Stoic Studio

Stoic is a video game development company located in Austin, Texas. Founded by three ex-BioWare staff in December 2011, Stoic is most known for developing the tactical role-playing video game The Banner Saga (2014) and its sequels, The Banner Saga 2 (2016) and The Banner Saga 3 (2018).

Stoic
IndustryVideo games
FoundedDecember 26, 2011 (2011-12-26)
Headquarters
Austin, Texas
,
U.S.
Key people
Arnie Jorgensen
John Watson
Alex Thomas
ProductsThe Banner Saga series
Number of employees
27
Websitestoicstudio.com

History

Stoic was founded by Arnie Jorgensen, John Watson and Alex Thomas in early 2012. They left BioWare in 2012 after finishing the production of Star Wars: The Old Republic and wanted to make their "dream game", which would then become The Banner Saga.[1] Using crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Stoic successfully funded the game within 2 days,[2] though the team initially wanted to fund the game using their own personal savings.[3] The funds raised far exceeded their expectations, thus the team expanded the game's scope to include more features. The team partnered with Versus Evil, which served as the game's publisher, providing services such as quality assurance. The multiplayer portion of the game was soft launched by Stoic in February 2013 via Steam as a standalone game as The Banner Saga: Factions,[4] while the full game was released in January 2014.[5] The game was a critical and commercial success, thus the team was able to fund the development of The Banner Saga 2 by themselves.[3]

With development lasting for two years, The Banner Saga 2, like its predecessor, also received generally positive reviews when it was released in April 2016.[6] When Watson reflected on the game's development, he noted that the team starting crunching as the team slowly ran out of money.[7] The game commercial performance disappointed Stoic, with the title selling just a third of its predecessors.[8] Watson attributed the game's failure to the team neglecting the franchise's community, while Versus Evil's General Manager Steve Escalante believed that the game's underwhelming performance was mainly due to increased competition from other titles.[9][10] The team returned to Kickstarter again for The Banner Saga 3. While Stoic funded most of the game's development, the funds raised via Kickstarter was spent hiring an animation studio, a sound studio and a recording studio in Iceland to assist the title's development. The $200,000 funding goal was reached within a week.[11] The game, the third and last entry in the trilogy, was released on July 26, 2018.[12] 505 Games released a retail bundle containing all three games on the same day.[13]

Games
YearTitlePlatform(s)
2013 The Banner Saga: Factions Microsoft Windows
2014 The Banner Saga Android, iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
2016 The Banner Saga 2 Android, iOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
2018 The Banner Saga 3 Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

References
  1. Curtis, Tom (March 19, 2012). "When ex-BioWare devs make their own strategy RPG". Gamasutra. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  2. Hillier, Brenna (March 21, 2012). "The Banner Saga fully funded in under 48 hours". VG 247. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  3. Batchelor, James (March 14, 2016). "The Stoic Saga: How the team battled personal debt and 'perpetual crunch'". MCV. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  4. Sarker, Samit (February 20, 2013). "The Banner Saga: Factions soft-launched by Stoic, launching publicly Feb. 25". Polygon. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  5. Duncan, Alasdair (November 8, 2013). "The Banner Saga will be out in January 2014". Destructoid. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  6. Matulef, Jeffery (May 12, 2016). "The Banner Saga 2 launch detailed". Eurogamer. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  7. Watson, John (June 10, 2016). "Postmortem: Stoic Studio's The Banner Saga 2". Gamasutra. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  8. Donnelly, Joe (January 10, 2017). "Banner Saga 2 technical director laments underwhelming launch: 'Why the hell didn't we get a Kickstarter?'". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  9. Handrahan, Matthew (January 9, 2017). ""We set out to make this trilogy. We can't leave the story unfinished"". Gameindustry.biz. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  10. Handrahan, Matthew (September 5, 2016). "Versus Evil: "We're establishing a new brand every time"". Gameindustry.biz. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  11. Purchese, Robert (January 31, 2016). "The Banner Saga 3 Kickstarter campaign begins". Eurogamer. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  12. Arif, Shabana (April 13, 2018). "The Banner Saga 3 Release Date Announced". IGN. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  13. Hussain, Tamoor (April 13, 2018). "Banner Saga 3 Release Date Confirmed For PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC". GameSpot. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
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