by Rainier on Dec. 1, 2006 @ 1:17 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
iBase Games closed its doors, and laid off all its game development workers (including Leisure Suit Larry creator Al Lowe) while its parent company, iBase Entertainment seeks additional financing. As a result iBase Games' action comedy Sam Suede: Undercover Exposure, has been put on hold indefinitly. iBase Entertainment hopes to revive the project at a later time ...
by Rainier on Nov. 22, 2006 @ 12:37 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
FBI Agents working in conjunction with officials from NCsoft’s North American business successfully closed down a computer game operation alleged to be reaping profits by providing a fraudulent service to its players. The operation was closed down after multiple raids and interviews were conducted in various cities from California to Virginia.
by Rainier on Nov. 3, 2006 @ 2:47 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
Eastern European developer Plastic Reality Technologies, who recently finished work on its FPS El Matador, has shut its doors due to the fact it could not find any further investment, all its employees left to work over at Illusion Softworks, and therefore has no further projects in development (thanks Tiscali Games)
by Rainier on Oct. 24, 2006 @ 9:10 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Hong Kong gaming retailer Lik-Sang.com announced that it is forced to close down due to multiple lawsuits brought against it by Sony who claims Lik-Sang infringes its trade marks, copyright and registered design rights by selling PSPs from Asia to European customers.
by Rainier on Oct. 12, 2006 @ 2:11 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Now here is a surprise! Capcom announced that it will shut down much heralded internal developer Clover Studio. Known for Viewtiful Joe, and more recently the excellent Okami, and just released God Hand, Clover Studio will close its doors March 2007, in what Capcom calls an attempt to improve its global development structure.
by Rainier on Sept. 6, 2006 @ 9:12 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
IENT announced today that it is shutting down support for Mirinae's MMORPGs Khan: The Absolute Power, due to the product not meet its standards of game play and the lack of on-going development would be insufficient to improve this situation. Therefore, IENT will be shutting down the game effective 9 AM EST Sept 5, 2006.
by Rainier on Aug. 2, 2006 @ 2:40 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Local newspaper Honolulu Star-Bulletin is reporting that Konami is shutting down its Hawaian studio in Waikiki, and laying off 40 employees by end of this year. The development house has been reponsible for titles such as Frogger Beyond and Frogger's Adventures 2: The Lost Wand, as well as DDR Revolution Ultramix. The reason given was global reorganization of the company and shifting resources to its L.A. and Las Vegas facilities.
by Rainier on June 5, 2006 @ 11:48 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Scottish newspaper Sunday Herald is reporting that DC Studios has shut down its Edinburgh studio, most recently known for wrapping up the long in development action shooter State of Emergency II. DC Studios founder and chief executive Mark Greenshields announced 29 employees have been "made redundant." Disappointing sales were only part of the reason for the closure of the Edinburgh studio, which was also working on two other projects. In early 2005, DC Studios took over SOE II from VIS Entertainment, which was later acquired by BAM Entertainment; both are now defunct.
by Rainier on April 28, 2006 @ 2:56 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
A Take Two PR representative just confirmed to us that its Utah-based internal development studio Indie Built Inc., known for Links, Amped, and Top Spin, has been shut down. Take Two acquired Indie Built Inc. back in October 2004. As of last night, it is no longer operational, and today, people are being told to pack their belongings and leave. Take Two's corporate office informed us that "employees are being offered packages including continuation of salary and benefits, as well as other opportunities within Take-Two as appropriate."
by Rainier on April 3, 2006 @ 3:18 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
SCi's financial statement not only revealed
Tomb Raider going Nintendo, but there was also a rather curious mention regarding Battlestations Midway. SCI revealed that the title is no longer in development at Mithis Entertainment, but instead a "newly formed studio in Budapest." Upon checking
the Mithis website it says "website closed" and Eidos seemed to know nothing about it, while SCi did not reply. When contacting HD interactive, Mithis was developing Joint Task force for them, we received word that an official announcement will be released tomorrow. Is Mithis closed? Is Mithis the new Budapest studio? Did SCi buy Mithis?
Further information indicates that Mithis is now known as
Most Wanted Entertainment (thanks Jack).
by Rainier on March 28, 2006 @ 5:35 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
Merely a few days after the announcement that Shadowbane will be free for all to play,
Ubisoft hands pink slips to all Wolfpack Studios employees and sends them packing. Reason for the closure is that Ubisoft is refocusing its efforts on the console market with the new fiscal year. Shadowbane launched 3 years ago as the first MMO to offer a Dynamic World Model, in which players' actions and decisions permanently change the history, politics and landscape of the game. What will happen to the actual game/servers is unknown at this point.
by Rainier on Jan. 1, 2006 @ 1:30 a.m. PST | Filed under
E3 - Post - E3 2008
Genre: Role-Playing Game
Publisher: Majesco
Developer: Mistwalker
Release Date: October 2008
Last year at GDC, Hironobu Sakaguchi was at Microsoft's hotel talking up Lost Odyssey. He was seriously jet-lagged and, in response to another reporter's question, mentioned that Mistwalker Games' next project was going to be a DS game. He was promptly hushed by a PR agent.
Away: Shuffle Dungeon is apparently that project, with character design by Sakaguchi and music composed by Final Fantasy legend Nobuo Uematsu. Unsurprisingly, it's an RPG; specifically, it's an action-RPG starring a brash young hero named Sword. (The name is meant to
Players take control of the young hero "Sword," the sole resident left of the once booming Webb Village, who must rescue as many kidnapped townsfolk as possible from a mysterious unknown that has been slowly "spiriting them away." AWAY Shuffle Dungeon includes creative contributions from renowned industry visionaries: RPG creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, character designer Naoto Oshima and composer Nobuo Uematsu.
In AWAY Shuffle Dungeon, an unknown force has stripped Webb Village of its residents, and now the sole heroic survivor, Sword, must rescue the stolen villagers from the ominous dungeons as he strives to expose and defeat the mysterious
The creators behind the Half-Life 2 mod
Stargate: Source have received a cease and desist order from MGM to immediately stop working on their mod project. "We are very displeased to announce that apparently MGM the huge company feels very threatened by a group of individuals spread throughout the world. We have received a letter to desist from the creation of the Stargate: Source mod. At this time we are still discussing the issue but it does appear that we are going to be shutting down." Albeit regrettable, this decision by MGM was expected since they are involved in
by Rainier on Dec. 14, 2005 @ 10:18 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
Is it just me or is there something wrong with Midway these days. After it closed down Stainless Steel only a few weeks ago, it seems they have shut down yet another,
recently acquired, development studio. Midway Australia, formerly know as Ratbag, was bought by Midway earlier this year, and rumors has it that it has closed down. What is to come of the several titles that were in development is not know at this point and Midway has not yet replied to our inquiries.
UPDATESeems Midway also closed its San Diego studio, responsible for the just released Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
by Rainier on Dec. 13, 2005 @ 11:19 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
Working Designs' Victor Ireland today announced that his localisation company has laid off all employees and shut its doors. Working Designs may not be known to a lot of people but they specialized in localizing Japanese RPGs for North America, such as Lunar : The Silver Star (Sega CD), Dragon Force (Saturn), Arc The Lad Collection and Growlanser Generations. Though almost finished and substantially improved, its current project Goemon has been scrubbed although it may still get released in Europe. Victor has contacted Microsoft to offer his assistance with the Japanese RPGs for the X360.
by Rainier on Dec. 1, 2005 @ 9:51 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
GameSpot received word from Microsoft that Digital Anvil, known for Freelancer on PC, and Xbox's Brute Force, is being shut down and assimilated. Last time anybody heard from the developer was back in 2003 when it finished Brute Force, a PC title turned Xbox when Microsoft bought DA. The employees from Digital Anvil, which was based in Texas, are given the opportunity to take up other positions in Microsoft Game Studios, but need to relocate to Washington if they choose to do so.
by Rainier on Nov. 25, 2005 @ 12:42 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
In a surprising turn of events, a community message in the
Heaven Games forums reveals that Stainless Steel Studios, previously known for Empire Earth, Empires and currently working on Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, has been shut down. Details as to what and why are not revealed, probably due to legal ramifications, but several now-former SSSI employees claimed the game is merely weeks from going gold, although its current status has not been determend. R&F: CaW is owned by Midway so the decision to have another team finish it up, or cancel it altogether, is up to them.
by Judy on Nov. 25, 2005 @ 12:28 p.m. PST | Filed under
News
Electronic Arts expects the central European market to continue developing quickly and piracy to fall, EA's head of European sales said in an interview. Jens Uwe Intat told Reuters on Friday that consumers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland who started playing games on PCs are moving to dedicated games consoles -- a sign of market maturity that also makes illegal copying harder.
by Rainier on Nov. 1, 2005 @ 1:48 a.m. PST | Filed under
News
EA announced today that servers for NFS Underground will no longer be in service as of January 13, 2006. You may continue to play the game up until the closure date, although certain community programs may begin to close down prior to that date. Please be advised that this does not affect PC peer-peer (IP-IP) play that may be a feature of certain games.
by Rainier on Oct. 18, 2005 @ 9:58 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Terrorist Takedown: Conflict in Mogadishu is the second standalone expansion pack in which the player once again takes on the role of GIs fighting against terrorrism. The expansion allows you to freely roam around in Mogadishu, adds new missions, and lets you fly Little Birds and Blackhawks, and various new weapons such as M9 Beretta, M16 with M203 grenadelauncher or the M40A1 sniper rifle, all for the low price of $9.99.
by Rainier on Sept. 6, 2005 @ 4:24 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Capcom announced that people who paid no less than $200 for their mech game Steel Battalion: Line of Sight are out of luck, as of Friday September 30th, 10:00AM-12:00PM PST, Capcom will be ending the online services for Campaign Mode of Steel Battalion. Capcom will continue services and support for both Free Mission Mode and System Link play, but these are offline modes and results in a crippled game as SB:LoC is an online game and the campaign mode is required to unlock content. The standard mode only has 4 vehicles (of a possible 31) and 4 missions (of a possible 25).
The community is quite outraged and is demanding an unlock patch, but so far no reactions, or reasons why it is being shut down, from any Capcom respresentative.
by Rainier on Aug. 25, 2005 @ 3:35 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Turbine CEO Jeffrey Anderson has just announced that its long running MMO Asheron's Call 2 will shut down at the end of the year. "In spite of our hard work and the launch of Legions, AC2 has reached the point where it no longer makes sense to continue the service. We will be officially closing the Asheron's Call 2 service on 12/30/05. Until then, we plan to run live events, but we will not be adding any content or features. We deeply appreciate the many dedicated fans of AC2 who have stood by us over the years. You have our sincerest gratitude."
by Judy on July 12, 2005 @ 2:18 p.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Majesco today announced it is revising its figures for the fiscal year ending October 31, 2005 to reflect reduced net revenues and operating results. Additionally, current Board member Jim Halpin has been elected Chairman of the Board, and Chairman and CEO Carl Yankowski has resigned.
by Rainier on June 7, 2005 @ 9:05 a.m. PDT | Filed under
News
Digital Illusions have decided to discontinue the New York office, Trauma Studios, previoisly known for the Desert Combat mod. All of the twelve employees are offered employment at the head office in Stockholm, for which they'd have to move from US to icecold Sweden.