Reports of Cyan's Death Greatly Exaggerated

Via Edge Online, the word from Mercury News that Cyan Worlds is actually not so dead after all. They closed up shop earlier this month, but it looks like they're back from the grave. From the article: "I was about to prepare the company's obituary. But Cyan isn't dead yet. I sent an e-mail off to Rand and he answered, 'We've had a reprieve. Managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat (that I can't give details about yet), so we rehired almost everybody. Crazy industry. It's giving me whiplash!' This company has had an incredible run since Miller and his younger brother Robyn founded it in 1987. They created 'The Manhole,' the first game on a CD-ROM. And in 1991, they began work on Myst. They released it on Sept. 24, 1993, and they changed the gaming world."

Comments

Shunned

[faloi]

This'll probably earn me a good shunning...but I never cared for Myst. It was definitely a great looking game, with a long bit of game time, but it just wasn't my thing. I'm not sure how the sales have been on the most recent projects, but maybe it would be wise to look in a different direction for new games.

Re:Shunned

[Prophet of Nixon]

A long bit of game time? I beat it in a day, though I did go back to it a bit later to find the other endings.

Now Riven, that one had far more obtuse puzzles and more game time. Never played any of the later ones.

"Greatly Exaggerated" head line...

[demana]

If a company fires its entire staff and has no money for future projects, I'd say the rumors of its death are pretty accurate. A financial windfall down the road does not make the initial rumors exaggerated.

Re:My first thought?

[Deflagro]

Sadly, that was my first thought as well. I could have done without Gau, but Cyan was essential!! ;)

However

[tourvil]

Magenta couldn't be reached for comment, officials fear the worst.

Re:However

[mink]

That's just because she is out with Riff Raff.

Good for them!

[warmgun]

Good for them. They really took a hit, financially, after the failure of Uru, a legitimate attempt at producing an original product based on the Myst formula. Thankfully, they've closed the book (har har) on the Myst franchise with the recently released, and aptly named, Myst V: End of Ages. As much as I love those games, they've become increasingly formulaic and watered down, especially when it comes to their difficulty and length (which are related). Their masterpiece, Riven, was the most difficult adventure game I've ever played, and it remains one of my favorites for that very reason. Uru could have come close to achieving that level of quality had more people played it. I'm hoping they follow through on their plans to produce a new franchise and to stay away from all things Myst. I really think they burden of making Myst games has been holding them back creatively.

Re:Good for them!

[Zeph]

Uru could have come close to achieving that level of quality had more people played it.

Just as a matter of curiosity, how is software quality related to the number of users of said software? I'm not a programmer, so these things fly right over my head.

Re:Good for them!

[Allaran]

I think you are looking for more 'programmer wisdom' from the parent than was intended. Since Uru was supposed to be an ever-evolving online MMORPG, it would have continued to grow and improve as the developers added new content and refined existing content (much as World of Warcraft has done). However, without the subscriber base to support this development, it was doomed. The lesson to be learned is a difficult one. How do you decide that a game is 'complete enough' to release? Too early and the game is not good enough to hook players, has too many bugs, or too little content. Too late and you risk a competitor beating you to the punch, outlasting your finances to pay the developers, and the game becoming outdated before it hits the shelves. As was hinted in another post, I think the problem with Uru was that they created a good single-player game and then marketed it as a multi-player game, which it was really not ready to be. If instead, they had marketed it as a single player game with a multi-player facet to possibly come along in the future, we might be able to play it online still today. No telling.

Re:Good for them!

[Zeph]

Thanks, I hadn't realized it was an MMORPG, or marketed as such; makes the parent's statement more meaningful. The "programmer wisdom" was tongue-in-cheek...

Re:Good for them!

[ComputerSherpa]

Actually, Uru was originally designed to be online-only. Ubisoft convinced them midway throught to add a single-player portion. Whether this was the game's salvation or its doom is a subject for debate.

Great news but..

[webrunner]

This is a slashdot post
about an article
that someone on another site posted
a quote from someone at Cyan

Can we get another few degrees of separation next time? I like to be as far away from my news as possible.

Death done to Death

[fm6]

When Mark Twain said, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated", it was funny. It was even funny the first gazillion times people worked it into other jokes. But now it's just a cliche. Let it rest.

The real situation from an insider

[zr-rifle]

Cyan ain't dead, they're just migrating their servers to FreeBSD.

Re:My first thought?

[jurgenaut]

Sadly, the Edgar did the instant kill chainsaw move far too often, either the monsters were immune, or died and respawned. The drill otoh, was great. While edgar could be nasty with offering and genji glove for 8 attacks, that combination was given most of the time to terra/locke/celes, since they all sucked and had to be beefed.

Sabin was essential, the bum rush did ridiculous amounts of damage for no MP at all, and although it required the same combination as Zangiefs spinning pile driver from SF2, it was far easier to accomplish.

For some reason, I've had sabin in my "main" group every time I've played it through.