Layoffs Confirmed at Six Days in Fallujah Dev

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Layoffs Confirmed at Six Days in Fallujah Dev


Six Days in Fallujah [http://www.atomic.com/].

War game developer Atomic made a lot of people very unhappy earlier this year when it announced plans for Six Days in Fallujah, a game based on the November 2004 battle in Iraq. Despite the fact that the game was intended to provide a realistic look at the battle and the war in Iraq, opponents caused enough uproar that dropped it [http://www.konami.com/] only three weeks after it was announced.

The extent of the backlash and Konami's decision to pull out seemed to surprise Atomic CEO Peter Tamte, who nonetheless expressed hope that the game would eventually be completed and released. But difficulties in finding a publisher willing to step into the storm have finally caught up with the studio, which announced today that it has been forced to lay off employees.

"Due to a mixture of fears about the edgy subject matter of Six Days in Fallujah, as well as low videogame sales this summer, we have been unable to secure full-scale funding from a major publisher for Six Days in Fallujah. This has caused us to reduce the size of our studio today," the company said in a statement.

"We wish to assure the dozens of Marine veterans who have collectively invested hundreds of hours in this project that, while we have been badly wounded, we will fight on," the statement continued. "The stories of your brothers' courage and sacrifice in Fallujah must be shared with the world."

Atomic isn't closing its doors; the company said a smaller development team would continue to operate with funding provided by parted ways [http://destineergames.com/] with the developer is connected to the layoffs is unknown, although it appears likely; at this point, however, Atomic still has not confirmed his departure.


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cobrausn

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Dec 10, 2008
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What's all the uproar about? If it is based off mission accounts from soldiers who were there and doesn't try to spin it one way or the other, it should be a compelling game.
 

Perwer

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Apr 2, 2008
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cobrausn said:
What's all the uproar about?
It's all about people who can't fathom the possibility of having something better to do than complain about everything. As always when it comes to games.
 

Goldeneye103X2

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Jun 29, 2008
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I say stop hiding the truth, and show us what the soldiers had to go through. Release it and hush.
 

The Lost Big Boss

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Sep 3, 2008
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This is just sad. This could of been the first time people looked at games as an art form, other than just "Games". But like every one else I don't understand the backlash. People make movies of the Iraq war all the time, yet there is no backlash. The main argument is that they would be making money off of peoples suffering, but movies make more money than any game. I just don't get why people can't view games as an art form, wait.. oh I know. (Points at Xbox live)
 

RomanLegacy

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May 6, 2009
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Losing staff and a lack of a publisher will mean that this game will lose alot of quality. In order for something like this to work, it needs a lot of polish, and pizaz. If they don't have the manpower, or time, or money, to make this great, instead of a generic and crappy FPS, it only justifies the people who cried out when this game was annoucned.

Its a sad, vicious cycle unfortunatly.
 

HobbesMkii

Hold Me Closer Tony Danza
Jun 7, 2008
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Well, they could make another Close Combat game. There's a dearth of top-down, squad based, tactical RTS games these days. And then they could come back to Six Days in Fallujah when the subject matter isn't quite as fresh.