slipgate-ironworks posts

id Software founder John Romero has decided to depart the latest game developer company that he helped to form, the San Fransisco-based Slipgate Ironworks. Earlier this week it was revealed that Romero was teaming up with his long time friend and business partner Tom Hall on a new social networking game developer called Loot Drop.

Romero formed Slipgate Ironworks in 2005 and said at the time that it was developing a new but unnamed MMO project. Later it was revealed that the company was part of the many MMO game studios from Gazillion Entertainment. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Big Download, "John is no longer working with Gazillion. We parted ways late last year, and we wish him nothing but the best in the future."

It's been over five years since Slipgate Ironworks was formed yet the developer has yet to reveal the game project or projects it has been working on for all that time. Gazillion's spokesperson gave us a small update on Slipgate Ironworks, saying, ... "the studio is working on a key project in Gazillion. John's MMO project was changed and shifted out to later in the pipeline, as the company decided to move it to an in-browser platform which is an area of focus for Gazillion's future titles. We have not announced a release date for this title and John was not involved with the new plans."

The MMO game developer Gazillion Entertainment is making some changes and additions in its executive ranks and also renaming one of its development studios, according to a new press release today. The now formerly named Gargantuan Studios, which is currently making the Marvel Universe super hero MMO game, is now titled Secret Identity.

Gazillion also announced today that David Brevik, formerly the studio director for Secret Identity and the project lead for the Marvel Universe game, has been promoted to Gazillio's new President and COO. Jeff Linde, previously the Senior Development Director of Marvel Universe, has been named the new Studio Head for Secret Identity. Also the company announced it has named Dan Fiden to be its new VP of Publishing. Fiden previously worked as Manager of Playfish San Francisco. Gazillion said he "will be driving the company's focus on digital development and distribution" hinting that the developer is working on web-browser based games.

There are PC games on the immediate horizon that are close to being released. Then there are games that have been officially announced but will take years to find their way to our hard drive (BioShock Infinite is due out in 2012, for example) And then there are the games that are completely under the radar. These are titles that developers are working on very hard but haven't been officially announced or in some cases even admitted as being in production.

Big Download has covered these games over the years. In the past we have called them "Black Ops" games but since Call of Duty Black Ops has become so well known we didn't want to confuse you when we decided to do our yearly look at these games. So from now on we are calling these super-secret titles "Code Black" games.

The last time we did an article like this we mentioned several games that have since been fully revealed such as BioShock Infinite, FireFall, Bulletstorm and others. But there are still tons of games that we know are currently being made that haven't seen the light of the public eye yet? Which titles are we talking about? Check out the first part of our current list of Code Black games for yourself.

One of the most extensive MMO game developers just got a new round of funding. Gazillion Entertainment announced today that it raised $60 million from a variety of investors. The press release announcing the funding hints that the money will be used to "enter a key phase of expansion for the company."

So far Gazillion has released just one game, Lego Universe, from its NetDevil studio. NetDevil is still working on its long-in-development space-based MMO Jumpgate Evolution and the company's web site says that there's another unannounced game in the works. Another studio, The Amazing Society, is working on the casual MMO Marvel Super Hero Squad that's due for release in early 2011. Yet another studio, Gargantuan, is working on the large scale Marvel Universe MMO. Finally there's Slipgate Ironworks, the studio headed up by John Romero, which has been working for years on a MMO game that has yet to be announced.

It was one of the most infamous ads for a game ever created. A print ad for Ion Storm's first person shooter Daikatana, released long before the game actually came out, insisted, "John Romero's about to make you his bitch." At the time, the former id Software designer was at the height of his fame and it seems like he could do anything.

In the end, Daikatana was released to poor reviews and sales and Ion Storm shut down shortly afterwards. Now Romero, in a new interview for the PDF magazine Gamesauce, is apologizing for that early ad. He states, "You know, I never wanted to make you my bitch, not you, not them, not any of the other players and, most importantly, not any of my fans..." It seems a little late to make such an apology but then again Romero is no longer a bigger-than-life game developer either.

id Software founder John Romero has been working in near silence at his current job as head of Slipgate Ironworks, a developer that's been working on an unknown MMO since 2005. Slipgate is part of the Gazillion Entertainment company and last year they announced layoffs at the developer. The smaller team caused Gazillion to "change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim."

Now it looks like Romero is hiring people again at the developer. His Twitter page states, "I'm looking for Unreal 3 experienced coders. Lead, server & client engineers. Send your resumes to john@gazillion.com." They are still being silent on what the game project is but Romero does say that it's for an "exciting iP". Hopefully we will finally learn what he and his team have been working on for so long very soon.

[Via Blue's News]

The month of October is over and in terms of news, the PC game industry was fairly quiet for the most part. Part of the reason is that we are right in the middle of the holiday season where new game announcements are few but releases are plenty.

Howevee there were some notable news events in the past month. It included the launch of Microsoft's latest OS, the surprise announcement of some PC game ports for two classic console titles and the purchase of a major developer by a major publisher. But which story was the biggest one in October 2009? That's what we are here to decide.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For October 2009:

Late last week it was revealed that one of Gazillion Entertainment's MMO game developers Slipgate Ironworks, had suffered some layoffs. The studio was formed back in 2005 by former id Software designer John Romero. Gazillion's official comment about the layoffs, however, did not specify if Romero was one of the people who may have been let go.

Big Download contacted Gazillion for comment and today we heard back from their PR rep that Romero is indeed still with Slipgate Ironworks. He will have to work with a smaller team on their still unannounced MMO project. Gazillion's official statement on the game's status indicated a change in the game's format but no details were provided.

Former id Software designer John Romero's latest game development company is dealing with layoffs. A number of team members at the San Mateo, California based Slipgate Ironworks were given their notices today, according to Kotaku. While the developer's parent company, Gazillion Entertainment, has confirmed layoffs did happen at the developer they are not saying how many people were affected.

Romero helped to form Slipgate Ironworks way back in 2005 and since then the company has been working on a secret MMO game project. In their official statement, Gazillion states the game is still in development with its smaller team but " . . . we decided to change the format of our project at Slipgate Ironworks to better achieve this aim." The statement indicated at least some of the people affected by the layoffs may be offered positions at Gazillion's other game developers which include NetDevil (Jumpgate Evolution, Lego Universe) and Gargantuan Games (Marvel Universe MMO)

It certainly was surprising news on Wednesday when ZeniMax Media announced that it had purchased id Software and its properties. It certainly was surprising to John Romero, one of id's original co-founders but who hasn't been part of the company since 1996. While he's been working in secret at the MMO game developer Slipgate Ironworks since 2005 he certainly had some . . interesting thoughts on this week's news.

On his Twitter page, Romero first stated, "ZENIMAX??????? Disgusting." and later added, "Fallout 3 bought DOOM. Wow.." Later he seemed to calm down saying, " i am positive about the Zenimax deal. my initial reaction was harsh. sorry." His last "tweet" on the subject was downright melancholy, as he stated, "i guess i was shocked and sad to see the id Software of old changed forever today. it's a new day and a new id."