Company News Iron Lore kicks the bucket

Saint_Proverbius · Feb 29, 2008

Tags: Iron Lore

Unable to find a new source of revenue, <a href="http://www.ironlore.com/">Iron Lore</a> has closed shop. Here's part of their news on the demise:
 
<blockquote>It is with great regret that we must announce that as of close of business Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Iron Lore Entertainment has ceased active game development. Several unrelated events occurred which resulted in Iron Lore being unable to secure funding for its next project.
 
 
We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last seven years – our team who moved mountains to create such great games, our publisher THQ who has been a great partner through three product development cycles, and most of all our customers and fans. We owe all of the success we’ve had to you, and our greatest satisfaction has come from creating games that have given enjoyment to the community.</blockquote>
 
I wasn't very impressed with <a href="http://www.titanquestgame.com/">Titan Quest</a>. Well, at least, I thought the demo was fairly bland. Maybe the engine, which they're trying to license out, will be used for something neat.
 
 
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://ve3d.ign.com/">Voodoo Extreme</A>

slipgate_angel · Feb 29, 2008

Sad, because I heard good things about Titan quest, despite it not being as replayable as Diablo 2.

Anyway, I'm sure one of the developers will open up there own independent studio, it's the new hotness this year.

DarkUnderlord · Feb 29, 2008

Saint, you totally missed the Piracy is evil rant:

Michael Fitch said:
So, ILE shut down. This is tangentially related to that, not why they shut down, but part of why it was such a difficult freaking slog trying not to. It's a rough, rough world out there for independent studios who want to make big games, even worse if you're single-team and don't have a successful franchise to ride or a wealthy benefactor. Trying to make it on PC product is even tougher, and here's why.

Piracy. Yeah, that's right, I said it. No, I don't want to re-hash the endless "piracy spreads awareness", "I only pirate because there's no demo", "people who pirate wouldn't buy the game anyway" round-robin. Been there, done that. I do want to point to a couple of things, though.

Ahh... We've got a thread on the Codex about it too.

Morbus · Feb 29, 2008

Stupid ass. People don't buy the game because it simply isn't worth buying for most people... Who'd pay 50 bucks from that anyway? I wouldn't.

But I haven't played it

NOR have I pirated it.

kris · Feb 29, 2008

I didn't even pirate it.

Licaon_Kter · Feb 29, 2008

man i was scared for a moment
i thought the news line said "Iron Tower kicks the bucket"

Hory · Feb 29, 2008

I pirated it and I didn't like it. Nice artwork but retarded gameplay.

Deleted member 7219 · Feb 29, 2008

I played the demo, was pissed off that they claimed the guy behind AOE and AOE2 was behind it to try to give it some authenticity... but no, it was just another bland hack/slash.

Uz0rnaem · Feb 29, 2008

It doesn't surprise me that TQ wasn't as successful as they had hoped. It was backwards and limited, surpassed in literally every aspect by games released years earlier. It wasn't terrible, or unplayable, just a piece of generic, semi-polished nothingness that didn't seem to cater to either a niche audience, or the mainstream market.

It's sad for the employees, of course, but I won't miss this developer.

Kingston · Feb 29, 2008

Hory said:
I pirated it and I didn't like it. Nice artwork but retarded gameplay.

Same here. I uninstalled it after giving it a chance. If it were anywhere near as good as D2 I would have ran to the shop and bought it. I'm afraid to pick up my d2 box in case I start playing it again.

bozia2012 · Feb 29, 2008

I won't jump on the bandwagon. I've played the demo out of curiosity (I guess too much time passed since the release of D2) and liked the game. Then I've pirated it, but eventually bought it (and the expansion some time later). Hell, I finally registered on Codex (after years of lurking) to defend the game (it never received too much praise so too much hatin' was messing with the balance of the Force). I thought it was at least decent (it's h'n's ffs) with character-building as the main feature and one awesome element that we still won't see in future games - tons of unique looking items (instead we'll see bigger resolutions and bigger AA multipliers).

Risine · Feb 29, 2008

It's always a pity to see an independant developer out, wether their games are good or not that good.
And when we see what awaits us : Vivendi vs EA vs Ubi. Sad, sad, sad.
Things will be soon as in mobile phones games business, no more independants....

Micmu · Feb 29, 2008

The lesson is: make another diablo clone and die.

Digitalos · Feb 29, 2008

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Titan Quest was as close to Diablo as we've ever gotten, and the addon was fantastic! Seriously, this... this just sucks. >_>

Digit

Deleted member 7219 · Feb 29, 2008

Another alt?

This is seriously getting old.

DraQ · Feb 29, 2008

Digitalos said:
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Titan Quest was as close to Diablo as we've ever gotten

Wrong.
Diablo is as close to Diablo as we've ver gotten, why would anyone need TQ?

Sir_Brennus · Feb 29, 2008

micmu said:
The lesson is: make another diablo clone and die.

You so totally missed the point here. Did you even bother to read the "rant" for yourself? If so, you would've known that TQ sold reasonably well ("we didn't lose money on it"), but not as good as it would've without piracy or if it was released on a console.

Hell, Fagship Studios put out a significally worse Diablo clone and got people paying a monthly fee for basic features.

There are a considerable amount of PC RPG players that love their Diablo clones a lot. I actually bout Titan Quest TWICE! The australian version and the German Collector's edtion with the keyboard - and I don't regret it.

BTW: Ascaron made a fortune on Sacred and that was a Diablo clone, too.

Your argument is retarded: Proven!

Fez · Feb 29, 2008

I played the demo and it was crappy. Good riddance to these cry babies.

The Feral Kid · Feb 29, 2008

Good riddance. Less action-rpgs can only be good news.

Texas Red · Feb 29, 2008

Action RPGs are truly the worst genre imaginable.

Saint_Proverbius · Feb 29, 2008

I wouldn't have minded if the game were decent, but like so many others have said, there was really nothing that stood out about this game. It just seemed so generic and boring, a mish-mash of other action CRPGs not even done well. Given all the other action CRPGs released about the same time, there was nothing really that would leap out at you and say, "THIS ONE IS THE SHIT!"

I liked Sacred because of it's seamless world, unique character system and characters, story, and so forth. I liked Fate because it was just done so well and had all those rogue-like features most action CRPGs pass on. Heck, I even considered buying Silverfall because it had some interesting ideas.

But Titan Quest was just bland right down to it's name.

xantrius · Mar 1, 2008

The Walkin' Dude said:
Action RPGs are truly the worst genre imaginable.

Amen.

Rohit_N · Mar 1, 2008

I won't jump on the bandwagon.

I didn't want to either, so I tried to play the demo on Steam.

And then it wouldn't launch.

Fez · Mar 1, 2008

If it doesn't work then it is your fault. You are probably an evil pirate or something and killed it with your hate. You are responsible for the death of PCs.

Gragt · Mar 1, 2008

The Walkin' Dude said:
Action RPGs are truly the worst genre imaginable.

I'd rather play an action rpg than a sport game.

Company News Iron Lore kicks the bucket

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