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Stargate Worlds : Source: August 1st License Deadline
Posted Jul 23, 2009 by Dana Massey
The ongoing saga of Stargate Worlds may soon come to an conclusion. According to a source who recently left Firesky, the company has an August 1st deadline to get into financial shape or MGM is going to pull the license. Their last hope comes in the form of a potential $8 million cash infusion from private investors.
We also spoke to Shane Hensley of Firesky about this report and got his reaction.
“MGM certainly isn't thrilled with our current situation, but neither do we have any specific indication they're pulling the license on any particular date,” Hensley told us.
Firesky, which had several projects on the go, essentially ran out of money last fall, but rather than pull the plug, has continued to move forward. Most of the key personnel have moved onto other projects and many are behind on pay.
At this time, according to our sources, there is only one member of the client team and one member of the server team still at work on the game.
Read more here.
I dont understand how company with next to zero background endup with huge license name like Stargate. It's obvious they gonna fail. We certainly dont need another sucker like Matrix Online or Star Wars Galaxy.
Was really looking forward to stargate worlds but now it looks like its dieing well in CME's hands anyway. I say if SGW is nearly done hopefully another company will buy the coding and complete it, but one can only hope at this point. Looks like 2 stargate games gone before release alliance and now stargate worlds.
LOL. I had completely forgot about this game. Didn't it go into closed beta in like early 08?
My hope is that if they go belly up, MGM buy up what's left of Firesky and Stargate Worlds and finish it themselves or sell it to someone else who will.
What I've seen of the game looks promising.
Same reason Perpetual Entertainment (PE then P2) got ST:O. What happens in the end? Company tanks and real professionals will move in an pick up the pieces. Just because CME might lose the idea doesn't mean that one of the more professional companies won't end up with it. Hopefully the fate that was delt ST:O will happen for Star Gate Worlds. It is definately and IP that deserves a good MMORPG.
lets just hope Smedley doesn't get his hands on this one.
lol, i hate to use the v-word....but ill drop it out there,....Vaporware
i was so looking forward to this......:/
Hah, I had some baseball buddies invest in this game (probably through the MMOGULS program the article mentions). I hate to say told you so, but I don't think they are getting their money back. Too bad. :(
You mean I might finally get out of my NDA agreement (The second most strict I have ever seen)!!!
Under its terms I am still playing the "beta".
Oh the tales I could tell if I could tell...
So let me get this straight,
They have only 2 devs left working on the game. Other devs have been moved to other projects (read: left the company) because of lack of pay!
....and they still think MGM isn't gonna pull the license 1st of August to finally end this horrible slander of this marvelous IP?
Right.
Well....
Istaria, formerly known as Horizons, has gone bankrupt multiple times and at least one of those times the former owner bought it back minus all the debt and just kept things going (badly) as they had before. It has tenaciously clung onto life in a way that gives hope to all other mmos that no matter how bad it gets, you can keep going.
Dark and Light was even worse - a complete embarassment to the mmo industry, and they kept that thing open for years too. Finally they were sued into non-existence. All our thanks go the French courts for that community service.
Maybe they're both fevered and delirious and have convinced themselves that Thor will beam down with a drone and obliterate their creditors....
i don't believe that company will make it
i only hope someone else picks SGW up, i was really looking forward to it back when it was announced
The fact that they have a group of doctors willing to give them $8 million brought a smile to my face.
Now, if I could only think of a project to convince a group of doctors to give me $8 million........
even if this game made it, who would get it? i mean 2 devs and a very bad history dont make a good selling point.
Here's hping CME dies a pianful death and then EA Bioware Mythic pick up the license :-P
That would be a cool joint project for the two studios to start on ;-)
Erm... Mythic? They cant even fix War now, and they should focus all of their attention on War....
If the game is indeed being release in such a state, than it will be another crappy mmo. I rather they sold it to other company to continue to finish up the job THAN launch...
By now all mmo companies should know a crappy launch and your game is as good as dead...
i hope they do pull it and sell it to a company who has the resources to develop a game worthy of the SG IP
I heard from a ex-SGW dev that SoE is eyeing this situation closley.
It's not surprising considering the fact that Sony own both MgM and SOE. It's more than likely that the IP will change hands and move to SOE when CME go under simply because it means that all of the profits go to Sony copanies, rather than just the licensing and royalties.
It was in alpha in late spring '08 and a very limited closed beta in late summer '08. The closed beta invited only a few hundred testers and it ended in november '08 essentially shutting down to the situation we see now.
It's not surprising considering the fact that Sony own both MgM and SOE. It's more than likely that the IP will change hands and move to SOE when CME go under simply because it means that all of the profits go to Sony copanies, rather than just the licensing and royalties.
Yep, SOE will buy it. I have forseen it. xD
Well I had high hopes for this game. But they totaly blew the game. Most of their dev staff left atter not being paid for over 4 months. I would be surprised if this game never saw the light of day.
Yes SOE will probably buy the rights and shut it down, they already have the stargate trading card game.
GOOD
Another shit MMO die before release. GOOD. These developers deserve to be scalped for their oblivious stupidity. I wish all the sh!t currently in developement would die like this game before it release. But unfortunatly, it dont. Sigh...
$8 million isn't enough to turn SGW into a good game.
Yep, SOE will buy it. I have forseen it. xD
As another has stated, SOE has the Stargate Online TCG and it would keep interests inline if they bailed out this game. It would depend on how complete or salvagable the product is. With the trimming of the fat at SOE coupled with the closer eye on investments, I doubt SGW would be an easy move for the company like Vanguard was.
Oh well, Stargate is a crappy IP to make into an MMO anyway... It failed from the get-go.
I was on the beta of SOE's S: TCG & wasn't thrilled with the support/dedication SOE provided. They gave the beta testers a free deck when it went live. I finally logged in to the live game about a month ago & couldn't find anyone to GIVE the (still "sealed") deck to. While they still update the website, the notices/announcements in the game client were over 4 months old at the time. The most players I saw online was 6 (I checked days & nights during the week & on a Saturday afternoon). I finally gave up trying to give the deck away & just uninstalled the game.
IF SOE does decide to take it, I hope they will give it more dedication than they did for the TCG.
Yep, SOE will buy it. I have forseen it. xD
As another has stated, SOE has the Stargate Online TCG and it would keep interests inline if they bailed out this game. It would depend on how complete or salvagable the product is. With the trimming of the fat at SOE coupled with the closer eye on investments, I doubt SGW would be an easy move for the company like Vanguard was.
You didn't play the beta (shoulda been called alpha) did you? The only thing salvageable about Stargate Worlds is the name itself. The rest would need to be built from the ground up.
If the license is pulled, does that necessarily mean they get all the programming assets? Unless MGM funded the project, which it sounds like they didn't, I would guess someone else owns the assets. They could be purchased if SME goes solvent I suppose.
Blasphemy!
i'm sending a squad of priors for your puny soul.
Hallowed are the Ori......*begins chanting*
LOL. And I completely understand. ;)
This isn't a fair statement. Would you have predicted that EVE would have been a success? Or that AoC or Warhammer would have been the letdowns they turned out to be?
This kinda sucks because I was interested in at least trying it out because of the IP.
Would be crap anyway.. the license is crap.. the chosen company was crap, crap crap crap crap.. ad infinitum.
People need to start understanding that the average costumer is fed up of buying crap.. Age of Conan crap, Dark and Light Crap, Darkfall crap, Horizons crap, Dungeons and DRagons Online crap, Eve Online crap [wasnt but is becoming ], Matrix Online Crap, Warhammer Online crap^2, etc etc.. close them all.
well I love SG and this IP has some nice value.
like all well known IP it requires a good company to do it right or its just slop.
hopefully they will go down and they can liscense it to someone with a clue.
ehhh Sad.
Well, at least these guys try to make something new, instead of the usual elf, orcs things...
I hope they lose the IP, I really do. And that the code made so far gets the ET Cartridge treatment. Nothing worth salvaging from the code, nothing.
i have to admit i will be glad to see the back of this sordid affair and i hope a real company picks up the ip, but starts again as from closed beta reports its a big pile of poo what they have so far
Agreed, i'm sick and fed up of the fantasy setting... more so since Mythic seemed to piss all over warhammer from a great height although Funcom, Turbine and even Blizzard all have their cross to bare on that particular aspect. Blizzard for the simple reason that they created the gayest orc in the known universe. Watch the original trailer... now choose an orc.. i mean come on.... seriously...
-shudders-
Talk about hanging by a thread. Yeah the saga of CME and SGW is just about over. Two people working on the game...wow..
Was so excited to hear that they were making a SG mmo. But when i heard it was a 1st time company i got a little less excited and for about the last 10months or so i kinda expected this.
Hopefully some1 with half a clue does pick up the licence tho and SGW does get made.
If that happens you can kiss this IP away for good.
Yeah the only chance this IP has is a company that knows how to make a MMO gets it, Firesky is history far as I am concerned, they should not have gotten the IP to start with.
Watch the exact same thing happen with Jordan's IP, Wheel of Time, another unknown company got that IP, what are these IP owners thinking? If you don't understand the genre, find some who does to advise you, just because someone flashes money in front of your face does not mean you should take it.
It's now Failgate Wars thanks to the crappy teams working on the game-they can flash all the pretty screenshots they want but in closed beta, they had almost no content for the amount of time it's been worked on. Too bad this is more than likely never to get launched, Stargate was a ton of sci-fi fun.
Just because something is a good IP doesn't mean it will make a good MMO and I think SGW falls into this category.
I just wish I could convince a group of doctors to give me 8 million to make a game...
I honestly think you could take almost any IP and make it into a good MMO. But first a company has to know how to make an MMO.
For everyone hoping this game gets picked up by someone else, you have to realize something. The "beta" wasn't even a game yet. It was a tech engine with some basic game functionality. Most of the tests early on were determining server load. And really, the engine wasn't that great. So if the game gets picked up by someone else, you'll probably have a situation similar to Cryptic and STO. They picked up that game, and used almost nothing except for some concept art.
Heck, there's an idea. Based on how this game was supposed to play anyway, Cryptic could probably do alright with it. Any bets on if they try and swoop in to snag it?
If Stargate is a huge license then what isn't, this IP had one maybe two films neither of which broke any kinds of records and of course we can't forget the umpteen Sci Fi shows that did little better, I don't like to see any game not see the light of day but this isn't a huge ip by any stretch and that's coming from someone who liked the ip.
If Stargate is a huge license then what isn't, this IP had one maybe two films neither of which broke any kinds of records and of course we can't forget the umpteen Sci Fi shows that did little better, I don't like to see any game not see the light of day but this isn't a huge ip by any stretch and that's coming from someone who liked the ip.
I disagree with the Stargate license not being a huge license. I'm sorry, but you're talking about a franchise that is essentially based around a television series that was on for ten years and spawned two spinnoff series. Ten years for ANY television show is a major indication of the popularity of the franchise. So yeah, it's a huge IP.
Actually the two series (SG1 and Atlantis) did very well, particularly in DVD sales. The original movie did very well when it was first released back in the 90s, however the subsequent movies did as well as any movie based upon a television show as they really were just extra long episodes.
Basing an MMO on Stargate was a good bet, and I see no problem with the original idea. If you are going to blame someone then blame the developers, not the actual movies/series.
The thought of Frankie having to strip the Stargate logo off his (and his girlfriend's) race car = priceless !
I disagree with the Stargate license not being a huge license. I'm sorry, but you're talking about a franchise that is essentially based around a television series that was on for ten years and spawned two spinnoff series. Ten years for ANY television show is a major indication of the popularity of the franchise. So yeah, it's a huge IP.
LOL, 10 years, 2 spin-offs and all of the shows were crap spin-offs of a cheap movie. IP had fail all over it from the get-go.
Couldn't hold a candle to more interesting IP's like Farscape, Dr. Who, Lexx and a few others.
We all have our preferences, and I loathed this IP. (can you tell?)
To each his own of course, but I'll shed no tears over this game's death.
LOL, 10 years, 2 spin-offs and all of the shows were crap spin-offs of a cheap movie. IP had fail all over it from the get-go.
Couldn't hold a candle to more interesting IP's like Farscape, Dr. Who, Lexx and a few others.
We all have our preferences, and I loathed this IP. (can you tell?)
To each his own of course, but I'll shed no tears over this game's death.
:) Hey, I didn't say everyone loved it. I know lots of people who didn't, and that's fine. It IS a bit of an acquired taste for some. I was just saying that it's hard to deny that it's a huge IP. Like it or don't. It's big.
SG-1 over Atlantis? You're crazy!
I also hated the movie but loved the series'.
Yep, SOE will buy it. I have forseen it. xD
It's a shame to see CM die so close before release.
It's even a bigger shame if SOE will take over the development. Then we're 100% vertain SGW will die a horrible death :(
Stargate has great potential as an MMO. It could be a Scifi and Fantasy MMO all in one from the simple fact that once you hit the gate you can go anywhere. Not sure how that is a "fail". The series on TV were good as were the spin-offs, all of which got good ratings for their markets.
Farscape as a MMO, now there is your so called "fail". Other than running away from the galactic police what else is there to do. Lexx? Seriously? Just name it Star Trek and don't make it silly. Doctor Who? I am the biggest Doctor Who fan... seriously. The similarities between Stargate and Doctor Who are very nearly the same except for one big problem... the Doctor wouldn't be into fighting. Name an MMO w/o fighting that's worth a crap. Please don't say webkinz ;)
Lol i agree i watch Doctor Who all the time and the only thing he does is run from danger and try to solve things without harming anyone, so it could probably make a decent mystery flash game, but that is it.
Well, it's past August 1st, it's the 11th now -- my 33rd birthday -- has there been any developments..?!
I was looking forward to this game too. Years ago. I cant wait for NDA lift. =D
HAHAHAHAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!