Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ion Storm Austin Closes

Posted by Zonk on from the end-of-something dept.

It's dragged on for quite a while, but GamesIndustry.biz has the word that the Ion Storm offices in Austin have closed. Originally founded by John Romero, Tom Hall, and Todd Porter, Ion Storm Austin has been responsible for the release of Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows, and Daikatana. From the article: "This is part of [Eidos's] move to consolidate and strengthen its technical and management capabilities into a smaller number of studios which are capable of scaling up in order to meet the competitive challenges that lie ahead, particularly in anticipation of next-generation technologies and platforms"

48 comments

  1. ARGH by kaellinn18 · · Score: 1

    Way to go, EA. Close the one dev house that turned out DECENT GAMES!! (Excluding Daikatana, of course. What the hell happened there?)

    --

    --------
    This isn't the sig you're looking for. Move along.
    1. Re:ARGH by NonSequor · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well the official reason is that they have decided they would rather increase the size of their San Francisco studio by adding another development team there instead of continuing carrying the cost of an extra studio. This makes fincancial sense since from what little I know, the main benefit of a game company having studios in different locations is for the purpose of recruiting developers from different regions (e.g. Ubisoft opened a Montreal studio to recruit North American developers) and right now people are far more willing to move for a new job.

      However, they are firing 35 people in Austin and hiring 50 in San Francisco. I didn't see anything about them moving anyone from Austin to San Francisco so they must not be satisfied with the team in Austin.

      Also, the team in Austin wasn't responsible for Daikatana. That was spawned from John Romero's hedonistic Dallas studio. That closed down long ago. Pretty much everything good that Ion Storm produced came from the Austin studio.

      --
      My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
    2. Re:ARGH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eidos ran Ion Storm, not EA.

    3. Re:ARGH by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't see anything about them moving anyone from Austin to San Francisco so they must not be satisfied with the team in Austin.

      Yeah... they only produced some of the best and most immersive games EVER, and presumably Eidos want to concentrate on their core business of repetitive and uninventive crap.

  2. The Karma of Daikatana by Grygonos · · Score: 1

    No matter how many decent games they turned out since, the gaming gods would never redeem their souls for the shitmess that was ....Daikatana.

    1. Re:The Karma of Daikatana by grub · · Score: 3, Interesting


      I never went far in Daikatana but liked Deus Ex a lot. I love the Thief series but was quite disappointed when Thief: Deadly Shadows PC version turned out to be just a port of the console version. Levels in Thief and Thief 2 were huge (ie: the Life of the Party level in T2) but in T:DS one had to go from zone to zone. The city was more like a small town rather than the intimidating place it was in the two first games.

      --
      Trolling is a art,
    2. Re:The Karma of Daikatana by dougmc · · Score: 1
      the gaming gods would never redeem their souls for the shitmess that was ....Daikatana.
      1) these people did not release Daikatana. Instead, they did winners line Deus Ex, Thief and Anachronox. (Deus Ex 2 was not nearly as good as Deus Ex 1, but it was still ok.)

      2) And even Daikatana wasn't as bad as people make it sound. I suspect that most of the people who preach the `Daikatana sucks!' mantra on /. have never even played it.

      Granted, it was pretty mediocre. Had it come out several years earlier, we might have thought it was pretty good, but unfortunately it did not. And as for the hype that preceeded it, well, not even Half Life 1 or 2 could have lived up to that hype. Really, it's the hype that makes everybody say it sucked so much -- had there not been so much hype, the game would have just been doomed to mediocritry, like many other games, rather than being burned as a pariah everytime somebody even mentions Ion Storm (even the _wrong_ Ion Storm.)

      In any event, I'm sorry to see Ion Storm Austin go. They will be missed.

    3. Re:The Karma of Daikatana by dougmc · · Score: 1

      Sorry, Anachronox was made by Ion Storm Dallas instead of the Austin office. It was a pretty good game, though it never really sold very well.

    4. Re:The Karma of Daikatana by Clock+Nova · · Score: 1

      That's what happen when you do primary development of a game for consoles. The same thing happened to Deus Ex 2. It was but a pale shadow of its predecessor, largely for the same reasons: large, open levels broken into smaller 'zones', overly simplified gameplay, etc.

      I hate that this is happening, but it seems to be an ongoing trend. I wish developers would just keep console franchises on consoles, and PC franchises on PCs. Either that, or develop them as PC games, then port them to consoles. It's a lot easier to 'scale down' and remove content and functionality than it is to 'scale up' and add them in.

      --
      There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead. -V. Marchetti, CIA
    5. Re:The Karma of Daikatana by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, the levels in the earlier games, while HUGE, were EMPTY too. I never got into the Thief series at first, even though both System Shock games are in my all-time top 10. Thief just wasn't fun.

      Then Deadly Shadows came out. And sure, the levels were smaller... but they were fun. The detail was high. The designs were great. And the engine which had been so disappointing in DX:IW was perfectly suited to Thief.

  3. Um... EA owns many things... by the_skywise · · Score: 1

    But they didn't own Ion Storm.

    1. Re:Um... EA owns many things... by ChristianBaekkelund · · Score: 1

      Your point?

  4. Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Deus Ex is the only worthwhile thing to ever come out of Eidos, let alone Ion Storm.

    I can't believe Eidos takes itself so seriously -- just look at the spin in that PR fluff piece. Isn't this the company that rose to fame solely on the basis of silicon cheesecake? Titfall^H^H^H^H^H^H^H er, Tomb Raider featured extremely terrible gameplay, but its heaving bosoms and teen-friendly rating caused it to spawn a dozen sequels and a movie franchise. Oh yeah, and a few good coders acquired by pure chance happened to design one or two noteworthy games (and then immediately left the company). Therefore, Eidos should be respected?

    If Eidos is in financial trouble, they ought to return to what brought them to the dance and produce more soft porn for outcast junior high schoolers in trench coats.

    1. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, Tomb Raider had pretty awesome gameplay, and really brilliant level and puzzle design. The lead designer left Core and Eidos after the second title, and went on to make Project Eden, which had awful graphics but really amazing gameplay. He is working with Crystal Dynamics on the new Tomb Raider title now.

    2. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Actually, Tomb Raider had pretty awesome gameplay, and really brilliant level and puzzle design

      How old were you when you first made this assessment? Seriously. I too have a high opinion of things I liked in my childhood that today I find lacking, so that's why I ask.

      Also, Eidos has been making that exact PR claim, nearly verbatim, since the release of the original Tomb Raider. They got really defensive when a few reviewers nailed it for what it is - an awkward and largely unfun game made magical by the protagonist's gigantic polygonal chest.

      Tetris had awesome gameplay. Prince of Persia had brilliant level and puzzle design. Tomb Raider had gigantic boobs.

    3. Re:Good riddance by WaterBreath · · Score: 1
      How old were you when you first made this assessment? Seriously. I too have a high opinion of things I liked in my childhood that today I find lacking

      Technology-dependent things like video games and special-effects-laden movies need to be compared with things from their own era, never the present. So the fact that you find it lacking today says something about today's games, but it might say absolutely nothing about its actualy quality relative to other games at the time it was released.

      Example: Star Wars is unarguably a classic trilogy and one of the first great multi-film epics. But there aren't many people under 18 who actually think the original Star Wars movies are worth watching. (Please don't flame if you are and do, because I said "not many", not "none". Plus we are all nerds here, and so not a representative sample.) But its lack of appreciation today says nothing about it's significance back when it came out.

      P.S. The original Tomb Raider was largely well-rated, and more recently made 1up.com's Essential 50.

    4. Re:Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I stick by my comments. Core's lead game designer at the time, Adrian Smith, did a remarkable job translating all the adventure/platformer elements of Mechner's Prince of Persia into 3D. The puzzle and level design were outstanding; very logical, never frustrating, but often difficult. Smith's next title, Project Eden, has been a big cult hit as well, again for the level and puzzle design.

      Keep in mind, I am only talking about the FIRST Tomb Raider title. As a franchise I think it's really dull, and Lara's tits grew with each title. Adrian Smith left the Core team after the second title was completed.

      This is not a case of "well i liked Thundercats when I was kid, so that means the show had high production values!" The first tomb raider title has real standing merit as a well-designed title.

  5. We are moving offices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is part of [Eidos's] move to consolidate and strengthen its technical and management capabilities into a smaller number of studios which are capable of scaling up in order to meet the competitive challenges that lie ahead, particularly in anticipation of next-generation technologies and platforms

    In India, Eidos hires YOU!

  6. No by Iscariot_ · · Score: 3, Informative

    Aparently you haven't played Anachronox. Whilst many would not consider it up to the standards of Deus Ex, it's still a damned fine game. One of the best PC RPGs to date.

    --

    Go here for teh [sic] funny.
    1. Re:No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anachronox... that's the game whose box features a woman on the cover with cleavage dipping down into the word "Anachronox", right?

    2. Re:No by Moofie · · Score: 1

      Too bad it's riddled with plot-stopping bugs. I got 3/4 of the way through the game, and my savegames got corrupted. And I was screwed. And I couldn't get any help to fix it.

      Good riddance. Deus Ex 1 was awesome. Thief was pretty good. Everything else was crap.

      --
      Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
  7. Daikatana wasn't made in Austin by Zoid · · Score: 1

    Ion Storm Austin was not responsibile for Daikatana. That was Ion Storm Dallas.

    --
    /// Zoid.
  8. Daikatana? I don't think so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Daikatana was made by Ion Storm Dallas, Jon Romero's studio.

    Ion Storm Austin was founded using some of Romero's money, but the core of the team was all the old Looking Glass guys that worked on the original Thief and System Shock titles. Looking Glass had gone bankrupt a few months earlier, for reasons I still don't totally understand.

    There are lots of funny stories about ISA's start-up, Warren Specter had to explain to people all the time that "no no no, that's Ion Storm DALLAS, we're Ion Storm AUSTIN, we have nothing to do with Daikatana," etc etc.

  9. Rest in Peace.. by OmgTEHMATRICKS · · Score: 0

    R.I.P ION STORM. "My vision is augmented." 1997-2005

  10. Red Alert! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An ion storm closed Austin? Holy crap! Any idea what we can do to protect ourselves from any future ion storms?

    Oh... um... nevermind.

  11. Re:Daikatana? I don't think so... by Darth · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ion Storm Austin was started as an independent studio and became a part of Ion Storm when Romero talked Spector into it during their search for initial funding.

    This happened before Looking Glass closed. When Looking Glass closed, Ion Storm Austin acquired the rights to Thief and hired some of the Looking Glass guys.

    My memory is a bit fuzzy on the timing exactly, but i think Deus Ex had been released by the time Looking Glass closed.

    --
    Darth --
    Nil Mortifi, Sine Lucre
  12. Have you paid attention? by Moryath · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Eidos has been unfortunate enough to produce some real shitty titles - Whiplash comes to mind - but they are not just a Tomb Raider company.

    The Legacy of Kain line have been up and down, but there's some real gems in there.

    Anachronox was a beaut, even redone as a machinima movie it was wonderful.

    Deus Ex was good. Deus Ex: Invisible War suffered too much from trying to pare it down to console size.

    The first Tomb Raider was actually decently fun, it's just that they never should have made a sequel.

    The Thief series is golden, beautiful all the way through. Deadly Shadows was wonderful to play; I hope we see another, perhaps picked up by the expanded Crystal Dynamics (you know, the guys who do Kain).

    Eidos has been squeezed like all midrange developers because the cost of development keeps going up - nothing more, nothing less.

    1. Re:Have you paid attention? by cgenman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Legacy of Kain come courtesy of Crystal Dynamics.

      Anachronox and Deus Ex were Ion Storm

      Thief was Looking Glass

      Tomb Raider came courtesy of Core... But I do have to disagree with you there, they should have made a sequel. I'm still waiting for one. Admittedly, this is a company that thought Chuck Rock, Fighting Force, and ThunderStrike deserved sequels, but they've done enough great things in their heyday that they get a free pass.

      This all points to the fact that Eidos is not a developer. They're a publisher. And to say that Eidos didn't push for major changes to Tomb Raider before it was too late because they were getting pinched is ideallic at best... They were raking it in for a while. For a few years Tomb Raider must have been like free money to them. I would be surprised if they felt squeezed in the mid PS1 days.

      To be fair to them, Eidos did take some chances on original games. Fear Effect and Mad Maestro come to mind, as does Mr. Mosquito, Pandemonium... And while they do have their share of Backyard Wrestlings and Tron Bonnes, It doesn't seem too out of line with other publishers.

      Look at the list yourself and decide.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    2. Re:Have you paid attention? by rhuntley12 · · Score: 1

      More fear effect and pandemonium please:(

  13. Rights to Deus Ex IP? by mindaktiviti · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So who owns the rights to the Deus Ex franchise? Even though DX:IW was somewhat of a disaster, the idea behind the game's still great. Open ended game play, great storylines etc.

    I wonder if Deus Ex 3 could be picked up by some other development company. It'd be nice to see a third installment.

  14. This reminds me of Dilbert ... by arhar · · Score: 1

    This is part of [Eidos's] move to consolidate and strengthen its technical and management capabilities into a smaller number of studios which are capable of scaling up in order to meet the competitive challenges that lie ahead, particularly in anticipation of next-generation technologies and platforms

    This sharply reminds me of Michael T. Suit (suit without a man inside) from Dilbert ...

    MT: Hi, my name is Michael T. Suit. All my friends call me MT.

    Dilbert: ...

    MT: I enhance core competencies by leveraging platforms.

    * Dilbert quietly dissapears *

    MT: Did we shake yet? Sometimes I can't tell.

  15. Weeee! by Lisandro · · Score: 1

    "This is part of [Eidos's] move to consolidate and strengthen its technical and management capabilities into a smaller number of studios which are capable of scaling up in order to meet the competitive challenges that lie ahead, particularly in anticipation of next-generation technologies and platforms"

    I just love marketing buzzwords. You gotta have some talent to say "we axed the studio 'cause it was a money drain" in such a way!

    Anyway, farewell Ion Storm. Daikatana sucked (sorry John, it did), but we loved much of what you did.

    1. Re:Weeee! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What buzzwords? "Consolidate"? "Scaling"? These are pretty regular words, if you ask me.

      What they are saying is that they are taking two smaller studios (Austin and San Francisco) and making one larger studio (in SF). They're doing this because it saves money and because future games for the PC and consoles are increasingly complex and require larger teams.

      So say the Austin studio used to work on one game at a time and the SF studio used to work on two games at a time. Now the new SF studio can work on two more demanding games at one time.

  16. Tomb raider... by AltaMannen · · Score: 1

    "Prince of Persia had brilliant level and puzzle design. Tomb Raider had gigantic boobs."

    I find Prince of Persia strangely similar to Tomb Raider, it is mostly push or pull this block around, find the switch, kill some bad guys or monsters, repeat. The Tomb Raider franchise has had more misses than the Prince of Persia franchise, but I can't tell how many PoP games there have been.

    As far as I can tell, Prince of Persia (original) was a large influence for the people making Tomb Raider, and vice versa for Prince of Persia (the one after Prince of Persia 3D).

    And tetris has annoyingly repetetive gameplay, one block consisting of 4 smaller blocks in a combination falls down, repeat.

    1. Re:Tomb raider... by snorklewacker · · Score: 2, Informative

      > The Tomb Raider franchise has had more misses than the Prince of Persia franchise, but I can't tell how many PoP games there have been.

      Five.

      Prince of Persia 1: Old 2D DOS game. Wickedly frustrating timed-the-buttons-just-so puzzles. And the whole game was on a time limit. Time runs out, game over. Still quite fun for its day.

      Prince of Persia 2: Basically a rehash of PoP1, but slightly more colorful. ... many years pass ...

      Prince of Persia 3d: A buggy klunky disaster. Good 3d games were pretty rare at the time, most cards wouldn't have had the juice to do what was needed to pull this off. Camera controls were really bad. ... several years pass ...

      Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. Stunningly good and game, smooth, pretty, good character and camera controls. The prince is a downright acrobat now, with the added gravity-defying kung-fu like ability of running along walls even from a dead stop. Well-written characters with good (though not outstanding) voice acting. Console and PC ports have control schemes that work very well on each platform.

      Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. Much darker and more combat-oriented than Sands of Time. Still has a number of "puzzles" (the platformer genre never has real puzzles like those in adventure games), but the focus is mainly on combat. Reasonably interesting premise, but the voice acting has sadly taken a dive, with the prince never being all that likeable, and the enemy (your standard vampish-chick-in-platemail-lingerie) not all that believable.

      --
      I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
    2. Re:Tomb raider... by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 1
      "Prince of Persia had brilliant level and puzzle design. Tomb Raider had gigantic boobs." I find Prince of Persia strangely similar to Tomb Raider...

      What?! Your version had a Prince with tits ?! :D

    3. Re:Tomb raider... by 0racle · · Score: 1

      Prince of Persia started on a more worthy platform then DOS. It was an Apple II title.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  17. corporate motto by jwriney · · Score: 1

    SHUT IT DOWN!

    --riney

  18. Re:Daikatana? I don't think so... by kubrick · · Score: 1

    I think you're right... Looking Glass didn't quite go bankrupt, but their games weren't huge sellers and Ion Storm Dallas was burning through Eidos's cash like there was no tomorrow, so Eidos bet the farm on Daikatana.

    Looking Glass were twisting in the wind for a while before closing, as well... couldn't get approval for a new game, weren't sure how long they would be funded for, etc.

    --
    deus does not exist but if he does
  19. Oh great... by HogynCymraeg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    First looking glass studios fold and sell the fantastic thief franchise to Ion Storm, now they've kicked the bucket. What's going to happen to the great Thief series? Gutted...

    1. Re:Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thief gutted? It was already fsck'd over by Warren Specter and the horribly limited DX2 engine. IMNSHO, things can only look up for Thief from here on.

      --huge fan of Thief series

  20. I for one, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    welcome Daikantana 2!

  21. Eidos were the distributors of all of them... by Moryath · · Score: 1

    that's what Eidos is. They're distribution company.

    All of those titles are Eidos titles, the same way every Tony Hawk title is both an Activision title (distributing company) and a Neversoft (or the associated company like Vicarious who do the port) work.

    1. Re:Eidos were the distributors of all of them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had thought you had meant they were a development company because you had said they "produced" a lot of titles, then referred to them as a midrange developer.

      Simple misunderstanding.

  22. Eidos, the worst MIB of the whole industry by Gollum2001 · · Score: 1

    Really, with Ion closed, Amy Hennig of Crystal Dynamics gone, and Warren Spector "missing in action", the future of both "Legacy Of Kain" and "Thief" franchises is uncertain. I don't know what's happenning inside Eidos, but from around two years they've been making wrong moves, one after another... They've earned the title of the worst MIB in the whole industry.

    --
    "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former" - Albert Einstein.
  23. I hope the Thief III Editor is still released. by kerrle · · Score: 1
    A few months ago Ion Storm said that the release of a map editor for Thief III was forthcoming. This is vital to a large number of people; Thief I and II have had dozens of individual fan made levels that are actually higher quality than most commercial games - as well as several campaigns.

    An editor for Thief III would drastically lengthen the games' shelf life, but with the studio closed, I suppose the chances are slim...

    It's unfortunate - the latest expansion for Thief II (T2X - Shadows of the Metal Age) just hit beta, and will be released shortly - years after the original game came out. The Thief community is one of the most productive out there, and it'd be a shame for Eidos to ignore that. With a Thief III editor, it wouldn't suprise me to see people still making maps in 2010.

  24. A moment of silence... by geminidomino · · Score: 1

    *Wipes a single tear away, then goes on one final Anna Navarre killing spree.*

  25. Re:Daikatana? I don't think so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    re: Looking Glass had gone bankrupt a few months earlier, for reasons I still don't totally understand.

    One word: Piracy.