Forspoken Didn't Help Luminous Productions; Big Changes in Studio
The moderate success of Forspoken apparently proved insufficient for Luminous Productions to continue operating in its current form. The team responsible for the game will soon be absorbed by Square Enix.
Originally Project Athia, and eventuallyForspoken was supposed to be one of the hits of early 2023. Unfortunately, the hopes placed in the project were not fulfilled. The game was met with less than enthusiastic reception from both critics, as well as players, mainly due to numerous technical issues and uninteresting storyline. The ambitious project also did not help the devs at studio Luminous Productions, which, as it turns out, will soon end its activities in its current form..
The information was conveyed in a message published on the company's channel on Twitter. The statement reads that as of May 1, 2023, the Luminous Productions team will become part of parent company Square Enix (within which it had been operating as an internal team since 2018), losing its de facto status as an independent devteam.
However, this does not mean that the developers will stop working on improving Forspoken. The developers stressed that they are "still completely focused" on their title. This is evidenced by an update currently in the pipeline to improve the game's performance, as well as DLC scheduled for the summer, called In Tanta We Trust. You can read the full announcement below:
While the exact reason for the pseudo-shutdown has not been disclosed, the announcement comes just weeks afterForspoken began receiving cold reviews.
The developers did not reveal whether the team's absorption by Square Enix would mean the end of Luminous Engine, the proprietary graphics engine that was undoubtedly one of the company's greatest achievements. Recall that the technology was used in both of Luminous Productions' titles: Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken.
