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Working Designs closes up shop

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Dec 13, 2005 12:20 pm PT

Victor Ireland confirms niche publisher's demise in message board posting on company Web site.

Almost two decades after it formed as an accounting software company, niche publisher Working Designs is gone, according to company president Victor Ireland.

"There's no easy way to say it, so I just will. Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time," Ireland wrote in a message board post on the company's official forums.

The news comes just over a year after the company's last release, Growlanser Generations, hit shelves.

"We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out," Ireland wrote of Growlanser, "and other games approved."

One such game the company apparently failed to get approved was the PlayStation 2 action adventure game Goemon.

"Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw," Ireland wrote. "If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done."

Ireland, who has butted heads with publishers before, seemed to take a parting shot at Sony in his posting.

"Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public," Ireland wrote. "Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it."

He also noted that Growlanser Generations and Goemon might still see a release in Europe, though details like how, when, and under what publisher were left up in the air.

Working Designs may be done, but Ireland isn't ready to leave the gaming industry entirely. He plans to work with other Working Designs staffers on projects for different publishers for the time being, and he said he would like to help bring Japanese Xbox 360 role-playing games to the US.

Ireland signed off by thanking Working Designs' fan base and warning of potentially dark days ahead.

"It's a tough road ahead for games that aren't of the least-common-denominator variety," Ireland wrote. "The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us."

95 Comments

  • SaberStrike

    Posted Apr 3, 2009 10:05 pm PT

    It's funny how long ago this happened, but it still makes me sad. What with all the crap going on nowadays with closing businesses, it just sucks.

  • Dreadfall

    Posted Aug 25, 2008 12:03 am PT

    I know this is old news but Working Designs really did it to themselves. They started out making really awesome RPG'S for the Sega CD, then they deviated away from the games that made them femous, like Vay and probably others I can't remember, Lunar was another awesome one. Had they stuck to RPG's and stayed away from games they weren't good at making, they'd most likely still be around.

  • S_o_G

    Posted Jan 19, 2006 5:49 pm PT

    Yeah this Sux, And its really sad that most of the fault was on sony's side. which is why he made the comment about them.

  • noxian

    Posted Dec 25, 2005 4:06 am PT

    to play some Devil's Advocate, the big issue i heard with WD, and Ireland somewhat admits, is the fact that WD was INFAMOUS for taking 5-6 years to do their localizations. Now I liked WD as much as the next JRPG fan, but lets take that into perspective. The amount of time WD took to localize a game, those same Japanese studios would have already made/released another 1 maybe 2 brand new games (new content, new engine, brand new). Ireland himself admited that the time WD took trying to do Goemon, they could've done 5-6 games.
    Now i know some are going to say, "WD was just taking the time it took to do it right." But y'know..at some point you're going to have to come back down from the clouds, back to earth, and face reality. If you're a writer (average professional writer, not anyone particularly influencial), you're expected to produce a certain number of books a year. if you're a fashion designer, a certain amount of designs in a period of time. a researcher, a certain amount of research in a period of time. a movie producer is expected to finish within a certain window of time. my point is, in life, in business, you have time limits. while some limits will be more relaxed than others, some bosses will be more relaxed than others; there's a difference between taking some extra time to do a good job, and just taking far too long. and like it or not, WD frankly did the latter. When other publishers like Atlus were doing the same special deluxe packaging style, and doing similar quality translation work, and doing so in a quarter of the time; your days are starting to be numbered.

  • shelby1

    Posted Dec 19, 2005 4:28 am PT

    [This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

  • shelby1

    Posted Dec 19, 2005 4:27 am PT

    well heres the thing you say it was just sony thats not the case okay it was one there lake of advertisment i rember when lunar first relasesd and i only saw one add for it and precceding that was a bigg old add for EA oha and atlus the primary rights holder for geomon acually helped pull the plug on it becuase they told sony (and i rember reading this a while back) that it wont sale in the US beacuse we lack the geral quality of rpg gamers.....which is BS and along with that atlus the main ppl who have supplyed WD wit game rights and what not pull almost all there games in becuase of cost and started o trabslate them there selves IE manag carta that started in translation welll over a year ago
    and most of those jrpg games that "might " come to the 360 are also on other systems and since they have fired the SCEA CEO for his lake of well work this new guy is allowing all sorts of stuff in jus look at the releas for the ps2 about 60% of those are japanese imports hell u know the old guy denied cowboy bebop for release here in the states.......

    and this might have been unavoidable with sony no longer following the region codeing (ie PAL ect ect) and with more and more games becoming muliti langage cmpanys like WD have no place in this new era of games which i think is at a all time low because most kids today follow what is cool and dont really seprate because most kids i hear them saing whats that oh its one of them rpgs is stupid or boring or some damn thing and now u have compays who are just flooding the market with crappy games that are really no fun to play
    and then u have square if u remeber a whil back they claimed oh we might go to another compnay well what do u think sonys gonna do keep giveing special att. to a company that take 3 yrs to translate a game that is pretty damn good or give that att. to a multi billion dollor comapny who make them billions

    now i do love WD i've loved hem since i first played iron storm and have waitied thru all there delays and from vics own post he is gonna keep trying to bring j-pgs here to the states just with other comapnys not just xbox like all them xbox fanboys think that lunar is gonna be on the 360 and its not they sold the rights for US publishing back to its original company along with alll there other rights

    now me i have a 360 i dont work right and im pissed because i sent it to microsoft and got it back and it works for i dont know about 10min then shuts off and they claim its my fault becuase some how i voided the warrentee......

    and in all good night and good luck to WD's staff

  • fireballhado

    Posted Dec 15, 2005 3:57 pm PT

    NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! When I read this i really cryed.This is the saddest news all year.The only company that really cared about its fans.The ask for nasty letters for negative things about there games only to improve in the newer games and give people want they want.This is sad.I cant belive it.Well im off the sell my psp and ps2 and waste my money to pre-order the ps3 on some gamecube games.But im keeping my working designs games forever.Lunar 1 and 2.Arc the Lad collection and others will be in my collection forever.Lets have a moment of silence for the company that gave us hope in video games.That made us feel for the story the characters.For the company that made me cry over a video game.Good luck.i will miss you guys.

  • OtterX

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 1:32 pm PT

    See what happens when big corporations take over the world? Smash out the small guys. GOTTA LOVE THIS FRIGGIN PIECE OF **** WORLD WE LIVE IN.

  • RyanSaotome

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 10:49 am PT

    This really sucks that WD is gone.... I'm such a big fan of japanese RPGs, and this means less for me to get

  • ZeTecThreaT

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 10:29 am PT

    Game Arts makes Lunar so its not the end of that series.But this is sad news none the less and he's right dark days are ahead for gaming.

  • gtrslinger

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 9:35 am PT

    wow, WD can't even get fired without delays!! lol Sucks though, i guess we'll never see lunar 3.

  • YukoAsho

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 9:11 am PT

    I agree with Skerrit. Yes, Sony had a part in this, but it's not like WD couldn't have just packed up shop and published games for GameCube, Xbox, DS and GBA. And yes, Sony still takes chances on the niches. EyeToy anyone? And while I loved them to death, there was nothing 'unique' about Working Designs' games save for their localizations. They published RPGs that adhered to the mold set by FF4. They published side-scrolling shooters which, by this time, had become a dime a dozen. Yes, this is a sad day for gamers. However, this is not the death of innovation in gaming. Atlus has shown an ability to stay afloat, and companies are still taking chances on titles such as Shadow Hearts. EA and Rockstar are just two companies, and their size doesn't make them the only companies that matter.

  • katieschmitz

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 9:09 am PT

    I'm stunned. I'm shocked. I'm sad.

    I really have nothing else to say other than that this is a sad day for me

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 9:09 am PT

    It's a shame that this has happened. Especially with me being such a RPG fan. Working Designs was iconic in the RPG world. He parted with some cryptic words for the next-gen. Let us see how things pan out.

  • MSM2

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 8:59 am PT

    And Sony destroys another great company.

    Working Designs was innovative as a company, as they took Japanese RPG's to the American audience, and actually made a statement that Import RPG's can still as good as American made RPG's.

    With a loss of this company, it's hard to say that even more great RPG's will never see the light of day over here.

    I salute you Working Designs.

  • BigD

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 8:37 am PT

    Sony doesn't like hardcore gamers It's policy like this that will hurt Sony in the long run.

  • Peter_Skerritt

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 8:25 am PT

    Some folks still don't get it, apparently, regarding SCEA's approval process. Complaints about SCEA's approval process are kinda moot. We still saw Mega Man 8. We still saw Metal Slug. It's not like 2D games weren't "allowed" on the PSX at the time-- but with more and more gamers back them clamoring for 3D, you can see why SCEA was kinda hesitant to say OK to 2D. SCEA has approved more than its fair share of niche titles over the years. We never thought we'd see Mad Maestro or Mister Mosquito over here in the US... but we did. SCEA took a chance on picking up PaRappa the Rapper. What about Jumping Flash!, a game about a... robotic bunny? If you want to blame someone, try blaming people for not buying WD's work... or how about blaming Vic for his company's slowness or his own arguably poor choice of localization targets?

  • bradiusmaximus

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 8:23 am PT

    I owned a Saturn, so this news is sad to me.

  • JimRune

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 8:13 am PT

    We are all dissapointed, yes, but there is still hope a new company will take the place of Working Designs, and make all of our lives much brighter.

  • billysea

    Posted Dec 14, 2005 7:34 am PT

    Will we ever see the light of a sequel to Dragon Force?

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