Well, I can only say one thing to this.
This sucks [cursing]
Well, I can only say one thing to this.
This sucks [cursing]
Hi everyone. I'm new here but I've recently been playing a lot of Shattered Horizon (albeit offline against bots) after finally getting a PC that can run Windows 7 (it's a long story). I was also hugely looking forward to the space combat game that FGS seemed to be making.
Anyway, Futuremark let me know on Twitter that the space combat game is cancelled. It's a shame, because a game like that could've been awesome, but I suppose it's typical of the games market that the public, through demand, has created.
Generally, the public doesn't want to think when playing a game, they don't want a challenge that will put them off. They just want something easy that they can show to others in the office and say "Hey, this is great, you should download it!". (It's a bit like why people watch reality TV: it creates an office conversation most people can be part of.) It's why Angry Birds, Draw Something, Call of Duty etc. are wildly popular: they're easy-to-digest, easy to "grok". Those of us who do want a fun, but challenging and thoughtful game are the minority.
Shattered Horizon is a perfect example of this. Yes, it might have been released too early (when most of the gaming world was still on WinXP), but it's a fresh take on FPS - there are no other zero-G FPS games. It's not just another military shooter that wishes it shared a room with Mr Call of Duty; it has a unique story and unique gameplay, along with graphics that explain why you just spent way over a hundred bucks on that new graphics card. But, apart from the DX10 thing, it didn't become massive because it didn't fit in. It's the great indie single that didn't reach #1 because Lady Gaga had all the radio airplay.
So, good luck to the FGS guys at Rovio. They'll find security in creating games like Angry Birds, but I doubt they'll find the sort of satisfaction they had while creating something like Shattered Horizon.
I can only hope that the futuremark developers will still find joy out of their work with Rovio ruling over them.
I wish Futuremark all the best, I really enjoyed playing your flagship title Shattered Horizon. [good]
gotta love how futuremark (Mad Onion) was made back in 1999 was taken over by a company made in 2011
shows that if you win enough money in the lottery you can buy out companies that were established for years and own it like you owned it for all those years
Such hard work.Originally Posted by AntDX316
FGS demerged from Futuremark and sold. Think of it as stripping off useless fat.
Fortunately, it's not Futuremark Corporation we're losing it's Futuremark Games Studios!
That said, time to use the MadOnion name again!
Agreed, then we can get some "oldschool" games going with our own hosted servers! ;)
I wasn't too worried about the sale until learning about the cancellation of the next "space combat" game... :(
I guess you do what you got to do, casual games it is for you now.
The engine you used for SH is pretty nice IMO, maybe that's a saleable item as well?
Why is everyone thinking about the Acquisition as if the Devs would have become slaves to Rovio now? Dammed to work on shitty casual games stuff for the rest of their lives? (Which actually reminds me of the first computer game I bought: Space Quest 3 - Pirates of Pestulon.. [rofl] )
All the Games (and I presume the codebase too) stays at Futuremark.
So what exactly has Rovio actually acquired?
I mean personally I can choose my jobs. I am not a slave or something. The same applies for the FGS devs, I am pretty sure about that.
So I can easly imagine that Rovio offered them good opportunities.
It has always been stated that FGS is a small team with limited resources => limited possibilities.
Rovio has the financial potential to get rid of those limitations. It is (or at least may be) a win win situation.
just my 50 cents..
A company like Rovio can also limit their creativity. That is what people are worried about.
Thanks for your post Alex. It's true that the most popular games/films/music/books are not always the ones that deserve the most recognition. Personally, it saddens me that the best selling games are risk-free sequels and retro-remakes with HD graphics, and let's not even get started on the success of 'social' games that are anything but.
At FGS we tried very hard to make sure that each of our games offered something new, something that hadn't been seen before. All of our games sold well but mainstream success was always just out of reach.
Free to play is not going to happen as it would require fundamental redesign of the game to be viable. Over the last few months, however, we have been approached by a number of the bundles and we are looking at options. The rights to our games stay with Futuremark so I am hopeful that we will be able to offer SH in a bundle sometime later this year.
Ha ha, not likely I am afraid. Though we had a head start by using the 3DMark Vantage engine it was a huge burden on the team to develop the game and the engine at the same time. The engine works, but under the covers it is not pretty, and it would be hard to convince other devs they should use it when there are other more polished alternatives available.
If we had secured a deal for the space combat game, or SH2, we almost certainly would have used Unity as the engine, as we did for Hungribles and Unstoppable Gorg.
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