Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Dev 2K Australia Closes Its Doors

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Dev 2K Australia Closes Its Doors


2K Australia was the last of Australia's big, AAA-style developers.

A bit of sad news for you folks today. A source close to Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/04/2k-australia-in-canberra-closes-its-doors/] - is closing its Canberra studio and letting go all of its employees. 2K Australia was the last major AAA-style developer operating out of the country, and as well as The Pre-Sequel, worked on other 2K titles such as BioShock and XCOM.

2K offered the following statement, giving some hope that not all staffers had been canned, and some could relocated to other studios:

We can confirm we have taken steps to begin the studio closure process for 2K Australia in order to better manage ongoing development costs while improving the working proximity of our creative teams. We are very grateful for the team's valuable contributions to numerous 2K projects, and are working with affected staff to explore reassignment opportunities where possible.

Kotaku's source claims that at one point, a move to Melbourne was being planned, in an attempt to help attract new talent to the studio. This allegedly caused many high-level members of the team to leave and that may have factored into 2K's decision to shut down the studio.

The extremely high cost of operating a game development studio in Australia was most likely to blame for the ultimate decision.

It's always a shame to see game developers close their doors, but this one is particularly sad as it signifies the end of AAA development in Australia.

Source: Kotaku [http://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/04/2k-australia-in-canberra-closes-its-doors/]

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Shocksplicer

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Apr 10, 2011
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Well fuck. The Aussie games industry has died rapidly over the last few years, but I always hoped that these guys would hang on. After all, they were actually pretty good, and compared to some of the other AAA companies 2K are pretty alright.
Sad news indeed.
 

Bob_McMillan

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Aug 28, 2014
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That sucks...

I have two cousins, one who just graduated from animation and the other wants to get into game design, who live in Melbourne. This will probably make it harder for them to follow their careers. Why did they close though? Just because the wanted to move to Melbourne? If the staff really didn't like that decision, why force the issue and not let them stay where they were?
 

LongAndShort

I'm pretty good. Yourself?
May 11, 2009
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Fuck. Me. Dead.

That's a right royal shame, here's hoping all those people find somewhere to go. Those guys are awesome.

The real pain in the arse is that there's no one currently running things in the government who probably gives a shit, and wouldn't think that game development is worthy of the kind of funding and tax credits (necessary to attract the required talent and interest to keep the industry going) that they hand out to our fuckin' film industry and what have you.
 

Albino Boo

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LongAndShort said:
Fuck. Me. Dead.

That's a right royal shame, here's hoping all those people find somewhere to go. Those guys are awesome.

The real pain in the arse is that there's no one currently running things in the government who probably gives a shit, and wouldn't think that game development is worthy of the kind of funding and tax credits (necessary to attract the required talent and interest to keep the industry going) that they hand out to our fuckin' film industry and what have you.
Yeah because when commodities prices are collapsing that accounts for 12% of the Australian economy and employs 100,000s of people, what you need to do is give tax breaks to industry that employs less 10,000 people.
 

Shamanic Rhythm

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Blah. I used to know one of the guys who worked there, and they were a well known presence in the local area. Good luck to them.
 

P-89 Scorpion

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I've been expecting Take Two to shut down one of there 2K studio's for awhile but I thought it would be either 2K Czech or 2K Marin neither of which have released a hit since 2010.
 

ron1n

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Not surprising in the slightest.

Thankfully the indie development scene here seems to be growing still, so not all bad news.
 

Lightknight

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Australia is a terrible place to develop games. I'm pretty sure the only reason they maintained a presence there was because of the talent they had there. Once they jumped ship when they tried to move to a major city the reason for it's existence became a question mark.

At least this wasn't a failed studio or something that swung too big and missed. Just a country whose policies are openly antagonistic to video games and costly to maintain a studio at.
 

rembrandtqeinstein

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Sep 4, 2009
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Sorry for people losing their jobs but to be fair Pre-Sequel was pretty uninspired. This is coming from someone who absolutely loves the Borderlands franchise. It felt like playing through the worst b2 dlc.

With the exception of Claptrap none of the characters were at all interesting in either abilities or dialog. The enemies had much less personality in pre-sequel than in B2, the environments were really boring and the quests were all totally forgettable. Except mr torgue talking like a SJW in that one early quest was fairly hilarious.

Oh and the bug permanently sticking you in slow mode didnt help.
 

synobal

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I wonder why Australians are so bad at making video games. Might have something to do with their toilets flushing the wrong way.
 

happyninja42

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synobal said:
I wonder why Australians are so bad at making video games. Might have something to do with their toilets flushing the wrong way.
I don't think they are bad at making games, I mean look at the titles that 2K made. They were good games. I think the problem is on the governmental side of the equation. Regulations, fees, and probably tons of other things that we don't see on this side of the situation as the consumer. It's probably just not very cost effective given the environment.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Damn, I'm halfway through my degree in computer game design here in Australia. I hope the Indie scene is more forgiving.
 

Signa

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It's a shame, but it doesn't surprise me. I don't think TPS has been selling that well. Also, they fucked something up with the game to keep me from playing it. I mean, I didn't dislike TPS, but I barely got anywhere in the game, and I stopped playing it and have no desire to continue it. For me to feel that way about a Borderlands game, something is seriously wrong.
 

PMAvers

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May 27, 2009
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That sucks, since The Pre-Sequel is easily my favorite in the Borderlands series since it fixes a lot of the problems of 2.

And they knocked Claptastic Voyage out of the park, easily my favorite DLC now.
 

enginieri

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Apr 1, 2015
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The presequel needed better writers and level-set piece designers. As rembrandtqeinstein said it feeled like a bad dlc, more like a series of long, bad dlc's put together. I finish B2 twice (and various dlc) but can't be bothered to finish the presequel. On the other hand those people worked with bioshock and xcom so..
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Jun 5, 2013
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Are people really super surprised? I mean its not like Borderlands 3 was ground breaking and sold gang busters.
Sad about Bioshock, but then again Infinite didn't live up to the critics ever so advanced tastes, so again no real surprise there.
 

LongAndShort

I'm pretty good. Yourself?
May 11, 2009
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albino boo said:
LongAndShort said:
Fuck. Me. Dead.

That's a right royal shame, here's hoping all those people find somewhere to go. Those guys are awesome.

The real pain in the arse is that there's no one currently running things in the government who probably gives a shit, and wouldn't think that game development is worthy of the kind of funding and tax credits (necessary to attract the required talent and interest to keep the industry going) that they hand out to our fuckin' film industry and what have you.
Yeah because when commodities prices are collapsing that accounts for 12% of the Australian economy and employs 100,000s of people, what you need to do is give tax breaks to industry that employs less 10,000 people.
And has been more successful than other parts of what I carefully call the 'Australian arts' to which we already give millions of dollars, but have the advantage of adding to a traditional and conservative view of Australian prestige.

Not to mention that with the fall of commodity prices and borrowing at its cheapest this is the best time to invest in the service and technology industries that are already carrying the Australian economy.

12%? Fuck mate, last financial year Sydney made up 23% of Australia's GDP and accounted for 37.9% of the economy's growth. Finance, service and technology, that's where our future lies. Besides, I'd rather they give tax breaks to the blokes at 2K Australia than fuckin' Rio Tinto.
 

Sarge034

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Feb 24, 2011
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Australia, where gaming goes to die...

All joking aside this is some damn sad news, these guys put out some top notch stuff. But here's hoping the affected creative talent gets to stay with 2K or get hired by someone else willing to use them to their fullest potential. Seriously though, I'm blaming this one on Australia.


Oh, well, we seem to be good still. XD