Jumpgate silence broken.

[SnakeCharmer]

Welp, that's too bad.  I was kinda looking forward to some JGE pewpewpew action.

[Mrbloodworth]

Me too.

[NiX]

I should get some high quality prints made of the f13 beta email. Wish I still had the sign up list.

For once it wasn't us that caused the demise of the guild

[UnSub]

How can you believe that Netdevil isn't totally dead?  It certainly looks to me like Gazillion had a business strategy that looked like this:

1) Convince investors to give us money.
2) Skim 10% off the top for "executive compensation"
3) Buy a bunch of smaller developers
4) ?
5) Profit

I believe that NetDevil isn't dead since Fortune Online is their current project. It might to two guys who work at home, but the studio hasn't been shuttered yet. Is it functionally dead? Almost certainly, but the plug hasn't been pulled yet.

Gazillion was founded by Rob Hutter (and others) from Revolution Ventures, a "a nontraditional investment firm concentrating on providing entrepreneurial leadership across a variety of sectors" according to their website. Short version: a gaming company set up by investment people. In some ways, the model makes sense - bring in existing independent game development companies under one banner so that each supports the other and you end up with a portfolio of titles, thus diversifying risk.

However, who they chose was a gigantic question mark about why cast a lot of questions about their selection criteria. Slipgate Ironworks? John Romero has to be god damn charming in person because based on his record I can't see anyone wanting to work with / for him. He's kept himself in work, but has also passes through studios like prunes through a geriatric.

NetDevil have been perennial underdogs, but what they did with J:E was just odd. "Hey, it was almost finished, but it wasn't fun so we are stripping out all the mining / crafting bits and being more action focused (and quietly cannibalising the J:E dev team to get Lego Universe finished, which is bound to succeed)" was a lot of bad decisions and full of feature creep. J:E went from an update to Jumpgate to a full re-development that was apparently done on the fly. J:E should have been finished and released, giving NetDevil / Gazillion some income while work on Lego Universe continued. Instead, J:E is apparently all but dead at NetDevil (but because of the lawsuit, there can be no official comment on it) but is potentially a candidate to be sold off.

If (as the rumours say) Lego Universe goes F2P it is going to be more successful, but it's become owned by a toy company who produce Lego, not a game development studio. That's a big culture clash.

... and all of this leaves Gazillion with is the Marvel IP license. Biggest threat to it right now? Disney / Marvel decides to pull that license. No idea how likely it is, but that's the only leg Gazillion has left to stand on right now.

EDIT: That sentence made little sense.

[Modern Angel]

I'm always (well, almost always) sympathetic to the layoff cycle that plagues the industry, so I feel for those guys. But, really, this is Netdevil. Objectively, what did they ever do *right*? Am I missing something that they did which would give hope to the people wanting the new Jumpgate?

Maybe I'm still sore about Auto Assault but I never got why people thought that this time it would be different.

[Samprimary]

But, really, this is Netdevil. Objectively, what did they ever do *right*?

They sold themselves. Now it's Gazillion and Lego who pay the pipers.

I believe that NetDevil isn't dead since Fortune Online is their current project. It might to two guys who work at home, but the studio hasn't been shuttered yet. Is it functionally dead? Almost certainly, but the plug hasn't been pulled yet.

I rebooted as a contractor when I got the fuck out of dodge, and often do work in the tech center that houses Netdevil. It's going to be completely surreal if I end up hired to manage the gutting and conversion of my former workplace.

Lego might stick it out in that place for a while, but I doubt that they should.

[Samprimary]

According to some current employees (or, at least, anyone who still thinks they're probably left over after the carnage) it's all moving to San Mateo along with iffy promises of continued employment. Most are skeptical of the offer and demand for relocation. The place where I worked is .. likely getting shut down, if it hasn't been already.

There's like three or four of my former coworkers who are still working there who are all like 'fuck it, here's the whole sordid tale' so I guess expect some juicy details whenever they come out.

[UnSub]

San Mateo being where Secret Identity Studios is currently housed and where Slipgate Ironworks was located.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm always (well, almost always) sympathetic to the layoff cycle that plagues the industry, so I feel for those guys. But, really, this is Netdevil. Objectively, what did they ever do *right*? Am I missing something that they did which would give hope to the people wanting the new Jumpgate?

Jumpgate one. The new jumpgate was promising looking, well, earlier it was, till development started dragging on and other contenders come out of the woodworks.

[slog]

But, really, this is Netdevil. Objectively, what did they ever do *right*?

They sold themselves. Now it's Gazillion and Lego who pay the pipers.

I believe that NetDevil isn't dead since Fortune Online is their current project. It might to two guys who work at home, but the studio hasn't been shuttered yet. Is it functionally dead? Almost certainly, but the plug hasn't been pulled yet.

I rebooted as a contractor when I got the fuck out of dodge, and often do work in the tech center that houses Netdevil. It's going to be completely surreal if I end up hired to manage the gutting and conversion of my former workplace.

Lego might stick it out in that place for a while, but I doubt that they should.

You worked at Netdevil?  Sampenguin?

[Samprimary]

I wish I was a creative director :(

[NiX]

I wish I was a creative director :(

I credit you as a creative director for your comics.

[Samprimary]

then my first act as a creative director will be to remove the 'silence' from the thread title

dohohoho

[Ghambit]