New World Computing - Not Well

Thanks to Blues News for pointing out a recent post on the Celestial Heavens fansite discussing the continuing demise of New World Computing, the creators of the Might And Magic series, saying that the 3DO-owned developers, caught in that company's recent bankruptcy, have had their separate office in Solvang, CA, closed, and are running out of time for a third party to buy up the Might and Magic license from 3DO and re-employ the team. Elsewhere, fan Charles Watkins has published a discussion piece about how the franchise might be reborn, suggesting: "The conservative approach to product planning has a strong appeal. By sticking with a successful formula, you feel you are taking fewer risks so your profits seem more secure. And the less you change, the less effort is required. It is this mentality that brought Heroes down."

Comments

Sunk by 3DO, I'm afraid

[Anonymous Coward]

3DO owned New World. It wasn't New World's lack of innovation that sunk them, it was their parent going spectacularly bankrupt.

Conservative - The Game Wave of the Future

[DrWho520]

I think we've been seeing the conservative manner of game production a great deal lately. I would have to call the latest wave of game production to be, at best, uninspired. There are the occasional gems in the PS2 library, Halo deffinately kicks (for an FPS) and, as far as I am concerned, just about anything from Nintendo's camp is gold. That's Nintendo, not GCN.

As the videogame market has overtaken the movie industry in profits, it has taken on more and more of that industries characteristics.

-Games are now extremely expensive to produce. Enter the Matrix at est. 31.2 million

-Games now have much more style than substance. BMX XXX, depending upon your opinion of style. Or the majority of the XBox library

-Games are becoming formulaic. how many more Tony Hawk sequels can we have?

-Games are produced by large development houses that are in it for the profit derived from the "safe bet" and not "risky innovation." i lost count on what SSX(EA), Dave Mirra(Acclaim), Tony Hawk (Activision), and Pokemon (Nintendo) we were on

Don't get me wrong, there are some real gems out now. GTA, MetalGear and Metroid Prime are all standouts. I personally feel a lot of "nitch" games are the most entertaining because they break the molds that are becoming more prominent today. Pikmin, Eternal Darkness, Super Monkey Ball, ICO, the reimerging Rygar and Maximo (you know its Ghosts n' Goblins/Ghouls n Ghosts) are all different from what's out there. But, as long as we are sheep, this is the way video games will be made. If you are not willing to risk buying a non-formulaic game, why should one be produced? Nintendo is still pumping out some great stuff, but they do not have the market share anymore. (Nintendo is to video games what Sundance was to movies at one point in time.) I already have a DVD player for movies. I wanna play video games. Animal Crossing and ICO not the next 5 Devil May Cry clones that are a shadow of the original.