Following the heels of the large TellTale workforce layoff this week, now comes the news from BigFish.

You can read it Here.

Ana

As far as I know, Big Fish wasn't losing money like Telltale, so this is arguably worse.

I read this article yesterday but wasn't really able to read between the lines on this one.

"will focus solely on casino and casual games going forward" (from the article). What else did they do?

Well, weren't they also publishing full Adventure games more recently ??

Apart from that, I don't know. I only ever buy Casuals from them.

Doesn't seem like the amount of adventure games would cause a 15% of workforce layoff. ?? But this is what/why I'm asking. Is this one of the things they're cutting out? Anything else? What else? They've already cut the forum stuff. I'm not being sarcastic. I am really asking because I'm curious what changes the layoffs will bring. I don't know what else they do.

There are several on-line gaming venues that have suffered reductions in income due to recent court rulings on the gambling aspects of their various software offerings. There have been lawsuits involving both card games and slot machine games. They have had to discontinue their gambling games and had a significant loss of revenue as a result.

If you pay money to buy upgrades in something like a Time Management game, it seems that is OK. You would not be dragged into this. However, if BF offered any games where you pay cash to get game credits that then are used for gambling, it might get dicey for them.

I only have bought Casual games from BF. Does anyone know if any of the BF offerings involved gambling? Just curious.

Big Fish Casino video game constitutes illegal online gambling, federal appeals court rules
https://www.geekwire.com/2018/big-fish-c...ls-court-rules/

Big Fish Casino ruled illegal in Washington
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-03-29-big-fish-casino-ruled-illegal-in-washington

Big Fish Games, Inc. Petition
https://www.wsgc.wa.gov/news/big-fish-games-inc-petition-declaratory-order

i hope they do not end up like legacy games.

Thanks, Jenny. That would explain a drop in income and hence a need to lay off some staff.

See, this I can understand but it doesn't really go with what the article made it sound like (to me).

They stopped making mid-core games. The staff and acquisitions that were laid off/eliminated was the group in charge of those titles.

What are mid-core games?

I thought Big Fish stopped making any of their own games years ago.
Game series like the Mystery Case Files, Hidden Expedition, and Azada started out being made by a development division of Big Fish, but later games in the series were made by companies like Eipix, Elephant, etc.

If I remember correctly, Big Fish lost money on MCF: Shadow Lake -- an FMV-style game published in late 2012. I think that was the last MCF game they developed themselves.


I think the article is 99% business-speak, targetting investors with spin and without really saying anything meaningful except that they laid off 15% of their staff.

That's how I felt about the article too, Jenny.

I was wondering about that, too

Same here... it was business-speak with a specific audience in mind. And it wasn't gamers.

Kind of thought it was something like that too but figured I'd ask.

Still don't know what mid-core games are or is that what Jenny was addressing (the games Big Fish developed themselves)?

Googling it!!

This is what I found: https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MaciejBi...they_matter.php

I disagree with it and would call Adventure games mid-core but not the game they mentioned (Book of Demons). What I mostly got out of reading this article is that men don't play games.

Here's another article from Gamasutra about it
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/183697/What_the_hell_does_midcore_mean_anyway.php


So it sounds like a business-speak word, lumping together every game that isn't 100% casual or 100% hardcore (hundreds of hours) as if all games that fall in that category are the same regardless of gameplay.




I agree with you. It's not a division of gaming that's going to help a gamer choose a game -- or a publisher to distribute it. It's like dividing up books by
"all books less than 200 pages"
"all books between 200 and 400 pages"
"all books greater than 400 pages"
instead of by subject or type of book.

Or that businessmen don't play computer games and have no idea how to categorize them in a way that's meaningful either for players or for selling the games to players. They're categorizing games as if the only criteria people use for choosing games is length of gameplay sessions, when that's only one thing someone considers when buying a game.

Thanks very much, Jenny100. I get the drift now !!

Big Fish mid core games are mostly the free 2 play and mobile games that allowed you to dabble when you felt like it and could put away and resume whenever you felt like it. At one point it was the future of gaming, but it did not take off as expected.

Ana

Thank you too, BrownEyedTigre

Thanks for the clarification Ana!

Ana: Does this mean Big Fish will no longer support Gummy Drop? I'm addicted, but have never paid for resources.

I can't answer that question, Sparkle, but as long as you aren't investing any money, I'd continue to enjoy it. YOu may not get any more lands opening up though.