The first article I wrote for GameSkinny last month was about 3 game companies that died this generation, and the impact they had left on the industry. It is never a good thing when another game studio shuts down. When that studio was responsible for the worse game of the year, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, it is a little bit easier to let go.
The news of the closure comes from a Facebook post by Jesse Sosa, a former artist at the Dallas based studio. Sosa is probably best known for his work on Bloodrayne 2.. which came into the spotlight when the game’s heroine Rayne was the first video game character to digitally “pose topless” for Playboy in 2004 (I can hear those google image searches launching already).
If you ever saw the comedy Grandma’s Boy; the Demonik game they were playing was an actual title in development by Terminal Reality for Xbox 360. I had always just assumed that was some cheap mod they made for the film, but it was actually a full blown production with a story by Clive Barker.
Terminal Reality joins the graveyard of devs this year alongside Aliens: Colonial Marines co-developer TimeGate Studios. I would be lying if I said I didn’t find some amount of satisfaction that the studios for the two worse console games of the year are now pushing up daisies.
I’m sure most people showing up to the funeral for these studios are mostly people looking to get a refund… but I’d like to end on a positive note.
Despite making some absolute crap games and contributing to the existance of Star Wars: Kinect; Terminal Reality for a brief moment brought Ghostbusters back to life. The game sold over a million copies, which was good enough to get a third Ghostbusters movie greenlit. Consider that a silver lining on an otherwise toxic poison cloud.
I would like to blame everything on Sigourney Weaver. She appeared in both Ghostbusters and Aliens; both of which saw late-to-the-party game adaptions this console generation from these now dead studios. For that daring developer out there planning a game adaption of Working Girl, don’t do it man!
