STALKER in *big* trouble
arcana...@yahoo.com
(Nosferatu) 12:07 PM EST - Jan,29 2006
Information about THQ being not satisfied with the situation that
developed inside GSC had already reached us before. "They (THQ) didn't
even imagine what it's like to work with GSC, - shares with us one of
the former members of the company - they didn't even understand who
they dealt with. STALKER always was in the state of general design.
It's always been a project which was more spoken of than really done."
Another source claims that at the end of November THQ made a decision
to stop financing the development and to conduct a thorough revision to
gain control over the development process. "We don't care what shape
the game will ship in anymore, - said one of the THQ bosses to an IGN
journalist, - the game must ship in 2006".
In addition to all this last week part of the original STALKER
development team was moved to another project and another part was
simply made redundant. "These were considerable dismissals," - told the
source that still remained a member of the GSC staff, - "I heard that
next week a THQ representative will arrive and he is going to stay
until the project is finished."
The third source has information that a brand new engine not based on
X-ray technology was in the works inside GSC, which could have been
used to power renovated STALKER. Almost all of the team left the studio
taking the technology created in a few months with them. GSC
representatives consider this fact as theft, but former employees refer
to "special circumstances". One of the members of the GSC team assumes
that STALKER could be taken away along with the source code by the THQ
representatives and handed to another team for work on the project. We
attempted to contact GSC representatives but failed to receive an
answer. THQ representatives commented on the issue drily: "No
comments".
Update: Some of the developers revealed that a few months ago THQ
seeked a studio ready to finish STALKER. One of the GSC programmers
said that this is very unlikely: "The code is mostly not documented,
they wouldn't understand a thing there."
Blig Merk
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. IN TROUBLE RUMOURS "A HOAX"
GSC assures it's "working full throttle on completing the game" in
response to recent reports of doom and gloom
12:32 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developer GSC Game World has rubbished recent
internet reports suggesting its ambitious PC project is in serious
trouble, describing them to us this afternoon as "nothing but a hoax".
In a nutshell, the reports stated that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was still a
considerable way off from the finish line and that the game's
publisher, THQ, had pulled funding with a view to assuming control of
development of the title - potentially placing it into the hands of
another studio for completion. Additionally, it was suggested that
certain members of GSC's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. development team had been moved
to another project while others had been laid off.
However, GSC Game World has now dismissed the reports. "What you're
talking about is a completely unjustified rumour which appeared on the
net just recently," the developer's senior PR manager Oleg V. Yavorsky
told us when queried on this latest S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 'news'. Saying that
his entire morning's been spent "clarifying the situation to [the]
public today", he added "...the whole buzz is nothing but a hoax."
Yavorsky also assured us that GSC is "working full throttle on
completing the game".
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is a heavily anticipated survival FPS/RPG for PC which
casts you as a bounty hunter scavenging the deserted wasteland around
the infamous Chernobyl nuclear power station as you battle other
opportunists and the radiation-streaked mutants roaming the land. It's
expected to release toward the end of 2006.
arcana...@yahoo.com
so I'd expect him to spin it. Besides, the original "hoax" claims that
not much was ever happening with STALKER and that certainly seems true
based on people who have actually seen it in action -- that little
progress was made in intervening months between various demonstrations.
Plus, there was the sudden (and long) delay announced by THQ and then
it dropped off their release schedule completely. We shall see.
Mean_Chlorine
>Big S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Problems? - briefly
Well, if this is accurate, it's dead. Too bad.
Memnoch
I was really looking forward to this game too. I have seen lots of videos and
tons of screenshots and what I saw impressed me. I hope they sort this out.
Memnoch
Phew! That was close. Nothing to worry about then.. :-)