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Plenty of Nintendo fans have no doubt become at least somewhat familiar with developer Two Tribes over the last few years. The Netherlands based company has been a consistent supporter of Nintendo’s digital platforms, starting with the WiiWare release of Toki Tori in 2008 all the way up to the release of its sequel last year. This just makes it that much harder to learn that most of the staff have been let go as part of what is effectively a company reboot.
Rather than call it quits, company founders Martijn Reuvers and Collin van Ginkel announced that they have dissolved half the company and will now be rebuilding it. The company is structured as two separate entities, one that handles development and another that takes care of publishing duties; and while the developing branch has been rebooted, the publishing arm will remain running as normal so that it won’t impact the availability of any of the company’s games. This will prove to be quite significant, as Two Tribes hope to use that continued revenue stream to fund its next project, which it has already announced will be a 2D, side-scrolling shooter developed by a much smaller team than previous projects.
The announcement also includes a brief description of what went wrong. Development of Toki Tori 2 apparently proved to be rather difficult and time consuming, as Two Tribes chose to build and implement its own technology for the game and it was not a smooth process. Though the game did get released, it was an extremely costly project and its sales were too slow to sustain the company as it existed. At the very least this appears to have been a learning experience for the company, as it plans to continue to use this engine for future projects rather than continue making risky investments in developing other new technologies.
While no one ever likes to read about developers loosing their jobs, it is reassuring that Two Tribes will be able to continue on, even if it is in a smaller, and technically different, form.
Source: Two Tribes
It made me sad reading this. Two Tribes really tried to do something different with this game, so it sucks to hear that it didn’t prove to be as successful as it could have been. Toki Tori 2+ is definitely worth a download for anyone with a Wii U. Gamers vote with their dollars; I just wish more people would vote to keep more companies that go against the grain alive and well. At least they’re not shuttered, I suppose.
So sad to hear that Toki Tori 2+ ended up costing the development studio too much and forcing them to shut down. The game is fantastic, easily one of my favorites played in 2013.
Here’s hoping all the people involved land on their feet and are able to continue making games. They should be proud of their game – it’s a stunning achievement in my opinion – even if sales didn’t justify the development expense.