Ion Storm Austin Closes

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"

Comments

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[Iscariot_]

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.

Daikatana? I don't think so...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Daikatana? I don't think so...

[Darth]

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.