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Factor 5 Animator Claims Studio is Cutting Projects, Needs Funding
- Thread starter FrankT
- Start date
Black-Wind
Member
. . . But than doesn't this also mean we will get lots of clones and "safe bets" in place of creative games that could have gotten some backing had things not been soo effed up? (because it seems like the game industry loves going "me too!" when it comes to money)Brashnir said:
Thats has seemed to be a problem this gen on the HD consoles atleast. People go for the "safe bet" because something unproven might end up hurting alot more now than it would have in the past.
MassiveAttack
Banned
Mifune said:
A few problems with your argument, however:
1) Midway hasn't had a profitable quarter in years and has done nothing but lose money continuously since Redstone made his initial investment 10 years ago.
2) EA has layoffs every single year. The layoffs were more pronounced this year due to EA scaling back Pandemic following the Dark Knight disaster.
3) Factor 5 is but one studio that has either struggled or gone under out of dozens during the last few years.
dionysus said:
The layoffs, project cancellations, and publisher/studio closures over the past 6 weeks have mainly been recession related via credit and financing issues.
The impact of the things you talk about will be seen in Q1 next year after what will be a decent enough Christmas for the industry in aggregate, but a washout for individual titles and companies.
The traditional retail videogame model is, unfortunately, broken.
MassiveAttack said:
Ah so that would account for 40 of the reported 600 give or take layoffs? Yes, there are layoffs every year, but not 6 percent of the workforce.
Anyway, there's no denying that some of these companies were in trouble regardless of the economy. But likewise there shouldn't be any denying that the economy is making that trouble much worse.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
God speed, gentlemen. While I didn't like many of their games, there's no questioning the effort put into them, and the current situation is a really shitty one to have to try and find work in. Hope everyone lands on their feet.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
That's fine, but 1up didn't misinterpret his original blogpost as it was written. It's not like it was ambiguous either.sprocket said:
I guess we'll know soon enough, though.
Black-Wind said:
sure, while we'll see more experimental offerings with lower-budget titles and from platform holders. Even a "safe bet" with a big budget is still a significant risk for a publisher. You shouldn't expect experimental titles with blockbuster budgets - it's just not a viable model.
sprocket said:
As Segata Sanshiro said, someone posted the original post on that blog few pages back on this thread, and we see little to no misinterpretation. the fact that he removed the original post on the blog in the first place already mean something.
guy's just whining about the sad state of his company on his blog, a web site stumble across it and published it out, and guy's afraid of getting into trouble from his company so he delete the post and claim everything just got misinterpreted.
Black-Wind
Member
:lol :lolxfactor said:
Wii Karma . . . will it hit IGN's Matt. C too?
You are correct.Brashnir said:
This is pretty much one of the big reason's I like the Wii. We atleast have a good chance of seeing something creative on the Wii because of the cost + Limitations in power vs the HD twins. (and 09 is shaping up nicely in that regard)
This is very correct.xfactor said:
You don't HIDE misinterpreted statements . . . you SHOW why they were misinterpreted. He is simply covering his ass.
bistromathics
facing a bright new dawn
Black-Wind said:
You mean like
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171691
This is turning into a nice little LJ drama >_>
bistromathics
facing a bright new dawn
Found a cached version of the original 1up article here, in case people were interested in seeing it:
http://www.gigablast.com/get?q=%2Burl:http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory%3FcId=3171691&c=main&d=26044683360&cnsp=0
http://www.gigablast.com/get?q=%2Burl:http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory%3FcId=3171691&c=main&d=26044683360&cnsp=0
diffusionx
Gold Member
dionysus said:
I think this has little to do with Lair. It comes down to credit. Companies need funding to get themselves through patches. Factor 5 released a stinker but if they had 3 or 4 solid projects down the pike, it was easy to get funding to get through development before. How else would Midway be hundreds of millions in debt? Credit was everywhere.
Now, its not. Factor 5 needs money but can't get any, because nobody absolutely nobody is giving it out.
This absolutely has everything to do with the economy, 100%, everything to do with the "credit crunch" and the stress the financial system is under, it shows how embedded credit is to American-style capitalism.
jmonteiro said:
that post is quite stupid in many ways.
first - LAIRS main problems were never the motion controls - it was the whole combat mechanic, lack of good targeting, bad mission design (mission start, cutscene, flying, cutscene, flying, cutscene, gameplay) and the bad framerate which are to be blamed.
and btw. LAIR was wholly founded by SCEA. factor 5 was rumored to be working with brash on some superman game and since brash is dead for a couple of month, the game must be halted.
but i wonder, why they never did some psn game. their relationship with sony wasnt bad afterall.
Frencherman
Member
Eat them Nintendo and establish a graphic-whores department in your premises!
SilverLunar
Member
If it means their horrible vision of the next Man Icarus game gets canned then Im all for it. >_>Shiggy said:
Seriously reading about people losing jobs is sadening no matter what.
Is Lair REALLY that bad? I mean, has anyone here actually played it after the update?
I want to try it, but I can't even find anywhere that rents the damn game. The pictures of it were pretty, and I mean damn! You're flying a dragon! That has to be at least SOMEWHAT fun...
I want to try it, but I can't even find anywhere that rents the damn game. The pictures of it were pretty, and I mean damn! You're flying a dragon! That has to be at least SOMEWHAT fun...
so why are there still employees at developers/publishers that think a blog post that mentions his/her company by name won't eventually get picked up by a gaming news site? no employer will ever react positively to an employee talking specifically about work.
people, if you need to vent online, make sure you change the company's name!
people, if you need to vent online, make sure you change the company's name!
Well I don't like Factor 5 games at all, but IF it is true I wish the best for all its employees. Shit is hard right now, and it's near Christmas so I know it has to be amplified for individuals facing unemployment.
When asked to describe the power of the Wii, he correctly called it a GC 1.5. In his context, being someone intimately familiar with the Gamecube's architecture, this is trolling?
It has BECOME a troll for forum members, but he was correct in the original context it was being used. You can't fault him for being accurate.
xfactor said:
When asked to describe the power of the Wii, he correctly called it a GC 1.5. In his context, being someone intimately familiar with the Gamecube's architecture, this is trolling?
It has BECOME a troll for forum members, but he was correct in the original context it was being used. You can't fault him for being accurate.
Cow Mengde
Banned
Amir0x said:
I agree. Hell, the funny thing is that if F5 did make a Wii game, it has the POSSIBILITIES of looking more like 2 Gamecubes. Well, we might never know now.
bistromathics
facing a bright new dawn
Nobody is interested that 1up pulled the story? I was kinda surprised.
Amir0x said:
I do not know why people take offense to the GC 1.5, we all know its between 1.5-2x the Gamecube in power.
What I find offensive is the fact that most developers are not even producing Gamecube 1.0 powered graphics for the Wii.
If its even just a little more powerful why are we not getting more games that resemble RE4 and Metroid Prime, and instead getting games that crap out trying to resemble Sega Bass Fishing
bistromathics
facing a bright new dawn
Thomper said:
Wow you're right. They totally did take it down last night though. Removed from the news page and everything.
Guess it was maybe a case of 'lets double check and make sure we really didn't fuck up'. I was looking forward to some edrama ;_;
Littleberu
Banned
Hellion said:
Yeah good animation, so the game is good because of that?
I haven't played the full game, but I have played the demo on the hong kong store (which has the analog patch.) The controls are a little sluggish (and lock-on isn't all that great), the graphics range from pretty to "oh my god did someone cover the screen with their diarrhea," the framerate is absolutely terrible, which is damning especially for a flight game, the camera can be frustrating, the way objectives/missions/whatever progress is annoying, etc.mr jones said:
It's just a crappy game, and this is coming from a huge Rogue Squadron fan. Everything just feels frustrating... it's like I'm playing an unfinished, unpolished N64 game from 1998.
To be fair, the soundtrack is really good, but that's it.
MWS Natural
Member
I game in here just to post this, which couldn't be more fitting:
