Two Tribes is Closing Down After Releasing "Rive"

[Nz17]

RIVE Is Our Final Game!

This is it! After more than 15 years of hard work and gallons of blood, sweat and tears, we have decided that RIVE will be Two Tribes’ final game. This may come as a surprise for you, but we’ve actually been thinking about it for some time now.
RIVE Is Our Final Game!

RIVE and beyond
An elaborate explanation on why we won’t be making any more games will follow below, but first you should know that we are going to go out with a bang! It might be a cliche, but we’ve saved the best for last: RIVE will be the best game Two Tribes ever!

For the last two years, we have been working feverishly to finish RIVE, the shooter/platformer hybrid that we always wanted to make. We have delayed it several times to make it the best experience possible and now that we are nearing the finish line, we can confidently say that RIVE will come out in September 2016!

We also want to make clear that Two Tribes will remain operational. We will continue to support our partners and all gamers out there, we just won’t be making any new games after RIVE.

(text continues after the trailer)

rivethegame.com

So what happened?
The industry changed a lot since we started in 2000. Back then, there were maybe a dozen game developers here in The Netherlands. It was extremely difficult to enter the global games industry, as you needed to have a track record and experience. Even if you took a shot, you still had to secure backing from a publisher, since the only way to reach gamers was through physical distribution.

The technological bar was also set very high, as there were no middleware engines available. There were severe hardware limitations and most of today’s sophisticated design tools were non-existent. You basically had to make everything yourself. We felt comfortable working in such an environment, and we actually still cling to this DIY mentality.

The big change happened around 2008, when new technologies and tools allowed developers to make games way more easily and faster. Suddenly, because of digital distribution, small developers were able to create and publish their own games without the help of big publishers. Initially this was great for us, as we were one of the first developers to enter the Steam, WiiWare and iOS markets. Business was good. We were on the shortlists of companies like Nintendo and Valve.

But the situation didn’t last. While we were working on Toki Tori 2+ for two years, the industry was changing without us realizing it. The market was flooded with games by developers from all around the world. Game development schools were erected, and every year thousands of students tried their luck under increasingly difficult conditions. With game changers such as the Humble Bundle, the ever-continuing race to the bottom and a growing focus on free-to-play games, it became tough for a game to even hit the break-even point.

The industry had moved on and we were still stuck in the past. We learned this the hard way, when most of our employees needed to be laid off in 2013. But it would be too easy to solely blame the industry. Perhaps it would be better to blame it on dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs
As said, we’ve been working in the games industry since early 2000, making us dinosaurs, old farts, grandfathers or whatever you want to call us. This is great, because we’ve got a lot experience, but it also means that we act like a typical grandfather: slow and totally unaware of what is hot and what is not. Don’t get us wrong: we absolutely love making games, and we strongly feel that we’re good at making them. However, ask us anything about new industry developments, and often a big question mark will appear above our heads.

For example, we are used to working with our own proprietary engine. It’s technology that works great for us, but is by no means competitive with tools like Unity or the Unreal Engine. And then there are monetization strategies like free-to-play. We only know, and feel comfortable working with, the traditional model of full-priced games. The same goes for marketing: we know how to make a decent trailer and send out a press release… but have no clue how to get traction on YouTube and Twitch.

Wrapping up
Long story short (grandfathers like to digress!): when running a company, you need to be on top of your game, not just in terms of the product you’re making, but business-wise too. And we just aren’t on top of the games business anymore. Therefore, it makes sense to focus our attention elsewhere, perhaps even outside the games industry. We simply don’t know yet; but we do know that RIVE is going to be our parting gift to you and we’re making damn sure it’s going to be an awesome one!

Stay tuned for the release in September 2016!

Martijn, Collin and Meinte!

Source: http://twotribes.com/message/rive-is-our-final-game/
Source: https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/...rom-two-tribes

[Tanooki]

I read all that, and it's sad but true. The race to the bottom is killing the industry from the inside out, at least as far as smaller sized quality studios go that try and do things their way. Now it's about freebies with in app ripoff charges, that race to the bottom they said and using lame pre-made tools anyone has access to for free or cheap which I'd think would stifle development being all bound to the same developmental rules. I've only I think ever played their toki tori 1 game, it's solid, too bad.

[Gameguy]

I've barely heard of this company, the only game of theirs that I've been aware of without research is Toki Tori and that's apparently their first game which came out on the Gameboy Color so many years ago. I haven't found a copy yet but when I find a copy priced well I'll pick it up. For what it's worth while I've heard of that game, I didn't know the name of the company that made it.

Looking through a list of everything they've made, it's mostly just random crap. Unless games like Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties or Rubik's Puzzle World are overlooked masterpieces somehow. It's weird how they said they're old farts wanting to stay with the old full price model for their games yet most of their releases are download only. People only want to pay full price for tangible physical copies, download stuff people expect for free or close to it.

I really like their excuses for closing too. Now that it's easier for anyone to make games and there's actual competition, they're unable to compete with these companies. It's like they know their games were mediocre and not having competitors was their only reason for success. And in over 15 years of making games, they've only released 5 games physically on consoles, and two of these are the same game on different platforms(Rubik's Puzzle World on the DS and Wii). I'm surprised they've been around this long with so little to show for it.

[Tanooki]

Yup it's still what I said though a race into the toilet, the bottom. They couldn't keep up because the stuff they make mostly doesn't cut it going down the toilet model going on now since they're mostly digital. Toki Tori 1 and 2 were amazing and RUSH is their only other game, they were a port company mostly garbage but Swords and Soldiers did well in the press/sales. RIVE maybe a true showing of their talent they feel is a loss to the world closing up, but we shall see.