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Reader Comments (17)

Posted: Jan 14th 2009 8:57AM cuteSAVAGE said

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Wonder what affect this will have on Saboteur if true. I'm pretty sure that one was split between the two studios.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 9:01AM iHavePants said

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No that was being worked on in the American branch, those involved from the Australian Pandemic working on the game actually went over to America to do so, same story with Mercenaries 2 for the most part.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 9:07AM cuteSAVAGE said

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Ah, well. That's good news. Still hope they are in tact though, and if not, hope they can work out new development arrangements either independently or tied to another publisher. The whole of Pandemic was such a beacon of awesomeitude last generation.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 8:59AM iHavePants said

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Well it's looking awesome to me as a student in game development in Australia, two of some of our biggest developers down in 2 years, FUCKYEAR. Hope someone picks them up but in the current business climate, I'm not too positive.

This is depressing. Oh well, indie development is looking shinier and shinier.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 10:41AM LaughingTarget said

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Say hello to the positive side of a recession. When times are fat, weak organisms can survive. When times are lean, weak organisms die. It is the lean times that allow newer concepts to come to light when in good times, the bigger but weak ones would otherwise crush them.

This is when indie studios will shine and become tomorrow's major studios. It's best to get in on the ground floor and not look to a dying entity. Recessions end when the new business comes to market, bringing with it new future hope.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 9:08AM TheDarkWayne said

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that sucks, DAH wasnt so great but it's still a shame. Hope those unannounced projects werent anything great. I especially hope they weren't The Dark Knight game I so desperately hope for
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 9:14AM ScottG13 said

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DAH was terrific until they handed it off to a poor developer.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 10:44AM LaughingTarget said

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I thought the series was dull and uninspired from the start. The basic premise was cool, but stealing the Asgard from Stargate SG-1 as the history behind Crypto's species and the insanely limited gameplay options killed what was a cool idea.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 10:51AM ScottG13 said

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Lets be clear. This is a PS2 era gen series, as well. For what it was at the time, it was pretty solid. The current gen title actually regressed.

Very sad.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 10:58AM LaughingTarget said

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I know, played the original on the Xbox the week it came out. Found it boring then. They lacked mission variety, the art direction was sterile and the game itself was too easy. Again, great concept, terrible execution. The first game turned me off from the rest of the series.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 11:04AM (Unverified) said

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I don't get the way the industry works. The rate of studio turnover is insanely high.. and they'll probably go bankrupt, then form a new studio with a different name, then get picked up by EA for a sequel to DAH.

I have the feeling that there is some playing the system going in somewhere, and by constantly bankrupting and restarting studios they are getting some kind of benefit from the tax system or something...
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 1:47PM (Unverified) said

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While conspiracy theories are fun, in reality it's just people realizing how deep this recession is. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it will get worse. Natural recovery is being actively thwarted by political meddling in the US, and no matter what grief you have with the US, we lead the way for the world economy.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 8:15PM (Unverified) said

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Its the industry...
It's a fact that even at the best of times... games companys either run out of money on production due to high staffing costs and poor decision in Design. Or the publisher will simply pullout when they think the market timing is wrong or the game isnt hitting the mark or deadline!

In this case, the recession doesn't help either of course.

I am guessing the decisions came from the US so obviously they will want to keep foreign costs to a minimum.

Whatever happened here.... I feel bad for those guys in Aussie, but I am also glad I didn't go to work there when I had the chance!
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 10:16PM (Unverified) said

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The recession sure isn't helping, but its been happening like this for years... (and didn't the game industry grow by like 40% this year? )

Maybe it happens, but i don't remember movie studios (/production companies) getting shut down after every 1 or 2 movies... its hugely inefficient and essentially they just keep reconstituting the same teams every 2 years anyway... just with new logos and offices.

Imagine if most companies fired each dept. after each successful project, jsut to re-hire basically the same guys to do the same job in a dept. with a different name. and then do it again. :-o
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 12:18PM doreo said

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Hmmm Pandemic is up for grabs then... So with the current state of the economy, the $500 I have saved up should be more than enough to buy them. I'm gonna go send them an offer, but it looks like pandemic will be MINE!
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 2:02PM Deck said

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Well at least they were technically layed off, closed or shutdown. Though the likelyhood of them finding a new publisher may be slim, at least there is a hope for them to retain their jobs.
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Posted: Jan 14th 2009 2:03PM Deck said

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Errr... that was supposed to read: were not*
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