The developer is asking fans to pirate the game

The game Rollerdrome is otherwise the fruit of the British game studio Roll7, which Take-Two Interactive is said to have discontinued at the beginning of the year.

Rollerdrome was originally released in 2022 as an exclusive game for the PlayStation console. The following year, Rollerdrome was added to the Xbox Game Pass program. Rollerdrome is a rather unusual game. It combines skateboarding with shooting and has received positive reviews from critics for its fast-paced action gameplay, aesthetics and imaginative ideas.

Anisa Sanusi, who was the UI designer for Rollerdrome, praised the game on its second anniversary, but at the same time urged fans to pirate it, as none of the original developers work at Roll7 anymore. Her request sounds very strange, but it is understandable if we know the background of what happened in the company at the beginning of the year.

In May, Take-Two Interactive reportedly closed Roll7 and Intercept Games and fired everyone who developed Rollerdrome. Even more controversial is the information that Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of Take-Two, had previously raised his salary by 26 million dollars and that the Roll7 studio was writing a success story before its closure. They've developed quite a few well-received games - OlliOlli World is a good example - so business was good, so the news of the closure was all the more shocking. Even worse, Take-Two denies that they closed both studios. Employee reports, however, tell a different story.

Overall, 2024 was a very difficult year for the gaming industry. The cost of making games is constantly rising, the profits of some companies are not increasing, which has led to mass layoffs in many studios, at least 11,500 employees have lost their jobs so far. Among the companies that have laid off employees are Microsoft, Sega, Twitch, Embracer Group, Unity, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Epic Games, Sony and many other famous names.

However, even in the midst of such a difficult period, some positive surprises can still happen. Recently, PUBG publisher Krafton took over Tango Gameworks, which was closed down by Microsoft in May this year. The company recently rehired about half of the original team that worked on Hi-Fi Rush, acquired the rights to publish the next game in the franchise, and is said to be reviving the popular series.

Unfortunately, it is unlikely that the same will happen to Roll7 Studios, or Rollerdrome, or most of the other studios that have closed or lost most of their workforce this year.

This isn't the first time a developer has publicly supported piracy of their game either. Russian studio Four Quarters has also "allowed" fans to pirate their Loop Hero game if they can't afford to buy it or the game isn't available in their country. Developers are also of the opinion that piracy is a better option than resellers of digital keys, from which developers do not get a share of the profits, which is a particularly hard blow for smaller developers.