The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
Please vote in the Forum Structure Poll. Polling will close at 2PM EST on January 21, 2025.
Mourning Those (Developers) You Loved
SkyEye
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
This will be a thread where we celebrate the great game dev teams that were dissolved by their corporate masters. They're never actual "deaths" of course; it's always part of a great "restructuring plan" by HQ in order to mazimize revenue and minimize overhead. Too bad, because while the games they made may not have been profitable, they were fun.
Anyone remember Smilebit, the Sega developer that made the Panzer Dragoon and Jet Set Radio games? While I can't attest to the Saturn versions, the Xbox games were some of the best flops on the system. Why didn't the original Xbox market love you, Smilebit? Unfortunately, critical acclaim is never a guarantor of commercial success.
What about FASA Studios, the first party dev for Microsoft Game Studios? MechAssault was okay (though great for a Live launch title), but Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is one of my favorite games. You might even say it's good enough for a fan like myself to write a Wikipedia article about. One flop, however, and it's over. Hopefully Weisman can still find a way to cook up another CS game for 360.
Unfortunately, there's a good chance this list will expand as the recession continues. Any developers that you guys feel have been wronged over the years?
Anyone remember Smilebit, the Sega developer that made the Panzer Dragoon and Jet Set Radio games? While I can't attest to the Saturn versions, the Xbox games were some of the best flops on the system. Why didn't the original Xbox market love you, Smilebit? Unfortunately, critical acclaim is never a guarantor of commercial success.
What about FASA Studios, the first party dev for Microsoft Game Studios? MechAssault was okay (though great for a Live launch title), but Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge is one of my favorite games. You might even say it's good enough for a fan like myself to write a Wikipedia article about. One flop, however, and it's over. Hopefully Weisman can still find a way to cook up another CS game for 360.
Unfortunately, there's a good chance this list will expand as the recession continues. Any developers that you guys feel have been wronged over the years?
SkyEye on
0
Posts
goddamnit
@Bryceforvice on Twitter Facebook
I hope that he can get some of his own designs out there again though.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
Even theit Obligatory Capcom Sequel (Viewtiful Joe 2 - that I'm fairly sure they didn't want to make) spanked the pants off of most every other action game at the time.
But they're back, in the form of whoever it was that did MadWorld (?)
I want my fucking Dungeon Keeper 3. Fuckers.
Got into the RTS genre with the awesome Dune II, perfected it with the Command & Conquer series.
Steam: Feriluce
Battle.net: Feriluce#1995
Arcanum AND V:TM:B?
Jesus.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Also, the Austin Ion Storm branch.
huh? what?
I follow ya.
edgy
Losing Smilebit was the worst thing to happen to Sega. Also UGA(Tetsuya Mizuguchi went on to form Q Entertainment instead).
Do Working Designs count? If not, Troika.
Psygnosis
"...only mights and maybes."
uh
Orta was on the Xbox buddy
I know, just saying that I've played the Saturn ones, and they're not as good.
oh
what an odd way to structure your thoughts
God dammit why did you have to go
I mean, I actually do like the halo series
but maaan I want some myth-style narratives
There was a time in the late 80s, early 90s when the genre adventure games strode the world like a colossus. They where as gods in those days.
I wouldn't worry about that, he worked on Madworld.
I'm not sure I want though. According to PC GAmes that weren't it was gonna be a generic RTS.
Goddamnit.
Well that is my main three.
Bullfrog I miss because well Pupulous, Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park and Theme Hospital. I lost so many hours playing those.
Westwood gave me Dune II, which I played the shit out of. At least the C&C series has been revived with all the gloriously cheesy live action cutscenes it deserves.
Origin had Ultima Underwold, along with Wing Commander, System Shock, Privateer and the Crusader series, which was bottled awesome to my child self. (I can nuke or freeze people with these guns?)
I will give a shout out to Strategy First, which while not gone might as well be.
Ocean
Epyx
U.S Gold (I remember the c64 splash screen well)
Are Activision still about? I'm out of touch now. If they're not then I miss them too
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Bullfrog made some of the finest fucking games ever; Molyneux at his best. I like Fable, but I don't think it would hurt him to look backwards instead of forward, as his studio's games are still fucking amazing and innovative by today's standards.
Looking Glass created my all-time favorite series, Thief. Warren Spector is so goddamn awesome (also mourning Origin), though I suppose I am referring to the "Looking Glass" family rather than the studio itself - e.g. Ion Storm and Irrational. As I understand, many of them are at 2k Boston now.
Troika is kind of a bittersweet memory. On one hand, their games were broken as fuck, but on the other, Vampire is still one of the most well-written games ever, Arcanum is one of the strongest examples of world building in a single player game, and Temple of Elemental Evil was the best videogame conversion of a P&P RPG system ever. I suppose their eventual collapse was inevitable. I sure would've fucking liked to have seen that first-person Arcanum sequel, though.
Did they just get renamed, or 'merged' into another Sega team?
Also, Psygnosis (I loved the idea of G-Police, but they were at least one console generation short of actually being able to deliver on its promise).
And Looking Glass (although I think that's pretty much implied by everyone)
# Populous (1989)
# Populous II (1991)
# Syndicate (1993)
# Magic Carpet (1994)
# Theme Park (1994)
# Syndicate: American Revolt (1994)
# Magic Carpet 2 (1995)
# Syndicate Wars (1996)
# Dungeon Keeper (1997)
# Theme Hospital (1997)
# Populous: The Beginning (1998)
# SimTheme Park
# Dungeon Keeper 2 (1999)
R.I.P
Dungeon keeper was one of my absolute favourites.
Troika had massive ideas but terrible execution. Also, Atari gutted Temple of Elemental Evil to make it fit a teen rating. I would love to play the game that Troika wanted to make instead of Temple of Elemental kind-of-unpleasentness.