Another PC only gaming company dies...

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V8VENOM

V8VENOM

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Iron Lore (Titan Quest, Warhammer, Soulstorm) - Brian Sullivan (also co-founder of Ensemble - aka Age of Empires).

It's normal to see PC gaming companies come and go, unfortunately the trend is more doors closing than opening.

 
Probably lack of investor $ for new development.

I assume people with cash would much rather invest in console game development.
 
Yeah, the returns are better on console games. Is a bummer, seems that less funded games (and in most cases crap games) will live on the PC while big budget titles move to consoles.

The evolution of gaming I guess.

 
I wonder if the Xbox360's popularity will help cross platform DEVELOPMENT (ie similarity to PC architecture)?
This could be a blessing or a curse.
With Rising production costs/obsession with investment returns would the ability to deploy to two platforms concurrently with minimal additional development overhead not appeal to the most fiscally irascible penny counter?
 


Iron Lore closed due to financial struggles, but Michael Fitch from THQ has come out and attributed much of those struggles to game piracy. He has some pretty strong words about how illegal downloads put a huge dent in Iron Lore, and he make some interesting points about how it affected a smaller developer like Iron Lore. And honestly, I agree with him.

In case you haven't already seen this, or trolled through the "Disappointed with THG's attitude toward piracy thread":
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=42663
 
I think that's a great cue for us all to go out this week and treat ourselves to a new game. I know what's next on my list........
 


Hmmmm. Do you mean "treat" as in buy, or "treat" as in download without payment?
 
Rob W.

I agree with you...it's a serious problem for everyone involved in the industry. But little is being done about it from a prosecution perspective? Look how hard a battle it is just trying to prevent audio theft.

And go visit just about any web site and you'll see a long list of folks happily admitting they pirate software, audio, and video.

I think the funniest arguement is "it cost too much I can't afford it so I steal it". And then there's the "I like to try it before I buy it", yeah right. Or the even funnier "I buy most of the stuff I like".

It sucks even more because now the industry has to assume everyone is a theif and make increasinly more consumer unfriendly anti-pirate schemes which in turn adds cost to the product.

But you realize Rob W., these folks represent about 75% of your members -- some more open about their theft than others.

Funny how these "poor" souls can afford a $1000-$2000 PC but can't pay $40-$50 for a game or $20 for a DVD or $14 for a CD. Let me get the violins out for these so unfortunate people that "can't afford it".

Jay,

IMHO, NO. I would like to believe cross platform development will bring back some titles, but that just isn't going to happen for several reasons:

1. PC still requires too much tech knowledge
2. Viable gaming PC costs more
3. PC Sales numbers don't justify the port

 
Jay,

IMHO, NO. I would like to believe cross platform development will bring back some titles, but that just isn't going to happen for several reasons:

1. PC still requires too much tech knowledge
2. Viable gaming PC costs more
3. PC Sales numbers don't justify the port
Click to expand...

I hope you're wrong.

*wanders around mumbling*

BUT!

...BUT! SURELY!

1. how much more tech knowledge than grasping the subtleties of the console architecture. You don't really need to code for every PC architecture, the API's make a lot of this transparent to the developer.
2. Is this a consideration for the developer? I would say no.
3. You may be ON TO SOMETHING here, yet AGAIN, I hope you are wrong. The numbers may be lower but IT WOULD APPEAR to me that after writing code for the DIRECT-X box, very minor additional WORK expenditure would reap exponential rewards. (same API's we would hope)
 
if you drive past my house fast i'll forgive you.
if i catch you stealing from my house i'll shoot you!
ok i don't have a gun but you get the idea

if you justify stealing because someone else is speeding your an idiot


people are out looking for work to feed there families but people speed so that justifies me stealing?

again IDIOT!

 
Sure I've gone over the speed limit, daily -- but last I checked that didn't cripple any industry nor force anyone to close shop?

Trust me when I say I've heard every human justification for stealing audio, video, and software.

Now if your analogy was relevant, like "Do you pay for all your software, video, audio?" Then my answer would be absolutely!! Every item, I don't steal, I'm not a thief.

It amazes me all the folks that admit to stealing, don't want to be called a thief. But I guess some people don't want to believe they steal so they figure if they just keep coming up with lame justifications, then eventually they'll actually start to believe they're not a thief.

But for all those that do steal software, audio, video -- next time you get a job (I know that's a stretch), I'm sure you will be fine with NOT getting paid for the work you do.
 



Man this sux, these guys have made some kick @$$ games. I was really hoping that Titan Quest would continue on. :fou: :cry:

 



i have a job, and dont get paid for the work i do....

im a website developer, and i should get around 2.5k for every website i do(i make the full backends, databases the works) but instead i get paid a crummy wage, (15k yr) .... now this is because the work i do at work doesnt belong to me, it belongs to the county i work for... they steal my stuff.


P.s
before someone points out that im an ICT Tech, yes i am, i fix and repair computers as a secondary roll, but my main roll is to develop websites (& unfortunatly design them cause work wont pay for a designer aswell)
 
There are many factors that could be involved besides piracy.

1) Massively Multiplayer Online Games / People buying just one certain game and playing it for many years
2) People playing only shareware or web-browser games.
3) People buying games much later after the release when the game costs half the price or even less / People buying games from other people on E-bay etc.
 
You have to remember that Microsoft and Sony bans for any modifications on the console, I mean ms bans for a 12v fan mod this is a deterrent considering the whole console gets locked.

Just because people who play MMOs doesn't mean they don't play other games and then go back to it.

Just to add I don't download any movies and buy CDs regularly. I buy a lot more games then anything else as well.
 
I hope all you bit torrent downloaders are happy with you self........

Go ahead, rip them, then R.I.P. them...

Intel should be working on anti piracy measures with AMD on their side on their processors.....

Video card manufacturers should be too....

 
I love it, now every time a company has problems it's because of piracy. How many of you have heard of Iron Lore before this happened? Or Titan's Quest? How many of you have played it or know someone who has?

Yeah, they're dead now, I'll go get my tiny violin.
 



you missed my point, the wage is actually very good considering i only have to work for a total of 32 weeks of the year... (i work in a school doing this stuff and get all the school hols off!!)

my point was that no matter what you do someone else is taking credit for your work, unless your the one that owns the company..

for example at university we were told that our final year project would belong to the university and not us, so if we did a final year project we wouldnt be able to sell it when we finished uni cause we would break copyright law. we were told by the lecturers that if we were planning to sell our projects after uni they would recommend making a prototype rather than the actuall product because the final product would of changed enough to be our own.

you know all the breakthroughs universitys have? there just final year projects from there students.
 
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