High Voltage Software lays off 25 employees [update]

I hope this doesn't become Free Radical where they got us all excited for a new game only to go out of business. I'm really hoping they can at least get out Conduit 2.

The $30 price point wasn't enough to convince people to get it.
It honestly felt like it could've been released on WiiWare.

But who's to blame for this? Last I heard the Gladiator game got turned into Tournament of Legends because SEGA wanted High Voltage to - otherwise they wouldn't publish it.
...so does one blame SEGA for this? Or just blame High Voltage for high hype and little follow-through?

Whatever the case, I feel bad for High Voltage. I appreciate them trying to give the Wii much more interesting games, but I feel like they started too late in the game to give too little effort (I think The Conduit might've been more excused if it released in the first months of the Wii's release).

Shocking.

They should make a Conduit game for PS3. I'd buy it. :/

It had to have been hard for "Tournament of Legends" to be released on the heels of the the highly rated $10 WiiWare game "Rage of the Gladiator," especially at a time when the Wii game market seems to be starting to crumble beneath all the shovelware. Customer had to be comparing the two products.

And, getting attention for sustained shelfspace has to be a huge challenge for everyone publising on the Wii. With the direct correlation between ad dollars spent and sales, it seems that Sega just did not do enough to get this game out there in a way to grab everyone's attention.

Again, I have to ask, why isn't Nintendo helping their publishers understand how to market a title beyond its initial release? The distribution and marketing model for these titles isn't working at all, and Sega and other publishers are too quick to dump stock into the overstock market after the couple of months of lackluster sales. Look at EA and how they are dragging out the carcasses of their already released Nerf games this Xmas... or Nintendo's own long-legged releases.

I like the company. I thought the Conduit was okay (though it could have been much better). It's a shame that Conduit 2 could be in jeopardy because of this.

So that's why they didn't call me back after I applied for a job last month.

I like these guys and I hope the studio will be ok. It's true that their games are kind of hit or miss, but they're ambitious and they really do listen to feedback and they do their best.

their wii games have pretty exceptional graphics (for the wii). tournament of legends may have sucked, but the graphics looked pretty damn good (for the wii).

I'm only interested in the PS3 version of The Grinder. Looks exactly like Hunter the Reckoning, which is a good thing.

So long as it doesn't derail Conduit 2 (or the Wii version of The Grinder)

They shouldn't be blamed for Tournament of Legends. The game should have just been canned, rather than the neutered disappointment that emerged. So i suppose they could be blamed if they were the ones who decided to press ahead when Sega declared that they weren't going to invest in Gladiator AD as it was.

the Conduit wasnt that bad, well the single player wasn't anyway. If they can fix all the many issues with multiplayer (OPTIONS please!!!!! - lets turn off the lock on!) and fix the lag, the game would be great.

According to Wikipedia, they had a round of layoffs in 2006 to "right size" the company, so hopefully they know how to do this without tanking.

Sorry for the double post, but I just noted that High Voltage is developing Nickelodeon Fit for 2K Play. If that contract is already signed, then it is more than likely that they will be fine with this round of layoffs and still deliver Conduit 2 on time.