IGN feature on Krome Studios' demise

"(Robert Walsh) tell me, what original IP has been successful in the last 12 months? The original IP that's been most successful is Shainiel [Deo] at Halfbrick with his mobile games [like Fruit Ninja], and Rob at Firemint with Flight Control. But you don't need a hundred people to make fruit or flight."

True, you don't need a hundred people to be working on a SINGLE original IP. However, if Krome kept such a large staff in the past, logic would dictate that they could have been working on MULTIPLE original IPs by splitting the hundreds of people from their pool of staff into several smaller teams giving them plenty of opportunity to focus and develop multiple original IPs. By doing this, it may have allowed a number of potential and ORIGINAL IPs to succeed.

they were- and he'd it short. He ran the place into the ground so he can bugger off. Maybe his timetable was brought forward slightly but he had planned for this.

that he gives. How many people are still working there, and how many "might" be employed soon. What he doesn't mention is that the current contracts are up in the next two months which will take the number of paying games at Krome to zero. At best it'll be 80 people on, 40 people off. And those projects will yet again be short term contract work for hire games. The same sort Walshy says was foolish to try and build the industry with. :-S

"we were just carrying too many people for too long, waiting for publishers to make up their minds."

Really? That's a bit of a weak and arrogant claim of responsibility Robert Walsh. I agree, that a lot of people were kept on during times with no immediate work available but I think the bigger point was that you kept the WRONG employees on for too long. Even when you hired really experienced, passionate and logical people from overseas, who's word was highly respected, you ignored the red flags and advice they were HIRED TO OFFER YOU! And of course hiring someone to do your job for you must have hurt when you were strongly advised to do things differently or brace for demise...they eventually resigned and no one blamed them.

Your un-professionalism during year of meetings was absolutely shocking, you were meant to be setting an example to the company and putting everyone at ease. Instead you made snide comments about people, the industry and used more foul language than I could have imagined. Most people came out feeling like a burden, undervalued and resentful of you.
You may run a games company, but sadly (and obviously in this case) that does not mean you know games. If you want to make creative decisions, you shouldn't be an exec, full stop.
End of rant.

I'm sorry... words cannot express how much of an arse he sounds in that article. He seems to have lost all touch with the realities of the situation, and his responsibility for the company.

He clearly just cared too much guys!!!
That is why he bullied his employees, he just didn't know how to tell them he loved them.

Maybe if he had better understanding of the industry it wouldn't have been such a shock to him, the fact that he acknowledges that he had no funding model or plan in place is the big issue here.

For years teams were asking to be able to work on smaller DLC titles and web ideas between large console projects and were constantly told "no that is not what we do at Krome".
Nothing was ever committed to as far as studio direction.

Sadly by the time Krome started anything it was too late, everything was reactionary and I think that was the biggest downfall, that may have worked back in the day with licensed projects when Krome sold itself as the cheapest and fastest to get an average job done but it did nothing to further the studio.

The person who mentioned the wrong people were retained while talented people were ignored is absolutely correct. Climbing the ladder at Krome was as often to do with being chummy with the right people rather than having anything worthwhile to contribute. I realise this happens EVERYWHERE, but it was particularly bad at krome.

One of the first lead designers they put in place was the most useless person with no talent whatsoever. He retained his position and was put in charge of many projects despite multiple complaints about his incompetence. I won't name names but he was fat, wore glasses and was obsessed with retro games (yet was incapable of actually drawing on what those games did right), I'm sure you can figure out who that is.

Another example, one of the original art guys that had been there for years had his younger brother working as a coder. This guy was literally learning impaired, borderline retarded, and certainly not capable of actually doing any work. He was kept on for years, the kind of work he had to be relegated to may as well have been handed off to one of the petrol sniffers wandering around the valley. I mean, talk about carrying dead weight, just because he was related to someone (who themselves was extremely useless also). What a waste of money, and how frustrating for other employees.

I could go on all day, there were so many useless people there.

If they'd cut the fat and promoted genuinely talented people, the company would have made great games AND would still be around.

Yours Truly,
(removed) (yellow bamboo initiate)