VFX Studio Hub Shuts Down After 24 Years – Impact on the Gaming Industry

VFX Studio Hub Shuts Down After 24 Years – Impact on the Gaming Industry

Hub’s famous reveal trailer for Dead Island contributed significantly to Techland’s current popularity, making cinematic trailers the standard for triple-A game marketing.

Hub Studios, the VFX company behind the cinematic reveal trailer for 2011’s Dead Island, has gone into administration. According to GamesIndustry, its shutdown has resulted in 162 employees being laid off.

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, and founded in 2000, the studio created cinematic trailers for numerous games. Alongside Techland’s zombie game, Hub worked on projects for Microsoft (Halo, Gears of War), Riot Games (League of Legends: Wild Rift), and Digital Extremes (Warframe).

Per Scotland’s Interpath Advisory head Alistair McAlinden, the studio had been losing projects recently. This, combined with an “increase in labor costs,” greatly impacted Hub, whose directors reportedly explored alternatives before opting for administration.

In addition to games, Hub also worked in television and film, contributing to VFX for Doctor Who, Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk.

“Hub has been a studio of choice for key production companies and has produced content for household names,” added McAlinden. “It is a great shame to see a creative business in Scotland close its doors.”

Hub’s Layoffs and Industry Impact

While layoffs have occurred in the industry over the past several years, most have affected those working directly on game development. VFX studios, though an arm of marketing, are no less vital to any game’s success.

The cinematic trailer for Dead Island was controversial for depicting a dead child and not being reflective of the actual game. However, it was also so popular that Techland tweaked the game’s content in response to online reactions, and it even won an award at Cannes’ advertising festival.

In the following years, other games would be revealed with cinematic trailers of similar style or tone. Not all of them accurately reflected the games they represented, but they likely wouldn’t exist without Hub laying the groundwork.