[Updated] Realtime Worlds enters administration

I agree with you 100%. The more I read about this situation, the more it sounds like a huge management failure. I feel bad for the staff and Dublin game development community that's going to get a huge kick in the groin from this.

This just goes to show you that money can't buy you a good game. RTW got what, $80M to develop this game over 5 years? All they could produce was a buggy piece of trash that was improperly managed and marketed?

Investors keep chasing the next WoW but I think they're finally starting to realize it isn't as easy as the pitchmen make it sound.

I know someone who blindly invested in Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment to the brink of bankruptsy because they fell for colourful pie charts and bullshiz projections.

I can't wait for the smaller studio revolution to finally hit. Smaller niche games backed by smaller budgets is the way to go imho.

Then again, without smarter managers and competent staff, no game will become successful.

@Kasapina

You do know he's just doing damage control, right?

From BBC article on RTW in Administration:
"Realtime has its main development operations in Dundee and its parent company head office and online operations are in Colorado.

The administrators will employ some of the 42 staff in the US to assist in selling the business.

Mr Dounis added: "Our intention is to continue trading the company while we attempt to find a going concern buyer which will safeguard the future of the business."

He said it was hoped that any future buyer would continue to develop APB"

yup. that info is on gamasutra also. sounds like liquidation and not reorg. this is why I wait until a year after release before buying an mmo.

TR would last indefinitely if it wasn't owned by SCsoft.

lets not get this tragic story in this conversation, suffice to say it wasn't the games, or the developers fault, both were stellar.

*NCsoft

The "miracle patch" may actually happen - patch 1.4.1 is on its way which is a game changer according to people on the PTW (test server). We shall see.

There's a list here with some of the shortest lifespans seen by MMOs:

http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/feature/2952/page/1

APB (if it closes) certainly will have the shortest lifespan for a AAA budget title.

As for TR: NCsoft gave it a lot of chances, but it was going to be a black hole for a long time.

Some might argue that if you cant make a good game with $100m and 5 years, you never will...!

Reminded me of the Iraq Relations guy when we first started to invade. Talking about how they were killing the US troops by the thousands outside the doors and that there are no troops in Iraq. In the mean time we had thousands of troops in Iraq.

You would have to be blind to not have seen this coming with RTW. The game was reported to be buggy as hell in Beta, they released an insane subscription/payment plan, the PR for the game was atrocious about no reviews until like a month after release. All that just threw up red flag after red flag and people were smart enough to realize something wasn't right and just didn't buy the game. It was doomed to fail from the start so i'm not sure WHY they went ahead with the release. It's a shame too because I was looking forward to this game WAY before it ever got hyped and was basically unheard of by 95% of people. It sounded so exciting and turned to this. Spore in MMO form.