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Apparently many truckloads of money were lost when they tried to get into video games with Nokia's nGage, which fell miserably flat.
Here's Kevin Siembada's appeal for people to buy $50 prints and become a Friend Of Palladium, and here's the Slashdot thread.
I'm not a huge fan of Palladium's games, they're just D&D warmed over, and I've heard that Kevin can be a major PITA if someone publishes a review of one of his products that is in the least bit negative. I did like the massive background systems that he had in place and I wrote more than one program to generate said backgrounds just because I thought they were cool.
I doubt people realize how frail game companies are, even the biggies like SPI and Avalon Hill eventually died. I imagine Wiz Kids and WotC have enough size, momentum, and professional business management behind them to survive for a long time, but that's speculation on my part and ya never know.
Here's Kevin Siembada's appeal for people to buy $50 prints and become a Friend Of Palladium, and here's the Slashdot thread.
I'm not a huge fan of Palladium's games, they're just D&D warmed over, and I've heard that Kevin can be a major PITA if someone publishes a review of one of his products that is in the least bit negative. I did like the massive background systems that he had in place and I wrote more than one program to generate said backgrounds just because I thought they were cool.
I doubt people realize how frail game companies are, even the biggies like SPI and Avalon Hill eventually died. I imagine Wiz Kids and WotC have enough size, momentum, and professional business management behind them to survive for a long time, but that's speculation on my part and ya never know.
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Date: 2006-04-21 05:41 pm (UTC)I've also gotta give him some credit in writing his open appeal. He does come off as a bit of an arrogant prick, and I can see how that'd play out in his responses to bad reviews. However, he also had the cojones to ask for the help it sounds like they need....essentially swallowing his pride for the good of the company.
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Date: 2006-04-21 07:26 pm (UTC)I might say more but not on an open post.
Yet to game companies' frailty: I sadly agree. Even WotC is Hasbro-meat, and TSR (before *it* was swallowed) was run with reasonably decent business acumen, or so I understood. WizKid's head was FASA's head; it died. Gaming is a niche and it's a hobby. Doesn't make for solidity.
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Date: 2006-04-21 08:06 pm (UTC)And that's all I have to say about that.