Have any of these "Dream Team" studios ever produced anything good, though? Let alone not shut down before a product even releases?
So, the reason you hear about "Dream Team" studios a lot is because they make easy headlines and tell a story to readers more easily.
Telling people about a new studio from people who formerly worked at Naughty Dog and Id Software sparks interest more than a new studio from people who you formerly/currently have never heard of.
You also hear about the failures of "Dream Teams" more because, again, a new studio that had people who formerly worked on successful projects now having a company fail is of more interest than a new studio formed by unknowns unable to add a new success to their 0 success stories.
The ratio of successes and failures of "Dream Teams" compared to upstarts of first-time developers is, I would assume, hugely in favor of the Dream Teams. People who have had success can leverage that for financial backing and talent acquisition and publisher interest, and, at least in the early phases, they can get going at a rate difficult for startups to achieve. Pressure is on, and failure can be public, but if you've done it before, you've got some chance of doing it again. (What the actual ratio is, however, I wouldn't know how to look up or analyze, but the graveyard of failed game studios is massive if you dig into it and there's way, way more hill past the "Dream Team" burial grounds.)
...Depending on what your definition of "Dream Team" is (every start-up studio takes in talent from elsewhere, so for example Respawn started from the implosion of Infinity Ward, but Titanfall 1's Design Director came from Sony Santa Monica,) I can come up with off the top of my head Ready At Dawn, Retro Studios, Neon Giant, The Workshop (which is now Skydance Interactive, ) I believe Iron Galaxy was a combo of a few people.
www.gematsu.com
