/vr/ - Retro Games

Taken from us too soon and over a stupid reason.

Forever banished to the Activision labor camp
Also all those studios EA killed

>>8055375
Karma for Hexen. I like most of their other games.

Thanks for respecting your fallen childhood friend's legacy Konami. Literally no other could've done it but you. You're the man. Everybody likes you.

>>8055375
>ea killed
Imagine getting killed after creating a game that got a lot of praise and is still talked about ten years after its release as something special. Then ten years after killing you for not making worthy games the Publisher remasters one of the beloved games from your catalog and collects all the profits again.

>>8055375
I feel like they should count even though they're not really 'dead' in the modern age.

>>8055384
I'm still pissed at Mercenaries 2. What a fucking travesty.

Such a shame. Partly saved from going completely under by EA, but EA does as EA will and completely bled it dry.

>>8055383
Shame that Konami is also dead

Man, what a wasted potential.
Origin Systems could have become a next big company like Blizzard if they expanded their own publishing division instead of being an early victim of EA's acquisition.

What a depressing thread :(

>>8055383
Konami hate is a meme pushed by Jim Sterling

You either die a hero or you live long enough to become a villain.

>>8055492
This company itself is a meme due to how low they fell

One may even say Konami died back in 00's, what exists now is just an impostor.

>>8055492
Konami hate is they killed all their talent by giving everything to kojima and it still wasn’t enough for him
So now they have no talent and would be better off outsourcing like sega

>>8055330
>>8055347
>>8055375
>>8055456
>>8055475
These were the reasons why I wanted to become a developer myself and now they are all gone

>>8055543
You dodged a bullet.

>>8055551
Yeah, instead I became application programmer for a logistics company. Not as glorious, but seeing where things went in the past 10-15 years...

>>8055383
This one hurts, I read about Hudson in their golden years recently in the book 'Japansoft' and they genuinely seemed like an awesome company to work for. Every developer, programmer or hardware dept team member's first assignment when they joined was to build their own work PC. Everyone would get a stipend and be given a list of required parts, then they were set loose in Akihabra for a day buying everything they wanted or needed for their PC, then they'd spend the next month working with each other and helping each other to build their new PC's as a team building exercise.

They got dissolved twice because killing a company one time wasn't good enough for EA

>>8055492
>Konami hate is a meme
Lmao

>>8055617
It is a shitty forced fad because they rightfuly refused to ship free review copies to a fat tranny.

>>8055540
Are you a child? Do you not understand how businesses work?

I remember being on gamefaqs when it died and people were really really upset. Nobody thought it could happen

>>8055625
Do you?

>>8055330
god, I love earthworm jim so much bros. RIP Shiny I'll never forget you

>>8055727
Go buy Scamico Intellivision and get your EWJ fix. Probably. Someday.

(i'll actually do that if they'll ever release the damn system)

>>8055724
Well DO you? Huh punk? Don't have a comeback for that, Kojima whore?

>>8055764
>Kojima whore
Mate, he was a money pit and they gave him way too much worth
I’m saying don’t put all your eggs in one basket

They were closed because Vivendi didn't like the direction Diablo 3 was heading. Which means they were closed for making a game that wasn't monitizable enough. Enter the new Diablo 3 with its "real world auction house". The chances of that old 2d Diablo 3 ever coming out probably isn't happening with how vocal many of the senior employees were about being let go.

>>8056026
D2 was when this company peaked. Blizzard (or more like 暴风雪 corp. ltd. of the People of China)
is just a distant memory now.

>>8055347
>over a stupid reason
their games sold like shit sadly.

>>8056063
People are stupid with no taste or whatsoever

>>8056063
While that was the case, the last straw was actually a delay in payment of Thief 2's royalties. If not for that, maybe they could have cranked out a few more games.

They made the first videogames I ever played. They were funded by the state of Minnesota and had plans to expand after the success of their games like Oregon Trail. They went public and eventually got bought out by Softkey (The Learning Company). Softkey bought every single smaller edutainment company out there then merged with Mattel. It turns out Mattel had no idea what they were doing and the merger is called one of the messiest mergers in history with both companies being worse off after the merger than before. Literally 2 billion dollars in share value less valuable. Desperate to regain lost revenue they decided the "educational" part of edutainment needed to go and went full entertainment. A year later Mattel sold off everything related to their software division to Gores technology group (no relation to Al Gore) and they were able to turn a profit in only 75 days. A year after that they split up all the IPs they owned and sold them off to various other companies, mostly Ubisoft. By 2001 every single original person involved in all those 90s edutainment games was gone and the entire genre of games is dead forever. In 1998 The Learning Company was valued at 4.2 billion dollars, in 2001 it was worth nothing.

I miss the 80/90s

I miss them so much.

Also throw in Team Andromeda. Created some of the best Sega software for systems almost no one bought.

>>8056081
Also Broderbund. Got bought out by Softkey and run into the ground

>>8055383
Bye Hudson ;_;7

>>8055456
They're still making big money off Sims 4

Boom boom.

RIP

>>8056163
>Implying The Sims 4's team is at all old Maxis
Good for EA that mothers and teenage girls will buy anything Sims 4 related they'll shit out.

>>8056172
They're not dead, they just haven't released a game in decades.

>>8056191
Maxis was never good, fuck off Will.

>>8056087
I'm glad that Team Reptile is deciding to make a spiritual successor to Jet Set Radio/JSRF after all this time to continue Smilebit's legacy. Looks pretty legit.

>>8056205
Eat shit.

>>8055473
Not dead, but lost. They really misstepped with fans going into pachinko. Now they've announced a new castlevania for >apple arcade, but who's to say anyone will care?

>>8056216
Their music is top notch

>>8055505
They'd be fine if they just got away from doing retard-proof CG anime movies and calling them final fantasy. Look at bravely default and scarlet grace; They have the talent, they're just afraid of falling into the AA dev hole.

>>8055558
You work half the hours, make at least as much money (more probably compared to cost of living), and you don't slave away at making repugnant tripe, so absolutely winning vs game making.

>>8056241
They got Hideki Naganuma on as a main composer, so it literally is just JSR again. I think he even might be some kind of producer as well.

>>8055383
this one really hurts

>>8056050
100% correct

>>8056252
I guess that's a way to approach life if you have no soul or interests whatsoever
Why do what you enjoy when you can be 'correct'

>>8056519
>t. gender fluent wage slave

>>8056526
fluent or fluid?!

>murdered by the mouse

>>8055616
Westwood killed themselves, really.

>>8056526
Isn't compromising on what you want literally what makes you a wageslave though

>>8055619
People hate them for the pachinko shit anon, not whatever literal-who you assert is important here

>>8056097
Great localization house too, bringing west some solid japanese computer games.

Killed by Sony

>>8056872
>Back in the day you could survive 4-5 bad games before shutting down.
>Now 1 bad game shuts your studio down and salts the earth for any directors.
RIP those microcode writing bastards.

>>8055383
legitimately painful. one of the best and most unique to do it. wish nintendo would have purchased them.

>>8056872
Just another reason to justify my vendetta against Sony
https://www.polygon.com/features/2018/1/17/16886514/lair-what-went-wrong

>>8056216
it's insane to me that it took someone other than sega to do this but at least we're getting something

>>8056935
I think its funny they were talented enough to get a good grasp on the ps3 hardware and make something that looked amazing only to get fucked over by motion controls. They went to the Sony to avoid the crappy Wii hardware only to get killed by Sony copying the Wii anyway. I wonder if they went with Microsoft instead would they still be alive or would the universe conspire to end them some other way.

>>8056935
>LucasArts refusing to pay another developer
There are several studios with this story. How did they not get sued into the ground?

>>8055383
I
MISS
THIS
NIGGA
LIKE YOU WOULD NOT
BEE LEAVE

>>8055383
why do people like hudson? i hat ethem because i only played mario party and those games are awful

>>8057304
>Virtually no bad games
>Hung Nintendo out to dry
>Killer apps in the early 90s
>kawaii console you want to head pat
>blatant nostalgia

Made some of my favorites, and its corpse is invoked and raided to this day.

>>8056063
No. That's a myth. Ultima Underworld sold about 250,000 copies. To compare, Wolfenstein 3D sold about 200,000 although obviously Wolfenstein used the shareware model so Episode 1 was probably on more computers than Underworld. But Underworld 1 and 2, System Shock 1, Flight Unlimited and Thief 1 and 2 all sold well. Their games that bombed were Terra Nova, British Open Championship Gold and Flight Unlimited 3, games which barely anyone remembers. System Shock 2 bombed but that was mostly Irrational's baby, Looking Glass proper were busy working on Thief at the time.

The only reason why people say Looking Glass's games bombed is because they're constantly compared to Id software, as both companies were experimenting with groundbreaking, first-person 3D games at the same time. Doom became a monster, breakout success in a way that few games have before or since and Quake followed suit a few years later. But most of Looking Glass's games weren't commercial failures, at least the famous ones everyone remembers weren't. It's a myth

>>8055330
>podcast i was listening to refused to even say Doug's name and constantly danced around it
>even saying shit like 'earthworm jim people' with such acidic vitriol i've never heard in my life even to actual murderers and rapists

Jesus. should I keep the fact i like EWJ a secret

>>8057304
>not liking the pc engine

Their final game was Unreal Tournament 2004 and you can't tell me otherwise

>>8056519
I work to make money and then I use the money to fund my actual interests. If you want to do 90 hour weeks of perma-crunch at Electronic Arts out of "passion", it's your choice.

>>8055330
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DMqavV6uBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ19RwomRic

https://youtu.be/-aZCHJmqLW0

>>8057454
What an oddly confrontational stance to take

Its actually kinda impressive they managed to last as long as they did after the giant failure of the 3DO console. Clearly New World Computing was the superior developer with 3DO only having a few good games and a shitload of mediocre games.

>Free Radical
I'm forever irritated by what happened to Timesplitters 4 and would kill to get that demo they apparently had for it.

>>8055619
nobody knows who the fuck you're talking about, get some self awareness you clown

>>8057495
my point is that life-fulfillment-via-work is largely a fantasy of capitalism, unless you're working for yourself or own your own business. "passion" is how inexperienced developers get exploited by bad management, especially when it comes to game development

>>8056935
Small wonder why Sony were considered a laughing stock throughout the 7th gen.

>>8057636
They rebounded near the end and sold more consoles once they lowered the price. A part of me thinks the 360's incredibly high failure rate might have pushed people into buying PS3s. In 2009 the failure rate of the 360 was over 50 percent. Later revisions fixed the issue but still, if your xbox died might as well buy a playstation and see what exclusives you missed out on.

>>8057580
Stop presenting your opinion on how to optimally live life as fact.
It will always be my dream to be able to work in video games in the 90s and I will always be torn up that its literally impossible and the culture i want to contribute to doesn't exist

>>8057580
life fulfillment does come from work. otherwise you're just fucking around
im supposed to take up some hobby i dont give a fuck about and will never be able to pour 100% of myself into and call that fulfillment?

no. i want to work for a video game company in the 90s and not sleep for days so i can have the chance to create something that matters with likeminded people

i get that you have a life and you want to do whatever x y z instead and just relax
thats cool
i dont

>>8057304
>not liking Bomberman, one of the most based franchises in existence
I wish I could curse you to death.

>>8057908
ive never played bomberman dude i just said i only played those awful mario party games

>>8057919
Well you know what you must do now then.
Start with Saturn Bomberman, Super Adventure Island, or Ys IV Dawn of Ys. Mebe then you will see why Hudson is so rad and you can check out sum others.

>>8056246
>they're just afraid of falling into the AA dev hole
And the irony is that they would clearly be all the better for it

>>8056185
Came to post Quintet
Glad someone else cares

>>8056185
They made very few games and nose dived after a few. They just didn't have what it took after splitting from bishin shojo simulator company failcom.
>>8058290
>QQ actraiser is enjoyable guys
Neh fug eff

>>8058294
I loved all their snes titles...

>>8056087
came here to post this

>>8058294
Brightis is good

>>8056606
I'm not sure what those numbers mean
They adopted the middle logo in 1991

Got me so many hours playing Delta Force and F-22 when I was a kid. Thank you so much.
>>8055330
MDK got really well marked on my head and heart. I loved both games. Both so unique no other game could replicate the atmospheres and feelings. In a better timeline Tim Burton made a MDK movie.

>>8055657
Every single time I read "Sierra" I can't help but remember this company and logo.

>>8058142
i dont have a saturn or any of that sorry.

I miss these guys.
Made some of the best side scrolling shooters on C64 and Amiga.
Denaris/Katakis
X-Out.

>>8059172
Forgot pic :)

Game companies used to have so much soul and their products were always some unique and amazing experience. Almost like some surreal art. Why I rarely get the same feeling on modern games?

>>8059189
Because old days:
Hey guys, I've got a great idea for a game! We 6 can do whatever we want!

These days:
Hey guys, this the game we need to make and we have 2 years to do it. Devide the workload over our 200 coders spread worldwide.

>>8059189
Welcome to /vr/
Enjoy your stay

>>8055657
i remember getting grounded for racking up 50 dollars worth of hints from their hotline in a month

>>8058489
Yeah I grabbed a bad image for the thread. I just saw a picture on google with 3 logos on it and uploaded it here. Then I realized the years were wrong

>>8056613
During the second time, yes.

>>8057908
>bomberman is more based than either Megaman or Quake
HMM???

>>8061047
He is. It's humanly impossible to hate Bomberman.

>>8055383
god, it still hurts
I wanted to play that Bomberman 3ds game they were working on

>>8061047
Friendless loser found.

>>8057489
Thief, Deus Ex,etc. Ion storm used to be something.

>>8055330
sacrifice is probably my all time favorite game

>>8057304
I liked their Mario Party games. It's usually because their boards are much more involved and soulful than later Mario games in the series that relied on luck and were much less involved.

>>8059189
The main issue with modern AAA games today is that they are chasing production values much in the same way movies did back in the day. There then comes a point where it is unsustainable as things become more about graphics, models and just 3rd person over the shoulder movies than anything of real substance. The reason being is that most of the industry is making titles that are easy to beat and also milk fanbases of their money without any real narrative experiences or anything meaningful. It's similar to Call Of Duty and those who like to play FPS with a reskin every year or Sports people who keep buying Fifa. Leaving us AA guys in the cold.

Also back in the old days small AA companies with 20 people made what they wanted to make and had realistic goals of 50k-100k copies sold as a success marker to make another game in the series or make a different game altogether. This is why back in the day there was so many AA releases and some were succesful even some were funded by AAA companies with this in mind so they can have publishing rights and can also give funding for advertising purposes to get the name out. This is why in the early 00's you had tons of games releasing all at once and it felt like you had a few blockbusters of AAA gaming vs almost 50 AA games a year.

Nowadays though the paradigm has changed significantly because AAA is kind of in a weird era right now, AA's still exist and Indies now exist for small studios there are more releases but it needs more advertising. But i would argue to you it is much more about platform because of greed. Sony stopped caring about experiences a decade back, Switch has embraced it, PC has tons of these releases especially on Steam and if you need a channel to show you some of these things i recommend Alpha Beta Gamer on youtube. Just keep looking they are there it's just behind the curtain sadly and not in the spotlight.

>>8061745
tl;dr: blame the jews

>>8055330

>>8056519
Develop your own game in your free time. Make it simple.

>>8055492
I hated Konami way before any e-celeb idiot banked in on that. Silent Hill HD Collection was botched to hell and back on Console and on PC. They also tried to cash in on the name for the Vita of all things that was nothing anything similar to a Silent Hill title. That is when i knew Konami no longer cared about quality and everything else was going to suffer as a result and all the talent will be drained from the company to where it relies on nostalgia of the older titles for sells or rely on Pachinko machines with the nostalgia of older titles. They are a husk of what they once were in the 00's and will be a slowly dying company as a result. Besides Kojima situation was just icing on the cake of all Konami failures.

>>8061763
How can you blame Jews when Anglos enable it?

>>8055505
nomura is still a hero.

>>8055505
Please do not tell me you are one of those people from back in the ancient times that are still mad about the decision of moving away from ATB mechanics to Action based and dislike FF7R just because it's not what it exactly was in the 90's.

>>8056246
If anything i would argue they are doing a better job in the last two years than they have done in awhile. Final Fantasy is finally getting it's bi-yearly release schedule, there is a new Dragon's Quest set for the West especially the one in the Octopath Traveler vein which looks nice for a retro look. And also it seems like they are no longer allowing long release dates to happen anymore which is just a nice change. It's a nice mix of AAA and AA gaming currently.

>>8061830
FF7R is bad because it's prissy fairy boys with deflated tifa and not even as action filled as a 15~20 year old Tales of game.

>>8061808
I do not blame him at all. The guy is a workhorse and is basically the soul of Square Enix at this point.

>>8061843
Sounds kind of like you never played the game and are regurgitating what your favorite Boobtuber told you to say. Besides there was tons of Prissy fairy boys in Final Fantasy since the beginning.

Nintendo era Rare and pre bankruptcy SNK.

>>8061862
nah not him and i dont care about FF but FF7R is horrendously bad. My heart goes out to FF7 fans

take me back

>>8062150
>I dont care about Final Fantasy
>But it's bad because some boobtuber told me it was so i repeat it
The sad state of people who do not play the games and have never grown up with the series. But feel the need to insert their own opinions as facts. My heart goes out to Zoomers like you who do not have any culture and feel the need to judge others culture based on what someone else told you to say.

>>8062484
I mean even if you grew up it meant jack shit since every iteration is so radically different from the other. What about the people who grew up on 4 and 6 when 7 and 8 came out? And what about 13 and 15 now? Seems they're abandoning that formula too.

>>8062484
im not a zoomer and i dont watch youtube though
you just seem determined to worship square enix for some reason

>>8057559
What exactly happened turing Timesplitters 4 development?