Novastar's New Year's Nosedive

Call it the first gaming company of 1999 to go out of business, though it might be more accurate to say that it was the final developer to shut its doors for good in 1998. On December 31, David and Martha Landrey stopped selling software under the Novastar Game Co. brand. The company was known for releasing scenario disks for games, such as SII's Steel Panthers, under a subscription model.

Expansion in 1996 in anticipation of a line of Steel Panther scenario disks and a move into other game titles proved to be unfortunate when demand for the scenarios dropped. Also, competition from SII's CD bundles and missions released to the Internet was another factor in Novastar's downturn, Landrey stated in a post to the Novastar web site. In November 1996, when Landrey started work full-time at SII as an R&D assistant, the company had been trimmed back to only Landrey and his wife.

But there were - and still are - outstanding subscriptions in Novastar's War Zone and Mega Campaign series. Landrey plans to release missions to make up the bulk of those subscriptions this year, but he doesn't plan on any new sales.