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The Thief games sold very well - read Reasons for the Fall: A Post-Mortem On Looking Glass Studios by James Sterrett for detailed reasons for why LGS went under. The "they didn't sell well" argument is a myth.

L-l-l-look at you, hacker.

Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors.

How you hope to defeat a perfect machieennnneee-chine-(sweating)-perfect-sheen.....

(sorry that's real audio... seems some loser ripped all the sounds are real audio and everybody copied him. if I can find a wav later I'll post a reply)

Obligatory sound clip.

Incidently, here is some information on how to get SS1 working under WinXP.

This is the stupid ass game that caused the death of Looking Glass.

Oh nevermind. I found this article.

Long live Eidos!

is the Thief 2 preview level where you're on the roof! What a great freaking game.

Here's where I go for Info Through the Looking Glass

Really sucks those assholes at eidos killed looking glass so Dikatana could live. morons.

I want rope, gas, fire and moss arrows from the Thief series of games!

Also check out this link: Hackers, Cheaters, and Assholes by Keith Cronin at Destination Morrowind

ION Storm had a burn rate over a million dollars a month. Eidos had to squeeze the life from a couple of other game companies to maintain John-boy's Ferrari for him. Among those was Looking Glass, the group that made Flight Unlimited, Thief and System Shock. Wow! What a great decision that was.

It isn't just the crappy game that JR made, but the wake of destruction he left behind him was incredible and did great harm to the gaming industry.

Check out TTLG, SShock2 and GameSpy for info on the people hoping to keep these games alive.

Actually, some companies did try originality. Let's take, say, Looking Glass. Those guys made *EXCELLENT* games. Thief revolutionized the FPS concept. Thief 2 is one of my fav games ever, and one of the very few remotely recent games that I consider worth my time.

Next thing you know, Looking Glass bites the dust.

Why?

My idea is that if you're reaching for the masses (and if you want to make money with a $50 game, you'd better reach for the masses), you'll have to aim for the masses' Lowest Common Denominator. Kind of like McD, if you want: they sell cheap crap that is successful worldwide because it's the lowest common denominator of food. Maybe it goes the same for games, and the suits, whose priority is to make the most money out of the game, will only approve games with the most basic gameplay...

Sad, indeed. Good thing there are mods...

Actually, some companies did try originality. Let's take, say, Looking Glass. Those guys made *EXCELLENT* games. Thief revolutionized the FPS concept. Thief 2 is one of my fav games ever, and one of the very few remotely recent games that I consider worth my time.

Next thing you know, Looking Glass bites the dust.

Why?

My idea is that if you're reaching for the masses (and if you want to make money with a $50 game, you'd better reach for the masses), you'll have to aim for the masses' Lowest Common Denominator. Kind of like McD, if you want: they sell cheap crap that is successful worldwide because it's the lowest common denominator of food. Maybe it goes the same for games, and the suits, whose priority is to make the most money out of the game, will only approve games with the most basic gameplay...

Sad, indeed. Good thing there are mods...

Looking Glass Studios made some pretty damn scary and atmospheric games.

Thief had me seriously freaked out when I'd play it late at night - and you had to play with the lights out to avoid any glare so you could see in the game.

I finished it aged ago - I should go and get Thief II for Halloween!

True that this game both sucked and (as you said) HELPED killed Looking Glass Studios, but to be honest, and to give a crappy game a chance, LGS may have gone out of business anyways. This has a lot more info on the demise of LGS, with their quick answer as

Looking Glass died because a series of problems compounded each other into a financially lethal situation. No single factor is to blame. No single person or entity killed Looking Glass. No one problem was enough, on its own, to kill the company. Nonetheless, the problems were deadly when combined. .

--

Although not many. Looking Glass Studios, for one, has attracted a pretty rabid following. I know that I, for one, put myself through all kinds of hell getting my system to run the original System Shock, and it was worth every second.

So- why do you think that this one group of developers has been so successful in creating a public image, while others remain obscure?