The report of Krome Studios closure last month also came with the news that the deal announced two months ago with Gamebryo middleware developer, Emergent Game Technologies, to share engine technology and the efforts of engineering teams was hitting some trouble is now being confirmed by a report on Gamasutra.
The CEO of Emergent, Scott Johnson, acknowledges a change in plans and that the agreement with Krome Studios has come to a "sudden and unexpected halt" in light of the recent troubles at Krome. From Gamasutra...
(Scott Johnson) Our strategic initiative with Krome was showing great promise, but has unfortunately come to a sudden and unexpected halt. Certainly our roadmap has been affected and we are re-evaluating our plans...
It’s always difficult to watch as companies scale back and talented people lose their jobs, and our industry has witnessed more than its fair share recently.
the fact that Scott Johnosn
the fact that Scott Johnosn is as big a fraud as Robert Walsh may have something to do with it- two broke companies do not make a solvent one
This is hillarious
The Krome-Emergent deal fell apart before Krome collapsed... I hear because Emergent was unable to pay for the work that Krome did for them! That may in fact be part of the reason the Krome collapsed so suddenly.
Pretty funny to see Emergent turn around and blame Krome now.
'Blame' isn't correct
'Blame' is not correct. To me, that has some feeling of acrimony, which I'm certainly not aware of.
As Scott said, the guys were working hard on things that showed great promise for the development of Gamebryo (the guys were kicking ass IMHO) - and I wouldn't say that the deal fell apart before "everything else" happened (I cannot comment in detail) - but it's hard to say anything but that things came to "a sudden and unexpected halt" when the people doing such a great job no longer had employment.
Was sad to see the news today about Gamebryo and wish them the best (and straight after somebody made me aware of the Torque situation too!).
Linds
I wouldnt use "kicking ass"
I wouldnt use "kicking ass" and krome in the same sentence in a positive way.. Krome's technology was pretty poor. It only worked on projects because people put a lot of hard work in to working around how garbage it is.
I disagree. After using some
I disagree. After using some of the tools other companies use... I've begun to think that MerkTools wasn't all that bad (the later iterations, anyway).
Yeah, there were a lot of workarounds. But I'm finding that's the case everywhere. Grass is greener, I guess.
Emergent Game Technologies to Liquidate Assets
Gamebryo middleware engine is up for sale as the parent company shuts up shop. It's a bit concerning as we do have some local developers using that engine.. notably Epiphany games, and Sidhe.
http://www.gamingbusinessreview.com/emergentsellsassets.htm
Coincidently, it looks like Torque is going the same way too.
Not too much of an issue for us
We have used Gamebryo on 4 titles in the past, but all our current development and our last few released titles are being developed on our own version of PhyreEngine.
We certainly happily recommended Gamebryo to those developers looking for a solid middleware solution for licensed multiplatform game development (especially those on a budget), but we have no commitments to it currently.
Hopefully, they sort themselves out as it would be a shame to lose Gamebryo as an option.
Good to hear
Ah, good to hear that you guys won't be affected too much. I could imagine how disruptive this news could be to a dev who's still very much invested in the engine. Haven't heard much from Ephinany Games, but it seems like they've been working with the Embryo engine on their current (and future) titles for a long while now and are even listed as development partners on the Emergent website.