Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney found himself at the center of discussion after his harsh statements about the closure of Looking Glass Studios in 2000 were recalled online. At the time, the company's head stated that studios that went bankrupt due to financial problems deserved to close, and their disappearance paved the way for new developers.
In his message, published on May 25, 2000, on the Through the Looking Glass forum, Sweeney called the closure of Looking Glass not a sad event, but an “economic regularity.” In his opinion, the studio spent too much money creating innovative games that did not achieve sufficient commercial success.
Sweeney also noted that developing unusual niche projects is not a problem in itself, but for survival, such companies need to control costs. He believed that publishers could no longer afford to endlessly finance projects that did not generate profit.
Some studios and teams that will be hit truly deserve it, while others, unfortunately, consist of excellent specialists who simply were unlucky enough to release successful games.
In conclusion, Sweeney used the metaphor of dinosaur extinction, comparing studio closures to natural selection in the gaming industry. According to him, when old life forms disappear, space is freed up for new and more interesting ones to emerge.