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Studios Rise And Fall
The fortunes of game studios are fickle. Gamasutra reports that former Blizzard developers have formed another studio. This time, vets from Blizzard North have congealed Hyboreal Games. Their first title is slated to be a PC game entitled 'Starfall'. Meanwhile, ShaggusMacHaggis writes "Stainless Steel Studios, developers of Empire Earth, Empires, and the yet to be released Rise & Fall, have shut their doors. Despite the game being 'almost gold', Midway wanted the game held back from an October 05 release date, instead being released in Feb 06. The catch was that Midway did not want to pay Stainless Steel Studios for this delayed time period."
Like many other gamers I'll be keeping a very close eye on this studio given how great Diablo II was.
Unfortunately, past experience has shown that great games are frequently 1-off flukes. When I first played Lemmings I thought a great new era of gaming had arrived... Now I couldn't even tell you what the guy who wrote it is doing currently.
Anyone know any details about Starfall yet ? (Apart from the fact it has a really weak name which is hard to Google for !)
of not terribly well balanced games. Empire Earth was a game I really wanted to enjoy. An Age of Empires game that spanned a huge time frame from the beginning of Civilization all the way to a mech laden future. Sounds great. Didn't play that great.
Empires: Dawn of the Modern World was a pretty fun game but in my opinion really unbalanced. The national differences were quite large which is good in that the nations didn't feel entirely cookie cutter, but bad in that some nations had serious advantages. The U.S. only nuclear weapon (while being historically accurate for the era) was usable without any repurcussions and was completely devestating. Also the English ability to create buildings that provided food, rather than use units to do the same was a huge advantage in the early game.
I admit I did enjoy Empire for all of it's goofiness. The end game nuke-fest was a site to behold.
In terms of recent RTS games, Empire Earth and Empires couldn't hold a candle to Rise of Nations in terms of RTS innovation, balance and quality of AI.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
A former Stainless staffer gives the info... they've shut their doors due to lack of cash. Summary implies Midway pushed the release date, article doesn't say that.
Anyway, once Midway realizes they are 'losing' bundles more by not releasing than the cash advances would cost them, they'll pony up and the game will go back into production.
Or, they'll sell the IP to help offset their losses, and another dev house will take over, hiring many of the people who were working on it under SS.
I suspect that SS is playing the only card they have left, which is to halt production until they get payments.
Midway is not exactly doing well right now, and they can't afford to lose a potentially big revenue stream next year... even if it widens their cash gap this quarter. Funny though, their market cap has tripled over the past six months.
Maybe they'll restart in January, so management can keep this quarter's financials looking not terrible.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
a real shame though since it looked like a really good game. I'm rarely excited about games but this is up there with Oblivion on my anticipated list.
Your CPU is not doing anything else, at least do something.
I kind of liked Diablo's multiplayer for that aspect. ;)
Sometimes my arms bend back.