In most cases the games and the rights to them are owned by the publishing house - which in the case of Vampire -- is Activision. The publishing houses finance the games, the game studios make them under the publishing house's budget. The publishing house sells and distributes the games and after all the costs are re-couped, the game studio MIGHT see a profit back from the publisher but that's rare. The gaming industry is very much like the record industry. Just substitute "band" for gaming studio and "Major Label" for publisher.
er...no publicity stunt. My brother and our roommate both worked at Troika. Everyone's been laid off and the building has been emptied. It was very heartbreaking for a lot of the people who worked at Troika and believed they had a really good team.
Slashdot Mirror
The guy updating their webpage was laid off in December. He hasn't been there to change it.
Simple: no publisher decided to take them up on any of the new demos they did. No publisher = no money = no game studio.
Absolutely right -- publishers often force the ship dates because delays cause money. They are content with releasing patches afterwards if necessary.
In most cases the games and the rights to them are owned by the publishing house - which in the case of Vampire -- is Activision. The publishing houses finance the games, the game studios make them under the publishing house's budget. The publishing house sells and distributes the games and after all the costs are re-couped, the game studio MIGHT see a profit back from the publisher but that's rare. The gaming industry is very much like the record industry. Just substitute "band" for gaming studio and "Major Label" for publisher.
er...no publicity stunt. My brother and our roommate both worked at Troika. Everyone's been laid off and the building has been emptied. It was very heartbreaking for a lot of the people who worked at Troika and believed they had a really good team.