you do, provided it's near the same level of strength as current gen
@@JimC1984 Fuck no
its not its underling a correction
@@JimC1984 SE nothing to do with Netease beyond contracting a studio they own to make a game. That's it.
Nothing you said makes sense that includes SE screwing over Monolilith who didn't even exist as studio until a few of the team members when there. Neoither SE or Bandai shut them down like what is happening here
I'm worried having no Switch version is going to hurt this game. All my friends that i got interested are waiting on a "Switch 2 version" and it's a sentiment i see in discussions about this game a lot. A very significant portion of Trials of Manas sales were on Switch too, that's probably where a lot of the people that would have bought this are.
For the record i bought it on Steam and will double dip if a Switch 2 version ever came out just to have a physical cart. I see mostly praise for this game and i hope it'll be a cult hit that gathers steam over time at least.
This makes me sad. I pre ordered and got the physical copy (with steelbook bonus) for Xbox and I am loving it.
The stuido should have done what their bosses wanted which was probably appeal to the western market more and since they didn't they got let go.
Future of gaming. Everyone gets fired. Who will make our games then?
I just bought this game! Cant believe they did this.
This game is so great 10 hours already. And I‘m taking my time to Platinum it
Wait, I'm confused !
Isn't Mana a Square Enix IP ? What does NetEase come to do in this ?
Are they contracted by Square, and in turns subcontracted Studio Ouka to develop the game ?
And how do we show respect to studio Ouka while burning down everything at NetEase ? Asking for a friend.
@@jjstarrprod so Square Enix owns the IP, the contracted development out to Ouka Studios. Ouka is owned by NetEase. Once Ouka completed their commitment to Square Enix, NetEase shut them down. (So yes, exactly what you said)
Honor Ouka by buying the game. The director of the game and of Ouka Studios was very passionate about the game. NetEase can be hurt by not buying future games from them or their subsidiaries.
I alone pre ordered 2 copies on ps5 and 2 on series x at game stop for the gold steelbooks
This is very disappointing. Just got the game myself and have been enjoying it. None of these devs deserved to be let go. Where is my money going then? To the corpos that just fired the folks that made this great game I just bought? That just disgusts me even more. edit: You're right, purchasing the game did still support the devs so it's not like I'll try a refund or anything. It's sad that the devs probably didn't get the money they deserve, but I'm also a long time fan of the Mana series and would love for it to continue.
even if they got paid, you're 100% right. it leaves a REALLY bad taste in your mouth...
This game has thousands of people playing simultaneously since launch.
Ohh I got the game day one. And I’m loving it. It feels like a good wholesome game. And not some western propaganda that other games devs do.
That's wild. I'm having a nice time playing it.
I had my eyes on this game for a while but I need to save money for a PS5. Nevertheless I decided to try the demo and I loved it very quickly!
It's so sad this happened to the developers.
This is such a tragedy. Visions of Mana is a solid JRPG. It's not perfect, but I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys games in the genre.
Ill pick it ip once it goes on sale later on. Atm im stuck on black myth and Space marine 2 in a few days
Such a great game, I bet there was a decision way before the game came out for this and has nothing to do with the quality or success of the game
this is why people are making their own games
Funnest jrpg game in awhile. No idea why they would lay off the people who made this game
Look at the positive side; these developers may go on to do great things elsewhere with other studios.
I have a critical bug with some party members. They are invisible into village and the queen that joined my party member is invisible outside of cities and combat. I died because she won't help in combat. Anyone else got this issue?
The devs are not diversified enough. /s
This is common they are paid to make a game not stay on the payroll.
No not really, it hasn't even been patched
Still buying
I read about the layoff for this studio this morning around 5am Center time. So it hasn't even been a day or even half a day
Insanity
Coming to the realization that Jrpg's will most likely drastically decrease come next generation due to low sales/support. Don't worry though guys gamers will still buy the next Cod and Madden every year though so least we'll always have that yay..
this just make me glad I preordered yars rising instead
This makes me a sad turtle
That can't be good. A day after Visions of Mana has been launched and the gaming company who made it is being shut down. This company has worked so hard on this game and yet all of their hard work is going for nothing.
Making a good game is an unforgivable sin in the modern video game industry.
This shit is so fucking sad anymore. You make a shit game, you get dissolved. You make a complete banger with great reviews and hype? You get dissolved.
This is exactly what happened to Tango studios. Also for it being their first game, this is astounding work and to snuff that out in its infancy is baffling.
Awesome work as always, will def give y'all a follow on twitter.
Why does visions of mana in the store say early purchase the game is out all ready so why does it say it ? 🤔The game looks fun i love games like this
Oh my that’s really devastating and really😈😈😈 one reason to buy the game in my opinion to support the developers ❤ was really hoping the game would get ported to differ systems but now that probably won’t happen sadly😭 I’m buying it, the developers deserve the support
Blooming corporate political social bloot☠️☠️👻 good games and game developers get the shaft😩 yet games and game deveopelors that make literally BS train wrecks get the golden spoon😩 are you blooming kitten me this is so messed up.
My speculation is they are letting go of this devlopment team to be replaced by another in China where labor are cheaper.
Just bought visions of MANA of steam (mainly because I was afraid of it becoming delisted after its dev shuts down) even worse is the steam page doesn't even list its actual dev it lists square enix as its dev, talk about a slap in the face
What pisses me off is the people who paid for this game gets the news it's getting shut down not even 24 hours later, and screw you if you want a refund
NetEase just realized there were no loot boxes or in-game store.
Does this mean there aren't going to be any patches or updates, if there's no longer a studio working on post-release stuff?
madness
Visions of f*cking amazing and absolute standout game
This game is great. I'm having a blast with it. Probably the best mana game in my opinion. Maybe even best arpg. I think it could be better than ys 8
The kicker? They knew since April they were getting shutdown. It wasn't about doing well or not. This was just a contract.
How are netease and the embracer group related? I’m wondering if the poor PR statement may be due to Chinese sentiment and translation?
They aren't related (I don't think) other than them both being massive conglomerates of dev studios that treat their people like numbers
Two guesses: 1. Something could be happening in the Chinese market that could lead to NetEase pulling out of more and more Western studios. Maybe the success of Wukong could've played into that, like with the idea of developing games locally in China only now. 2. They just saw the pile of money coming in from the massive and well earning fanbase and ran with it. Whatever it is, who ever controls NetEase is probably not seeing a future where that company will get a lot of Western interaction in the future, because the implications of this move are dire either way. Thanks for letting us know!
I suspect that too.. But strangely no one wants to talk about it.. Which is suspicious
They started laying people in the spring so it likely has nothing to do with Wukong.
@@sor3999 That's true.
I do feel bad for the employees for losing their jobs, but is it much different from a movie studio getting rid of all extras/cameramen/actors/wardrobe after a movie is finished shooting? I wonder if they are just giving up on their other projects which may or may not have worked?
This seems to be common practice with video games re: programmers.
I am not saying it is ok, please don't blast me too bad for saying this.
I think mana games are cool but I only play 2D RPGS... This should be a HD-2D rpg like octopath traveler 2