Briggs AnalyticsShutting down a video game studio? Your operational data may still have value.
Closing or winding down? You get priority. Buyers pay the most while the company's email, files and accounts are still live, so we look at closing companies first.
What's going on with the business?
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In this article
What is worth the mostExport this firstHow long each system keeps your recordsWhy the timing mattersThe record a buyer asks for firstWhat stops game studio dealsThe checklistWhat is worth the most when a video game studio closes
A studio's records show hundreds of design decisions per title: the doc, the prototype, the playtest, the cut. Code buyers price the repositories on their own, and the tickets and chat around them raise the number. The publisher agreement and the engine license decide what can be in scope.
Two things move the number more than anything else: how many years the systems hold, and how many systems recorded the same work. A 40-person video game studio with 8 years of records sits around $160,000 to $380,000 on the Briggs Analytics estimate; the same company with only 4 years of records sits around $80,000 to $190,000. Those are our estimates, not buyer quotes. A closing company is priced by the buyer after review.
Export this first
The version control depot with its full history, then the bug tracker by build. A build that went to playtest, came back with notes and was cut or shipped is the loop.
| System | What a buyer sees in it |
|---|---|
| Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM | every commit and every branch, including the features that were cut |
| Jira, Hansoft or Shortgrass | bugs by build, playtest findings, milestone tracking |
| Slack or Discord | design arguments, build-break channels, playtest reactions |
| Confluence, Notion or the design wiki | design documents and every revision of them |
| Player support (Zendesk, Helpshift) | crash reports, player complaints and the fix |
How long each system keeps your records after you stop paying
This is the part most shut-down checklists skip. Every vendor has its own clock, and some start it the day the card fails.
| System | The window |
|---|---|
| Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM | Deleted repositories can be restored for a limited time, then they are gone for good. Export with the full history (a mirror clone), not a zip of the current files. |
| Jira, Hansoft or Shortgrass | Atlassian deactivates a cancelled site and deletes it on a schedule it sets. Export the issues with comments and attachments while an admin login still works. |
| Slack or Discord | On the free plan only the last 90 days of messages are visible, so a downgrade hides years of history before anyone notices. Export from a paid plan while you still have one. |
| Confluence, Notion or the design wiki | Work-management tools keep a cancelled workspace readable for a limited period, then delete it. Export projects with comments, not just task lists. |
| Player support (Zendesk, Helpshift) | Zendesk starts permanently deleting service data 90 days after an account is cancelled. (Zendesk) |
Why the timing matters for a video game studio
Perforce and Jira seats lapse with the studio, and hosted depots can be deleted weeks after the card fails. Discord and Slack exports are easy to forget and hard to recover.
The record a buyer will ask to see first
Buyers pay most for a connected trail: the request, the work, the outcome, in the same systems. For a video game studio, that looks like this:
- A design doc, a prototype build, a playtest, the notes, the cut. Studios record that loop hundreds of times per title.
- A crash report from a player, the bug, the branch, the hotfix build, the patch notes.
The thing that stops game studio deals
Two contracts decide the deal: the publisher agreement for each title and the engine license. Both usually allow licensing your own process records and forbid licensing the engine source. Your counsel reads them first. Closed studios can still license what they own. Studios whose titles are publisher-owned have less to license from the shipped code, and more from their own process around it. Independent studios with their own IP have the most.
The shut-down checklist for a video game studio
- Do not cancel anything yet. Vendors delete closed accounts on their own schedules. Hold cancellations until the export is done.
- List the systems. For a video game studio that usually means Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM, Jira, Hansoft or Shortgrass, Slack or Discord. Write down how many years each holds and who still has admin access.
- Check the rights. Two contracts decide the deal: the publisher agreement for each title and the engine license. Both usually allow licensing your own process records and forbid licensing the engine source. Your counsel reads them first. Closed studios can still license what they own.
- Take the two-minute estimate, then get our review. It asks about people, years and systems. You don't send any files to find out. If it looks real, we review the company and tell you what we think it could be worth and what the next step would be.
- Export, get paid, then cancel. Do the export while the admin accounts still work. Keep the subscriptions you need until the export is confirmed.
See what your company's operational data could be worth.
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In short
- Closing a video game studio? A studio's records show hundreds of design decisions per title: the doc, the prototype, the playtest, the cut.
- Export first: Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM. Do not cancel subscriptions until the export is done.
- Briggs Analytics estimate for a 40-person game studio business with 8 years of records: $160,000 to $380,000. Not an offer.
- Briggs Analytics doesn't charge business owners.
Questions owners ask.
Does the game's source code get shared?
Only what the agreement you approve says, and only the code you own. Licensed engine source stays out. Buyers describe wanting the history around the code as much as the code.
Our studio closed. Too late?
No. A closed studio that still owns its repositories, tickets and chat exports can license them. Buyers for closed companies exist for exactly that.
We are closing the game studio business in two weeks. Is that enough time?
It can be, if the export happens this week. The hard deadline is each vendor's deletion clock, not the buyer's. Start with Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM.
Does licensing get in the way of winding down properly?
It does not have to. A license gives a buyer a copy, and your originals stay with you for whatever retention rules apply to your industry. Ask your lawyer how those rules apply to you.
Closing or winding down? You get priority. Buyers pay the most while the company's email, files and accounts are still live, so we look at closing companies first.
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