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[NotWii]

http://www.data-max.co.jp/2010/03/post_9070.html

On 1st March 2010, Cing (the developer of Another Code, Hotel Dusk, Little King's Story) filed for bankruptcy in Japan. The company has suffered liabilities totaling 256 million yen (about 2.5 million USD).

NO!

I really liked all their games

 

[duckroll]

Again seemed to have some pretty awful production issues as well, because it ended up getting delayed more than 12 months... which is really more than 100% of what the development time for the game should have been.

Yeah I wonder what was with that. It's really inexcusable for an adventure game of this sort, and probably contributed to their current situation. I'm really sad right now because it definitely does mean that Last Window getting a localization might be tricky or outright impossible if Nintendo feels it isn't worth the effort to get another developer to program the localization. :/

 

[crazy monkey]

Little king story was amazing game

 

[duckroll]

Do we know how many people are affected?

The last company info update on their site listed 29 employees. The entire site is gone now, so you'll have to check under Google Cache or Wayback Machine.

 

[Earl Cazone]

oh noez. i hope last window will release here nevertheless.

 

[Kazuma Kiryu]

these last few years have been rough on the industry :|

 

[Hero of Legend]

They did Monster Rancher DS (both of them?) as well.

Now, we know LKS sold at least 130K worldwide (across all three territories), how much has their previous games sold worldwide?

 

[Stumpokapow]

I'm really sad right now because it definitely does mean that Last Window getting a localization might be tricky or outright impossible if Nintendo feels it isn't worth the effort to get another developer to program the localization. :/

It's hard to say, really. Maybe the codebase is good enough, maybe it isn't. Maybe the game has already been localized, maybe it hasn't (if they're planning it for a summer release or maybe even a fall release, it would have definitely been localized before this news).

Maybe Nintendo flipped a coin and decided not to localize it because George Washington came up.

Either way, it sucks that a great developer isn't going to make any more games and it sucks that we might get their final game, regardless of what's to blame

 

[loosus]

I'm a little confused as to what you're referring to. Cing is a very small developer, and none of their games are even of "semi-high" production values. A game like Hotel Dusk has very low production values and sold AMAZINGLY well both in Japan (over 200k) and worldwide (iirc ~100-200k in the US).

What is unfortunate is that all their recent titles bombed hard. Again, Another Code R, Last Window - all total bombs. It's definitely not the production value of their games which killed them, but their failure to sell. We could blame Tecmo and Nintendo for lack of marketing, but ultimately what's done is done.

Production values is as much the human costs of the game as it is how the game actually turns out -- and honestly, if you compare these games to the equivalent cheapo $5 PC games, you'll see that CING's games generally blow them out of the water.

Here's the full credits list for Hotel Dusk:

Producer Takuya Miyagawa
Coproducers Satoshi Kira
Coproducers Shinya Saito
Director Taisuke Kanasaki
Game Design Rika Suzuki
Main Programming Motofumi Nishimura
Planning Assistants Yuhki Tsuruta
Planning Assistants Shigeru Komine
Programming Dai Yamanoguchi
Programming Tomozou Tamura
Programming Kazuya Matsubara
Character Design Taisuke Kanasaki
Animation Taisuke Kanasaki
Map Design Jheon In Te
Map Design Koichi Kido
Illustration Keisuke Sakamoto
Artwork Chiharu Sakiyama
Coordination Nagako Ikuta
Project Management Hiroshi Sato
Sound Satoshi Okubo
Sound Yuhki Mori
2-D Design Miya Hiroshige
Executive Producer Satoru Iwata

If everyone made an average of $40,000 (probably on the low side), then that's $600,000 in just human resources assuming the game 9 months to make.

Assuming CING got $5 on each game (probably on the high side, especially considering how much these games have been marked down, how much the retailers are taking, how much Nintendo is taking, etc.) and sold 350,000 copies, then that would net them $1,750,000...over the ENTIRE life of the product thus far, which is probably longer than it took to make the game to begin with!

Live on razor-thin margins like that for long without any reserve cash and see where it gets you: oh that's right, bankruptcy.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I'm only including 20 of the 23 people listed.

 

[ExMachina]

Damn shame, I really enjoyed Hotel Dusk and LKS. =( I'll keep my fingers crossed for Last Window to make its way overseas still, it'd suck to miss out on their final work.

 

[duckroll]

It's hard to say, really. Maybe the codebase is good enough, maybe it isn't. Maybe the game has already been localized, maybe it hasn't (if they're planning it for a summer release or maybe even a fall release, it would have definitely been localized before this news).

Maybe Nintendo flipped a coin and decided not to localize it because George Washington came up.

Either way, it sucks that a great developer isn't going to make any more games and it sucks that we might get their final game, regardless of what's to blame

I think the most optimistic way of looking at this would be that hopefully most of the guys (and gals?) from Cing join other developers and work on writing and design in well managed studios. Not everyone is great at running a business, but the staff at Cing are definitely an asset when it comes to development work.

 

[eXistor]

Well that sucks, one of my favorite Japanese developers down and out.

 

[Celine]

How will this affect being able to get LKS in Europe? I still don't own a Wii but I don't want to miss out on this game when I eventually do get one either.

The game is only 10-12 euro at TheHut, maybe you should buy it asap.

Oh about the topic:
:-(

 

[dolemite]

Production values is as much the human costs of the game as it is how the game actually turns out -- and honestly, if you compare these games to the equivalent cheapo $5 PC games, you'll see that CING's games generally blow them out of the water.

Here's the full credits list for Hotel Dusk:

Producer Takuya Miyagawa
Coproducers Satoshi Kira
Coproducers Shinya Saito
Director Taisuke Kanasaki
Game Design Rika Suzuki
Main Programming Motofumi Nishimura
Planning Assistants Yuhki Tsuruta
Planning Assistants Shigeru Komine
Programming Dai Yamanoguchi
Programming Tomozou Tamura
Programming Kazuya Matsubara
Character Design Taisuke Kanasaki
Animation Taisuke Kanasaki
Map Design Jheon In Te
Map Design Koichi Kido
Illustration Keisuke Sakamoto
Artwork Chiharu Sakiyama
Coordination Nagako Ikuta
Project Management Hiroshi Sato
Sound Satoshi Okubo
Sound Yuhki Mori
2-D Design Miya Hiroshige
Executive Producer Satoru Iwata

If everyone made an average of $40,000 (probably on the low side), then that's $600,000 in just human resources assuming the game 9 months to make.

...

Actually, some names on the list appear more than ones, there's a lot of multi-tasking going on at smaller companies. Iwata shouldn't be counted either:lol

 

[Stumpokapow]

I think the most optimistic way of looking at this would be that hopefully most of the guys (and gals?) from Cing join other developers and work on writing and design in well managed studios. Not everyone is great at running a business, but the staff at Cing are definitely an asset when it comes to development work.

Actually, this is what surprises me the most about the bankruptcy. Everyone says "but but but <game x> sold well" and that's pretty irrelevant because obviously they didn't sell well enough or their contracts weren't good enough or whatever--the reality is I'm surprised that CING wasn't in a position to move to being a work-for-hire studio to save their hides. Again aside, they're clearly effective developers who maximize their resource usage and get the job done. It surprises me that we didn't see them try to do outsourced sound programming or storyboarding or whatever else, which is the normal path of an independent developer in financially dire straits.

Work-for-hire gives devs easy money quickly and there's more outsourcing than ever so it's not like there isn't work available.

 

[Stahsky]

I've only played Hotel Dusk, which I thought was fantastic. The least I can do now is play some of the other games they've created. Any suggestions?

 

[duckroll]

If everyone made an average of $40,000 (probably on the low side), then that's $600,000 in just human resources assuming the game 9 months to make.

In Japan? :lol

A much bigger and richer developer like Level 5 is offering an average of 240,000yen (2.6k USD) per month on their recruitment page.

 

[jibblypop]

Rats. They are one of the few developers I actually like.

 

[AceBandage]

Blah.
That's horrible.
Hopefully we can still see more from them, though.

 

[Hugbot]

This is because I haven't bought LKS yet, isn't it? Sorry guys

 

[Hot Coldman]

Booo, I liked Little King's Story too.

 

[GC|Simon]

Oh fuck, that news is unexpected... and terrible! I loved Another Code and I loved Little King's Stroy. CING was such a great studio... I'm really sad now :-(

 

[Sipowicz]

iwata would use up more than 2.5 million wiping his ass

bail them out Nintendo you cheapskates

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I've only played Hotel Dusk, which I thought was fantastic. The least I can do now is play some of the other games they've created. Any suggestions?

Another Code/Trace Memory, Another Code: R

 

[ILikeFeet]

IM SORRY! I will still get Little King Story! I promise!

 

[Oyashiro]

Isn't Again supposed to come out later this month in North America?

 

[Easy_D]

I got LKS, but I haven't even beaten the second King yet . I should continue the game and finish it in honor of Cing

 

[Earl Cazone]

what happened to the other ds game with a more realistic approach in terms of character design (iirc it used photo-material).
did it see release?

 

[grindamasta]

Amazing developer. Very sad news

 

[Diglet]

Thats terrible D:

 

[Magypsy23]

what happened to the other ds game with a more realistic approach in terms of character design (iirc it used photo-material).
did it see release?

Yes, in 2009. It bombed.

 

[AceBandage]

what happened to the other ds game with a more realistic approach in terms of character design (iirc it used photo-material).
did it see release?

Again?

Comes out at the end of the month in the States.

 

[Metroid Killer]

LKS was one of the best games on Wii last year, and they made some pretty damn great games on DS as well.

 

[Aeris130]

Guess this means I won't get Another Code 2 on DS. Fuck, why'd they put the damn thing on Wii? Who asked for that?

 

[Stahsky]

Another Code/Trace Memory, Another Code: R

Thank your kindly. Are they like Hotel Dusk, or should I expect a different style of gameplay?

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Guess this means I won't get Another Code 2 on DS. Fuck, why'd they put the damn thing on Wii? Who asked for that?

You were really expecting them to port Another Code: R to the DS?

Not really sure what the issue is. I think Another Code: R is a far better game than the original.

 

[Datschge]

It surprises me that we didn't see them try to do outsourced sound programming...

Not sure if that's true for all their games but in Hotel Dusk the sound stuff including music was outsourced to T's Music, so they already did that.

 

[Azure Dream]

Chalk up another sad face. That's some sucky news.

I feel awful for not buying the US releases of Another Code: R and Last Window to support them. Oh, wait.

 

[Jonnyram]

 

[Omikaru]

I hope this still means Last Window comes to US and/or Europe so I can play it.

Nintendo, bail them out! They added so much richness and value to the DS!

 

[ULTROS!]

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

Well Nintendo is hiring. I'm sure if the CING leaders don't make a new company, most of the staff may end up at Nintendo anyway.

 

[RevoDS]

Nintendo should buy them out, if only to take their developers and add them to their teams.

 

[Twig]

But... but... I'm finally playing LKS and it's amazing!

):

 

[Acosta]

Sad news, best wishes to the team.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Nintendo should buy them out, if only to take their developers and add them to their teams.

Their liabilities are probably the only reason Nintendo didn't bother, they didn't want to take on all their financial problems.

 

[farnham]

is last window out..?

Nintendo should buy them out, if only to take their developers and add them to their teams.

this! CING has been a part of nintendos lineup for a long time

dunno if the sales were good.. but it was a part of their portfolio

 

[AdawgDaFAB]

Most certainly was not the first thing I wanted to see when I checked GAF this morning. CING has been one of my favorite developers for years now, as I own every game they released in English. I hope HD2 and Again still get their localizations completed at least.

*Tear* RIP CING, never will you be forgotten.

 

[MYE]

Nooooooooooooooooooooo

Who's gonna make LKS 2 now?

 

[nincompoop]

Shit, should I import Another Code R now if I don't want to miss out on it forever? Play.com has it for a good price, do they ship to the US?