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Dynamix Closed Down?
ioctl writes: "According to Planet Tribes, Dynamix is being shut down by its parent Sierra (or more appropriately, Vivendi Corp.). Story here and here. Looks like my buddy just wasted $50 on Tribes 2... =P"
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Can't stay in the league unless you win the Super Bowl every year, huh?
Pretty soon there won't be any room for new ideas at all. Its really too bad.
I don't like the fact that Dynamics is going out of business but if you look at Sierra's history with the company it really is no suprise. Example: Sierra buys Dynamics, the Red Baron series, (one of the first games to use 3d cards) is cancelled for lack of support and staffing is shuffled or cut. Starsiege comes out, finally breaking out of the hideous Earthsiege series. It's an average game but shows great potential. Before it hits the shelves most of the Starsiege team is rolled into the Tribes team or laid off. Let's face it, Sierra cares about Racing sims and Half-Life. I realize they have thei place but the company isn't known for innovation. fnord
Fnord!
That's 'cuz Sierra forced them to release early, so it would show on Q2 as profit, much like this mass layoff will show a nice cost-cut on Q3 books.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Wouldn't Loki still be able to update the Linux version. If the win32 port is no longer updated, couldn't this potentially be the killer game app that forces the masses to Linux? I'm guessing this all depends on what rights Loki has to the game code.
Praying for the end of your wide-awake nightmare.
1. Buy a little company that puts out great games and has a loyal following.
2. Force them to release a game too early and spend months releasing patches to fix the problems.
3. Fire the staff and close the company once the game comes near to a final product.
I'll never buy another Sierra product again. And this is from a guy that bought *both* the Win32 and Linux versions of Tribes 2!
They really have some idiots running Sierra, eh?
It looks like Sierra is trying to shed itself of any remaining talent and decency. They pull this kind of crap every year, screwing over some part of their workforce. It's no wonder the company does so poorly, they shoot themselves in the foot annually. "Oh, gee, we have so few good titles, we're not making much money. Let's dump the people that make our few remaining good games, and save money! YEAH!"
The Computer Game industry always seems to be this brutal, why should anyone in a subsidiary of Sierra actually be surprised, didn't they do just the same thing the year before, and the year before that?
Actually, I think the first warning to any of the developers on a project is when their company is bought by another. Followed closely by their shipping of the product.
In essence, your nothing but a contract programmer when you work on a computer game, and its probably even worse for the graphic artist and other "support" specialties.
Not an industry for the faint at heart, all guts and no glory.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Customer loyalty is obtained in one of several ways- of which "customer satisfaction" is one of those things.
Piss off too many customers and they tell their friends, etc. There's a bitter harvest Sierra's going to harvest at some point and Vivendi's going to pull the plug on the whole division at some point. Of course, it's nothing but business, right?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
> How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA?
:sigh:)
Things wouldn't be any better. As Richard Garriott said himself, Origin wasn't big enough to survive by itself because Origin didn't have the muscle and deep pockets to grease the distribution channels well enough.
The reason EA does so well is that its management understands the distribution channel and has the size to pay the big stores to display their games.
(This also ignores the fact that with Ultima 6 and Ultima 7 Origin pushed itself to the financial breaking point.
"All the darkness in the world can not quench the light of one small candle."
If I spend $10 going to see a movie whose production company has been shut down, is my $10 wasted? Not unless the movie sucks.. and from what I've heard, Tribes 2 doesn't suck...
A game is entertainment, not an investment...
Considering I usually see well over 250 servers, I doubt that T2 will go away. I hope Sierra doesn't get retarded and shut off the master servers.
How the fuck is that a troll? Is it becasue he's disagreeing with the story or something? I don't get it.
sopwath
In the past year or two, the following has happened:
Sierra shuts down their Yosemite division, firing some great programmers, game designers, and others. This was the group (for the most part) responsible for the great Kings Quest, Quest for Glory (earlier Hero's Quest), Police Quest, and many others.
Origin systems closes down in two phases. They went "Online Only" after Ultima IX, and those that stayed with the company were assigned to work on Ultima Online 2. Earlier this year, with the game a good deal finished, Electronic Arts stopped production on the game and fired all the employees.
Looking Glass studios, the maker of great, revolutionary titles like Thief I and II, and Ultima Underworld I and II shuts down due to lack of funds (mostly because Eidos had to sink so much money into Ion Storm to keep Daikatana afloat).
And now, as this story mentions, the gutting of Sierra is almost over, with Dynamix (the source of my favorite game of all time: Betrayal at Krondor and may others) being shut down.
I really worry about where the industry is going. There are many other companies that are wholly owned by larger companies that have had the quality of their products go down hill - New World Computing (of Might and Magic fame) has been taken down that road by 3DO, not to mention others.
How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA? The same could be said of Ken Williams selling Sierra. This list goes on and on.
Well, I'm done rambling on about the game industry. I'll go back to browsing the game stores for real games while avoiding "Who Want's to be a Gazillionaire 12" or "The Sims 15th Expansion Pack", or whatever crap the industry makes money on.
Incedentally my first word-processing software was Sierra's Homestar Plus for the Commodore 64. Yes, Sierra made a Wordproccessor!
This has happened one before, when Big Bad Sierra(tm) closed down Yosemite Entertainment, the division that made Leisure Suit Larry etc. I am not surprised that this happens now - Sierra's upper management appears to be clueless. Ken Williams should never have sold the company.