Daikatana Designers Ditch ION Storm

Gamers have been pining away for ION's upcoming first person shooter, Daikatana. We've heard rumors of worker grumblings at the expensive offices of ION Storm for the past weeks. It appears those feelings hit their apex this morning as seven members of the Daikatana team and one member of the Anachronox team have resigned, effective immediately. The group says it will remain together and will announce its future plans shortly.

While the statement released by the ION eight appears to be amicable, there is surely more to this story.

An Eidos spokesperson told GameSpot News that it is "currently investigating the situation." Calls to ION Storm brass were not returned by press time.

ION Storm's Warren Spector told GameSpot News today that development on Daikatana is probably far enough along so that this morning's exodus won't detrimentally effect the remaining production needs of the game. "You can never say that the departure of that many people won't have some impact, but the game is pretty far along."

Here's the statement from the ION eight that went out to various industry insiders this morning.

"The signees of the following statement have decided to hand ION Storm their resignation, effective immediately.

The first and most important reason for this public statement is to apologize to those that have been awaiting Daikatana for any further delays or obstacles this action may present for the game's development. Also, we regret leaving our friends and respected colleagues behind and wish them the best of fortunes. Walking out now has been an extremely difficult decision, and although we're leaving as a group, there are individual reasons for us doing so. We will not be disclosing these reasons to the public since they vary somewhat for each person, and also because we have no desire to start a war of words with Ion Storm. New companies springing forth from existing ones is nothing new in this business, neither is the pointing of fingers that sometimes follow. Suffice it to say, we all felt this move was inevitable and that there could be no other time than now.

We will remain as a group in the games industry and continue forward, but as a separate entity with our own set of goals. For those that are interested, the details about our company and its projects will be announced in the near future. We're all eager to show you what we can do on our own and to focus on we love best: making games.

Sincerely,

Matt Hooper - Level Designer, Daikatana Sverre Kvernmo - Lead Level Designer, Daikatana Will Loconto - Audio Director, all projects Mike Maynard - Programmer, Daikatana Mark Morgan - Artist, Daikatana David Namaksy - Lead Level Designer, Anachronox Steve Rescoe - Level Designer, Daikatana Jonathan Wright - Lead Programmer, Daikatana

And John Romero posted the following remarks on ION's Web site at about 6 pm Texas time:

Thankfully, the Daikatana team members that decided to leave and start their own company left at an opportune time. Most of the levels are in a final state, much of the coding has been completed for most of the game, and almost all the music has been done. Everyone that left made significant contributions to the project and I am thankful to have had them on my team. But it is time for them to move on and I wish them good luck on their journey. Thanks for everything, guys!