There’s a reason I tend to only play indie games these days, because AAA gaming is an absolute state. Things like titles being released unfinished, day one patches, games still needed months or years of work to be playable, season passes, microtransactions and more. Yet, there’s a thing going on in gaming right now where studios are being shut and people are losing their job. Some of the biggest names on the planet have fired staff. Sony, Microsoft and more. The most recent being Ubisoft, who have recently shut down it’s Leamington studio to the cost of 185 staff. This studio worked on titles such as Tom Clancy’s The Division and Star Wars Outlaws.

Seeing studios firing so many staff is unbelievable. Do I really need to bring up how Satoru Iwata of Nintendo took a 50% pay cut so that they wouldn’t have to fire staff following the failure of the Wii U? It wasn’t just Satoru who took a pay cut either, Shigeru Miyamoto and others at Nintendo did too. If Nintendo can save people’s jobs by the higher ups taking a pay cut, why can’t other studios? One reason people are losing their jobs in the industry is the spiralling cost of game development these days. It has not been confirmed but rumours say that GTA VI will eventually cost close to or more than $1 billion dollars to make, development costs, marketing, etc. A billion dollars to make a game? WTF is going on in the industry? Stop making such stupidly big games that cost too much to make then, that’ll save jobs.

But this is the crux of my article. There are people out there making games for free that these big studios keep shutting down. Fan made projects, mods, full games, etc. As much as I’ll always praise Nintendo for doing that pay cut thing to save jobs, they are also the worst company for shutting down fan made projects. A fan developed a Zelda Maker game in the same vein as Mario Maker where people could make their own Zelda games, Nintendo shut it down. Someone made a Ocarina of Time 2D using The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past as its basis, Nintendo shut it down. There was a fan made Super Mario 64 HD that updated the awesome platformer for modern gaming, Nintendo shut it down. There are loads of these Nintendo shutting down fan project stories.

But here’s my point. I know that these studios have to protect their IPs, I get that and it’s fine. Still, instead of shutting these fan projects down, why don’t they work with the devs and give them an official release? Fans make these game out of love and passion, not for money. They work for free. So instead of Nintendo having these things shut down, why don’t they give them an official release and split any royalties with those who made them? They literally have games that have been made with zero cost other than fan passion.

The most recent example of this is GTA: Vice City. I’m sure you remember that terrible Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy: The Definitive Edition a while back that was awful and far from being definitive. It was full of bugs, glitches and overall – a very underwhelming experience. It took months of fixing and even today, it’s still not great. This was an official release too. So a team decided to do their own remaster and the result is GTA Vice City: Next-Gen Edition. Using GTA IV’s engine, they have recreated the entirety of GTA: Vice City and massively updated it. You know what? It’s far, far better than the official “definitive” edition.

Obviously, Take-Two/Rockstar were not very happy about this new and better version of Vice City, so they tried to shut the project down. Originally, the devs behind it made the mod so that you had to own a copy of GTA IV for it to work, but since the studio tried to shut the project down, the devs have now released the mod as standalone to work without a copy of GTA IV. This mod is now downloadable (probably not for long). Instead of Take-Two/Rockstar trying to shut this down, why don’t they give it an official release? People are now downloading it for free when I’m sure they’d be happy to pay money for it. I would. There’s money to be made from these great fan made projects and studios are not capitalising on them.

Just imagine if this GTA Vice City: Next-Gen Edition was given an official release, if the studio worked with the devs, it would sell millions. Put it out for £20, there have been zero development costs, it was made by fans for the love of making it. That’s profit right there and studios wouldn’t have to fire staff. I’m not saying that all of these fan projects should be released, some of them are awful. But those great ones, the ones that have a built in audience that are willing to pay for them. Game studios are stupid and are missing out on some huge revenue while closing studios and firing staff. Honestly, right now, I’d rather pay for and play an official GTA Vice City: Next-Gen Edition release than GTA VI.