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Factor 5 shuts down US operations

by Alexander Sliwinski { May 14th 2009 at 1:15PM }

Factor 5 officially announced the closure of its US operations recently, concluding a story that feels like it's been just out of reach for half a year. The developer had been having some rough times since the poignant failure of Lair. Following that, there was its falling out with Brash Entertainment (which led to layoffs), leaks of the Superman and Kid Icarus games, and, obviously, the closure of the studio.

The bright side on this really dark tale is that Achim Moller, CEO of Factor 5 Germany, states the company has "partnered with both old and new friends in the industry who will reveal our upcoming projects over the next months." With E3 visible in the smog-filled distance, perhaps we'll learn what the German-based developer is up to soon.

[Via Kotaku, Siliconera]

Rumor: Factor 5 shuts down

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 22nd 2008 at 3:00PM }

What's Santa putting in developer stockings this year? Unemployment, apparently. Following earlier rumors of a 50-percent cut in staff at Factor 5, internet murmuring now suggests that the Lair and Rogue Squadron developer has closed its doors completely. According to an alleged forum post by IGN's Matt Casamassina, which in turn cites an "inside source," today marked the end of Factor 5's operations. It seems the infamous Brash bailout had more severe repercussions than we previously suspected.

Joystiq has contacted relevant parties in order to obtain more concrete information -- as well as more concrete. With all these depressing stories, we're going to need a dam to hold all these tears.

[Via NeoGAF]

Rumor: Factor 5 cuts 37 jobs

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Dec 16th 2008 at 11:40AM }

Speaking to a "well-placed source," Edge Online reports that Rogue Squadron developer Factor 5 laid off 37 employees on Friday, December 12th. This leaves around 38 workers to continue development on one or more projects which may or may not be canceled, depending on whose blog you read and how quickly it gets deleted from the internet.

While most would speculate that the drama has its origin in Factor 5's botched deal with Brash, Edge's source claims, "The thing that bothers me the most about it all is they could have avoided all of this ages ago. It wasn't really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn't help much either." According to the source, the last time Factor folks got so much as a fiver was on October 15th. That's grimmer than most of Lair's reviews.

Factor 5 dev blogs about canceled title, later deletes post

by Griffin McElroy { Dec 8th 2008 at 2:26PM }

Nearly every company in the video game industry has taken a hit during this economic fiasco -- though we've seen a few cases where the full brunt of the recession has come down on certain developers and publishers. Factor 5, creator of the wildly criticized Lair, appeared to be the latest company to suffer under the credit crunch -- one of its employees, Sam Baker (who blogs under the moniker MISTASAM), recently posted about "financial issues" which kept his fellow developers from receiving payment and health care benefits, and ultimately led the company to "stop production" on a project he'd been working on for eight months.

However, this post (cached version), as well as every other post on Baker's blog, disappeared quickly after its publication, and was replaced by a brief correction. In this follow-up post, Baker explains that the closure of Brash Entertainment, whom Factor 5 was working with on what was rumored to be a new Superman title, had caused the economic distress. Baker adds that whatever game Factor 5 was developing for Brash is still alive and well (and was never "in trouble"), and that the rest of the studio's projects are "doing great".

This second post is confusing and somewhat contradictive, to say the least. While the erasure of Baker's entire blog certainly gives off an air of impropriety, we can't be certain of what exactly is going on at Factor 5. With the inital post mentioning employee layoffs, we certainly hope the cheery exposition of the second post proves accurate -- not just because of our concern for our fellow man, but because we really want a new Rogue Squadron game.

Factor 5 speaks out on 'Superman' game

by Jason Dobson { Nov 17th 2008 at 5:00PM }

Last week's closure of Brash Entertainment left a number of unanswered questions lingering, and as thrilled as we are that Saw is still set to get its game on, we're more curious to find out if Superman survived the publisher's swift implosion. The Man of Steel was allegedly the subject of a deal between Brash and Factor 5 earlier this year, and MTV Multiplayer recently caught up with the Lair developer's president, Julian Eggebrecht, to find out more.

While the exec admitted that Factor 5 is working on "several" multi-platform and Wii-specific titles, he stopped just short of admitting that the studio is developing a game based on Superman. "One of our large-scale multi-platform projects was started with Brash because it is a dream property for us, hasn't been given its dues in gaming since the Atari 2600, and has a huge universe to draw from," teased Eggebrecht, who added that "things are obviously in flux and we hope that the game proves to be as indestructible as our hero..."

Though still unconfirmed, it seems fairly obvious that Factor 5 has its sights set on the son of Jor-El. We just hope that there's something left of him after his current cross-universe beatdown.

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup minus Garfield plus Lair

by Ross Miller { Apr 20th 2008 at 5:30PM }

For those who haven't seen Garfield minus Garfield, you've really been missing out. It's not the most brilliant Photoshop we've ever done, but the Garfield void can sometimes be easily filled with a character foil to Jon's manic depression ... enter Lair. Here are our picks for the week's best game-related webcomic; polling after the break.

Square Peg, Round Hole (Dueling Analogs)Gamer Revisionist History (Digital Unrest)
We are living in a Materia World (Penny Arcade)
Like a Sturgeon (VG Cats)
The Deal with Airline Food (Awkward Zombie)
strongbad_email.exe (2P Start)
Naked News is Off the Air (Funny Farm)

Continued →

PSN Tuesday: Lair goes analog, Super Stardust HD expands

by Ross Miller { Apr 15th 2008 at 1:00PM }

Along with a revamped PSN Store, we usher in the return of PSN ~~Thursdays~~ Tuesdays. Since we're already welcoming back the store and updates, we should probably say something to Lair, who just flew in under our radars with an update to make the game playable -- not only with rumble but also analog controls. He's looking kind of lonely over there in the corner.

Also this week, Super Stardust HD expands its universe with new modes: Endless, Survival, Bomber and Time Attack. Arcade Mode now features the Easy difficulty. A new Retro soundtrack has also been added

Update: SCEA has confirmed that Gran Turismo 5 Prologue will headline the return on PS Store's regularly scheduled Thursday updates this week (April 17th). We'll post the full release list when it becomes available.

Check out the complete list of this week's content after the break. For a listing of Europe's goodies, head over to PS3 Fanboy.

Continued →

Lair updates finally flying in -- will it change people's minds?

by Nick Doerr { Apr 10th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Long, long, long overdue is the update to Lair's control interface, but on April 17th, it's finally arriving on the Japanese PS Store. The update not only allows a left analogue stick control scheme, but a better aiming function as well as two new dragons to mount and ride. Yep -- now you have the Wind and Poison dragons at your beck and call. But that's not all -- new custom themes will be available that change at random on startup. Will we see this stuff outside of Japan? Who knows -- if some of it's free, that stuff won't necessarily have to.

[via N4G]

Upcoming Lair patch to add analog controls

by Ross Miller { Apr 10th 2008 at 10:27AM }

Factor 5's Lair is getting a rather timely update. As reported by IGN in a rare moment of headline snark ("Will this push the score past 5?"), the game will finally support analog controls. The patch, coming out in Japan on April 17 (and likely everywhere else, too), also includes DualShock 3 rumble support, the appearance of a targeting icon and the ability to download the Wind Dragon and Poison Dragon for use in all stages.

As the old adage says, analog controls don't grow on trees. Well, it turns out they do, and that's why it took until Spring to see them bloom and the update to arrive. We expect a resurgence of interest in the title starting ... um ... guys? Are you still here?

Brash taps Lair dev Factor 5 for yet another movie game

by Jason Dobson { Mar 13th 2008 at 1:45PM }

Brash has an unrelenting love for games based on movie IP, and as if patterning its business model after a remake of Freaks, the publisher has convinced yet another developer to become one of us. The latest studio to sign on the dotted line is Lair dev Factor 5, which according to Brash involves an unspecified title to be revealed "around the E3 Expo" in July.

The news follows the announcement yesterday of a deal between Brash and Folklore Dec Game Republic on another secretive movie-to-game deal. While it's true that film-games have earned their place as everyone's favorite whipping boy, Factor 5 co-founder and president Julian Eggebrecht seems pleased as punch about the whole affair, stating that "because the filmmaker is a game fan who is really excited about how we want to expand on the story of the film, we've been given a lot of latitude." Let's just hope this time they leave any motion-sensitive controls up to the professionals.

Rumor: Lair analog patch coming, makes the game much better?

by Nick Doerr { Feb 23rd 2008 at 2:30PM }

You thought you heard the last of Lair, didn't you? While at GDC, a man we will call DugBuzz, states in his IGN blog, seeked out the Factor 5 booth and played around with their new build of Lair that incorporated an analog function. He made a comment about the guy who reviewed the game on IGN after playing the new version: "Greg needs to give them a new score. It was kind of clear that Factor 5 put in the extra effort a little begrudgingly, but the results were amazing. This might push me over the edge into the "must buy PS3" territory."

So there you have it. If you haven't played Lair, or rented it and had a bad taste in your mouth, should this analog patch (which also might fix other things -- just an assumption) come out, we'll let you know. It's then your call whether or not to try it out again, but if this guy has decent tastes, it might just make a potentially great game great. Get it?

Lair control fix may be in the works

by Justin McElroy { Feb 12th 2008 at 10:55AM }

The shoddy SIXAXIS controls may not be Lair's only problem, but it's certainly the one that's taken the brunt of the criticisms pointed at the game. Throughout it all developer Factor 5 has insisted that motion-controlled dragons were the only way to go, but it seems that they may finally be softening.

Recently, the company's president, Julian Eggebrecht, told IGN "If we find a chance in the future that would bring Lair to the audience which didn't get any access, that would be fantastic," he said. "I can't say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there. We might have a chance yet to bring those back to the table and hopefully, if that should happen, they would give the game a second chance." Now, as much as we'd like to see a patch, we get the sneaking suspicion he's hinting at a sequel. What does it sound like to you?

[Update: More of Eggebrecht's quote added.]

[Via PS3F]

Factor 5 might finally fix Lair's control scheme

by Chris Powell { Feb 12th 2008 at 9:30AM }

It's no secret many gamers aren't very happy with Lair's SIXAXIS control scheme. And despite overwhelming requests by gamers the world over for Factor 5 to issue a patch to rectify the issue, months have gone by without any fix for this issue.

However, Factor 5's President Julian Eggebrecht recently hinted that a fix may finally be in the pipeline. "I can't say anything quite yet, but there might be something in the works there," he said. Additionally, he admitted the decision to only include the SIXAXIS control scheme was a mistake. "If you're on a platform where this whole motion control is something new and not being pitched as the main feature of the platform, you should probably give the choice between having different control schemes, there is absolutely no doubt about it," he added.

It's hard not to agree with Eggebrecht, but what a lot of gamers out there want is just a fix for what many believe is crippling controls for an otherwise decent game. Hopefully, Factor 5 chooses to give us what we want.

Best of the Rest: Ross' Picks of 2007

by Ross Miller { Jan 1st 2008 at 8:30PM }

Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3)

While Portal is being given its much deserved credit for the year, and Half-Life 2 has enjoyed years of acclaim, let's not forget about the other pillar of Valve's The Orange Box. It's been eight years since the release of Team Fortress Classic, and the game has undergone so many revisions and delays we half expected it to be released alongside Duke Nukem Forever sometime in 2012. As it turned out, the game not only saw the light of day but ended up being an addictive online experience.

As a console gamer enjoying this with a gamepad, I don't care much much for the sniper, soldier, demoman, or anything except medic and occasionally the engineer. There's something brutally satisfying about charging into battle behind a heavy weapons guy, dodging the occasional bullet (people still haven't learned) and injecting him with a team-killing jolt of invincibility. Hours of enjoyment and not a single bullet shot. Pure. Enjoyment.

Continued →

BioShock kindly receives AP's game of the year award

by Alexander Sliwinski { Dec 17th 2007 at 6:40PM }

The Associated Press put out a pretty good year-end list about games and named BioShock its game of the year. Sure, the AP almost invalidates the entire year-end round-up by mistakenly listing BioShock as available for PlayStation 3; however, because the wire service didn't simply phone in Halo 3 as their game of the year, we'll generously overlook their faux pas. Speaking of Halo 3, the AP actually says it was the "most overrated game" of the year ... not saying we agree, just sayin' is all.

The AP gave more accolades to the likes of The Orange Box for "best deal" and Rock Band for "best game that involves getting off the sofa" while trashing Lair as the "best idea for a game gone horribly wrong." One sentiment that we think everyone can agree with: the federal law requiring all good games to be released within weeks of each other has to be overturned.

[Via X3F]