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Thread: Working Designs, what happened...

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    ServBot (Level 11) BHvrd's Avatar
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    Default Working Designs, what happened...

    God, games like Popful Mail, Lunar: Silver Star, Dragon Force, ah, what great freakin games!

    No other game company has ever been able to capture me like Working Design games did. They had the special knack at farce and humor while still keeping you in the heart of the story. They could make you laugh then stab you through the heart in an instant.

    What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?

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    Alex (Level 15) maxlords's Avatar
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    It's all about the leadership. A company can't succeed when it's being sabotaged by it's owner.
    scooterb: "I once shot a man in Catan, just to watch him die."

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    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working Designs, what happened...

    Quote Originally Posted by BHvrd
    What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?
    This is why I would never let an overseas company translate my games. It seems, good sir, that you believe Working Designs actually developed those games. WD is not a "studio," it is a localization service (and one that isn't very popular right now, it seems).

    Zach Meston worked there and is responsible for many of those humorous lines you speak of...but let's not go there :D

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    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Working Designs, what happened...

    Quote Originally Posted by BHvrd
    What I want to know is what the hell happened? Such a talented studio, how did they become so lackluster? Working Designs could have easily become a Capcom, Sega, or one of the big boys. Why didn't they ever reach out more!?
    This is why I would never let an overseas company translate my games. It seems, good sir, that you believe Working Designs actually developed those games. WD is not a "studio," it is a localization service (and one that isn't very popular right now, it seems).

    Zach Meston worked there and is responsible for many of those humorous lines you speak of...but let's not go there :D

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    Alex (Level 15)
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    The last game that I know of that WD has released is the Arc the Lad Collection, which took me about two months of straight playing to get through.

    Yes, the company has had very good success in picking which games to translate and bring over and I hope they release more games. It takes them forever to actually RELEASE anything, though, and current indications are that the company is going under for several reasons.

    Oh, and don't count on Zach to say anything -- you recall what happened LAST time he tried?
    "Four o'clock and all is well.....wish I was in bed, Sir."
    -- Guard in the Imperial City, Oblivion

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    Bell (Level 8)
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    The other thing, is Sony is giving them a hassle with new releases...They can't jump ship, beacuse 1) money, and 2) because most of the things they port are tied to sony somehow... also GC isn't a system that's doing very well with 3rd party software, and Xbox is american. What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.

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    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by udisi
    What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.
    GP32 and WonderSwan

    I guess what it comes down to is that Sony's figuring out the advantages of doing it yourself.

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    Kirby (Level 13) norkusa's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by udisi
    ...Xbox is american. What games could they port if they switched platforms? not a lot.
    N.U.D.E. for Xbox! You know...the hot, robotic chick simulator. I can't believe that the game is a Japanese only release considering the small number of Xbox systems sold in Japan. We NEED a game like this!

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    Pretzel (Level 4)
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    Quote Originally Posted by maxlords
    It's all about the leadership. A company can't succeed when it's being sabotaged by it's owner.
    The first mistake they made was getting pissed and throwing a fit
    at an E-3 show with Sega ... Something about sega not giving them enough credit.. so they started playing the "lets not give the saturn any more games" Fit...

    christ that was back in like 96 or 97 or something.
    Lead, Follow , or get the F*** out of my way !

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    Alex (Level 15)
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    WD had several problems and disagreements with Sega. I'm not sure about all of them, but I know some of them involved problems with the games WD wanted to release but Sega would'nt aprove (sounds like Sony now!).

    Another problem that I can confirm is about the memory cards available for the Saturn. WD went on record saying that the third party ones suck, and that no one should use them. That got them sued by Inetract, the company they mentioned by name. I believe that was settled out of court. Anyway, WD said they got many complaints with people who lost their saves on third party memory cards and that people should take the extra time and spend the extra money to get a official Sega one.

    The problem with Sega was that WD tried to sell Sega memory cards themselves to gamers, for cheaper then Sega was selling them, and with a bonus. Sega told them they could'nt do that, though.

    Once WD branched out to port their first PSX game (I believe was Alundra) and saw how well it sold, the writing was on the wall. They still finished their last Saturn game (Magiv Knight Rayearth, which due to delays was the LAST US released Saturn game) but have stayed with Sony since.

    Curiious fact -- in the past, WD was hired to translate games for other companies. One company hired them to do a script for a SNES game! I assume the script was done, but the game was never released in the States. That's the only time they got CLOSE to a Nintendo system.
    "Four o'clock and all is well.....wish I was in bed, Sir."
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    Curious... their website has been down for a while.

    I purposely bumped a "related" post instead of making an "OMG!!! What's going on???" new post because I'd hate to make an even bigger deal out of what might be nothing, but... what's the deal?

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    Quote Originally Posted by SoulBlazer
    The last game that I know of that WD has released is the Arc the Lad Collection, which took me about two months of straight playing to get through.
    They've actually gotten 2 games out for the PS2, though they were released around the same time as Arc The Lad Collection. Gungriffon Blaze and Silpheed... Gungriffon takes a little getting use to cause the AI in the later levels is psycho hard, but Silpheed is a good shooter... They are still out there, but arnt overly common to sumble into anymore, and you cant miss them cause theyve got signature "holifoil" covers.....

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    drowning in medals Ed Oscuro's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nick Goracke
    Curious... their website has been down for a while.

    I purposely bumped a "related" post instead of making an "OMG!!! What's going on???" new post because I'd hate to make an even bigger deal out of what might be nothing, but... what's the deal?
    I noticed this yesterday as well...didn't know this old topic was still kicking around, but hey, the site's down.

    Except, as I write this edit, it's back up:

    http://www.workingdesigns.com/


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    Great Puma (Level 12) sisko's Avatar
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    Still down for me....

    Keeping it positive...maybe they just changed their DNS settings....

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Ya Working Designs transalted a lot of great games. I'm currently trying to collect all the WD games for the Turbo Duo. Speaking of Working Designs, whatever happened with Lunar 3?
    Be excellent to one another. Party on dudes!

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    Here's what happened to Working Designs... Victor Ireland's ego became so enormous that its gravitational field crushed what was left of the company.

    JR
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    Strawberry (Level 2) roxybaby's Avatar
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    Whoa...weird stuff!

    Maybe I'm a gulli-bull (or I guess, a gulli-cow in my case), but here goes anyway...

    I love the Working Designs games so I've been on ebay trying to get all the ones for Sega CD. To keep it short, I bought a copy of Popful Mail (overpaid for it, actually) but I was worried that the seller was running a scam because he relisted two or three more copies of the game within 36 hours. The game ended up coming and it works great so no scam. But after reading this thread I realized that I'd bought my game from a guy named Victor Ireland...at first I figured it was just a screen name tribute kinda thing but I just went back to check, and sure enough the email domain was @workingdesigns.com. So is it possible that I bought my game from Working Designs' owner? Or am I just being silly? Now I have so many questions. My little head hurts.

    I guess in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter who I got the game from, but it would be a nice little anecdote to share in the future.

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    N/A

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    Cherry (Level 1)
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    Working Designs - Our Games Go To 11!

    Ha ha I love it. I am sure everyone here gets that reference right?
    GameGuru
    Visit Nostalgia Gaming if you like classic gaming!

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    Alex (Level 15)
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    Or the ever popular joke "Our games go to 11 months delayed from the third announced release date!"
    "Four o'clock and all is well.....wish I was in bed, Sir."
    -- Guard in the Imperial City, Oblivion

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