Shiny Entertainment Purchased, Absorbed

LifesBlood writes to mention the news that Foundation 9, one of the largest independent game development firms, has acquired the non-game assets of Shiny Entertainment. You may recall Shiny as the makers of titles like Earthworm Jim, Enter the Matrix, and (though I'm the only one who ever played it) the unusual strategy title Sacrifice. From the article: "Shiny was originally purchased by Atari in 2002 for an estimated $47 million, but financial terms of the sale to F9E were not disclosed. F9E did reveal that the acquisition was funded by Foundation 9's recent investment from Francisco Partners, which gave F9E a capital infusion of $150 million over the next few years. Under the terms of the transaction, F9E will acquire all the non-game assets from Shiny, while Atari will retain its current project planning formerly developed by Shiny, including Earthworm Jim."

Comments

Sacrifice was the BEST

[Murrdox]

You're not the only one who played Sacrifice.

I popped it back in my drive just a few months ago and beat it again. It's in there with my top 5 favorite games of all time.

I love Shiny with all my heart. I fell in love with them and all the work they've done since I first played Earthworm Jim. I'm not a fan of their Matrix games, but Shiny's strength has always been in their insane degree of creativity.

Earthworm Jim
Messiah
MDK
Wild 9
Sacrifice

All these games are incredibly original and a pleasure to play. We need more game companies like Shiny

Re:Sacrifice was the BEST

[malsdavis]

I'd have to agree 100%

Sacrifice was an amazing game due largely to its originality. It had obviously been developed along a "this would be a really cool feature, lets put it in" and "no-ones done that before, so lets try it", rather than the usual corporate, EA Games style "we wan't a game for genre X, if the feature isn't symbolic of genre X, chuck it out!" and "this won't port well to the X-Box /Playstation so chuck it out!".

All their games had a strong element of creativity and originality in them. Surprisingly, they were all quite bug-free and featured pretty cutting-edge (although thankfully scalable) graphics also.

If only they had a large marketing budget, then I think millions of people would have a lot more favourable view on computer games.

Re:Sacrifice was the BEST

[vonPoonBurGer]

"We need more game companies like Shiny"
The problem is game companies like Shiny don't survive. They had some very creative ideas, I'll give you that, but as often as not, their creativity fell flat in actual execution. Messiah was bug-riddled at release and subsequently flopped, commercially speaking, I've never even heard of Wild 9, they squandered their Earthworm Jim capital by releasing an absolutely horrendous 3D version, and they never really had a smash-hit million-copy seller to my knowledge. If all you produce are quirky niche titles, then all you get are the dollars available from a quirky niche audience. I knew their goose was cooked as soon as Atari acquired them; heck, look at the poorly-selling Matrix-related schlock they've produced since that time.

What we really need are game companies that are half Shiny, half Valve... Sure, make that predictable, money-in-the-bank sequel, but then put some of that revenue into making a quirky niche title. Then go back to the well for another sequel to pay the bills. Or, alternately, we need indie-style game developers who can actually stick to indie-style game budgets and keep themselves from getting swallowed and digested by publishers. However, that would require indie-style game consumers who are willing to put up with lower production values for more creative titles, and right now that market either doesn't exist, or just isn't being effectively tapped into.

Re:Sacrifice was the BEST

[shawb]

Yep... Raimi pretty much cut his teeth on Evil Dead... Raimi and Campbell were good friends growing up and pretty much started their careers with that movie. They had done other movies together earlier, but Evil Dead and the sequels are pretty much what gave those guys hollywood level names. I actually doubt that Raimi owns the rights to the word "groovy" said in that manner, but was just trying to give an example that was relatively on topic to illustrate the idea that making ONE hit game can be done on the cheap but there are limitations that can arise afterwards.

On a mildly related note, if you're interested If Chins Could Kill is a must read for any Campbell fan... gives a pretty good feel for the whole mystique, and shows a lot of the trouble that you have to go through in making ANY independant work. And I remember it being a pretty entertaining read.

Vague article

[Dan East]

The article is somewhat confusing. After reading it and Shiny's website, it seems that the purchase did not include rights to previously published video games, or to a game currently in development for Atari. However it would have to include "game assets", because that's basically all Shiny has - particularly the patented technology they developed for producing games. The article makes it sound like nothing F9E acquired was related to game production at all, and that can't be the case. So apparently, by "game assets" they mean "rights to existing games".

Dan East

Sacrifice

[malachid69]

Some of us don't play it because after buying it, trying to install it, getting a message that I am not allowed to install it (x64), and emailing tech support - they never once responded. Basically, they wrote their installer to PREVENT x64, and didn't label it on the box... so I have it, but it is completely useless and tech support might as well not exist.