Iron Lore Entertainment closes

[funcroc]

http://www.ironlore.com/

 

ILE Closes

Posted on Feb 27 2008

 

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.

 

We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who has helped us in the last seven years

[Nick_i_am]

Erm, weren't they in the middle of making Soulstorm?

[Tale]

Erm, weren't they in the middle of making Soulstorm?

If by "in the middle of" you mean "it's being released in less than a week," yes.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Tale

[Spider]

Sadness. TQ was a really good games. In my eyes the best diablo-clone I've played (and that includes Diablo 2, but not 1).

[Nick_i_am]

If by "in the middle of" you mean "it's being released in less than a week," yes.

 

That's okay then, I didn't realise it had gone gold already.

[Hurlshort]

That's surprising, I thought Titan Quest did alright from a sales perspective. It seemed to get enough attention to do so.

[Tale]

Selling alright is not the same as being able to get funding for your next project. A company like that probably needs a publisher feeding them money to stay aloft until the game gets done. My understanding is that most studios don't self-fund development. I'd be surprised to hear that Obsidian did.

 

Keep in mind I'm basing all of this conjecture off what happened to Ritual Entertainment, the makers of Sin and Sin:Episodes. They were working on something like 2 other projects at the same time as Sin: Episodes and were even self-funding Sin: Episodes. But the other two projects got canned by the publishers. Suddenly they didn't have enough revenue coming in to support the company.

Edited February 28, 2008 by Tale

[Nick_i_am]

Yeah, it's too bad, the PC market is dire enough as it is at the moment.

[newc0253]

Iron Lore also owns it's powerful and flexible engine and tool set

but not, apparently, a spellchecker.

 

it's = contraction of 'it is'

its = possessive form of 'it'

Edited February 28, 2008 by newc0253

[Hurlshort]

That isn't a spelling error, it's a word usage error. Spellcheck wouldn't help.

[Azure79]

That's a shame. I really enjoyed Titan Quest and Immortal Throne.

[newc0253]

That isn't a spelling error, it's a word usage error. Spellcheck wouldn't help.

it would if they switched on the grammar function.

[Amentep]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I'm sad to hear about this.

 

I thought Titan Quest and Immortal Throne were quite good action games. I had a lot of fun with them, even with playing them on an underpowered system.

[Sand]

Iron Lore also owns it's powerful and flexible engine and tool set

but not, apparently, a spellchecker.

 

it's = contraction of 'it is'

its = possessive form of 'it'

This is an internet forum, not an English term paper.

[aries101]

Iron Lore also owns it's powerful and flexible engine and tool set

but not, apparently, a spellchecker.

 

it's = contraction of 'it is'

its = possessive form of 'it'

This is an internet forum, not an English term paper.

 

Yes, I understand this.

 

And if it were a member of an internet forum that made this, it would forgiveable. However, it is an official press release from a studio. And my take is that official press releases at least should be checked and checked and proof-read again just to avoid things like this.

 

To just chime in with the choir here:

 

I actually think that it is sad to see Iron Lore go away, as I haven't yet played neither Titan Quest nor its expansion Immortal Throne. I

[SteveThaiBinh]

I suppose when your company is going belly-up and you and all your friends have just lost their jobs, hiring a proof-reader for your final press release might be low-ish on your list of priorities.

 

So, was Titan Quest any good? I think that might be one of the ones I skim past on RPGWatch because I don't know anything about it.

[Hurlshort]

It was an excellent Diablo clone. If you enjoyed Diablo at all, you will enjoy TQ. The art direction and setting were also well done. It was still very heavy on the clicking.

[Azure79]

Titan Quest and the expansion, Immortal Throne, are good games.

 

It is a Diablo clone, but a well executed one.

 

I didn't waste large amounts of my life like I did with Diablo, but it was a fun romp.

[Wistrik]

Dang, another one bites the dust.

 

When people were posting on the forums about the performance hitch bug many were experiencing, IL responded that they hadn't sold enough copies of the game to warrant producing another patch, even though they knew what the problem was in the code.

 

As to how the game was... It's something of a Diablo 2 clone with a few World of Warcraft features thrown in (especially with Immortal Throne installed), done in 3D but with a constant overhead view. It's very beautiful at high resolutions with all options maxed out. It can be a click-fest, and some battles have you using all of your character's abilities. It likes to spawn uniques that are sometimes several levels higher than surrounding creatures, which can present quite a challenge if you're at the bottom end of the leveling curve.

 

Regarding leveling, it's pretty good, but I found myself replaying areas a bit to keep ahead of the curve, and that's after doing full clears. Still, it's not as bad as Diablo 2 was in this regard, prior to Blizzard adding the /players command.

 

The subject matter is interesting to me as well, being centered around Greek mythology, a subject I enjoyed in school and in various movies. You get to visit places like Sparta and Athens earlier in your travels. It's been a refreshing break from the usual dwarves, elves, and so forth.

 

If you like character customization, you might not like TQ. You're limited to either a male or female character, and can only select the color of their clothes starting out (and name). You can purchase various dyes in-game, but these only affect the innermost clothing you start the game with. These are the outward limitations though. The skills your characters can learn provide quite a potential variety of gameplay. My current character is a Stormcaller.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Wistrik

[Tale]

I wonder what's up with royalties for Soulstorm now.

 

*gulp* ... What about PATCHES?!

[LadyCrimson]

That's a shame. I really enjoyed Titan Quest and Immortal Throne.

Ditto.

 

One of the very few "Diablo-clones" where I played it for longer than a few hours and had a grand time doing so. It did get old faster than Diablo did, but a decent effort/fun game nonetheless.

 

I fear for the PC market ...

*random market-ignorant musing* I wonder if digital download will help revive the PC game at all, eventually, since you'd take away some of the, uh, marketing? costs and headaches and such.

[Joseph Bulock]

I was just as sad to hear it. I just recently picked up TQ through steam and have been really having a great time with it. Many of the 40k fans at the office have picked up Soulstorm and have been playing that, with all the various "that's really awesome" comments abounding. I would love to have seen what came next from them.

 

Also, picking on the grammar on a bunch of people who just saw the product of years of blood and sweat disappear is really classy.

[CoM_Solaufein]

That is too bad. The smaller companies either go under or get assimilated by the bigger companies.

[Calax]

I was just as sad to hear it. I just recently picked up TQ through steam and have been really having a great time with it. Many of the 40k fans at the office have picked up Soulstorm and have been playing that, with all the various "that's really awesome" comments abounding. I would love to have seen what came next from them.

 

Also, picking on the grammar on a bunch of people who just saw the product of years of blood and sweat disappear is really classy.

Soulstorm didn't turn out too great for single player. It's just a rehash of DC with an even stupider reason for the Imperium fighting itself. I think they could have done better (why is multiplayer more important than Singleplayer now a days?)

[Sand]

Since I didn't like Diablo I never bothered with TQ. It is sad to see a company fold though.