Rumor: Sega Shutting Down Iron Man Studio

[Tom Goldman]

Rumor: Sega Shutting Down Iron Man Studio

Shrapnel has made its way to the heart of the studio behind the Iron Man series at Sega, with none of Tony Stark's genius available to help it survive.

Hopefully Sega Studios San Francisco had a good time making Iron Man 2, because it looks like it'll be the studio's last game. As confirmed by an anonymous source of 1up [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178624]'s, Sega sent out an internal memo today announcing the closure of the company also once known as Secret Level.

The story first broke through a tipster that offered the information to Sega Nerds [http://seganerds.thekartel.com/blog/2010/04/01/rumour:_sega_shutting_down_sega_studios_san_francisco]. Secret Level had worked on a few Xbox titles before being purchased by Sega in 2006, and was later renamed Sega Studios San Francisco. Under Sega, the studio worked on titles such as Golden Axe: Beast Rider and the first Iron Man game.

Iron Man 2 has reportedly already been completed, so the closure shouldn't affect the game's scheduled May release date. Sega Studios San Francisco had gone on record saying it was fixing some of the gameplay aspects criticized in the original game for Iron Man 2, but it doesn't really seem to matter anymore. The company's releases weren't well received critically, but game development is damn hard, and a group of people losing their jobs is not usually something I break out the pom-poms to cheer at. It's got to be a pretty bad feeling to work on any project only to be fired as soon as it's done.

Source: 1up [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178624]


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[Nincompoop]

The first was horrible in my opinion. I downloaded the demo and deleted it after 10 minutes.
The second doesn't seem as too much of an improvement, but we'll see.
So, from that angle, I might not say 'good riddance' but it definitely isn't much of a loss.

But it's never fun to hear people loosing their jobs, and even worse if it's their dream job.

Addendum; I had a hard time getting to the comment section. The article itself doesn't display a red "comment" thingy on the top and bottom of the article. I had to enter through the headline.
Never seen that before. Bug?

 

[SnipErlite]

As far as I know the game was a bit crap anyway, so I'm not surprised at this.

Pity for the people who were dedicated to this, but such is life.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Demo was okay. Reviews said that it got RIDICULOUSLY HARD later on.

They have to be shut down, I guess. BUT, they can put that money into other games.

 

[fix-the-spade]

That's quite amazing, you would have thought that studio would have been gutted about three months after Iron Man 1 came out.

Unfotunate for the people losing their jobs, but this isn't much of a loss to gamers.

 

[Jared]

Tis a shame...but. I am surprised it didnt happen earlier to be honest. I know superheroes have been going out the public eye as of late, and Iron Man was certainly a late contender...it is a shame though

 

[Archemetis]

My only thought during this article was the hope that it would affect the game somehow.

Not so much that it'd written off entirely more in a way of it's their last game, so maybe they'll put some serious, noticeable effort into it unlike the first one...

Hearing that the game has already been finished and seeing some gameplay trailers today, I'm doubting it'll be any different from the first.

Shame really.
On both counts.

 

[dududf]

Addendum; I had a hard time getting to the comment section. The article itself doesn't display a red "comment" thingy on the top and bottom of the article. I had to enter through the headline.
Never seen that before. Bug?

I've been getting that a bit as well. I guess there's a certain limit of time before they link the article to the comment thread.

 

[2up]

I would praise Sega, but I won't because Secret Level should have been shut down a lot sooner. Hopefully this means that the infinitely more talented Platinum Games will receive more resources and support.

 

[The Rascal King]

Well, on one hand, that sucks that people are losing their jobs.

On the other, all of the games the studio developed sucked major weiner. Beast Rider was so horrid I was physically ill.

 

[Super Toast]

Iron Man 1 was horrid. This doesn't look much better. Therefore, I do not care.

 

[Skops]

Let me play as War Machine and I'll debate renting it.... Fuck Iron Man.

 

[b4XT3r]

The first one was pretty crappy. Played it for like ten minutes and after that I couldn't take anymore.
I'm sure the talented people (if there were any) from the ones that got fired will land a new job soon enough.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Its a shame people losing their jobs.
That said, what do you expect when you create awful games like the first Iron Man game, couldnt even finish the demo it was that bad. Golden Axe, Beast Rider, I bought for the PS2 n couldn't be bothered to finish as it was dull dull dull.
That is not how to business

 

[Jaebird]

I'm probably one of the few who have enjoyed the first Iron Man game, for what it was. It wasn't the greatest thing since Spider-Man 2, but it was fun, to me. And, for what it's worth, the game some interesting mechanics that made sense for an Iron Man game.

It's a shame to see good talent in the gaming industry being used like this. And who's to say Iron Man 2 will actually surpass a lot people's expectations? It sure looks like they've gotten more time to make the game, and it shows.

And am I the only one here who sees the real evil in all this? I mean, Sega's track record in the past decade hasn't been a star-studded cavalcade of success. So who are they to talk?

 

[SaintWaldo]

It's got to be a pretty bad feeling to work on any project only to be fired as soon as it's done.>

It is. Trust me.

It's even worse when they wake you from under your desk to do it. I'm hoping none of these folks got that treatment.

 

[Baron_BJ]

I read this kind of thing and I can't help being extremely happy, I never understood why people show pity on these kinds of people.

They're people who do terrible, terrible work, if they were in another job they'd have been fired a long time ago and people wouldn't say "well their job is hard", that just means that they aren't good enough, they don't deserve the job. Would you show pity on someone who worked at McDonalds or KFC and it was too hard/time consuming/annoying to put the toppings you ordered on your burger? No. Because the stupid little clusterfucker is giving you a hunk of shit when you paid the price for what should have been a delicious burger. It's the same case here, though one might argue that my comparison is different because of the skill set needed and the difficulty difference that's why Game Designers get much more money, it's the same thing on a grander scale.

Quite Frankly there are many, many more WORTHLESS people out there working in the games industry pumping out terrible garbage and getting away with it, completely mimicking other games and making them worse, relying on the properties that they've based their game on to cover for the fact that they're skill-less neanderthals (Like the pile of piss that the original Iron Man game was). A lot of companies really need to look through their departments and purge the useless trash. Pity shouldn't have anything to do with the choice of who keeps their job. Yes in AMERICA there is a job shortage, but why should these moronic people take up jobs that should belong to decent, hard workers.

To reiterate: Worthless people who couldn't do their job finally get fired after getting far, far too many chances to get their act into shape. Good Riddance.