Report: Stormfront hasn't passed yet
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Studio president insists in interview that the company has just "suspended operations," and is in talks that might allow it to rehire workforce, keep the lights on.
When reports surfaced earlier this week that Stormfront Studios had shut down, some gamers no doubt hoped for it all to be some kind of cruel April Fools' gag. That could turn out closer to the truth than one might expect, as Stormfront president Don Daglow says there's hope yet for the company in an interview with GameCyte.
In the article, Daglow confirms that the studio laid off "virtually everybody" on its staff without severance pay. However, he insisted that Stormfront hasn't shut down, only "suspended operations." The reason for the distinction is that Stormfront is in negotiations with publishers on a pair of projects based on original intellectual properties. If those projects get signed, then Stormfront might be able to invite people back to work and resume operations.
As for how the studio ended up in dire financial straits in the first place, Daglow said it was a "perfect storm" of circumstances that boiled down to not having a project to move on to after the completion of The Spiderwick Chronicles. One project that they had in the works was canceled due to the recent spate of big-time mergers and acquisitions like Activision-Vivendi and the proposed EA-Take-Two union. Daglow said that when the company had previously found itself in a dry spell between projects, it would get a bridge loan to keep working, but with the recent economic downturn, Stormfront was unable to secure that funding.
"You go very quickly from, 'Hey, it looks like things are going to be fine...,'" Daglow said. "The number of days it takes to go from there to not being able to pay people is not very many, in that situation."
As of press time, Stormfront had not returned GameSpot's requests for comment.
By
Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
Demonstone 2!!!!! If Stormfront teamed up with Bioware, they could make a Demonstone/Neverwinter Nights crossover. Imagine a Demonstone game with a deeper combat system, and an Aurora Toolset-style editor..... sooooo coooool
Way to make fun of about 2 years of my life, Hedfix. :( My friends and I played the heck out of that game. Until Perfect Dark came along (which was essentially the same thing) Anywho... I don't care too much for Stormfront, though it would be nice (assuming that they get signed for a new game) if they worked on some original licenses.
I liked the Eragon Game.. and Idk the new Narnia game looks fun lol
who are we talking about again ?
Yeah, Goldeneye 64 SUCKED... ... ...
all movie games are bad JUST make them illegal after iron man cause that looks pretty cool
They've churned out ok movie games, some movie studio should simply buy them and put them to work on their back catalogue of movie licences.
Sounds like a long shot, but let's hope they pull it off. Really not enough developers out there devoted to action RPGs.
I haven't even heard of them, but The Two Towers was decent enough. Hell even even EA doesn't want to absorb them so maybe a quiet fade to black is the right choice for them.
isahunt you are the problem
Who cares the only thing these guys have churned out that was any good was Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The reason they didn't have any projects is probably because they aren't that good at making games to begin with.
It's not like they have made any good games. So who cares if they go under.
Business world can be really crappy sometimes, unfortunetly for all those employees. What this article seems to show is that Stormfront is not reliable on running a business properly.
Wow I almost got hired by these guys a little over a year ago. Glad that didn't work out!
The first of many. Thank you evil politics.
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The Spiderwick Chronicles
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- Publisher(s): Sierra Entertainment
- Developer(s): Stormfront Studios
- Genre: Adventure
- Release: Feb 5, 2008 (US)
- ESRB: E10+
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