Oddworld bails out of gaming

By Tom Bramwell Published 18 April, 2005

Lorne Lanning launches a broadside on EA's marketing as a parting shot to the industry.

Californian developer Oddworld Inhabitants is to move away from the videogames market, according to studio president Lorne Lanning, who says that the firm will now focus on the film and television sectors.

Speaking in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Lanning confirmed that his game development studio, which most recently created the critically acclaimed Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, has been shut down, with the company being moved into the Bay area and planning to work in other mediums in future.

The firm hopes to move into content creation for television and film, sectors in which the barriers to creating computer animated content have fallen massively over the last few years - in contrast to the games industry, where the bar to entry is rising even higher with the arrival of the next-generation consoles.

However, despite his fiery rhetoric regarding the games industry and its publisher-led funding model - which he accuses of stifling creativity and leading to "sequel-itis" - Lanning doesn't rule out creating games in future, but would work with an external production company rather than developing the titles in-house.

"We believe there's a window that's open for all-CG feature films and TV," he explained. "And if we don't crack it in the next 2-1/2 years, we're not going to be able to. Our plan is to be a content creation company with someone else bearing the load of the actual production. We'll stay focused on multimedia content, really solid concepts that would make great games, great TV, great movies."

The outspoken company president and creative director, who created the Oddworld universe with co-founder and CEO Sherry McKenna in 1994, has always had a tempestuous relationship with the videogames industry - and this interview is no different, with Lanning slamming EA's handling of Stranger's Wrath and the entire industry's creative direction.

"It was very disheartening to us," he said, "that we could have a title with a Metacritic.com user metric of 9.6, a game that was praised as being a fusion of filmmaking and video games in terms of being less 'gamey' and more story- and character-driven... and then to see that the largest publisher in the industry had no interest in marketing it regardless of how innovative it was."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (24) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Teeth #1 7 years ago

    Good show.

  • jellyhead #2 7 years ago

    This isn't going to help the anti-EA contingent keep their cool is it?
    Strange that a company with so much clout in the industry (EA) is so timid when it comes to games innovation, you'd think they could afford to publish some experimental titles rather than churning out rebranded guff every two months.
    Mind you i've long thought that the oddworld lot were going to branch into other medias. i just didn't think they'd abandon games inhouse. Sad to see them go and wish them all the best.
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/05 @ 13:04

  • furry #3 7 years ago

    If it's true, this is quite sad news. The strong design of Oddworld always brought something interesting to gaming.
    Did Stranger's Wrath really sell that badly? Did EA really not market this game properly? Why wouldn't they? - surely they've invested in it's development and it would be in their own interest that it sells well.

    Strange,strange,strange.....I guess they'll never finish that quintet of Oddworld games.

  • Blerk #4 7 years ago

    One of the developers posted in his blog the other week that everyone had been laid off and the company (i.e. Lanning) was moving to new offices somewhere else.

    It's a shame. Although I do wonder if things might've turned out differently for them if they'd stuck with it when they discovered the PS2 was more difficult to program for than they'd expected instead of spitting their dummy in public?

  • RumpyStumpy #5 7 years ago

    So EA suck.

    Strange how they published the game after its long and troubled development after most publishers said no thanks.

    The game might not have reached the consumer at all if it wasn't for EA.

  • Wobbler #6 7 years ago

    EA didn't push this as it was XBox only -- the kiss of death for a massmarket publisher like EA. It just isn't worth it when the maximum number of units is no more than a 1/4rd the number they could sell on PS2 (About 80million PS2 sold to around 20-25mil XBoxen, IIRC). I've heard that they (EA) have a fairly upfront policy of not going heavy on the marketing for titles that won't be cross-platform, because it's too expensive for not enough return.

    I think Lorne shot himself in the foot during the pre-hype for Abe's Odyssey, saying that the "PS2 is too hard to develop for" and the game could not be done on PS2, which was shown to be a load of bull when the game shipped (not that it was actually *bad*, just it could have been done on PS2 without too many problems)

    Still, a pity, and EA should have supported niche titles like this a bit better, but an XBox only game (small audience) * Niche styling (small audience) == Not very many sales, and therefore I'm not that surprised.

  • bionutz #7 7 years ago

    wasn't oddworld only available on Xboxen lately (market coverage smaller than 10%)? What you give is what you get, Mr.!
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/05 @ 13:46

  • ssuellid #8 7 years ago

    I thought it was EA that dropped the PS2 version?

    Anyway excellent game. The first part might get a little repetive but the last half or so make up for it. My favourite so far this year.

  • asphaltcowboy #9 7 years ago

    Damn, that's a shame. Just bought the Art of Oddworld Inhabitants for my gf. Really great book btw (http://www.ballis ticpublishing.com). Can't wait to see what they can produce in film and TV though...!

  • Blerk #10 7 years ago

    I thought it was EA that dropped the PS2 version?

    It was. Oddworld Inhabitants weren't doing the PS2 version, it was sub-contracted to another company. It wasn't going to be ready for a long time, so EA chose to release the Xbox version now and can the PS2 version.

  • brainbird #11 7 years ago

    This guy takes his own person just a little bit too seriously.
    His company is making good games, nothing more. That's about it.

  • teabagger #12 7 years ago

    It's not just EA, it's an indication of the industry as a whole. Publishers are just not willing to spend money on marketing an unknown quantity when they know they can develop half-assed easily marketed licenced guff that's going to turn a profit. When I was at JAM we got screwed over in a similar manner over marketing Kung Fu Chaos, a game that was in a Eurogamer article as being one of the most criminally underrated games of the year. It got great reviews but M$ Marketing just weren't interested.

    Publishers "We want something totally original, mind blowing"
    Developer "Great! take a look at our project. It's brilliant and original"
    Publisher "Excellent, well you show us 10 examples of the same game that's made money and we'll publish it"


  • RumpyStumpy #13 7 years ago

    Kung FU Chaos was excellent! Real shame more people didn't get to enjoy it. :-(

  • ssuellid #14 7 years ago

    Because EA were responsible for marketing Oddworld Stranger and they did not seem to bother.

  • ssuellid #15 7 years ago

    But EA dropped the PS2 version.

  • davyuk #16 7 years ago

    S'funny. I was watching the FMV in Stranger, and I thought just how wonderful the CGI and animation was. I couldn't think why these guys weren't in the film industry, and now off they go.

    Good on 'em.

  • ParticleMan #17 7 years ago

    So an Oddworld film would fare much better??? I think not...

    Let's face it, Oddworld is inherently niche in terms of appeal. That doesn't mean it shouldn't get made, but perhaps Lorne should have more realistic expectations. I mean if EA picks up your title, they will be looking to squeeze every last dollar out it. If they can't sell it, who can?

    If people didn't buy the game, blame the consumer, not EA

    Teabagger: I played Kung Fu Chaos all the way through. Not many games hold my attention for that long.
    Edited by 1 at 18/04/05 @ 16:46

  • teabagger #18 7 years ago

    In general terms (because I appreciate Oddworld doesn't appeal to everyone) I really don't think it's a case of what the 'hardcore gamer' wants versus what the 'mainstream' wants. It's a simple case of quality production values being ignored in favour of churning out hurried licences and yearly brand revisions. All too often it's a case of the dev team being told "here's a licence, stuff some gameplay in there". With a design process like that is it any wonder we're drowning under the weight of uninspiring, samey and unoriginal titles.

    In the long term this is bad news for both the 'hardcore' (though I'd use the term 'discerning gamer') and the massmarket. Sure the ill-informed masses are lapping it up at the moment, but for how long? I mean, how many slight variations of Need for Speed is Joe Bloggs going to spend £35 on before he gets bored and puts the pad down for good. We can argue the details of this specific case for ages, but really it's indicative of wider problems facing us as an industry.

    (edit)
    Appreciate the positive KFC comments. I know it wasn't to everyones taste, but we had fun making it and I reckon that came through in the final game. Nice to know someone enjoyed it! :-D
    Edited by 2 at 18/04/05 @ 16:56

  • ssuellid #19 7 years ago

    Its a shame that such excellent games just get ignored. The XBox seems to have more than its fair share tho. e.g KFC is great, funny and the best multiplayer game on the XBox. BEA looks good plays great. Voodoo Vince was very pretty and fun. And then Oddworld Stranger one of my favourite games.

  • Sko #20 7 years ago

    Screw the whiney boss. I feel sorry for the game devs who've been booted while he goes following his TV/Film dreams.

  • HarryB #21 7 years ago

    so what, EA would have got all of their money from either of the 3 games
    do you see a pattern?

  • riz23 #22 7 years ago

    The simple fact is as has already been said that if it wasn't for EA this game wouldn't have seen the light of day, they picked it up when it was down and out and brought it to the public. For that we should be thankful. Ok, so they didn't push it massively in terms of marketing, why should they? For them it was a cheap purchase with no real development cost, someone else had paid for that. It's an Xbox exclusive which means even if it is a great seller it's no Mega-Hit. EA wanted a cross platform game hence the PS2 version, but technically it was crap so they canned it. Where is the crime in this? Buy Strangers Wrath for your Xbox, enjoy it for what it is and move on to the next game. So Lorne Lanning finds out Games development is not exactly a rockstar lifestyle and the cocaine is better in Hollywood. Big Deal.

  • ParticleMan #23 7 years ago

    "I mean, how many slight variations of Need for Speed is Joe Bloggs going to spend £35 on before he gets bored and puts the pad down for good. We can argue the details of this specific case for ages, but really it's indicative of wider problems facing us as an industry."

    I've heard predictions of doom for the games industry for a long time and yet the games industry continues to grow year on year. This industry isn't going anywhere.

    As games look more realistic, I believe that their content has to easily accessible and somehow relevant to the consumer in order for them to buy it. Oddworld was neither and also I didn't really get a sense that they innovated much in terms of gameplay.

    The developer was as much a victim of Microsoft's recent clear out of games as it was anything else. If the developer had been able to plan for a PS2 version upfront then they would've been able to sell into that market too.

  • inpHilltr8r #24 7 years ago

    How quickly people forget that Microsoft dropped Stranger at the last minute. Without EA, no-one would have seen it at all. See also Psychonauts.