Don’t Nod, the studio that made “Life is Strange,” hired former games journalist Leigh Alexander to write on their sci-fi game “Aphelion.” Leigh Alexander wrote the famous “Gamers are over” article during GamerGate in 2014. Don’t Nod makes narrative-focused adventure games, so the story and writing are especially important in determining the success or failure of a game like “Aphelion.” “Aphelion” was a game with a production budget of about $10 million and Don’t Nod was a studio with 85 full-time employees whose livelihoods were dependent on the success of the game. On Steam, “Aphelion” peaked at just 219 users, and is estimated to have sold between 4000 and 7000 copies on the platform. Today, the studio closed and everyone is fired. There have been over 37,000 layoffs and jobs lost to studio closures in the video games industry since 2024. Game designers like Leigh Alexander believe they get to decide who their audiences are, but they don’t. They have to make games that appeal to gamers, because gamers are the only people who reliably buy games. Whoever “Aphelion” was for, that audience didn’t show up to play it.