• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Team 17 breaks ties with publishers

S

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/40658/Team-17-breaks-ties-with-publishers

Studio restructures management team as focus shifts to downloads; Firm to publish indie devs’ games

Team 17 has turned its back on third-party publishers in favour of digital distribution.

The UK-based studio is returning to its publishing roots by increasing the number of downloadable games it produces – at least 15 SKUs in 2010 alone.

The company has only released two boxed games over the last three years, but has produced a string of digital titles under its Worms and Alien Breed franchises.

“Digital distribution has allowed easy and direct access to the game for millions of customers at a time when it has become difficult to get attention at retail,” co-founder Martyn Brown told MCV.

“We have no ambitions to return to retail publishing.”
Click to expand...
 
The reason why their retail titles fail is because they're fucking awful. Did they expect Leisure Suit Larry 360 (which has a what, 20 on Metacritic?) to do well? The shitty no online full-ish price Wii Worms title? The most recent low budget 30 Metacritic Army Men game that they made?

What a dreadful company. Talk about coasting on fumes.
 
Stumpokapow said:
The reason why their retail titles fail is because they're fucking awful. Did they expect Leisure Suit Larry 360 (which has a what, 20 on Metacritic?) to do well? The shitty no online full-ish price Wii Worms title? The most recent low budget 30 Metacritic Army Men game that they made?

What a dreadful company. Talk about coasting on fumes.
Click to expand...

Oh god, I'd forgotten that they made Box Office Bust :lol
 
Stumpokapow said:
What a dreadful company. Talk about coasting on fumes.
Click to expand...


was about to ask what their 15 2010 games are, now I don't care to know.
 
“Digital distribution has allowed easy and direct access to the game for millions of customers at a time when it has become difficult to get attention at retail,” co-founder Martyn Brown told MCV.

“We have no ambitions to return to retail publishing.”
Click to expand...

*ahem*

It's about time some pubs are starting to see the light.
 
Back to the roots, makes sense for them. Best of lucks.

That reminds me I have not bought Alien Breed remake, how it was?
 
butter_stick said:
How do you release Worms 15 times in a year?

The Steam version is pretty cool though :)
Click to expand...
The game ages well, I'll give them that. Crusty old Worm vets still don't have a good reason to stop playing the original Worms: Armageddon though. I really wish Worms 3D had turned out better.
 
butter_stick said:
How do you release Worms 15 times in a year?
Click to expand...

DS
PSP
3DS
Wii
XBLA
PSN
PC
iPhone
Android

That's 9 right there. And the best part is that they'll all just be cut down versions of Armageddon, a game released 11 years ago.
 
Stumpokapow said:
DS
PSP
3DS
Wii
XBLA
PSN
PC
iPhone
Android

That's 9 right there. And the best part is that they'll all just be cut down versions of Armageddon, a game released 11 years ago.
Click to expand...

You are being a bit harsh with them Stump, they would be closed at this point if it wasn't for Worms, they had to do it (that and those crappy external projects they shouldn't have accepted.)

Most studios of that zone are closed, bought or merged with others. Team 17 has been one of the few that survived from the golden era of UK development, so it has a bit of merit, even if they had to sold themselves out to do it. And not all their games are terrible, their Lemmings PSP version was fine (IMO).
 
Honestly, I'm amazed these guys have been able to stay in business. Have they done anything worth a damn since Worms World Party? Open Warfare 2 was fine, but they haven't done anything interesting with 2D Worms since Armageddon.

Acosta said:
Most studios of that zone are closed, bought or merged with others. Team 17 has been one of the few that survived, even if they had to sold themselves out to do it. And not all their games are terrible, their Lemmings PSP remake was fine (IMO).
Click to expand...
Oh right, I forgot they did the Lemmings remakes. Those were pretty good!
 
Acosta said:
Back to the roots, makes sense for them. Best of lucks.

That reminds me I have not bought Alien Breed remake, how it was?
Click to expand...
It's good. Steam sale helped, but Swarm is better. The co-op kind of sucks though.
 
I prefer the good old Alien BReed formula to swarm's squad based approach.

I still play Alien Breed II and Tower Assault at least once a year
 
Acosta said:
You are being a bit harsh with them Stump, they would be closed at this point if it wasn't for Worms, they had to do it (that and those crappy external projects they shouldn't have accepted.)
Click to expand...

I am sure there are many shovelware studios who have no choice but to release Ninjabread Man Goes Babysitting 2: A My Little Pony Adventure, but that doesn't mean they're not dreadful shovelware studios who deserve all the flack they get.

Team17 is a studio that, more than a decade ago, had some great ideas. Now it releases a healthy mix of total utter shit and endless watered down versions of the last great game they had.

And not all their games are terrible, their Lemmings PSP remake was fine (IMO).
Click to expand...

I had the demo UMD for Lemmings and it seemed decent, but I'm not giving them credit for doing a decent job at the 25th port/remake of a game they didn't design or create to begin with.
 
I think will fix the Worms Space Oddity embarresement with Battle Island
please =(
I can't not love Team17, they created Worms <3
 
Stumpokapow said:
I am sure there are many shovelware studios who have no choice but to release Ninjabread Man Goes Babysitting 2: A My Little Pony Adventure, but that doesn't mean they're not dreadful shovelware studios who deserve all the flack they get.

Team17 is a studio that, more than a decade ago, had some great ideas. Now it releases a healthy mix of total utter shit and endless watered down versions of the last great game they had.
Click to expand...

Yes, but those shovelware studios doesn't have a history. Team 17 were amazing back in the day, so there is always the hope they still have the fire on them. Call it dumb nostalgia.

Martyn Brown has always complained about the type of projects and publishers they had to work with most of the times all these years. Now he has a good chance to prove that the team still has it, so I hope they can prove themselves now.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I am sure there are many shovelware studios who have no choice but to release Ninjabread Man Goes Babysitting 2: A My Little Pony Adventure, but that doesn't mean they're not dreadful shovelware studios who deserve all the flack they get.

Team17 is a studio that, more than a decade ago, had some great ideas. Now it releases a healthy mix of total utter shit and endless watered down versions of the last great game they had.



I had the demo UMD for Lemmings and it seemed decent, but I'm not giving them credit for doing a decent job at the 25th port/remake of a game they didn't design or create to begin with.
Click to expand...
Try as you like, you cannot make a second dudebro!
 
TunaLover said:
I can't not love Team17, they created Worms <3
Click to expand...
Actually they didn't. Worms was created by some guy who entered an Amiga Power competition (but didn't win, haha), Team17 just partnered up with the guy to develop the proper retail game. Kind of like what Valve did with the Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead guys.

Worms saved and killed Team17 at the same time. :-(
 
stuminus3 said:
Actually they didn't. Worms was created by some guy who entered an Amiga Power competition (but didn't win, haha), Team17 just partnered up with the guy to develop the proper retail game. Kind of like what Valve did with the Counter-Strike and Left 4 Dead guys.

Worms saved and killed Team17 at the same time. :-(
Click to expand...

That guy posts here.
 
The amusing part was that the game was made using Blitz Basic.

Man I miss the Team 17 of old. Full contact, Project X, ATR, Assassin, Superfrog, Alien Breed...

Bring those back now!
 
I was pissed when they promised me a slot in the Worms Armageddon PS3 beta and after five fucking weeks of "here's your code... oh it's not working well we fix it"

"sorry, it's still not working"

"sorry"

this thing followed:

"ok you are out of the beta, hopefully you by the game anyway!"

I know I was not the only one but come the fuck on Team 17, I had supported you for so long.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I am sure there are many shovelware studios who have no choice but to release Ninjabread Man Goes Babysitting 2: A My Little Pony Adventure,
Click to expand...

Last time I heard something similar round here a game went into production :lol
 
bleh. team17 became crap when bjørn lynne left.. or more like 6-7 or so years before that :lol seems so

oh wow, didn't realise he did the intro music to avernumIV and geneforge4
 
Team17 is dead to me. They really killed it with Worms.

Was that Alien Breed remake any good? Too bad for them Alien Swarm stole its thunder..
 
Joseph Merrick said:
bleh. team17 became crap when bjørn lynne left.. or more like 6-7 or so years before that :lol seems so

oh wow, didn't realise he did the intro music to avernumIV and geneforge4
Click to expand...

That's some crazy trivia!

The biggest shame is that the character art for both those games remind me of furry fanfiction.. it just turned me off of them.

I had no problems loving Exile 1, 2 in the day tho.
 
Team 17 was awesome like, 10 years ago. They were like the British Falcom. Then they became crappy. :(
 
Thinking about it though... were they really awesome?

You couldn't strafe or walk backwards in Alien Breed... Superfrog was nice but it was just a pretty platformer with cute sounds.. Body Blows was good because it was all we had on Amiga... hm.

They had good graphics and music, I'll say that!
 
straight amiga ports with HD Sprites or bust!!!!!!1111111

No shitty fail remakes like alien breed

Oh my god id spend an absolute fortune
 
Kuran said:
Thinking about it though... were they really awesome?

You couldn't strafe or walk backwards in Alien Breed... Superfrog was nice but it was just a pretty platformer with cute sounds.. Body Blows was good because it was all we had on Amiga... hm.

They had good graphics and music, I'll say that!
Click to expand...

Superfrog was awesome.
 
Kuran said:
That's some crazy trivia! The biggest shame is that the character art for both those games remind me of furry fanfiction.. it just turned me off of them. I had no problems loving Exile 1, 2 in the day tho.
Click to expand...
yeah. it's only the character portraits that look like that. the map art is nice. and the story pictures. no idea why this ugly amateur crap has been in there for so long, it's the same in avernum 5 and 6 aswell. the games themselves are still really really good though. nice writing even. the artwork for their new game is a lot better, a lot http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/avadon/index.html
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Xbox expands its leadership team with more hires
2 3
110
466
HerjansEagleFeeder replied
MetaCritic announces it's cutting ties with media outlets that uses AI
News 
36
742
Cancer replied
Forza Horizon 6 Ties Up With 9 Japanese Artists for Gorgeous In-Game Murals, Billboards and More
3
215
Cakeboxer replied
Dear Publishers (Health of the Industry - 2026)
2
90
1K
archangelmorph replied
Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties - Reviews Thread
2 3
115
2K
adamsapple replied
Top Bottom