Sirtech Folds

Sirtech Software announced Wednesday that it is officially closing its doors after 18 years of history.

Sirtech is famous for publishing and perhaps defining one of the best role-playing game series ever for the computer, Wizardry, as well as publishing such titles as Jagged Alliance, the Realms of Arkania series, and most recently, Virus: The Game.

Norman Sirotek, president, and brother Robert Sirotek, vice president, blamed the changing nature of the computer industry as a major culprit in Sirtech's fall.

In a lengthy press release, the Sirotek brothers detail the reasons behind the closing, including: the increase in development and marketing of products, the disappearance of a "gentlemanly business of publishing," the shipment of Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games to the Neostar chain that had just gone bankrupt and the repercussions involved, and dealings with two seedy but unnamed software firms.

Employees literally had nothing to do, and after two rounds of layoffs, the Sirotek brothers decided to close the Ogdensburg Sirtech operation.

"My father would always say the software publishing business was akin to standing with one foot on a banana peel with the other foot on a grave, while drinking champagne and eating caviar," Norman Sirotek joked. "It's amazing we were able to do as well as we did for as long as we did."

Sirtech was currently developing two games through Sirtech Canada, which still remains in business: Jagged Alliance 2 and Wizardy VIII. According to Linda Currie at Sirtech Canada, both games are now up for grabs, to be published in 1999.

"The closure of the publishing company will have no effect on our development efforts other than a possible delay in getting Jagged Alliance to the North American market," said Currie "We have always been an independently held development company relying on our own resources to create quality games."

"We will continue developing Jagged Alliance 2 and Wizardry VIII, the latest installments in the company's long-standing series of games."