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The Termination of GRIN STUDIOS the makers of TERMINATOR SALVATION: THE GAME

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Reported by TheTerminatorFans.com
on 13th August 2010

The Terminator franchise is renowned for leaving a trail of financial devastation in its wake. The 3rd and 4th installments have been successful in their own rights, yet lacking that ultimate punch to make the big big big money instead of just making big money. Grin Studios is one of those companies. Terminator isn't just to blame but it is a contributing factor, damaging the company or at least weakening the power within.

The Grin Studios logo will forever remain one of our favourite logos! and will always be associated with hype and news surrounding a Terminator Salvation computer game and face it... the game and The Machinima Series added some much needed depth to the world portrayed in Terminator Salvation (2009).

Mass layoffs lead up to the inevitable closing of the studios.

Terminator Salvation needed to be what it says on the tin "The Salvation of the Terminator series" . So why did a games company that was just starting to have success suddenly bomb off the face of the earth after the release of Terminator Salvation, The Game?

Let's investigate the factors:

Terminator Salvation: The Game...

What could have helped to end Grin Studios as far as a Terminator computer game is concerned?

1. PC Edition recalled due to problem with discs disallowing gamers to play their copies on their PC systems.

Obviously having to recall a product on the scale that Salvation The Game did must impact on a distributer aswell as a studio. In the scheme of profit and loss you must account for the cost of materials (packaging, disc, burning the game onto the disc), wages of workers involved in these fields, repaying these people to make a working copy, then redistributing the whole lot all over again! So, first shipments all recalled due to a fault in the duplication phase (meaning installation errors and other faults rendering the game UNPLAYABLE!).

Verdict: So we have lost money! Damaging the game's success before it has even begun and pissing off alot of PC gaming Terminator Fans!

2. Priced very high for a game you can complete in under 3 hours:

Statistically the game was more liked than disliked, mostly people really did like this game but wanted a more fleshed out installment. The story was lacking and you could tell it was rushed, this however, was not Grin's fault! It was that of The Halcyon Co. The Halcyon co. rushed Grin, they also made them scrap an early version of the game. Maybe if Grin had been left to flesh out their concept game the game would have been bigger... ?

Verdict: Rushed game/short game span at premium price = not all reviews are nice.

3. No extras:

Again a by-product of the game being rushed is the fact you couldn't unlock anything! IF you had the XBOX 360 version all you could bag is a decent amount of gamer points in little time at all and if you completed the game on extreme mode (skipping easy and medium modes) You would unlock every achievment and points you needed, leaving little room for enthusiasm to carry on playing (it did warrant a re-play with its fun cover, shoot tactics).

Verdict: More time could have meant some cheats or some unlockables, the game makers still fail to give us a Terminator character to unlock (in games that have you playing as human characters), this would have been the big boost needed.

GRIN TERMINATION THEORIES:

 

So how could Terminator Salvation The Game be the cause of Grins demise? The truthful answer is yes Terminator is a big name to play up to... The truth is Halcyon are to blame for the movie McG pushed forward. The game lacked that vital support which only financial backing can provide and maybe, if Halcyon and its two owners Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek had seen Terminator Salvation as a work of love rather than a potential cash-cow, we would have been presented with a better terminator movie and a game more supported for the gamers.

How much better would the game be say, if you complete it in 3 hours then a month later you could hook your console up to the net and download a new chapter as downloadable content, this would make the game an ongoing influx of money but the feature was never thought of, or should we say cared to be thought of, as all Halcyon wanted was "easy money".

What needs to be understood is; you have to give to get, speculate to accumulate, rushing people at their jobs and shitting on a mythology/saga will never please the people who have their wallets at the ready to buy your product.

So, from where we stand we reckon The Halcyon Co. left Grin on the floor with a few cuts and brusies, then along came Square Enix (who had Grin basically making a Final Fantasy game), yes Grin was rising that far up the ladder!

The Halcyon Co. Pissed lot's of people off including Christian Bale

Now as a website we need to be careful how we word this but let's just say a big Japanese gaming firm decided to walk away from Grin and leave them for dead.

For those fans who missed our interview with Tomislav Spajic, an environment artist for Terminator Salvation; the game, here's a quick recap of what we found out...
Pre-production work for "Fortress" began in the latter part of 2008 when Square Enix outsourced to Swedish developer Grin. The development team based in Stockholm began creating concept art, 3D models and a game engine, imagining "Fortress" as a "game with an epic scale both in story and production values". However after six months of development the project was reclaimed by Square Enix without payment to Grin due to "concerns over quality". Square Enix's withdrawal pushed the Swedish developer into financial difficulty and with no other ongoing game project this led to Grin sadly declaring bankruptcy. The developer closed its offices August 12th 2009.

Grin was no more... The big people sucked it of life and left it to die in a puddle of pixelated blood. Talented people had to find new jobs at other reputable gaming companies, the official website went offline. However not all bad news;

Taken from official Xbox source:

Some of the company's developers, led by Terminator Salvation lead programmer Peter Bjorklund, have banded together and formed Outbreak Studios in Goteborg, Sweden. While the closing of GRIN is unfortunate, it's good to know that many of the talented individuals who were a part of the last year's releases will be pushing forward on their own.

It's great to hear and we wish them every success in bringing us some great games in the future but most probably not Terminator games... who knows maybe they will be approached when future Terminator movies get made.

R.I.P. GRIN and for every door that closes another one opens. So welcome Outbreak Studios in Goteborg.

This information could be slightly out-dated.

However Wikipedia states:

Another company name mentioned to stem from Grin... Might and Delight, which will focus on small, downloadable games.[6] The former lead engineers of GRIN started the studio BitSquid together with the owners of Fatshark.[7] Former quality assurance members formed a separate studio called Trinity QA Studio in June 2010.[8]

Overall Verdict:

So it looks like alot of talented people went on to form a few different companies which means today Grin isn't really dead, it lives on in the very gaming industry surrounding you.

If you're reading this... you are the gaming resistance

The Future

Fatshark release Bionic Commando Rearmed 2...

Grin lives on...