Warren Spector kicks Ion Storm in the nuts.

[schild]

"According to Shacknews, around 20-25 more employees, allegedly including noted designer Warren Spector, have left the Eidos-owned Ion Storm studio in Austin." There's an official Eidos response at GameSpot, where a spokesperson "denied Spector had exited the organization", but IGN has further official Eidos reports confirming "Both Ion games have been completed and those who were hires specifically for those titles are now finished", and noting that Spector himself, though he could theoretically be exiting by other means, "certainly has not been laid off." This news comes in the context of earlier personnel turmoil, Thief III's fairly well-received release (there's now a playable PC demo available), and a mixed reception for Deus Ex: Invisible War.

All I have to say is wha wha whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. I smell a power struggle. I really hope he forms his own studio and gives himself creative freedom so he can get back to making masterpieces again (by masterpieces I mean DX1 and Thief 1.) If he isn't making his own studio, I expect Microsoft or some other huge company to buy him up, like next week at the latest.

[geldonyetich]

So, I guess there's no Thief III patch coming.  Ah well, it's fairly good as it stands.

It's not too unusual for a developers to take off after finishing a project.   Sometimes, even prior to the project's completion.   They've got new game concepts and don't want to be tied down by previous obligations inr ealizing them.

[Murgos]

I imagine lead designers take off as soon as they have a game out the door so they can capitalize on 'big offers'.  The one area where conservitave companies are usually willing to pay through the nose is in hiring 'proven success'.

I'm betting that the programming staff didn't want to go though.  I can almost understand the idea of putting together a programming team at the last minute to save money but in practice I think it'sa horrible idea.  Everyone codes differently and it really takes time to find out where one programmers strengths and weakneses are and how to mesh them all into and effective team.  Not to mention losing all that experience.  Saving a few months salaries now by firing the programming staff after a game is done probably costs them twice that in delays later, not to mention just putting out a generally shoddier project because of all the fresh out of college inexperienced noobs they hired at bottom dollar prices.

I understand that a large part of the development cost is programmer salaries and there is extreme pressur to get that number as low as possible but honestly, it has got to be obvious that a hobbled together crew of the lowest quality can't be a good thing to stake your profits on.

[HaemishM]

Isn't this typical Eidos fuckupery? These are probably what they term as "the extra staff we hire to finish a game." They almost always either get laid off or shifted over to other products. The fact they got laid off doesn't bode well for any future IonStorm products.

But being that they are in Austin, chances of them finding another job quickly are probably pretty good.

[Alluvian]

Maybe Warren was just not thrilled about his next project being the next Tomb Raider game.  From what I had heard that was the next project Eidos had on his 'to do' list.