Iron Lore Shuts Down

[Andy Chalk]

Iron Lore Shuts Down

Titan Quest [http://www.ironlore.com/index.php], has closed its doors.

A message posted today on the Iron Lore website says, "It is with great regret that we must announce that as of close of business Tuesday, February 19, 2008 Iron Lore Entertainment has ceased active game development. Several unrelated events occurred which resulted in Iron Lore being unable to secure funding for its next project."

Iron Lore was founded in 2000 by Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War [http://www.microsoft.com/games/empires/] series. Details about the cause of the company's downfall are not given, but the message indicates the company will continue to pursuing licensing opportunities for its "powerful and flexible" engine and toolset.

"We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last seven years - our team who moved mountains to create such great games, our publisher THQ [http://www.thq.com/]who has been a great partner through three product development cycles, and most of all our customers and fans," the company said in its message. "We owe all of the success we've had to you, and our greatest satisfaction has come from creating games that have given enjoyment to the community."


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[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Everyone who's played Titan's Quest have.

 

[Tarmanydyn]

Ditto to the people who play Dawn of War, IL was co-developing.

This is a huge bummer to me, Titan Quest was by far the best Diablo-clone to date, and a solid game in it's own right.

 

[Andy Chalk]

has anyone ever heard of this company before today?

I think you're a little out of touch here. Titan Quest was a very solid action-RPG and (as I understand it) did reasonably well, as did the Immortal Throne add-on, and of course Dawn of War has quite a following as well. Seems a bit odd that things would end up like this given that they appeared to have achieved respectable early successes.

 

[slyder35]

A total of three people said to be 'absolutely crushed' by the news.


Seriously; has anyone ever heard of this company before today?

Those 3 people are the ones who purchased Titan Quest.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

Damn, that sucks. In my eternal wait for a Diablo III, I actually liked playing Titan Quest and was hoping for more from them in regards to expansions.

 

[GloatingSwine]

has anyone ever heard of this company before today?

I think you're a little out of touch here. Titan Quest was a very solid action-RPG and (as I understand it) did reasonably well, as did the Immortal Throne add-on, and of course Dawn of War has quite a following as well. Seems a bit odd that things would end up like this given that they appeared to have achieved respectable early successes.

Whilst Titan Quest did achieve mild success and turned a profit, it didn't do nearly as well as it potentially could have due to the fact that almost 90% of all copies played online were pirated. Think about that. 90% of people who played the game didn't think they should pay to do so, and now the studio is gone.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Where did you get that number?

 

[TomBeraha]

I'll miss Ironlore - My brief experience with them in TQ and The DoW series had me really liking what they were doing, they got the polish, the feel part of games right that so few companies do.

And Necroswanson - You know that Generalizations aren't really helpful unless they're based in fact don't you? (In General) I too would like to know where the apparent widespread pirating of the game online came from, how it is being measured, and by whom. Without that type of information the statistic holds no value and has no place in this discussion to me. I hope that Paul and Brian go on to find a new home and continue creating great games and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Now - Well worth a read is an apparent forum post by Michael Fitch (Bio), He quotes numbers which largely back up the aforementioned statistic. I feel he is in a position to know, and his thoughts on piracy are exceptionally transparent by comparison with most of what you'd hear from a company / developer.

Keep on struggling, - A PC Gamer who loves you.

 

[ChrisP.Lettuce]

No offense but asking "Where'd you get that number", or it's cousin, "You know 90% of statistics are mdae up on the spot" is the douche baggest way to refute a generalisation.

76.5% of people who say douche bag are douche bags. You're not allowed to argue.

I loved TQ and Warhammer and I thought they did a good job. I'm sure they could have made it a little more air-tight, but I guess that's their fault. But yes, I hope the leads go out and find a new home and keep making awesome games.