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Working Designs Shuts Its Doors

Posted by Zonk on from the another-one-bites-the-dust dept.

An anonymous reader writes "1UP.com is reporting that publisher Working Designs has officially closed shop, apparently due to difficulties with Sony's approval department." From the article: "If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done ... I know many of you will have lots of questions, and there will be some I can answer, and some I can't. Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public. Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it."

43 comments

  1. Sad Sad by mrbaggs · · Score: 1

    If turds like Army Men games can get approved then its a sad sad day when something WD picks out can't. WD singlehandedly carried the Sega CD and lent a lot of credibility to the Saturn. Most recently Growlanser Generations was incredible and we would have never gotten it without WD. I for one am gonna miss those weirdos a lot.

    1. Re:Sad Sad by B1llz0r · · Score: 1

      I agree, i purchased a sega cd after watching a friend play Lunar: Silver Star. The WD games made the SegaCD worth it (too me anyway).

      I'm sorry to see them go...

    2. Re:Sad Sad by David+Nabbit · · Score: 1
      It is a sad day indeed. Working Designs really knew how to translate a game. I bought three of my systems (Sega CD, Saturn, Playstation) in part or exclusively because of WD games. The Lunar games in particular were instrumental in fostering my love of RPGs.

      WD also, to my knowledge, was the first to release games with anime cutscenes in the U.S. Today there are all kinds of anime-styled games in the U.S., but back in the day the game publishers downplayed the Japanese influence.

      --
      "Her idea of wit is nothing more than an incisive observation humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing."
    3. Re:Sad Sad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Working Designs had one standout title for the Sega Saturn: Dragon Force. And, the little bit of translation done in Dragon Force (since it wasn't extensively text-based) was terrible. In fact, even though I liked the Lunar games as a kid (going back to them now, they are almost unplayable), their translations were pretty poor as well.

  2. This is new? by Threni · · Score: 2, Informative

    Haven't Sega, Nintendo etc always had the last word with what gets released, with no guarantees?

    1. Re:This is new? by Austerity+Empowers · · Score: 1

      It's new that some company actually pitched a fit over it. Consoles are not open platforms, obviously if you intend to sell into those closed markets you should be prepared to bend over and grease up. There's very little public support against such businesses (see Microsoft, The Bell's Reunited, Your Local Cable Company, MPAA/RIAA/**AA, etc.). In a better world, we'd all see why his argument is moving, but in a better world he wouldn't be making it.

      I'm not sure what getting run out of business is going to do for the cause, except that I get the strong impression he's trying to improve his negotiating position by condeming Sony at a time they're (theoretically) weak. And we, the slashdot audience are expected to hop on the wagon and buy this hook, line and sinker.

  3. They should release their back library for the PC by hackwrench · · Score: 1

    Just the other day, I was lamenting my loss of my entire media library to theft, and specifically pointed out the Lunar Playstation titles. As money came available, I'd buy PC emulations of those titles, an emulation of the original Lunar for the Sega CD, and the next Lunar title, plus consider other titles of theirs.

  4. Why does Sony care what publishers did? by jclast · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As long as people are putting out games, why does Sony care? Even if they're not all winners and huge sellers, a variety of games is great for a console.

    So Sony doesn't make as much from Working Designs as they do from Take 2. Why does it matter? They made a hell of a lot more from Working Designs when they were still publishing games than they make from WD now.

    Hell, every game released here can just pad the number of games available in a commercial. Buy a PS2! We've got a library of over X games! Less is not more when it comes to game selection. People have varied taste, and if it was approved for Japanese release, why is it an issue for somebody else to do the work and release it in the US?

    --
    e2 | LJ
    1. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sony cares because that is exactly what wiped out Atari. A sea of crappy games that managed to drown the good ones.

    2. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      Suffice it to say that you don't know the whole story...

      Obviously console makers have a vested interest in making sure the games available for their platform are of a certain quality level and could reject things on those grounds, but I'm guessing in this particular case it came down to money. Sony probably wanted a certain amount, and WD probably realized that they couldn't sell enough of certain niche titles to make that work. I mean, let's face it, the games they released weren't exactly mainstream. What Sony rejected was likely a proposed licensing fee structure.

    3. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by Ronin_Bic · · Score: 1

      Couldn't you say we are in that era now

    4. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by supabeast! · · Score: 1

      Sony's execs have a hard-on for 3D games with trendy themes, especially when it comes to US releases. Anything else pretty much has to be released as either a value title that either has a low price or combines multiple games on one disc. This is especially bad for companies that want to do sprite-based games or port obscure Japanese games to the US like Working Designs did.

      The really annoying thing is, Sony doesn't seem to mind at all when it is the one publishing the game (Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), or if a cult-hit like Katmari Damacy is an exclusive port.

      This kind of crap is why I'm not buying Sony stuff anymore. Microsoft is more than happy to help publishers get their obscure Japanese stuff onto the Xbox. Hell, Microsoft even funded a port of Guilty Gear #Reload to the Japanese Xbox just to win over Japanese gamers, and it was then ported to the USA! That beats the hell out of Sony and Nintendo who don't want to see a sprite on a screen larger than a credit card.

    5. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by jclast · · Score: 1

      That's the crux of my question though. I know that's what wiped out the Atari, but is the US gaming market still viewed as being a fragile flower will crumble if you look at it the wrong way?

      These games were already released in Japan so Sony must have approved them once (unless they operate way differently in Japan, which I doubt).

      If a game good enough for Japanese gamers and somebody is willing to port it and do a good job of it, why isn't that same game good enough for US gamers?

      --
      e2 | LJ
    6. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      Microsoft is more than happy to help publishers get their obscure Japanese stuff onto the Xbox. Hell, Microsoft even funded a port of Guilty Gear #Reload to the Japanese Xbox just to win over Japanese gamers, and it was then ported to the USA! That beats the hell out of Sony and Nintendo who don't want to see a sprite on a screen larger than a credit card.

      That's because they're struggling for market share. Once, and if they become established you can bet they'll be up to the same tricks as all the other console makers. There's a reason Sony and Nintendo do what they do. It's because they've shifted from the mindshare building mode into the profit building mode. They know that there are certain costs associated with publishing a game, and that certain pricing structures need to be applied to certain markets in order to turn the biggest possible profit (remember, they're in this for profit, not for the games). Working Designs games were hardly what you could call mainstream, so it shouldn't be too hard to see why Sony might have wanted them to carry budget prices or perhaps pay a higer percentage as a royalty or higher up front cost or whatever they're not telling us about the details of what made ths fall through. That might make the Xbox a promising platform for them, but you can be sure that when Microsoft starts focusing on profits instead of on market share, they'll stop proping developers like this up too.

      You don't think Sony was proping WD up? Well, why couldn't they just start releasing for the PC? It's because they relied on console publishing practices to shift some of the development, marketing and placement costs onto the console manufacturer. High voilume titles cover those costs for a company like Sony, but niche titles don't, and the PS2 market isn't a growth market for Sony anymore. They only want cash cows on their platform now so they can cash in on the last few years of their investment. It all comes down to money, and at the end of the day, WD must not have been making enough of it. Don't be foolish enough to think that any other console manufacturer has your best interests as a gamer in mind though. Especially if their stock is publically traded. You'll just be setting yourself up to be broken hearted again in a few years.

    7. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by oGMo · · Score: 1
      As long as people are putting out games, why does Sony care? Even if they're not all winners and huge sellers, a variety of games is great for a console.

      I agree, and this is a really stupid decision by Sony. Working Designs has over the year put out some "less popular" but wonderful, high-quality imports. Not having the talent these guys have is just stupid.

      Some of the recent picks have been... questionable. Growlanser Generations was not great, from all reports, and neither have a few of the other recent picks. On the other hand, this is hardly an acceptable excuse, given the loads of crap we see from places like EA or Activision that produce movie titles or similar tie-ins. Any WD game is far better than these.

      If anything, Sony should have invested in these or made them a first-party talent. While it's possible another side to the story is missing here, unless all the good people had already left WD, this is a sorry loss.

      --

      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

    8. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by radicalskeptic · · Score: 1

      Aaah Guilty Gear XX #Reload: the game that changed my life forever. Although it was already released for Japanese PS2 when the Xbox port came out, I believe.

      Now I just have to wait longingly for them to release Slash to console, and in the meantime satiate my hunger for it by watching Japanese match vids.

      --
      WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
    9. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by KingSkippus · · Score: 1
      Sony cares because that is exactly what wiped out Atari.

      What!!? You don't still play your 2600? The joysticks are a bit harder to find these days but cool games are still being produced for it!

    10. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by Traiklin · · Score: 1

      So Sony doesn't make as much from Working Designs as they do from Take 2. Why does it matter?

      why did EA have to get exclusive lisence to the NFL? Wouldn't having more companys making official NFL games be better since they would mke moeny no matter what?

      These games were already released in Japan so Sony must have approved them once (unless they operate way differently in Japan, which I doubt).

      actually it is a very different decision process. Simple way to awnser it, look at all the games released in Japan and notice how different each one is (hell they have like 5 million majong games) look at all the games in America and notice the differences between Japan and American games. It all comes down to Demographics, christian influances (don't even try to deny this one, Xenogears was a completly different game in japan then what it is in NA), what is conssidered acceptable and what isn't (Characters that are alittle to close to the KKK yet are obviously making fun of them).

      so SCEA says "No that game has to many christian overtones and will get us in trouble" where as SCEJ wouldn't have a problem with it, so they have two options, fully change the story to make it not so christian related or not release it at all.

      now with the Goemon game the only thing I can think of is that the graphics looked really dated, but it pisses me off to no end right now to learn they were basically done with the game, fixed the control issues the japanese version had and made it in english only to have sony fuck them over for no reason (btw, I LOVE the Mystical Ninja games, have since the SNES one came out).

      I have no problem with quality control but come on, when you have games like Trigger man, Blowout and other games that sell for $9.99 brand new while games that have a history behind them don't get released there needs to be a serious overhaul of how things are done.

      hell I wish the FTC would step in and just let the retailers decide what is sold and what isn't, why should it matter what Sony says in the end? they still get a percentage of the sales made as it is.

    11. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too bad GGR sucked.

    12. Re:Why does Sony care what publishers did? by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "This is especially bad for companies that want to do sprite-based games or port obscure Japanese games to the US like Working Designs did.

      The really annoying thing is, Sony doesn't seem to mind at all when it is the one publishing the game (Ico and Shadow of the Colossus), or if a cult-hit like Katmari Damacy is an exclusive port."

      Uh... last I checked, Ico and Katamari were both 3D. I don't see a double standard.

      "Nintendo who don't want to see a sprite on a screen larger than a credit card."

      Excuse me?

  5. If there ever was a time.. by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

    When YTMND was appropriate, this is it.

    --
    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  6. Just curious by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 1

    Just curious, how did the theft occur. I lost all my playstation games to theft too, about 3 months ago.

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
    1. Re:Just curious by hackwrench · · Score: 1

      First the thief or thieves came in one night and stole two laptops. I think the thief or thieves may have lived in my apartment before. I hadn't lived in the apartment long, and the landlord said they didn't have the key when I signed the lease, which should have been a warning sign right there. I was moving from a group home, and was directed to that landlord by the mental health group "The Nord Center" which have acted criminally to wards me since then, but I degress.
      The thieves came and went as they pleased after the first time, not that the landlord or "The Nord Center" cared, tearing up stuff. There was one thing I got blamed for, and I think the people doing the blaming were the thieves. The Nord Center sided with them for some unexplained reason.

  7. What Is He *Not* Saying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One has to wonder where Sony's problem lay:

    If it was purely fees, that's not Sony's "approval" process. That's Working Design's finance guys not being able to make a deal with Sony's finance guys. Thus, I'm guessing it's either not fee based (as it would have been called as "Sony charge too much for small game companies") or WD has something it tries to hide there.

    If it was approvals, what reasons would Sony have to refuse approval on a game? Two come to mind: Poor quality due to bugs and poor quality due to gameplay.

    One of the major features of consoles is that games just work unlike the PC. Similarly unlike the PC, you can't patch them later. In a contested marketplace, you really don't want your platform getting known for having buggy games that never work.

    Similarly, you want your console known for the quality of its games. Put out a stream of crap and people assume all games on your system will be. Atari got burried by this. Nintendo made a huge thing about it in the old days that was part of their real strength.

    Bugs you can generally fix - though gave devs have a tendency to operate of very tight margins and thus spending months going back and forth for constantly refused approvals as they identify more and more bugs will sink you. At the end of the day though, you don't want the world knowing "My company sank because our code was so bug ridden we went bust before we could fix them all."

    Quality of core game is trickier. If it's fundamentally a bad game and unlikely to sell, there's only so much you can do to change it. This one is also one where taste comes in a lot more - a successful Japanese game might score terribly by most western tastes and yet still carve out a niche. It may be that Sony's approval team just never "got" the game and thus were never going to approve it, no matter what.

    As a port though, this seems unlikely - as they could simply look at Japanese sales figures and see it was popular in its original form. After that, all you have to do is see if the US port matches the JP port save for language changes.

    So, it's possible Sony just didn't "get" the game but unlikely. It's possible that Sony and WD couldn't reach a royalty agreement - though, short of a minimum lump sum, that's also unlikely as, if the choice is release under bad conditions or go bust, you suck up the bad conditions. That leaves the most likely option being WD had code issues that they just weren't getting sorted. That also explains the deliberate vagueness of the statement - no one wants to admit their company's poor coding drove them to bankruptcy.

    1. Re:What Is He *Not* Saying? by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Interesting
      None of these is the problem. Especially not quality. In fact, WD's president Victor Ireland is a well-known purist and perfectionist. WD would delay games rather than publish anything that was not yet up to their standards. That's how they became known as "Working Delays", but that also made them respected among many hardcore RPG fans.

      For example... hope I'm recalling this right... they were translating Magic Knight Rayearth for the Sega Saturn, and wanted to keep the heroes' original names (Hikaru, Umi, Fuu); but the american distributor of the cartoon tried to force them to use the translated names (Lucy, Marine, Anne). Anyone else would compromise - WD went to court, won, and eventually released the game just the way they wanted.

      Sony Computer Entertainment America - SCEA - also has standards. Sadly, the wrong standards. They have a very subjective policy of not approving games that could "harm the Playstation 2's image". That means: anything 2D is very unlikely to fly, unless it's a collection package. WD's last title, Growlanser Generations, is actually Growlanser 2 and Growlanser 3; Sony forced WD to sell 2 for the price of 1, and now I'm guessing WD realized that Sony's nonsense would eventually drive them out of business anyway.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    2. Re:What Is He *Not* Saying? by Psychochild · · Score: 1

      Yet another reason to show why the games industry is messed up. Working Designs' problem is that they spent too much in order to provide quality. I've been a big fan of WD's games, and it's been a real treat to buy and play the games they put out. The omake (extras) they put in make the game stand head and shoulders above others. The extras from the Lunar game, like the amulet, were a nice addition; not some cheap plastic copy, but a real metal medallion that was in the game.

      Sadly, it really comes down to the money. I'd love to make games for free, but I still need a place to plug in my computer and keep it safe from the elements. Oh, and eating is a good idea on occasion. But, the reality is that your income has to be greater than your expenses or you're screwed. With Sony likely restricting their income, WD had to either drop their expenses (that is, churn out crap, which means their games would probably get even less attention), or close up shop. Looks like they chose the latter in order to remain known for their quality.

      The parent post also hit the nail on the head about the 2D vs. 3D thing. People seem to think that 3D is better because there are more 3D games than 2D. The sad fact is that the large console publishers have been pushing 3D in favor of 2D for a long time because it helps make their consoles seem more "advanced", which allows them to charge more. Think people would be spending $400-500 for a new console if most of the games were 2D?

      Some things to think about.

      --
      Brian "Psychochild" Green
      MMO developer's blog
    3. Re:What Is He *Not* Saying? by itsthinking · · Score: 1

      2d forever! I appreciate 3D but am sick of all the crap polygon models with crap gameplay. I would buy a new 2D console for that amount of money provided the graphics were the best 2D could do, had decent controllers and there was a large games library promised for it. But I guess they already tried that with Neo Geo. and to a lesser degree 2d-vs-3d hurt Saturn. All thats left now in 2d is Nintendo's handhelds and even there....

    4. Re:What Is He *Not* Saying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know people like you. I know your rhetoric. You elitist RPGamer 2D shitcock pissant fagface mother fucker.

      Sony most likely has no such policy. You probably sent death threats to Capcom when they started making the occasional semi-3D fighting game here and there. You're a "true gamer", not one of those fake gamers. You have true gaming pride. You consider yourself a paladin of the game industry, or something.

      You only play righteous, spiritually correct 2D Japanese games that are profound and artistic like Magic Knight Gayearth, which should be required playing for any individual who wishes to consider himself educated, but only in the original Japanese because the English language is so extremely unable to express the deep metaphorical themes contained in quite possibly one of the most powerfully moving anime RPGs of all time.

      By playing through, say, a Japanese 2D animated RPG on an underdog game system in its original language, you are treated to a grand story that is just overwhelmingly more fulfilling than going out, fucking some chick, hi-fiving yourself and calling it a night.

    5. Re:What Is He *Not* Saying? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not going to repeat myself, I'm just going to link you to another comment I made.

      http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=171107&c id=14262341

  8. Cadash said it best... by edbarrett · · Score: 2, Informative

    "He who is strongest survives, or don't you know the teachings of Carl Sagan?"

    RIP Working Designs, even though you tossed some *weird shit* into your translations...

    Cadash - Popful Mail - Lunar - Dragon Force - Raystorm

    1. Re:Cadash said it best... by itsthinking · · Score: 1

      ah, Dragon Force looks nuts! I didn't always like their translations, or the ugly metallic box art but they were one of the good guys. I will miss them. I still play Sillhouette Mirage, also enjoyed Raystorm and Raycrisis and Silpheed sad.

  9. It was only a matter of time. by softegg · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I worked for Victor at Working Designs during the Saturn and Playstation one days; I worked on Iron Storm, Dragon Force, Albert Odyssey, Magic Knight Rayearth, Lunar 1 & 2, Vanguard Bandits (Epica Stella) and Silhouette Mirage.

    I left the company in the middle of Lunar 2 for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons was that I saw the writing on the wall for the localization industry and realized that I needed to get into original development or my career was sunk.

    The game industry simply cannot support small developers or publishers anymore, especially not on consoles. The costs of production and marketing are too high, and it's too easy for a product to get lost on the shelf. There is way too much graft that has to be paid in the retail channel to get them to give your product decent placement, or even to order your product at all... and then they are slow to pay.

    Furthermore, the Japanese companies have wised up to the value of their more esoteric games, and now either publish those games themselves, or license them out to larger publisher who can put more marketing muscle behind them.

    I'm somewhat surprised that Victor was having trouble getting his titles approved, as he has always had very good relationships with his third-party liason at Sony in the past... perhaps that had changed after I left.

    Victor has had a definite positive impact on the industry. Before Victor, game companies frequently changed all the art (or at least, the cover art) on Japanese games to make it more palletable to US audiences. They whipped out very poor translations ("all your base..."), and often removed dubbing and audio tracks completely. They frequently passed over whole genres which were considered too esoteric for the US market.

    Victor changed all that. He raised the bar for localized products in just about every way, and proved that there was a market for all of those niche titles, games with anime art, RPGs and strategy games.

    I don't think we've seen the last of Victor, although we may never hear from Working Designs again, at least not as a publisher. I suspect Victor will probably end up producing localizations on a contract basis for other publishers... assuming that such work would be satisfying to him. Once you've been in charge, it's hard to go back to taking orders. I can't ever see Victor leaving Redding and accepting a full-time producer position at any company... which is probably the only way he'd get remotely close to the power he had to make the games the way he wanted like at WD.

    It's the end of an era, but really, that era ended a long time ago. I'm surprised that he hung on as long as he did.

    -- Timon Marmex --

  10. "Our games go to 11!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Err, make that:

    Our games went to '05!

  11. Prior justification by MMaestro · · Score: 1
    Sega and Nintendo were arguably justified in their 'quality assurance' policies especially in the NES and Sega Master System days simply because there was too much crap being published by companies. Don't forget, back then a team of one could put out a game every 2 months. It would be a total piece of crap, with no gameplay, insulting graphics and be nothing more than a waste of plastic and silicon, but it was a game that took up shelf space.

    These days however, Sony seems to have this crazy 'if its 2-D, people won't buy it' mentality. Don't forget Katamari Damacy was initially released in limited number in the U.S. because Sony thought it would flop (course this simply resulted in a shortage and the eventual creation of a sequel). Microsoft and the Xbox as well as Nintendo and the Gamecube don't follow this mentality as the large number of 'Atari Collection Games' and 'Sega Smash Packs' will attest to, not to mention Nintendo's 'simple is good' gaming mantra.

  12. "Thanks for the important thing!" by Hitto · · Score: 1

    Or is it too obscure?

  13. MRK... by DeadMilkman · · Score: 1

    First off Working Designs did make MKR...

    But:
    There was never an "Americanized" version broadcasted. The US License-holder for the last 7 years has been Media Blasters (AKA AnimeWorks). Now for those who don't know MediaBlasters likes releasing on the cheap but with accurate subs.

    More likely scenarios:
    That was the Japanese shop wanting the name changes (dispite what many anime fans would think....most anime bastardizations came about because of the Japanese creator out to make a buck, making stupid decisions based on bad assumptions of American culture.)

  14. The Mistake you are making.... by DeadMilkman · · Score: 1

    For the record, everything you said is right, and it was right then.....

    HOWEVER

    There is one big whole in your plan...

    The day retail dies.

    When Online distrib hits through shelve restrictions will be gone. Marketing will fundamentally change, and indie shops will be able to compete as they will no longer have shelving problems and they can concentrate on WoM/niche marcheteering.

    Infact I honestly believe it will bringback the shareware industry which was just about crushed by piracy (SN trading). See XBox Live as what the future is looking like.

    1. Re:The Mistake you are making.... by Traiklin · · Score: 1

      there's just one problem with that

      When retail dies and online takes off people will still go looking for deals, now how many scam sites are out there? (reffer to an earlier slashdot story about a guy buying a camera) how many of them would just LOVE to setup shop long enough to get a few credit card numbers and bulk out their bank accounts and suddenly vanish over night (lokitorrent).

      when you buy direct from the source you pay more (HL2 boxed 54.99, Steam download 54.99 tho when I got mine it was down to $39.99 boxed but steam was still 49.99) so it could work but maybe not, if it's a game that won't sell well then naturally they will charge more cause of pressing costs, Mainly because HDD just aren't big enough (and speeds aren't fast enough).

      could you imagine paying $50 for a 12-15gb game? you'd have to wait a couple of days before you could actually play it then you lose that on the HDD, with the HDD's only going up to 80gb (this is from microsoft, they said it themselves with the possability of it going higher) that's about 5 games at 15gb each. then you would have to spend more money to get another hdd, swap out and write down what's on each hdd and go from there.

      I do agree Xbox live is the future of video game distrobution but, HDD & Broadband (in the US) just isn't quite there yet.

  15. A sad day come a long way by Fentekreel · · Score: 1

    I am very sorry to see on of my favorite game developers take a dive and close up shop due to a tiff with sony of all people. There are other consols that would gratly benifit from the aqusition of some of thesee titles. Specificly the Xbox and Revolution. The Xbox is in dire need of an rpg base especially japanese rpgs. From what i've read that is one major reason for the poor launch in japan. Though i dont know if sony has ownership or a percentage of influence(stocks like square) over the company but i dont see any need to cease their existance. Sorry this is all gabled but i'm getting rady for a final and this sad news is just that sad.. farewell WD I'll still be playing your games when you've gone ..... Go lunar.

  16. Why are they closing? by Sage+of+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Why not just partner with a differnt publisher?

  17. Re:MKR by hiei · · Score: 1

    It was never released, but there WAS a company that was working on dubbing MKR and marketing it to the girls market, around the same time Sailor Moon was being aired in the US. I remember them having a booth at comic con, and seeing them demoing it. They were also working on bringing over some PC datesims if I recall correctly. It never went anywhere, obviously. I bet Media Blasters picked up MKR after they fell apart, because I never saw/heard anything from them after that. and this was probably 96/97.

    Anyhow, the Saturn-released MKR was around the tail end of the Saturn's life, in 1998 (I want to say spring...). Working Designs was working on the translation for around 30 months, and says in the manual that it took the bulk of that time for approval of the names. MKR had a very slight, if any, notoriaty in the US at that time.

    --
    Upgrade your grey matter, cause one day it may matter
  18. Re:MKR by hiei · · Score: 1

    Let me clarify by stating that the first company I mentioned was working on dubbing the MKR tv show; the demo I mentioned was a tape running of the first episode that they had dubbed.

    --
    Upgrade your grey matter, cause one day it may matter