Fifteen minutes later, he deletes my comment. This annoys me, so I decide I need to get the last word in:I don't think 1UP was intentionally trying to misconstrue your post, so if you felt that you or the state of Factor 5 was being misrepresented, why not send a message to Garnett Lee, 1UP's news editor, and tell him so? Deleting the entire blog just makes your motives look suspicious.
Ten minutes later, he removes commenting and edits the blog to how we see it today.And for the record, I never said anything bad about you or your employer, so deleting my post just makes you look even more suspicious. :\
mr jones said: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...
Hellion said:
It sucks this got canceled. Probably as a result of the guy who told Jaffe not to do God of War.Hellion said:
A well-placed source has told Edge that a recent employee blog posting about layoffs and delayed pay at Lair developer Factor 5 is "all true."
The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said 37 people were laid off from the San Rafael, Calif. studio on Friday afternoon. Around 38 people remain, he said.
"The last time staff got paid was October 15th," the source stated. Workers who were laid off could get paid back this week, although this is unconfirmed.
Word of trouble at Factor 5 went public earlier this month, when Sam Baker, an artist with the studio, posted in his personal blog that workers hadn't been paid for weeks, health care was nixed and a project eight months deep had been canned. The firm had been urgently scrounging for funding in order to maintain operations, said Baker.
He later updated his blog claiming the reason behind the troubles was the recent closing of licensed game producer Brash Entertainment.
To that, our source said, "The thing that bothers me the most about it all is they could have avoided all of this ages ago. It wasn't really the Brash deal going south that was the big problem, but it didn't help much either."
Factor 5, which was originally founded in Cologne, Germany, announced in March this year that it had a multi-game contract with Brash.
Since his blog posting, Baker has resigned from the studio. Our source said the widespread news coverage of Baker's post "was quite shocking" to the artist. "He's young, and was totally devastated by his new found fame. He didn't think anything of it, innocently posting his heartfelt concerns."
But that might not be the end of the effects surrounding the post, which was later deleted. "The kicker is, Factor 5 is thinking of suing [Baker] for good measure."
Multiple calls to Factor 5 were left unanswered as of press time.
Factor 5 made a name for itself on Nintendo platforms, developing technically impressive Star Wars titles in the Rogue Squadron series, among many other games.
The most recent game from Factor 5 was 2007's PS3 exclusive Lair, which flopped with critics and failed to light up sales charts.
They obviously need the money.I AM JOHN! said:Baker messed up bad, but suing him? Come on Factor 4.9, that just seems petty.
Filled in those blanks for you. Seriously, the rising development costs of HD games plus the economic collapse means that a lot of companies are going to be falling by the wayside if they aren't smart or up to quality.norinrad21 said:Does it come as a surprise to some of you guys that half of these developers who did well on last-gen consoles are now struggling after betting on the wrong horse? There was a time when these shitty developers had a stable income from creating games for last-gen consoles
sigh
theBishop said:Suing Baker? was he under NDA or something?
Mejilan said:Damn. It's just a shitty situation for everyone. Baker, Factor 5, gamers. Say what you will about their last game or three, but no one wins here, IMHO.
Was hoping the rumors weren't true. Contacted Julian over at F5 to shed some light, but he didn't get back to me. Got an e-mail from an inside source tonight:
"Hi Matt,
How have you been? Haven't seen you guys since E3. I hope that you're doing well!
[Edit] wanted me to contact you with some late breaking news. We just learned from inside sources that developer Factor 5 has officially closed their doors as of today. That's some pretty big news considering that those guys have been around for quite a while. It's definitely a real shame! I hope that this information is helpful to you. Take care, and please say hi to Bozon for me."
Beh. Not sure what this does to Kid Icarus, either, but it sure doesn't sound good. I'll keep you posted. I'm still holding out some kind of hope there may yet be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Matt
Wooow! His first line was to talk about KI . . . when like 30something people are out of jobs if this is true?ZeroGravity said:From Matt-IGN on the message boards over at IGN:
http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_general_board/b8263/175069162/p1/?1
Mario said:His employment contract would have included a confidentiality clause. Releasing commercially sensitive information in the way he did would have been in violation of that, and quite possibly could have damaged the company's ability to secure further work.
That would provide reasonable legal grounds to sue, but I doubt they would as it would cost them more money than they could ever hope to get out of a young, now unemployed animator.
Agreed. Matt is weird for sticking to that story..element said:If they had a development deal with Nintendo, they would still be open.
KevinCow said:Silicon Knights is next.
xfactor said:If there's any sense left, Nintendo should scoop those people up and give them a studio to make hardcore games for the Wii
:lol Yea, rite.xfactor said:If there's any sense left, Nintendo should scoop those people up and give them a studio to make hardcore games for the Wii
Well most of them have been failing for the last decade or so, but they'll be the next to go out of business.AniHawk said:You say that when every video game company fails.
Chrange said:I'm pretty sure his contract also said he'd be getting paid on a regular basis.
element said:If they had a development deal with Nintendo, they would still be open.
civilstrife said:Is there a future for developers with quirky ideas that also want to throw some tech and a decent budget behind it (eg. Little Big Planet)?
Chrange said:I'm pretty sure his contract also said he'd be getting paid on a regular basis.
Lair was backed and funded by Sony though. But the game being a failure of epic dimension both in reception and sales probably made people hesitant in giving F5 money or projects. With the exception of Nintendo of course, who paid lots of cash moneys for Kid Icarus.Forsete said:Of course there is. You just have to have enough oversight to understand when your game sucks and cancel it then to save the company or redesign. Sorry to see this happen to Level 5.
Not really - one hasn't got to do with the other. But like Mario said, getting an enforceable judgement/title is of no use if the guy is just some unemployed animator with no money.RandomVince said:This is a very salient point and well made.
No offense to you, but why do people always suggest that Nintendo should take the opportunity, but never mention other companies like MS, Sony and other big players? MS isn't poor either.:lolxfactor said:If there's any sense left, Nintendo should scoop those people up and give them a studio to make hardcore games for the Wii
Neo C. said:No offense to you, but why do people always suggest that Nintendo should take the opportunity, but never mention other companies like MS, Sony and other big players? MS isn't poor either.:lol