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Ion Storm Reorganizes
An Anonymous Coward writes: "GameSpyDaily is reporting that both John Romero and Tom Hall are leaving Ion Storm. Most of the Dallas office has been laid off as well. Warren Spector is now in charge. The remains of Ion Storm in Austin are still working on Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3."
This wouldn't have happened if they had added more frogs.
With that kind of track record, I think we have a candidate for Slashdot Editor.
BilldaCat
After the sheer number of horrors that came out of there - both PR and game - I'd expected Romero's time to be limited. Daikatana was, I think, just the final blow. Most of their games were either fatally flawed or just out of date.
The only think you can really say is:
Reality just made John Romero its Bitch.
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Brazil has decided you're cute.
Amazing to see the continued vitriol.
/. young bucks are having the 20 year reunion in 2018. Picture it with me, won't you?
If only Ion Storm had released a 3d shooter called "Storming Ion Storm", in which you play an opinionated geek running around a virtual community armed with an obnoxiously deadly penchant for regurgitating old jokes about Daikatana, they might have had a grassroots hit on their hands.
Clearly, there are already legions of players here.
FWIW, I'd prefer not to play that game. It was fun two years ago maybe. And maybe it'll come back on a wave of retro-nostalgia when today's
It'll be at a 10x10 booth at PC Expo, the Linux "Woulda Coulda Shoulda" gathering. Two dozen middle-aged dorks sitting around bashing Microsoft and AOL/Time Warner (their booths occupying 95% of the entire tradefloor). Then the subject of crappy games will come up, because X-Box Ultra is the only gaming system around. Then invariably, with the sense of nostalgia for the halcyon days causing all sorts of synaptic activity, someone will say, "You know who used to really SUCK?" - "Jon Katz?" - "No, even more than Katz..." - "Who?" - "Ion Storm!"
A burst of chuckles. Then someone shouts "First Post!", causing everyone else to await his comment.
"Hah- turns out KillCreek made John Romero HER bitch!"
Laughter. One person comments, "Funny +1". Another repeats it. Another. Then someone else says, "Overrated -1". More laughter. Some high fives.
Life will go on, even for those who, while living, do not have a life.
IMHO, Eidos should have shitcanned Dallas two years ago. They would have saved themselves in the vicinity of $10m.
Here's a test for future Eidos executives...
When a title is years behind schedule, you're haemorrhaging staff, and company email indicates a subsidiary is screwing you, do you;
A) Cut the developers loose, or
B) Firehose more money on them in the hope that "Design is Law" and that you don't really need those whiny engineers to create a game. All you need is a "Gaming God" with a rockstar attitude.
To misquote Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; Fuck Ion Storm Dallas, fuck them in their stupid asses.
Yeah, I like the more simple, more FUN to play games. Who needs 15 buttons on a joy stick or a WHOLE keyboard (mech warrior 4) to play a damn game!
Oh well. I'll just pull out my Apple ][ I guess.
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"The remains" of Ion Storm are now working on Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3. I don't know if that was a poor choice of words or if you were expressing subjective opinion.
Deus Ex is one of the most involved first-person I've ever experienced. To me, it set a new standard for what a first-person game should be. It didn't assume that the player was mentally retarded in terms of storyline, nor did it need to be sprinkled here and there with toilet humour/strippers to remain interesting.
If "Warren Spector," creator of Deus Ex, System Shock, Ultima Underworld, Thief -- a consistently GOOD game designer is considered a remnant of a company, then I'd love to see the state of a full-fledged gaming company.
Amen. Thank for you saying this.
I wonder how Spector feels about this...remember that Ion Storm's parent company is Eidos. And it was Eidos who wasn't able to give Looking Glass Studios the short-term cash to keep them from going belly-up because they were throwing it down the throat of Romero and Ion Storm. And now Spector is heading Ion. The mind boggles...
This is so ironic.
I think that this is a great move on the part of Romero and Hall because assuming that they want to keep working in the gaming industry, they need to start fresh. They tarnished the Ion Storm name because of Daikatana and are going in the right direction if they want to be taken seriously again. Also, they are showing some wisdom by giving a genius like Spector the helm of a development house that already is blooded and has some momentum. Perhaps they are doing this to 'apologise' to Spector for being indirectly responsible for the demise of LGS, which was, IMHO, the most innovative game production house ever. Period.
And about Warren Spector... I'm literally grinning ear to ear about having him at the helm of a production house again! It should be interesting to see if he can turn Ion Storm into another Looking Glass Studios.
Programmer 1: So I'm envisioning a completely non-restrictive mode of play... Pass the bottle will you?
Programmer 2: Like Unreal? It has it's advantages, but -- Damn, this cardboard box isn't very warm, is it?
Programmer 1: You can usually get coats from the Catholic mission. At any rate, I think we can overcome the problems that an unlimited map will create by using this special algorithm.
Programmer 2: It'd be easier to see if it wasn't written on the sidewalk.
Programmer 1: Yeah, I know. It's been a while since I managed to scrounge up any paper.
Programmer 3: Buggrit! I tol' em! Millenium-hand and shrimp....
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
John Romero cant leave without his buddy Superfly!
Actually Ion Storm-Austin (Deus Ex) and Ion Storm-Dallas (Daikatana) are becoming two independent companies. Warren Specter's company will be called Manifesto Studios and is currently working on Deus Ex II and Thief III. John Romero and Tom Hall have registered Mentallion.com (Mentallion Industries) and MonkeyStone.com (Monkey Stone Games) however it's undecided which name they will be using. John Romero claimed a while back that he wouldn't be releasing information on his next project after Daikatana was insulted by the gaming community. We're still trying to figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing...