RIP: Westwood Studios

[gear02]

From avault.com

Electronic Arts on Wednesday announced record financial results for the fiscal quarter ended December 31. Consolidated net revenues for the quarter were $1.23 billion - up 48 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago. The game publisher also said that it would begin the consolidation of its Irvine and Las Vegas studios into a major game development facility in Los Angeles. What this means is the shutting down of both Westwood Studios in Las Vegas and Irvine's EA Pacific. No official word on how many jobs will be lost as a result of the consolidation. Westwood Studios brought gamers the classic Command & Conquer series of real-time strategy titles.

[Blitz]

omg...... thats just sad

I know two peopel who work for the EA studio in irvine, thats just terrible

[gear02]

I remember one of the first games I loved was made by westwood.

I forget what it was called. It was a first person RPG. Can anyone remember the name?

[ProMinx]

The first game that really pulled me into PC gaming was Command & Conquer. As such, I owe them my fealty and sympathy. It sucks that a lot of them hear this news before they even release their latest game.

ProMinx

[Bires]

"Good job on C&C Generals. You're fired."

[gear02]

Found it:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/landlore.htm

[apmiller]

Originally posted by Bires
"Good job on C&C Generals. You're fired."

Actually EA Pacific has been working on Generals...

Westwood was on of the big names in great gaming. Why let them go like that. Just too sad. A moment of silence please...

[ProMinx]

In my opinion, the three biggies of RTS gaming are Westwood, Blizzard, and Cavedog (despite only two entries into the market)

Cavedog - Dead
Westwood - Dying
Blizzard - For sale to MS?

Wow...that kinda hurts...

ProMinx

[mcs328]

Originally posted by gear02
Found it:

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/landlore.htm

Wow that game is old. I remember playing it for a little while.

[gear02]

Well the RTS genre is dying quickly. Other than WC3, there hasn't been much innovation with the genre. Even Age of Mythology wasn't too original.

Basically, each game is pretty much the same as the other. This genre in general needs a few kicks in the pants. Maybe C&C Generals can do that.

[Cantacuzene]

A big problem is that rts tends to use less hardware than other genre's of games. The rts people need to start making hardware intensive games. When they start making games for gf4 or higher than they can innovate.

Befor eyou can do the next big thing in software you have to have the next big thing in hardware.

[gear02]

Originally posted by mcs328


Wow that game is old. I remember playing it for a little while.

This game was the bomb. I remember it fondly.

<sigh>

[Bires]

Originally posted by gear02
Found it:Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos

Ah yea...one of the first games to feature Hollywood voice talent: Patrick Stewart as the voice of the king!

Yes-LOL was very cool. I'm pretty sure that was one I completed-I still love first-person RPGs.

[JackHammer]

I remember playing Battletech, the Crescent Hawk Inception on my Commodore 128. That's my first Westwood game.

[Speedfreak]

Originally posted by Cantacuzene
A big problem is that rts tends to use less hardware than other genre's of games. The rts people need to start making hardware intensive games. When they start making games for gf4 or higher than they can innovate.

Befor eyou can do the next big thing in software you have to have the next big thing in hardware.

Generals uses a 3d Engine. First for RTS.

[Speedfreak]

Originally posted by ProMinx
Blizzard - For sale to MS?

That is a damn rumor, or at least it better be. If Microsoft bought Vivendi Universal Games (parent of Blizzard and Valve) I would go to Washington and piss on their sign like that one of the guy floating 'round the net.