Analysis of 303 acquired game studios finds one in three has been shut down
A new analysis of PC and console studios acquired since 2000 finds one in three has since closed, with the buyer the strongest predictor of outcome. Sebastian Cardoso published the results and full dataset on his Game Studio Unlocked newsletter.
Digital Developer Desk, 2h ago, 2 min read
Sebastian Cardoso, who has previously worked at Riot, Crytek and EA, spent about three months tracking 303 PC and console studios acquired over the last 25 years. He published the results on his Game Studio Unlocked newsletter this week, alongside the full dataset, according to GamesIndustry.biz. One in three of the studios has since been shut down completely, and half of those closed within five years of the acquisition.
Cardoso found that 60.8% of acquired studios either saw their games decline or were shut down. Only one in four came through producing at or above their old level and institutionally whole. Of the 283 developers in the census, 71 studios (25.1%) were still making games as well as before and had not been hit by mass layoffs, absorbed into their parent or lost their leadership.
Part of that result comes from Cardoso's own rules. He counts a studio as having declined if it was absorbed into its owner or moved onto support work, even if its games held up. Without those cases, the 60.8% figure falls to 51.6%.
The buyer mattered most. All 17 of Activision Blizzard's ownership periods ended in decline or closure, as did every one of Disney's, Midway's and Thunderful's. EA's figure was 83%, Microsoft's 63%, Sony's 58%, Tencent's 50% and Embracer's 43%. Nintendo has bought six studios in 24 years and closed none, and Kadokawa, Krafton and Sumo Group also have clean records. Cardoso attributes the gap to whether a company buys studios to "feed a machine" or because it wanted to own good studios.
Closures have sped up. Cardoso also tracked 50 notable independent studios from October 2019 to October 2026; 2% closed, against 12.6% of acquired studios, though he notes the independent figure rests on a single closure. Studios that big companies founded themselves fared worse: of 56 in the census, 87.5% declined or were shut, and 18 of the 34 that closed never released a game. NetEase opened eight studios between 2020 and 2023, and all eight have since closed.
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