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Factor 5 ALIVE

V

V_Ben

Banned
Shiggy said:
Nintendo and LucasArts did not want to give them money anymore since they were afraid that they would use it to pay off debts instead of finishing their projects. Bottlerocket was in the same situation: They had contracts for working on Street of Rage for Sega and Scratch! The DJ, but then publishers wanted some security.
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Ah, that does make sense. Always sad to see good developers go under in that way.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
antonz said:
Do we know what ever came from the lawsuits that were filed by US employees over Rogue Squadron Wii etc?
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No, WhiteHarvest was shut down shortly after those. Do you know how to track lawsuits?


Caesar III said:
couldn't they easily port rogue squadron to 3ds? The system should be capable to do it and it would kick as in 3d. EEK
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Don't know whether LucasArts would like to see them work on a Trilogy project for a third time. But maybe this would be the first time it is released...
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
wsippel said:
Turrican was already mentioned (they would need Denaris and Chris to bring it back, though), but they're also wizards. When developers made a big deal about next gen tech, Factor 5 was like "well, we already did all this stuff five years ago. On Gamecube. In eight months. For a lauch title."
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The team that did the launch RS was damn amazing. Wish they were all still together making games, probably show alot of devs out there how to make a graphics engine and do it right on the Wii.
 
A

apana

Member
I have good memories of playing Rogue Squadron on my friend's gamecube. Hope Factor 5 get to make Man Icarus as they had always dreamed. Rogue Squadron for Wii would also be nice.
 
A

AshMcCool

Member
Obviously a lot of things came together that lead to their closure. Brash beeing one thing, Lairs failure beeing another. I would have really liked to see their visions of Superman and Pilotwings, though.
 
C

Celine

Member
wsippel said:
Turrican was already mentioned (they would need Denaris and Chris to bring it back, though), but they're also wizards. When developers made a big deal about next gen tech, Factor 5 was like "well, we already did all this stuff five years ago. On Gamecube. In eight months. For a lauch title."
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Nah, Denaris isn't required, the Maestro on the other hand ...
 
A

antonz

Member
Havent been able to find any updates on the lawsuits regarding the shifting of Rogue Squadron wii assets etc to protect it.
 
W

wsippel

Banned
Shiggy said:
They don't need Denaris for Turrican, Factor 5 GmbH owns it. Chris Huelsbeck would be no problem though, he recently worked with QWRKii (composed of ex-Factor 5 devs) on a pretty great iPhone title
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I'm not talking about legal stuff. It's nostalgia. It wouldn't be the same without Manfred (and Chris, but it seems we agree there).
 
A

antonz

Member
careksims said:
Okay Next Gen Rogue Squadron please!
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Pretty sure Lucasarts will never work with Factor 5 again unless Factor 5 can pony up cash. Lawsuit said they owed Lucasarts over 4 million dollars from a loan in 2003.

The fact they were pretty much developing Wii games only after Lair says they gave up on HD twins.

The Nintendo Curse hit them. They worked well with Nintendo then decided to leave for better pastures and found out they were doomed.
 
S

Shiggy

Member
antonz said:
Pretty sure Lucasarts will never work with Factor 5 again unless Factor 5 can pony up cash. Lawsuit said they owed Lucasarts over 4 million dollars from a loan in 2003.

The fact they were pretty much developing Wii games only after Lair says they gave up on HD twins
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The bulk of employees worked on Superman, don't forget about that!

Does any website exist to track lawsuits?
 
L

loosus

Banned
I have to say that I was always technically impressed with their GameCube games (the forest scene in one of the Rogue Squadron games was mind-numbing at the time), but it's so hard to actually sit down and play their games. Their GameCube games felt like mid-1995 PC games in the interface, and a lot of their design decisions were questionable. And they always found a jarring way to keep the technically impressive stuff under wraps, like having a technically nice cutscene with shitty animation and a "cut to black" between each camera-angle change.
 
C

Celine

Member
loosus said:
I have to say that I was always technically impressed with their GameCube games (the forest scene in one of the Rogue Squadron games was mind-numbing at the time), but it's so hard to actually sit down and play their games. Their GameCube games felt like mid-1995 PC games in the interface, and a lot of their design decisions were questionable. And they always found a jarring way to keep the technically impressive stuff under wraps, like having a technically nice cutscene with shitty animation and a "cut to black" between each camera-angle change.
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Not only Gamecube. Factor 5 developed some of the prettiest games on Snes and N64 too.
 
W

wsippel

Banned
loosus said:
I have to say that I was always technically impressed with their GameCube games (the forest scene in one of the Rogue Squadron games was mind-numbing at the time), but it's so hard to actually sit down and play their games. Their GameCube games felt like mid-1995 PC games in the interface, and a lot of their design decisions were questionable. And they always found a jarring way to keep the technically impressive stuff under wraps, like having a technically nice cutscene with shitty animation and a "cut to black" between each camera-angle change.
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Impressive tech, terrible interfaces, lack of polish and weird gameplay decisions are staples of central and eastern European devs for some reason. Some of the issues are easy to explain, others... not so much.
 
M

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Shin Johnpv said:
The team that did the launch RS was damn amazing. Wish they were all still together making games, probably show alot of devs out there how to make a graphics engine and do it right on the Wii.
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We have one of the engineers from that team, Mike Keith, working on our iPhone/Android stuff. He is awesome and really knows his stuff.
 
I

Instro

Member
Maybe Nintendo could get them do make some good middleware for the 3DS. Isnt F5 currently involved in some lawsuit btw, or has that been finished up?
 
A

antonz

Member
Instro said:
Maybe Nintendo could get them do make some good middleware for the 3DS. Isnt F5 currently involved in some lawsuit btw, or has that been finished up?
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They were being sued by former employees regarding the company shifting all the Wii work over to a cover company etc. Cannot find any updates on it and all the gaming sites that said they would keep tracking the story never did so no updates
 
S

Shin Johnpv

Member
Mario said:
We have one of the engineers from that team, Mike Keith, working on our iPhone/Android stuff. He is awesome and really knows his stuff.
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That's pretty awesome. I have to imagine from a programmer side thats like if I got to work with one of disneys 9 old men. lol
 
S

scitek

Member
CecilRousso said:
Remind me again why Factor 5 are so popular. Please don´t say that it´s just because of the average Rogue Squadron games?
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Mostly because of their ability to get more out of the Gamecube graphically than pretty much every other developer on the planet.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Seriously, I need to hear another version of this at some point

Bionic Action

or

Desert Rock

Seeing a new Turrican game seems like it would only be feasible on digital distribution systems or a PSP2/3DS release. I just couldnt see a game like that making a substantial profit as a disc based console release...unfortunately.
 
M

mantidor

Member
Keyser Soze said:
163517_f520.jpg


"Factor Five is ALIVE!"
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bah too late for avatar self quote.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
scitek said:
Mostly because of their ability to get more out of the Gamecube graphically than pretty much every other developer on the planet.
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Pretty graphics yeah, but I´m really suprised that so many people are so fond of the Rogue Squadron series. Maybe I sound like an elitist asshole when I say that, but since I hade played the X-Wing/Tie Fighter games by Totally Games, I thought Rogue Squadron was pretty "meh!".
 
T

Turrican3

Member
Shiggy said:
They never did? Factor 5 released those games on VC again.
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IIRC there was a time when a nightmarish copyright scenario was in existance, basically making a "new" Turrican game impossible or at least not commercially viable due to F5 not holding worldwide rights to the IP.

I understand things may be quite different now, and VC releases surely hint at that.

Celine said:
Nah, Denaris isn't required, the Maestro on the other hand ...
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By Denaris you mean Manfred Trenz I guess; well to be honest I can hardly imagine a good Turrican game without him holding a designer position: Factor5/Neon designed ones, whilst being the usual tech-monsters were not that good IMHO compared to Turrican1/2 on Commodore platforms, created (basically) by Trenz alone.

Back on topic, it's nice to see Factor5's still - somewhat - alive but it would be far more convincing to hear about actual game announcements... until then I'll keep my expectactions low.
 
C

Celine

Member
I'm wondering what could come out of a joint parternship between Factor5 and Shin'en to do a new Turrican game for 3DS ...
 
S

Shiggy

Member
Noisepurge said:
i wonder who owns the IP for Turrican? THQ?
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Why THQ? It's owned by Factor 5.

Edit: Factor 5 holds the international rights whereas Softgold held the German rights. When they were closed, THQ might have got them, but that's not entirely clear. A look at the German database reveals that the Softgold rights ended on December 31st 2010.
 
N

Noisepurge

Member
Shiggy said:
Why THQ? It's owned by Factor 5.
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The original was from Rainbow Arts that is now THQ. Factor 5 only did some ports?

edit: no Turrican 2 was from them...right, and doing a little snooping around: "Denaris, Katakis, and Turrican are trademarks of Factor 5 GmbH." Gotta give them a call and ask!
 
S

Shiggy

Member
Noisepurge said:
The original was from Rainbow Arts that is now THQ. Factor 5 only did some ports?

edit: no Turrican 2 was from them...right
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Factor 5 released Super Turrican 1&2 and Mega Turrican on VC, thus they must have the rights. In addition, they worked on a next-gen iteration - only an investor was missing.
 
S

Superfrog

Member
Discomurf said:
Here is the full job post....

Factor 5 has over 20 years in the development of console games in Germany and the USA. Our affinity for technology and hardware will be appreciated by many partners around the world especially.

Junior Software Developer (m / f)
Factor 5 looking to strengthen the R & D development teams in the Cologne / Germany a junior software developers.

Responsibilities:

Development of technologies for all current consoles, handhelds and PCs

Your profile:
You have a degree in computer science or a comparable training or have acquired knowledge in practice.
Your use of C + + and object-oriented design is excellent and you know the STL and TR1.
But have no fear of assembler.
You have a basic understanding of the problems in the multi-core programming.
You can familiarize themselves independently in new technologies.
They show initiative and be a team player.
They respond flexibly to project adjustments and are able to complete your tasks with the times.
They speak fluent English.
Desirable experiences with non-Microsoft platforms
It offers an interesting challenge with room for initiative at different projects in an international company.

We look forward to receiving your application, indicating a possible start date and salary expectations.
Factor 5 GmbH
Achim Moller
Otto-Hahn-Str. 7
50 997 Cologne
de@factor5.de
www.factor5.de
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Apparently the job listing text has been changed. The company is now called FactorY and was "founded by former members of Factor 5" (according to the first sentence in the new listing).

2ec0uwz.jpg
 
S

Shiggy

Member
Interesting, Moller also registered the company "Factor V Media Production GmbH" in 2009...
It's probably got to do with some legal things that he had to change it to Factor Y lol

Rene Henke is also on board, so it might be a real comeback now...I wonder whether Schmidt, Engel and Eggebrecht are also there.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Where the hell have you guys been? Factor 5's been making WiiWare games for a while now. They're called Shin'en.
Yeah I know, Shin'en isn't Factor 5, but they can pull miracles just like F5
 
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