I think his point is, that if it were a movie, any publisher would be more interested in founding, and in OW's case it'd all probably go to increasing the quality of the games since they are a company already experienced with gaming, as opposed to pixar.
I really doubt Lorne would sign up for making thousands of useless shit with OW, I really dont think it depends on how popular OW is how whored it is, just on how well organized his control is, and apparently with the move he's made, his control is only optimizing, so I see no reason to worry.
BTW, I read the blogs
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Oddworld has ceased game production operations. The official release is here . Now, I know you're all dying to send me job offers and condolences and such, but stop, I'm fine and I'm not really looking for jobs right now. If you'd like to offer jobs to the talented people at the company, please send mail to jobs@oddworld.com
I've been privileged to work with a great crew at Oddworld; I'm proud of the work we did. The games didn't ever work out quite the way we wanted, but at least we tried to do something creative and different, and mostly succeeded. It's a real tragedy that Stranger's Wrath is not getting any marketting at all; I think it's a pretty good game (and the reviews bear that out). It's also a shame that we aren't able to make another game on the XBox; I'm proud of the engine we made, and the pipeline and toolchain and process that we finally had set up for our new game (Fangus) was really smooth. Our overall development process is the best I've ever seen at a small developer; I feel like we just got the factory really humming, all ready to pump out widgets, and now we're closing the doors. It's a shame that the great team we have here is going to be broken up and spread around the industry. But, so goes the tide of the game industry.
Charles Bloom
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OddWorld is shuting down their studio. So, I’m looking for a job again. I’m quite deceived by the game industry. I’ve worked on four different companies, but haven’t finished any game. That’s very frustrating. I’ve been thinking about changing my career direction. I think I will try to work for an IHV or for a tool development company like Alias/Discreet/SoftImage, but it seems that most of them are located in Canada. I enjoy SLO’s weather so much that I don’t really want to go north again. :-(
Ignacio Castaño
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Today marks the end of Oddworld. I think I am more somber today, than I was when I resigned two months ago. My best wishes go out to the RT team(s) that broke their backs over the years to get Lorne's "Odd-vision" into tangible form.
Robert Brown
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I dont really see anything that says "Fangus is canceled" and considering they're being written by someone who just got fired, they do not seem very bitter, just nostalgic.Bloom talks about a machine that got wrecked just when it was really hummin', I think that refers to the team at OWI, not to Fangus at all, I really belive that fangus could just be handed down for outsorced development once the outsorced teams are set up.
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LL:There's a lot of talent around the world. We want to connect the dots between more of these opportunities and talents.
GS:When Lanning first said this, I had no idea how literal he was being. It turns out that he was chatting with me as he was driving to the airport to catch a flight to India to kick off a prospecting tour. He'll be hopping around different parts of Asia to scout animation houses, technology companies, etc., so that he and his team can focus on creative concerns while letting others leap the technological hurdles. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up with him after he's done globe trotting and learn more details about his company's new direction. He did want to leave a message for Oddworld fans.
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Besides, Makes sense to think that the people most fit to bring his to vision to life are NOT all living in San Luis, but rather in many little-known countries and scattered around the world.
if you consider he's doing some kinda world trekking to reach the right companies for outsorcing, then you gotta admit the outsourcing would be as under his control as it can be, and I am actually pretty excited to see OW represented by all sorts of new talents from around the globe.
Hell who knows? considering I'm in 3rd world Colombia, maybe if I work hard enough I may end up animating one of the quintologers, I for one am looking fordward to what this radical change will bring.
I mean, look at his ACTUAL quotes, what's so scary?
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This is a choice, not a necessity. The choice is a daring one, and not an obvious one to make. We see the excitement of what can be. We think that requires a new model. We want to stay focused on the creative content and taking that to new levels
It's time to take it to the next level and the way to do that is with a new model. New models are in order and new models are necessary. Let's build characters and stories that people will love. Let's put these characters in interesting gameplay. Let's feature them in new media. It's all about pushing that quality bar higher. We'll be doing this with outside parties and businesses. The options and excitement grows exponentially, the more people we work with.
I'm not scared at all. I probably would be if I was forced to go this way, but like I said, this was a choice. I'd be afraid if we had to keep going the way we have been going. Running the operation as we have been has limited the amount of opportunities we can pursue. We have no regrets, but to continue this way, we'd have to keep turning down opportunities we've always seen as the future.
There's a lot of talent around the world. We want to connect the dots between more of these opportunities and talents.
We love the games. We're proud of them. We're glad you've enjoyed them. We want to bring you more in the way we believe it can be done. We don't want to compromise on the quality and intensity. There's more to come.
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what's not to love?