(Shocking) News!!!!!

[Phoenix-D]

My last couple of comments were in the "if you can't say anything nice" vein.

My actual reaction is a gut "Oh [censored]" feeling. SE5 was a instant order before this; now I don't now. I know Shrapnel doesn't screw with their games to make them more mass-market; I DON'T know that about Strategy First, and I'm worried about that.

It almost invariably hurts the game and it almost never actually works.

Best of luck Aaron, and while I don't know the circumstances involved this feels like a mistake.

[RudyHuxtable]

Ahhh the march of change. I'm not about to liken this to Roman resistance to adopting Jesus as top dog, but I hope it won't take the gaming community 300 years to accept Aaron's departure for Strategy First.

I definitely understand where everyone is coming from. We love our game the way it is. We want Aaron to take what he's learned from the community and build it into SEV. Early indications are that this is already happening. From the list of intended features, I don't plan on getting married because she'll only leave me out of neglect. All the elements for a masterpiece of a 4X game are there. If anyone can make it, Aaron can. He's done it already with SEIV.

But let's try a glass half full approach for a moment:

"Aaron, moving SEV to Strategy First, revolutionizes the way 4X games are created, developed, and received by the general gaming community, and earns for SEV and SEVI a place on the shelf next to Rome: Total War, and Napoleon: Total War. He ends up knighted by the Queen, who has spent countless hours locked in conflict with the EEE and the Xiati. President Bush declares the release date of SEV a national holiday. Aaron creates world peace ala The Wyld Stallyns."

We don't know what input Strategy First is going to have, if any. It's entire possible they know gold when they see it and will give Aaron carte blanche. If not, then just don't buy it since you're sure it's going to be an abysmal failure simply because of its increased distribution or retail ambitions. Someone else will eventually retake the 4X throne if Aaron dethrones himself.

Now, really. Understand I'm a lover of Shrapnel like the rest of you. Interstellar Trader eats up coffee breaks, and my friend wants to burn my computer for the repeated beatings he's taken in Dominions. But for people to already be making judgment calls is a little premature. For all we know this could be the best thing to ever happen to the world. I'm telling you. Singing in the streets of Delhi. Wait and see.

[Nodachi]

Shocking? Yes, it is. As much as I love this game I think it is going to get murdered in the retail market. Games being released now are extremely graphic intensive. Take a look at the system requirements of popular games like Half Life 2. This is due to what drives the retail games market, younger gamers. Retail PC games have to compete with console systems so you can have the greatest gameplay in the world but if it don't look pretty and have tens of thousands of polys moving around on the screen, it won't sell. From what we've been shown of the game it can't compare.

Something else that worries me is that if the game doesn't do well how will that affect the series? If it bombs in the retail market could we be looking at the final chapter in the Space Empires saga? Isn't this game Aaron's primary income now?