What's up with AGS?

BruceYee

I'm growing increasingly paranoid that AGS is going to ride into the sunset without ever producing any games.

Amazon recently announced a Lord of the Rings show which is a ridiculously big endeavor but have released no info or updates for what's going on with AGS's two other games after they "put on hold" Breakaway which was supposed to be their breakout/flagship game.

It has also almost been 1 year since Hero's Song shut down and John Smedley started heading up the new Amazon Game Studios San Diego but we've got zero info on what they might be working on. What exactly are they working on cause they said all the devs from Pixelmage Studios went there and that was more than a handful of people.

So "Amazon Game Studios" is a game company that doesn't actually make games? Maybe this site can start making games and call it "MMORPG Game Studios" and never make any games. At first I thought they started a game studio to sell their own games in their app store but that hasn't happened.

Is there anyone here with any insider info? Are "games" still being developed or is the entire studio "on hold"?

TheDarkrayne

There's some recent info that they are going to totally redesign the game they were working on. They got some testers in and they all hated it so they are starting from the beginning again.

EDIT: I'm trying to find the source but not having any luck. Wasn't that long ago that I read it though.

EDIT 2: Found it: http://www.develop-online.net/news/amazon-games-studio-s-breakaway-put-on-hold/0236818

If you read it properly it suggests the Alpha is put on hold, not the development.

Shinobe

Amazon has the money, plus it takes some time to make a game and i am sure they will take this time now before they make an announcement and have to pull it off again.

TheDarkrayne

DMKano said:

TheDarkrayne said:

There's some recent info that they are going to totally redesign the game they were working on. They got some testers in and they all hated it so they are starting from the beginning again.

EDIT: I'm trying to find the source but not having any luck. Wasn't that long ago that I read it though.

EDIT 2: Found it: http://www.develop-online.net/news/amazon-games-studio-s-breakaway-put-on-hold/0236818

If you read it properly it suggests the Alpha is put on hold, not the development.

Nope - Breakaway is never going to be made - this is a nice way of saying that they are not going to waste any more time on it.

Horrible idea that should have never gone past the intial concept stage IMO

I know a couple of folks that work for AGS - the big focus is getting lumberyard engine ready with a lot more features - that's what all of their games will use so that's the CORE component that has to be nailed down

Sounds more like a nice way to mislead and confuse potential customers if that's true.

Why on earth would they want to lie about it? To save face? Totally don't see what they have to gain by doing it and I've worked professionally in marketing and relations...

Shaigh

On the tech side AGS is interesting but their games sounds like it comes from a committee that want to make games based on what's currently popular instead of having genuinely interesting ideas for games.