(Shocking) News!!!!!

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

I don't know if you have read the SG Blog lately, but I found this.....

As some of you who follow us pretty closely may have already surmised, Malfador Machinations has chosen not to publish Space Empires V with Shrapnel Games, opting instead to publish through Strategy First and go after the retail market. Although we regret Aaron Hall’s decision, we respect his motivation and wish him the best of luck at retail with a niche product. We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience. All of us here at Shrapnel Games wish him a great deal of success.

We will continue to sell Space Empires IV Gold and Space Empires: Starfury until current inventories are exhausted. We want to thank everyone who has supported Shrapnel Games and Malfador Machinations with their purchases of these excellent games.

We have grown to love the Space Empires IV forum community and want to extend an invitation to these rowdy, crazy, and somewhat warped individuals. We would like you to stay with us, and to that end, we will install a Space Empires V forum for you to populate and enjoy! You are always welcome at Shrapnel Games.

Thanks to all who made Space Empires IV a roaring success.

Comments please?!?

My first comment:
Whoa.....

[Captain Kwok]

Yes indeed. Unexpected I'd say.

[Phoenix-D]

Definitely unexpected.

And probably quite annoying for Shrapnel- this has happened several times now.

[Captain Kwok]

Yeah, SE:V would have been a good money maker with an already established and somewhat fanatical base. A big loss for Shrapnel.

[RudyHuxtable]

It will be a loss for Shrapnel, yes, but I also think Aaron lost out on SEIV because of the limits on distribution. It's generally accepted that SEIV is current pinnacle of 4X gaming, and if he had reached a bigger audience, wow. Lexus anyone?

Now, I'm not saying that bigger is better. Give me the chintzy bitmap graphics over flashiness every day (I play War in the Pacific regularly, which features NO graphics).

But let's be honest. He deserves all the success (and capital) that he's entitled to, and a bigger distributor would make that possible. Not to mention the funding it would provide for SE6

I like Shrapnel Games, and appreciate their efforts to help indie developers. Even Electronic Arts operated out of a garage at one time. I'm just wondering if there is something they can do that is more aggressive and would attract a bigger market. I think TheGamingNews.Com will help a bit. Even I would like to see more games like Dominions or SEIV make it mainstream.

[Phoenix-D]

Another interesting side effect:

As far as I can tell, this means that -every 4x game on the market- is being sold by the same publisher.

[Richard]

RudyHuxtable said:
It will be a loss for Shrapnel, yes, but I also think Aaron lost out on SEIV because of the limits on distribution. It's generally accepted that SEIV is current pinnacle of 4X gaming, and if he had reached a bigger audience, wow. Lexus anyone?

Now, I'm not saying that bigger is better. Give me the chintzy bitmap graphics over flashiness every day (I play War in the Pacific regularly, which features NO graphics).

But let's be honest. He deserves all the success (and capital) that he's entitled to, and a bigger distributor would make that possible. Not to mention the funding it would provide for SE6

I like Shrapnel Games, and appreciate their efforts to help indie developers. Even Electronic Arts operated out of a garage at one time. I'm just wondering if there is something they can do that is more aggressive and would attract a bigger market. I think TheGamingNews.Com will help a bit. Even I would like to see more games like Dominions or SEIV make it mainstream.

Well we can differ on this subject but I don't think SE:IV in retail would have helped much. I also can guarantee you that SE:IV in Retail would have meant less money for Aaron over it's sales cycle.

We have been offered retail deals, and even considered taking Dom 2 and SE:IV (as well as other games) into retail ourselves through our own contacts in the industry, but it just isn't a good deal for developers or any one else involved.

I wish him luck, this has always been my personal favorite game that we currently publish.

[tesco samoa]

Truefully I think SEIV was a perfect match for Shrapnel. And I think that Shrapnel helped SEIV as much as SEIV helped shrapnel.

I am disappointed with the announcement. The protental for bigger is not always the protential for better.

This series is not a mainstream game. It is for a small piece of the market.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

You know what I hate about games lately? They're almost all sold in small "DVD boxes" instead of the "old" bix cardboard box. The small DVD boxes are pretty OK, but you get SO LITTLE in print..... I mean, in HOMM4 all that was in print was a tutorial guide, whereas in the "old" boxes there were usually good manuals, catalogues, sometimes extras.....

And the WORST part is multi-CD games with only a single CD slot in the box. It's SHEER INSANITY having to get one or more CDs out of the fricking thing (as some are MOST user-unfriendly and removing a disc from them involves lots of words that had you used them here would have immediately caused you to be kicked out of the forum) and then later having to do the same thing again.

And Aaron, I plead to you, PLEASE, follow your OWN imagination! Don't go with the Marketing Department! Approx. 80% of the games released lately are CRAP because of that dept..... the MarkDept currently seems to rule the games industry and get the overall quality of games down. Please, Aaron, don't succumb to this! Be original! Be creative! Be YOURSELF!

-----and as for the ASCII art ships.....

[XenoTheMorph]

This IS shocking!
I hope I'm wrong for Aarons sake but I think he is making a big mistake, staying with Shrapnel would be the better option IMO. (Not least because of the great community here, let alone the fact we have friendly talkative Publishers here )
*Looks up and waits for the sky to fall in for such blasphemy*