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Damnation studio dismantled - Report

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Jul 1, 2009 12:45 pm PT

Entire Blue Omega team laid off, according to programmer's Twitter feed; lawsuits show troubled development process for Codemasters-published action game.

Blue Omega Entertainment's Damnation launched in May for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC to critical disdain. Now the alternate-history shooter may wind up as Blue Omega's suitably named epitaph.

Lawsuits point to a difficult development for Damnation.

According to a Twitter post from Blue Omega programmer Geoff Rowland, "the entire Blue Omega team was laid off," effective last Friday. It was not certain if Rowland was referring to the entire film-and-game production company or simply those employees with a focus on game development. Multiple inquiries to Blue Omega and its representatives went unreturned as of press time.

A pair of lawsuits spotted by Shacknews and confirmed by GameSpot depict a significantly troubled development for Damnation. In January, the company filed a lawsuit against Point of View, a company it subcontracted for work on the game. The complaint states that Point of View violated its contract by seeking payment directly from Damnation publisher Codemasters.

According to the suit, Codemasters "consistently was delinquent in making the payments it owed to Blue Omega," and the direct payments would have enabled development on the game to continue despite the publisher's refusal to pay its debt to Blue Omega. The suit alleges that Codemasters missed almost every payment deadline and that the publisher's liaison to Blue Omega said the tardy financing was happening on a number of its projects.

Point of View wasn't the only subcontractor to run afoul of Blue Omega. The production company also filed suit against Velvetelvis Studios the following month, saying the subcontractor failed to meet milestone deadlines and failed to work "using sound, professional practices and in a competent and professional manner." The suit against Point of View has since been dismissed, while the Velvetelvis dispute has been stagnant since March.

Damnation isn't the only game project on Blue Omega's slate. The company's Web site lists an unannounced "high-octane shooter" for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, as well as Attack of the Dust Bunnies, an Apple iPhone game set for release this month.

98 Comments

  • samarh

    Posted Oct 1, 2009 3:57 pm PT

    eee esasanm

  • Kravyn81

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:17 am PT

    It all makes perfect sense now: THIS is why the game turned out to be so horrible...because they weren't getting paid!

  • Irve

    Posted Jul 7, 2009 2:18 am PT

    @Death_Blade_182
    i can tell you right now that the loss of marks for the PS3 version of Fallout is not to do with the almost unnoticable difference in the graphics ...
    it's to do with the worse frame rate of the Ps3 version.

  • maverick_76

    Posted Jul 6, 2009 4:07 pm PT

    That sucks for these guys but the game was not very good at all.

  • zeroking420_666

    Posted Jul 5, 2009 7:10 pm PT

    wow that game blow chunks I got through the 1st lvl and had to turn off my xbox360 and try to get rid of the nightmares that followed by playin that terrible game, so glad that team got dismantled.

  • jord_111

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 12:37 pm PT

    I'm glad the team are being punished formaking such a terrible game! this game had quite a good idea, but this game was filled with everything a game shouldnt have ,loads of glitches,horrible voice acting,stiff animation,horrible controls i could go on. I even regreted renting it!

  • GeigerdolylWodd

    Posted Jul 4, 2009 3:31 am PT

    The overall review was a 3.5 for both the ps3 version:
    http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/damnation/index.html

    and the xbox360 version:
    http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/damnation/index.html

    The critic score admittedly was a 3.9 for the xbox 360 version and a 3.7 for the PS3 that does not however negate the fact that the critic score for the PC version? was 4.1 the best out of all 3 critic score's But yet again despite that? Its still was reviewed with a 3.5

    @Death_Blade_182
    Its not really fair to compare them here's why. You're looking at a small piece of the pie. Here's some food for thought the xbox 360 critic score has 24 reviews attributed to it. How many critic scores were attributed to the PS3 version? 16. How many critic scores were attributed to the PC version? A mere 6.

    Its not fair to compare the critic scores which I assume you're doing since otherwise you don't have a leg to stand on argument wise cause they all got the same review score of 3.5

    The critic scores mean nothing at this point cause they aren't all on the same level if the same number of critics reviewed all 3 platforms then we could compare the critic scores but we can't cause they didn't.

    When you've got 24 - 16 and 6 those are disparate numbers enough that a comparison is not warranted.

  • Death_Blade_182 posted Jul 2, 2009 4:38 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Death_Blade_182

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 4:38 pm PT (hide)

    Dynomite_D & Kevin-V: You don't get it. The game review is linked to the PS3 version, and every time there is a link to a bad game review, it's coincidentally linked to the PS3 version of the game, never to the Xbox version.

    Not only that, but Gamespot gave Fallout 3 for the PS3 an 8.5 rather than a 9.0 for the Xbox and PC, just because supposedly there's marked antialiasing, but there is none, I can tell you, as I own the game, and even if there was, that's no reason to give it a lower score.

    And every time there are news about something good happening to Sony, the editors compare it to how Microsoft and Nintendo have done better.

    I know what I'm talking about, Gamespot hates Sony.

  • mayceV

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 1:55 pm PT

    well i can see where the publisher is comming from. Damnation was a poorly designed game, and the publisher lost a lot of money on it. the game sold less than 100,000 copies thats abyssal. The publisher is trying to stay alive expesially in this economy. Yeah I feel sorry for the workers I'm not heartless, but the design crew really messed up.

  • alexnollent

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 1:18 pm PT

    poor guys

  • pakhair

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 12:37 pm PT

    I had high Expectations from Damnation but It was a Terrible Game...........

  • gandalf_storm

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 11:35 am PT

    damnation wasnt great to be fair, but ive played, alot worse, onechanbara anyone ?

  • SchmeeboDaBear

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 11:08 am PT

    Serves them right for actually trying to make a game called, "Attack of The Dust Bunnies." That would have been another game that would be accepted with "Critical Disdain"

  • MaddenBowler10

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 10:23 am PT

    "attack of the dust bunnies" really tops off the article lol

  • picklesrocks

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 9:32 am PT

    i thought the game wasnt that bad, critics just whine over the fact that its not another gears of war of COD 4

  • pidow

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 9:27 am PT

    I've played Damnation and believe me, it could have been made better, I liked the way one got around in the game and if, if the game had more kick to it, who knows. Maybe something for the better can happen and put things in the right direction as far as game making is concerned..I'm hoping for the best for them all.

  • Suicide-Panda

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 9:18 am PT

    Tbh they need to think hard, and come back and make a better game next time round

  • Fandango_Letho

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 9:15 am PT

    It's good to fall down, sometimes. Teaches you how to get up better, and this time - survive the next round. That's how people grow.

  • jadefury27

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 8:44 am PT

    well at least it won't get a sequel.

  • EddyG0RD0

    Posted Jul 2, 2009 8:39 am PT

    i hate it when video game devs and companies fight over BS

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