Troika Games to close?

[Shockeye]

Back in January there were rumors swirling that a Troika closure was coming and Gamespot got a quote from one of the co-founders of Troika Games.

We are basically perusing some options...after the beginning of February, we'll be making a statement.

Now there appears to be an e-mail circulating advertising a liquidation sale. Here is the email in question:

LIQUIDATION SALE

After 7 exciting years, and 3 published games, Troika Games is closing its doors forever!
EVERYTHING MUST GO!

* Computers - P3 & up
* Monitors 13" - 21"
* Desks
* Chairs
* Conference Tables
* Filing Cabinets
* Cubicle System
* Canon Copier
* and much more!

Saturday, Feb. 19th 9am - 1pm only 17991 Cowan in Irvine (Cash & Carry)
Let our loss be your gain.
Please feel free to forward this email to anyone that may be interested in the sale.

A Troika developer who goes by marshmonkey seemingly confirmed the closure in a short message.

Time to pop the champagne Exitium.

I wouldn't call that line an official statement, so we are still waiting on a press release from Troika on what exactly is going on. At least Troika got out one patch to Bloodlines before their time seemingly ran out.

With Bethesda developing and publishing Fallout 3, I wouldn't be suprised if some ex-Troika employees found themselves re-locating to the east coat.

[schild]

I guess the two important questions (if this is true) are:

Will there be a patch for the Bloodlines stuttering due to artifacts from the Source engine?

Will this help Bethsoft pull off a kickass Fallout 3?

If the answer is yes to both of those, then I hope them all the best.

If the answer is no to either, then I weep for the future of both licenses.

[Sky]

Good artistic studios continue to die, huge publishers get huger....yeah, tell me how this capitalism rocks, again? Seems more like creativity has to struggle and eventually lose versus greed. Fucking world.

I may actually have to boycott EA for reals. Kinda tough when they already ship half the games on the shelf, and that share only seems to be growing. At what point does anti-monopoly law kick in, or is that gone now that we have GWB's cronies pulling the strings?

If the troika talent moves to Bethesdasoft....well, ok, at least some good can come of it. Imo bethesda better make sure to crank out some high quality games, lest they join all the other decent studios in death. Well...then again, apparently that doesn't matter, since Bloodlines kicked ass. Who's next? Sid Meier? "Sorry, Sid, your games just don't appeal to the mainstream gamer, can you make us a console version of Civ with a big breasted heroine and a scrappy lil sidekick?"

[HaemishM]

Fuck.

I think I've figured out where to place my hatred for the bugginess of Bloodlines. Yes, Troika apparently cannot QA for jack or shit, since every game they've released is buggy as fuck. BUT...

And this is a big but.

Activision is the publisher. They are the ones who decide if a gold candidate is releaseable or not. And by God, some muttonhead in Activision's QA chain of command looked at Bloodlines and said, "Yeah, it's playable." Playable? Sure... sort of. Releasable. Fuck no. Even on a P4 3.0 Ghz with 512 MB of DDR400 RAM and an ATI 9600 w/ 256 MB of RAM, the goddamn thing still stutters at certain times. There are parts, especially in the Warrens around those fucking steaming pools, where my framerate goes to absolute shit. This is AFTER the patch.

Somebody at Activision cleared these things for release. The source of the fuckup is Troika, but the responsibility? That's on Activision.

[trias_e]

I love how Schild tries to blame the source engine for all the wrongs in the world.

Last I checked Troika could never make their games not run like shit, so why would this case be any different?

[Sky]

I'd rather play a buggy game that's worth playing than a stable game that sucks like so many out there. With every good studio that closes, we are that much closer to a land of bland suckocrity.

[trias_e]

Regardless of what I said before, I definitely do agree with that statement.

I just usually wait for them to patch the game before buying, that way hopefully a message is sent to the publisher that rushing games out isn't as benefitial as they may have thought.  Of course the relatively poor review scores should also convince them of that...but it seems like nothing at all does.

[Strazos]

Ya, I have the stutter problem too, Haemish....How in the name of Fuck does something this annoying get past QA? I bought HL2 and WtM: Bloodlines in the same vist to my local GameStop....How does HL2 run silky smooth and Bloodlines somewhat less? grrr

Oh yeah, down with EA too.

[eldaec]

Things you can add to the list of evidence that who ever allowed the shoddy piece of work that is Vampire to go out should be considering just what he's employed to do:

- Plenty of places where you can jump onto debris and get stuck in perma-fall animation.
- Some annoying bint who insists on standing in doorways so that I couldn't get through without losing humanity.
- The sniping arrangements.
- 101 cheesy ways that bosses get stuck behind a tree.
- Inability to change resolution without a restart.
- The 3 separate occasions I got stuck in an endless dialogue loop.
- Particle effects drawn by a 3 year old.
- The highest number of clipping artifacts I have ever seen in a game someone expected me to pay for.
- The fact that one of the weapons doesn't break obfuscate even if you kill someone with it at point blank range.
- The boss mob who is so afraid of one particular rock that he runs off and lets you heal up if you stand next to it.
- The fact that the tutorial gives you the incorrect keys if you remap them.

The solution is simple, you stop buying this crap until it's on at least its second patch and costs no more than one third of its original launch price to buy.

The only person who can be proud of VtMB is the writer(s).

And even they got lazy with the dialogue in the middle.

That said, people losing jobs is obviously and without doubt a bad thing, if that is what has happened.

[schild]

I love how Schild tries to blame the source engine for all the wrongs in the world.

Last I checked Troika could never make their games not run like shit, so why would this case be any different?

Hi, welcome to reality. The stuttering is specifically an artifact from the old Source code. That's right, it's been admitted. It's been discussed widely. I was not addressing any other bug besides the stuttering. In fact I'll quote myself:

Will there be a patch for the Bloodlines stuttering due to artifacts from the Source engine?

If you're going to hate on me, at least hate on my in the realm of reason instead of the realm of SHIT YOU MADE UP.

[ahoythematey]

Why is it I keep seeing some say Bloodlines is robot jesus minus some annoying bugs and others saying it's fucking garbage because of the bugs?  I can't decide if I want to buy it because of this stuff.

[eldaec]

Why is it I keep seeing some say Bloodlines is robot jesus minus some annoying bugs and others saying it's fucking garbage because of the bugs?  I can't decide if I want to buy it because of this stuff.

It's well written, it manages to handle 'mature' content in a relatively 'mature' way, and there are a lot of really cool moments in the game.

It's also short, full of bugs, and feels more linear than it needs to.

You can get hold of it for £10/$20 without trying too hard, that, combined with the patch that makes it almost playable means it is undeniably worth getting.

[Shockeye]

I just spoke with Tim Cain, co-founder and programmer at Troika Games, and he told me that Troika will have an official press release "soon" concerning what is currently happening. He mentioned the upcoming press release when I asked him for comment on the e-mail circulating concerning a "liquidation sale". There was no denial of any kind, just mention of a forthcoming press release from the company.
 
The phone number where I reached Troika Games is associated with an address that is different from the address listed on Troika's website. The address listed on Troika's website is the same address that this "liquidation sale" will supposedly be happening at on Saturday, February 19th.

Hopefully more information will soon follow.

[HaemishM]

Why is it I keep seeing some say Bloodlines is robot jesus minus some annoying bugs and others saying it's fucking garbage because of the bugs?  I can't decide if I want to buy it because of this stuff.

Despite (very much despite) the bugs, the game is definitely worth playing. I put in the category of Deus Ex, Thief and some of the other best hyrbid RPG style games EVER. And that is despite the bugginess. To me, it's been worth playing through the bugs. YMMV, especially if you have a slower computer. Had I been playing this on my older, slower computer, I'd probably have put my first through a wall by now.

[stray]

My computer isn't too different from yours -- and there's a hole in the wall for every Troika game I've ever played.

[Furiously]

If there were no crashes or audio/video stuttering in the game, it would be an incredible game.

It's dark and gritty, it is terribly masoginistic, it's also funny and fun. It has some good writing and memorable characters.

I just finished playing KOTOR II for the pc which I thought was a lot buggier. If you can tolerate some maps having to save every few minutes, (One map really) then you will likely really enjoy the game. If a single error is inexcuseable, then you should avoid it.

Otherwise, "Let me show you something..."

[trias_e]

Thats funny Schild!

Although, one fact I didn't make up:  Troika can't seem to make a game that doesn't blow ass in technical standards.

[schild]

Although, one fact I didn't make up:  Troika can't seem to make a game that doesn't blow ass in technical standards.

And I never claimed otherwise.  :-D At the very least though, I can deal with their typos and shitty bugs, but the same shit I get in HL2 is a proper annoyance to actual gameplay. Moreso than crashing periodically.

[trias_e]

Never had a single bug in HL2.

I suppose that colors our responses a bit differently, and accounts for your Source hatred.  Thats cool, I'm not against hating things that don't work for you.  The irrational hatred I held towards AO after its release was almost fun in a way.

[eldaec]

Only problem I had with HL2 was the stuttering. Which tbh I could forgive both in HL2 and in Vampire.

Even the regular crashes didn't bother me too much in Vampire, the crappy AI and gameplay bugs were a bigger annoyance.

Oh yeah, and another thing, the tiny little zones and incessant loading that comes with them. Small enough to make me wonder if my PC had transformed into a friggen console while my back was turned.