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Developers not amused by Digital Jesters

Monte Cristo sets record straight on recent announcement from DJ Group; Super X Studios terminates publishing agreement for Wild Earth.

Digital Jesters isn't likely to win any developer popularity contests these days. Last month, Bet on Soldier developer Kylotonn cut its ties with the company, alleging multiple breaches of contract. Earlier this week, Digital Jesters became part of the new DJ Group publishing venture, a move that it turns out has rubbed a couple of more developers the wrong way.

French developer Monte Cristo, named in the DJ Group's press release as one of its brands, issued a press release insisting this was not the case.

"Monte Cristo is an independent company which has appointed Digital Jesters to distribute part of our portfolio of games in the United Kingdom. This is our only link with Digital Jesters," company CEO Jerome Gastaldi said in the release. "In addition, our relationship with Digital Jesters is currently at a standstill. Despite firm commitment from a representative of the new investors, their financial promises are not being met at the present time."

Yesterday, Seattle-based Super X Studios terminated its own publishing agreement with Digital Jesters for the upcoming safari adventure Wild Earth, albeit with a little less outward hostility than shown by Kylotonn and Monte Cristo. The game is complete, but according to a statement from Super X Studios president James Thrush, "the company we signed with, Digital Jesters Limited, will not be able to fulfill its publishing role as its staff and assets are being subsumed by the new DJ Group publishing company. We wish them well on their new venture but as of this moment we are looking to place Wild Earth, which is now completed, with another publisher."

21 Comments

  • rippanation

    Posted Dec 4, 2005 4:36 am GMT

    sometimes some of the best games you can fall in love with are the ones that just appear from nowhere look at what final fantasy did for us, the best way to decide is not always on reviews but sometimes using your own brain, people are biased by nature so its best to keep an open attitude at all times.

  • glaximus

    Posted Dec 4, 2005 2:26 am GMT

    Wild Earth is an excellent game. It was an indie project that debuted at the Game Developer's Conference 2003 and won lots of awards. To think that the game went on to be fully developed and fleshed out, and now is on the cusp of publication but held back by the folly of whatever fat cat publisher group is reneging on their contract. Grah.

  • Calkaimainer

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 1:58 pm GMT

    Ooh, will Nadeo be next...What? He is in with DJ.

  • DarkGhost89

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 12:49 pm GMT

    Small time/no name developer should not be called pure crap. While these developers/publishers are just a bunch of no name guys who thus far created no decent games. There are many small time developers and publishers who develop and released decent games or games with potential and created small cult fans. Every developer have to start somewhere, even if they create crap games, one day, they might create a classic. Even our big time developers and publishers started small, even released their own series of crappy games until they have enough money to create a decent game. If you read up on the history on the developer valve, their first advice was to release a game ASAP no matter how crappy it was, why? cause developers who don't will go belly up (fortunately, Gabe came from microsoft so he have enough money in his pockets to not follow their advice). Ever heard of Rome: Total war? it is as 9.3 game and it is created by a rather small company known as Creative Assembly. They have to start out small too.

  • coreyb42

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 9:07 am GMT

    I think it's more DJ's ego that's got everybody in a ruckus. I've barely even heard of these guys, and they act like John Romero about to create Daikatana all over again.

  • nymarc4871

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 8:36 am GMT

    Damn, this is a cruel world. If you dont care about playing their games, then fine. but please just leave it at that. no need to come on here and post comments like this. It is VERY hard to make a solid game. Give developers a chance.

  • thongzilla

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 6:34 am GMT

    hey everyone even the ALMIGHTY DEVELOPERS put out crap just grab a copy of MADDEN 06. EA is putting out crap they give you QB VISION and a lame ass SUPERSTAR MODE. that my fellow gamers is CRAP. considering MADDEN 05 and 04 were better games than 06. OH YEAH AND EA IS A LARGE AND WELL KNOWN COMPANY/DEVELOPER...

  • Herenr

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 5:03 am GMT

    I'm not against innovation, just terrible games. I understand it's rather difficult for smaller and newer companies to be successful, but it's not my fault if some decide to release atrocious games. I have heard of digital jesters, and, from my understanding, not too many of their games were that exceptional. Seeing as they haven't done too much revolutionary, I can't say I'll miss them too much, I do feel sorry for the people who will be out of work if something terrible comes of this, but......

  • andvari101

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 3:59 am GMT

    GameRanking was the first place I checked when I heard about this game. Then I downloaded the demo and played it. Guess what? I didn't enjoy it. If you feel the low scores don't even justify you trying it, that's fine, no skin off my back. But I've noticed this alarming trend in the user posted comments in last few months. "Unknown/Small-time Developer = Bad" A small developer goes out of business and the comments are filled with "Boohoo... never heard of em". This kind of attitude (besides being extremely cruel to people who lost thier freakin jobs) does nothing but reward the executives at large publishers. You know, the people who shoot down innovation (good or bad) in favor of least risky. Again, if you don't feel like trying the game, that's fine. But if you feel so eager to post on the first page about how you don't care, at least be able to say why.

  • Herenr

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 3:00 am GMT

    I've read several reviews of BOS that gave it some pretty terrible ratings, so gamespot is not a minority. I personally heard, and read, that it was buggy piece of crap. I'm personally not too excited over trying games that receive reviews in the 3.1 to 1.5 rating category. It even got a few mediocre straight 70's (most of which being low seventies).

    Plus the average gamers don't seem to like it too much. So why, in god's name, would I want to associate myself with such obvious mediocre junk?

    Here's the average review scores if you think I'm also just jumping on the badwagon to discredit an obviously not too great game.

    http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages4/920858.asp

  • andvari101

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 1:09 am GMT

    No Mugetsu, that's not what I'm saying. What I *am* saying is that before you jump on the bandwagon that disses games because they've never heard the developer's name before, why not give it a play? "Try it before you knock it" I believe the saying goes. There's even a link right over on the side of this page to the Demo. You don't even need to pay anything. If it sucks, hey, great, let everyone know. But don't base your opinion solely on a review site like GameSpot, and *definately* don't base your opinion on what the "cool first-post kids" are saying. Ever see a good movie someone else didn't like? Ever read a bad book someone else loved? Your take on the game may differ from the game's reviewer. At the very least, before you decide to call someone with more game development experiance than you "talentless"... spend the 3 minutes downloading it to verify it's bad, and that you're not sticking your foot in your mouth.

  • LiliShake

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 12:27 am GMT

    Actually, I read a review of Bet on Soldier in GameInformer (didn't care enough to check on GameSpot) and they said it was a pretty solid game which would have been really good with a better Q&A department. The way they talked about it, BoS is a very innovative game that is bogged down by stupid little things like a silly save system and other crap like that. Kylotonn might be a developer to keep an eye on.

  • wytefang

    Posted Dec 3, 2005 12:13 am GMT

    [This message was deleted at the request of a moderator or administrator]

  • Mugetsu

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 11:45 pm GMT

    So what you're saying andvari, is we should embrace these developers games, no matter how crappy they are, just because they aren't developed by big name companies? That's brilliant! We should all play games made by companies we've never heard of, because we all know that the company being some low budget, no-name, talentless game development studio is the greatest sign of quality! I'm going to go out right now and get a copy of Bet on Soldier, cause it isn't gameplay or quality of workmanship that matters; it's how obscure and unknown the game is that counts.

  • andvari101

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 10:55 pm GMT

    Exactly! We'd much rather have the same rehashed crap from big name developers than try anything new. Down with captialism via competition!

    When the world is owned (or pwnd maybe) by EA, Walmart, and Cingular I hope you enjoy eating your Sam's Choice mac 'n cheese everyday. Maybe you can wash it down with this bitter-sweet irony.

  • anthony_basic

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 7:17 pm GMT

    a lot of developers needs to realize that they just dont have the talent and separate from the industry. its a cruel world out there. a lot of gamers dont care about your terrible games anyway.

  • lu31605

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 5:50 pm GMT

    omg omg its the world ending ...

    yea w/e

  • _Glitch_

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 5:28 pm GMT

    Bet on Soldier? Digital Jesters? Monte Cristo? Super X Studios? Kylotonn? I haven't head of a single one of these names!

  • darkside5001

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 4:53 pm GMT

    lol. get over it...

  • mijo8chris

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 4:53 pm GMT

    Digital Jester is just burning bridges left and right.

  • nemes1s3000

    Posted Dec 2, 2005 4:18 pm GMT

    Well, there goes the fun down the crapper.

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