Working Designs is no more

[GhaleonOne]

Not even sure what to say:

http://www.workingdesigns.com/forum/sho ... p?t=118916

I'll be updating LunarNET with this news tomorrow, but want to take some time when I'm not so tired to say something a bit substantial.

Oh, and a great big "Sony Sucks" is in order. At this point, I likely won't even be buying a PS3 at this point, because I just don't feel like supporting Sony's -Dung Beetle- practices.

[wisequark]

i can't say i'm really shocked by this but still, its a sad moment in history. if not for wd none of us would be on this board today . . .

[Roas Atrades]

Well, as the old saying goes, "All good things...yatta yatta yatta".

In all honesty, since EBC, I haven't purchased anything WD made in years. Yes, I bought Growlanser Gen. last summer, but I got it used long after it had been released, so I don't think that really added to any sort of tallied numbers towards its success.

Now, I was never as personalized with WD as many of you were and are to this day, since I never participated on their Forum. I remained a fan detached, as one could put it, simply awaiting whatever came down the tubes. So, my reaction may not be as heartfelt or emotional as many of you, but indeed we are at the end of a small era. For as wisequark said, without WD we'd never have Luanr on this side of the Pond.

However, looking at this from a neutral point of view, business is business, something which I am taking much more seriously these days since very soon I am embarking on my own small business. Granted, my business is small and in the food industry, which is far outside the cooprate worlds envolving media entertainment, but many principles still apply. Business can make strange bedfellows, but in the end there are no friends and business is still business and sees only one color....green.

Companies come and go, some lasting for seemingly forever because they were the first, others merely flashes in the pan showing great promise, but in the end unable to compete with the bigger badder wolves. WD was great because it gave us quality and perefection with its imports. It gave games a special shine that still twinkles in our eyes to this very day so much that we still talk about them on a daily basis.

Again, I am not privy to many inside details that some of you could be, but from a simple observer's point of view of the market, I am also not surprised to hear this. Across the developer landscape, we are seeing companies both merge and or be swallowed up by the bigger fish. It would seem to me that all alone, as Vic kinda says in his post, WD just did not have enough cloute to dictate which games it would port over anymore.

Of course, a few of you are rightly upset, because business can suck and hurt at times. Am I going to boycott Sony because of the way they handled this? No, because then I'd miss games that I'm sure to be looking forward to. It is good to aknowledge your feelings and get them out, because that is the smart and human thing to do. Afterwards, however, I for one will try to look on the more positive side of all of this.

1- All my WD products just became even more valuable I'll never sell them, but they make great jewels in my collections.

2- As Vic said, he's very interested in a bunch of 360 RPG titles he sees in Japan.

To me this is a good thing, because now I may just have more to look forward to on 360 besides Halo 3 and KoToR III. If it was one thing Xbox lacked was a substantial RPG selection for hardcore RPG gamers. I rent a lot of Xbox games, but actually own very few. If Vic manages to wisk RPG titles over here for us to play, then that makes the 360 all the more inviting, which means I may end up buying it sooner than the 1 year I planned to wait.

That's my look on things. And yes, for those of you who know me, I am in one of my more optimisitic moods as of late. Due to a lot of midigating factors, I am working very hard to look on the posiitive sides of all things after expressing rage or anger. I'm of the feelings as of late that too much time is wasted dwelling on anger over things. Getting it out is good, but giving oneself heartburn over stress gets boring after a while

[Shiva Indis]

I hoped they'd pull though, but I guess it's too late for that...

My feelings on WD have been mixed for the last ...nearly a decade now... but throughout the all the changes they always had a commitment to quality. I think they had a major impact on the way we look at games from Japan.

[Alunissage]

I'm not surprised, and indeed had more reason than most to expect this, but I'm a bit upset. Directly or indirectly, WD had an impact on my life the scale of which is almost impossible to describe...not just my interest in RPGs (which I honestly probably would never have tried at all) and the hobby gaming grew into, but my introduction to messageboards and the web in general (WD's was only the second or third site I ever visited) -- and also my introduction to my fiance. I can't begin to imagine how my life would be different now had my housemate's friend not given him TSS, but the last ten years and most especially the last six and a half would have been so different as to be unrecognizable.

I have my own reasons to have mixed feelings, but on top of other things which have hit me lately my further reaction is: ... ... ... I'm sure more will come, but reading this at 4am I can barely even think, let alone feel. Or is that reversed? Don't know.

[Sonic#]

I think the two are interchangeable.

When I read the news post, I didn't believe it at first. At the same time, it made sense. It was a sad intermingling where the pieces fit perfectly even as I'm spinning the pieces looking for another way to complete the puzzle. April Fool's? They changed their name?

I'm not privy to everything that Sony did... I think they made Growlanser II and III have to be packaged together, but... did they not allow Goemon as well?

[snaztacular]

I can't say I'm suprised, but it does make me sad. I think I'm with everyone here when I say that WD has had a huge impact on my life. LUNAR and Popful Mail were probably the most formative experiences of my childhood, and everything about the way I am has its roots in that era. Something like this REALLY drives home the shift in the paradigm of producing games. Sony isn't the only bad guy, but clearly its executives sit on a big fat platform labeled "Quantity Over Quality". Unfortunately though, this is what happens when ignorant consumers promote ugly business models with an insatiable thirst for "this year's edition" of big name franchises. Enough of that, anyhow. Big thanks to Vic and the team for all the great times! A piece of my gamer heart goes with Working Designs!

[drumlord]

I've already expressed myself on this a few places and don't feel like repeating myself

But I'd add here that Sony is not the only bad thing that ever happened to WD, so don't bother blaming them for this. WD has released one compilation in the past few years. That friends is the reason they are gone now. You don't make money if you don't sell things. Just keep in mind there are games on the DS, PSP, and GameCube that had and have no US publisher. It is sad that WD is gone now, but my personal advice is to not lay blame on one company. There's more to businesses closing than what you hear on a message board.

Also, Goemon wasn't the only game WD was working on when it closed. But things were so bad that I doubt the other games ever even got to approval stage, so we never heard about them.

[LuciaOne]

;_; god this sucks...

I feel like part of myself has died.. I've been such a WD fangirl since I was in 5th grade...

[GhaleonOne]

I still think they were working on Dragon Force PS2. Now we'll never get that one over here. Wish I would have gotten the import limited edition now.

[HiroOne]

I can only hope that the core team of working designs moves to a respectable company.. aside from that I really hope they don't sign up with an x-box 360 team. I know that the success for RPGs will be on the PS3.. the x-box sales chart in japan shows that they aren't being very successful. It doesn't matter how great a game you make for a system, if you don't make enough of them you won't have the playerbase to appraise it.

But I guess we're all rogues here according to that system.. Sega made some greats for RPGS (Phantasy Star, Shining Force (sorta kinda an rpg), Lunar..) but everybody knows the SNES for it's classics (Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior...) We chose the sega though.. hm.. food for thought.

[GhaleonOne]

XBox360 is likely going to be a little different than the Xbox. There's more Japanese support, and apparently some good RPGs going to it.

[lnrSaxon]

wow, this is really sad. I LOVED the games that WD has released over the past years. =/ Man, this sucks. =( I really don't know what to say about that. I can't say I was one who saw it coming full on, and I guess that makes it an even bigger blow.

Well, then... we'll just see where things go, I guess. =/

[Roas Atrades]

Well, at least we'll never have to deal with another

"When will WD make a Lunar 3!?!?!?!?"

question ever again

[drumlord]

Well, at least we'll never have to deal with another

"When will WD make a Lunar 3!?!?!?!?"

question ever again

Oh you think so, eh? I suspect we'll hear that said on these very boards within the next few weeks, a month tops

[GhaleonOne]

BTW, I should clarify on the Sony issue. While I think a large part of the blame does lie with Sony, WD should have looked to other platforms sooner, but then, there may have been issues unknown to the general public as to why they didn't. My beef with Sony is how they didn't want to even allow games they felt weren't good enough for the PS2, yet so much garbage made it out on the system. It's a double standard, and IMO, Sony has turned into the Nintendo of the NES and SNES days. Nintendo used to charge outrageous liscensing fees to third parties. Sony blocks certain games and allows certain games at random whims. Goemon should have been a worthy title on the PS2, and Sony, for whatever reason, decided not to let it through. WD didn't die because of lack of sales though. Growlanser sold quite well for what was expected. It's the lack of releasing a game for a year, and having the main game they had been putting their time in blocked from release. Sony effectively killed Working Designs in that manner. And even then, it makes me think one of the other titles WD had up it's sleeve was Dragon Force for the PS2, and it was blocked by Sony as well, due to being an older title and 2D. But it still makes me wonder why WD didn't consider GBA and DS games. I'd say PSP as well, but I'm not sure how much of Sony's stance would effect titles for it like it does the PS2. But there are definately enough titles of WD's type on the DS and GBA that would have been awesome to bring over.

Either way, it's a sad day.

[Roas Atrades]

Oh you think so, eh? I suspect we'll hear that said on these very boards within the next few weeks, a month tops

Hahaha.

If it does, then that will make it all the more sad than it usually is, heh.

[Angelalex242]

Day is done...gone the sun...from the lakes from the hills from the sky...all is well, safely rest, Althena is nigh...

*taps*
*21 Sword Salute*
*etc.*

Something occurred to me. If a Lunar Game (or Growlanser, or whatever) gets sold, who do the royalties go to if the company's defunct?

[Silver Phoenix]

As far as the video game industry is concerned, Working Designs was considered a fanboy company. Vic chose only to port games he was interested in, and as business practices go it doesn't work in the long run. Unfortunate as this news is, Working Designs hasn't been an overly productive company for their entire existence. Some games would take up to three years or so from their original release and the impact would falter because of a long transition. Only hardcore gamers will wait that long. There is no one side to this story. The whole situation reminds me of Vic's angst against Sega and Bernie Stolar. Now he feels Sony has burned him, and the XBox 360 is the only system you should want for rpgs. It's basically the same thing he did when he said Sega screwed the Saturn, so then the public had to buy a PlayStation 2 if you wanted to play Working Designs' games.

Working Designs did bring us the beauty of Lunar, but as a whole the company was very lackadaisical(sp?) with their process of getting the product out for purchase. A small staff certainly didn't help matters. Perhaps now that the company is disbanded, the few left working with other companies can be more efficient.

[GhaleonOne]

It's basically the same thing he did when he said Sega screwed the Saturn, so then the public had to buy a PlayStation 2 if you wanted to play Working Designs' games.

You mean the Playstation right? Personally, I won't buy a XBox360 until I know there's going to be some good games for it. My beef with Sony is far more than just this issue though. And even at that, none of WDs games appealed as much to me in recent years as they did prior to EBC. Their non-Lunar titles were better in the past IMO. Alundra, Dragon Force, Popful Mail, Elemental Gearbolt, etc. were amazing. I couldn't get into the Arc Collection, and haven't even gotten around to picking up Growlanser. I would like to, but probably not for a while still, and likely it'll have to be through Ebay.