Support NeoGAF

[Guns N' Poops]

According to the german PC Powerplay magazine. Crystal Dynamics will give some of the programmers new places.

 

[android]

Damn. I guess Spector leaving was the absolute final straw. Glad to see they didn't try to keep a bastardizied version going. Wonder if this means the end of Deus Ex and Thief.

Edit :Gamespot has the story up.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/10/news_6118364.html

 

[Vark]

Doesn't Eidos own the properties?

 

[Rocket Punch]

Ion Stoms closes it is doors. Nice. Does anyone care anyways?

 

[Amir0x]

According to the german PC Powerplay magazine. Crystal Dynamics will give some of the programmers new places.

Damn. I need a clickable internet source to be able to accept this news

 

[Teddman]

Didn't they do the recent Thief: Deadly Shadows and Deux Ex 2? Both of those were generally well-regarded, so this is bad news.

 

[android]

Doesn't Eidos own the properties?

I wouldn't trust them with those properties. Amir0x, my first post.

 

[Andrew2]

I wonder whats going through Romero's head knowning this is the fate of his old studio.

 

[BuddyC]

Didn't they do the recent Thief: Deadly Shadows and Deux Ex 2? Both of those were generally well-regarded, so this is bad news.

Yea.

I wonder whats going through Romero's head knowning this is the fate of his old studio.

"Suckers."

Though to be fair, Romero's work was mostly at the Dallas locale, which closed when he left the company in 2001.

 

[android]

I wonder whats going through Romero's head knowning this is the fate of his old studio.

His studio died years ago. This was Warren Spector's Ion Storm. Totally different beast.

 

[Guns N' Poops]

Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 underperformed at the retail, then Harvey Smith and Warren Spector left the studio (Smith to the new Midway Austin studio and Spector is independant advisor for Eidos). I'm not surprised.

@Amir0x: http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000633029624/#comments

 

[Amir0x]

I wouldn't trust them with those properties. Amir0x, my first post.

Ah, thanks. Missed the edit.

Ion Storm had some great games and some really bad games, but I'll still miss them

 

[Azih]

Thief 3 was a great game, completely unsuited for the Xbox audience though

Deus Ex 2 was a crap game, completely unsuited for the Xbox hardware or to the game it was a seqeul too.

Both games would have been better off sticking to the PC.

Well at least the Thief games managed to finish off their trilogy.

 

[Templar Wizard]

my recent Ion Storm trilogy was unfortunately well timed... boo-urns...

 

[Andrew2]

Looks like its been confirmed:

http://forums.ionstorm.com/index.php?showtopic=213485

 

[dark10x]

I'm just glad that Thief III saw the light of day and managed to be a great game...

I really wish they had avoided the console world, though. Their games and the engines they worked with are simply not suited to current console hardware. Heavy level segmentation and simplification of gameplay elements could not be avoided, it seems. At least Thief managed to retain most of its core elements...but DX2 was basically ruined.

 

[White Man]

Man, Thief 3 was one of my favorites of last year. I hope this doesn't mean the series is dead.

 

[dark10x]

Man, Thief 3 was one of my favorites of last year. I hope this doesn't mean the series is dead.

It probably is...

Most of us assumed that Thief II would be the end of the series, so getting a 3rd game at all was a suprise. Hoping for a FOURTH game would just be crazy. The team has already been broken apart once...I don't think it would work out again.

 

[TekunoRobby]

THIEF 3 RAWWWWKS!!!!!!


Oh well, it was all over for the team thanks to Eidos being complete assholes about it. Need to find a couple of the personal post mortems for both projects but man was there MASSIVE animosity towards that company.

 

[dark10x]

THIEF 3 RAWWWWKS!!!!!!


Oh well, it was all over for the team thanks to Eidos being complete assholes about it. Need to find a couple of the personal post mortems for both projects but man was there MASSIVE animosity towards that company.

Hey, I've been looking for a good T3 post mortem for a while now. If you happen to run across one, be sure to post it here.

 

[explodet]

Agreed, a Thief 3 post mortem would be an interesting read.
I really enjoyed it, although the "consolization" took a small bit of getting used to.

 

[Borys]

I'd like to see the sale numbers for both games (Xbox and PC). Eidos thought putting one of the best PC franchises on the console would:

a) make them sell 10 times better (maybe they did?, I don't have the numbers)
b) draw new fans into the series (yeah, and alienate all those hardcore PC-centrics)

I can make an ASSumption that both games didn't sell very well and consolizing them made more bad than good.

The worst thing is, now Eidos will butcher the franchise further by letting 'nother developer to work on DX3 and Thief 4 both ... GTAised!