Working Designs is dead.

[Andy]

http://www.workingdesigns.com/forum/...d.php?t=118916

First of all, sorry for being incommunicado for such a long time. It's been a busy time, as you'll see.

There's no easy way to say it, so I just will. Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time. Yes, the website is still here, and I am going to do my best to keep it tucked away somewhere on the 'net so it doesn't become an illicit domain. (Of course, some of the haters may be of the mind that it's been illicit all along, heh!).

The most frustrating part of all of this is that I know that our fanbase is still there. Growlanser Generations sold well, but of course not better than it would have sold as two separate titles. We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out, and other games approved.

Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw. If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done. There is a possibility that it may be released in Europe (as well as Growlanser Generations), but nothing is finalized yet.

I know many of you will have lots of questions, and there will be some I can answer, and some I can't. Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public. Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it.

I want to thank each and every one of you personally for being a fan, buying the games we released, and telling your friends. You HAVE made a difference, because you bought the crazy things we did. Thanks to YOU, there are deluxe packs, pack-in soundtracks, better packaging, great hint guides, and better localizations in general. We said it a lot, but it really was true. We were nothing without you.

For the future, there are still great opportunities. I have been in touch with a number of other publishers and manufacturers and I will be working with some of the WD staff to do games for other publishers for the time being, but not as Working Designs. One thing that holds a ton of promise is XBOX 360 RPGs, and I've contacted Microsoft about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it - I think you will, too.

Thanks for everything. It's a tough road ahead for games that aren't of the least-common-denominator variety. The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us.

With that, I bid all of us...

...Good night, and Good Luck.

Damn. They get a lot of hate, but I've always appreciated WD. I don't understand why SCEA has to be such a bunch of pricks when it comes to their game approval process, but it looks like they're to blame for a lot of this. Sucks. Good luck, Vic and crew.

[MrWhitefolks]

Vic's a douche, and the continuous delays in their releases killed their company, not Sony.

[ChaoofNee]

but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here.

Eew. No, I won't.

[Revoltor]

Whatever. Atlus made them defunct anyway.

More JRPGS are the last thing the industry needs

ATTACK
MAGIC
ITEM
RUN

[1CCOSA]

More often than not, many of the RPGs and shooters they originally would have handled are now being released here by their own parent companies or new licensees (who release things quicker than WD, ahem). WD definitely served its purpose for awhile but is now redundant regardless of occasional idiocy at SCEA.

[Finch]

Eh... I guess that sucks. I think things would still be going if Vic really cared. Yeah, it's not 1992 and there are quite a few other companies commited to bringing over games that won't sell, but there are still enough titles that aren't released to keep the company worth more than special boxes and out-takes. As it is, it doesn't seem like much was lost anyway.

[kuro]

Will be missed, but there are companies out now that do it faster, and maybe better.

EDIT: What I'll really miss are over priced goody-stuffed boxes.

I'm not being sarcastic, I really will miss them.

[Sqoon]

Will be missed, but there are companies out now that do it faster, and maybe better.

Maybe?

[kuro]

Maybe?

I can't stand by my doing it better remark, as I haven't finished all the WD stuff.

[sethsez]

What I'll really miss are over priced goody-stuffed boxes.

Yep. I loved this shit. It seems like only Blizzard and Working Designs know how to make an impressive special edition, and now WD is gone.

I won't miss their delays or the mediocre titles they'd been bringing over this entire generation, though.