It always sucks when a studio shuts down. It’s a common occurrence in the current landscape where developers are suffering from layoffs, live service failures, and struggle to raise funds in an industry where everyone is afraid to take risks right now. If you want to make a new game outside the triple-A system, you either need to be incredibly lucky or offer an idea so unique and groundbreaking that people can’t help but take notice.
Casey Hudson’s independent studio Humanoid Origin wasn’t so lucky, announcing that, just a few years after opening its doors, it will be closing up shop after failing to secure funds for its debut project. Sporting 70 employees or so, according to Linkedin, the developer was aiming to create an ambitious sci-fi blockbuster in a similar vein to Mass Effect. Considering Hudson’s history, this sort of project isn’t a surprise.
Video Games Are In Desperate Need Of Fresh Sci-Fi Ideas
Previously a tenured member of BioWare, Hudson acted as developer and producer on the likes of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the original Mass Effect trilogy, before he returned to the fold following the failed launch of Mass Effect Andromeda to steer Anthem on the right course. This didn’t work out, and in 2020, he left to form his own studio.
The goal of this developer, I imagine, was to create a game with a similar size, scope, and ambition to a game like Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic, but outside the triple-A system where original ideas can flourish. No more focus-testing or chasing outdated trends, just a love for creating games and telling stories. But Humanoid Origin never got the opportunity.
“In our time together, the team achieved incredible progress, and demonstrated that it’s possible to do amazing work while fostering a culture of fun and creativity,” reads Humanoid Origin’s farewell statement. “We thank them for their talent, courage, and friendship.”
Now dozens of people are out of work and have to leave the project behind because of dire financial straits they had no control over. It’s an all too common occurrence in video games, and one I bet we are going to see again and again in the years to come. As one of the key figures on the original Mass Effect trilogy, I would have loved to see Hudson’s take on a modern space opera RPG that not only took after BioWare, but sought to redefine the formula he had a hand in creating.
After Dragon Age: The Veilguard stuck so rigidly to what we know, it’s a harder pill to swallow than ever. I wanted to see BioWare take risks and evolve, but instead it gave us an adventure that tries to please everyone, and in turn satisfies only a few.
And Casey Hudson Might Have Delivered On Those Ambitions
Little is known about the project that Humanoid Origin spent the past several years trying to get off the ground beyond a few pieces of concept art featured on the official website. Given recent events, who knows how long those will remain online. But it presents an inviting sci-fi world made up of strange yet familiar technology, grand alien obelisks occupying the surface of foreign planets, luscious nightclubs filled with bantering patrons, and a lone adventurer ready to explore the great beyond. All grand images you’d expect from a pitch like this, but it’s also reminiscent of the best parts of not only Mass Effect, but other sci-fi universes just like it.
These are the foundations you need to establish to create a living, breathing world, and the website is populated by employee testimonials that all seem excited about what they intend to build. I’m thinking of massive hypotheticals here, but this project could have been the shot in the arm triple-A sci-fi storytelling needed in order to reinvent itself.
Baldur’s Gate 3 felt like a similar paradigm shift in how it showed that mainstream and hardcore audiences alike are willing to be challenged by more complex RPG mechanics so long as the world and stories it tells are thoroughly engaging. Not everything needs to be simple to be approachable, a misconception I think BioWare has failed to acknowledge since the release of Andromeda.
It sucks that we’ll never see what Humanoid Origin had in the works, and that we now exist in a gaming landscape where an experience that could have challenged the triple-A world is nothing but ashes. I hope everyone lands on their feet and has a chance to tell this story in the future.