Working Designs closes it's doors... :(

[RCM]

I can't say i'm too upset. I really wasn't into any of their stuff. I know RPG's were their bread and butter and all, i'm not a fan of the genre.

I do respect their achievements and it's always sad when a respectable publisher goes under. The most shocking thing about this announcment is that the end didn't come sooner.

As for the Vic Ireland love/bashing, I don't know him but he sure seems like an asshole. He can't be all bad though, he made great contributions to gaming!

RIP WD

[RCM]

sorry double post.

[unbroken]

The first 2 lunar games were definetly some of the best RPG's i have ever played. Sad to see them go. Hopefully someone can pickup some of their licenses and continue on with the great games. RIP

[Damaramu]

Well I must say I'm certainly shocked to hear WD is gone. They've been good to us gamers (for the most part), giving us the goods.

I really appreciated their efforts to give us Japanese style packaging and deluxe sets.

It always puzzled me when people lamented on the fact the Japanese always got cool limited editon sets and such, only to gripe about delays when WD did the same for us.

I've never met Mr. Ireland but I gotta give him respect for trying his best to cater to us geeks.

RIP, WD!

[fishsandwich]

Why did WD quit working with Sega and switch to Sony after the Saturn? I've always wondered about that.

What were some of Victor's controversial statements/opinions?

Please do tell.

[Captain Wrong]

WD published the only RPG I've ever liked enough to finish. Plus they brought over some shmups for the PSX. (OK RayCrisis wasn't all that, but it was better than nothing. Their other games were better. )

Frankly, I never cared for the super deluxe packaging (and the associated price increase) but I have a lot of respect for them taking a chance and doing it. Hell, that right there is what I resepect most about WD. They took chances no one else would.

I must confess though, I thought they were dead already. Then again, I lost interest in the company about the time the Arc the Lad collection finally dropped and I realized that more RPGs were not in my future. I always held out hope they'd bring more shmups over but I knew that wasn't where the money was so they probably wouldn't.

Hmm...I guess this kind of reads like a backhanded compliment. I don't mean it to. Nuff respect for WD and anyone who thinks the gaming community is better off without them is saddly mistaken.

[RCM]

Why did WD quit working with Sega and switch to Sony after the Saturn? I've always wondered about that.

What were some of Victor's controversial statements/opinions?

Please do tell.

Bernie Stolar stuck them in a shit spot at E3 and then proclaimed the Saturn was dead. I think that's how it went.

Vic promised to have nothing to do with Sega while Stolar was running the show. I think that's how it went!

[Zilla]

I've enjoyed a few of the games I have purchased by them and its sad to see them go. I really like Vanguard Bandits and Arc the Lad Collection. For being a small company they really stood out to me and I really enjoyed their packaging for the games very cool. I just wish the guys who worked there the best of luck and I hope they turn up somewhere and manage to influence some new releases or bring over some different games form japan. Its too bad another good publisher is gone.

[Castelak]

VADER: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[MegaDrive20XX]

I will miss you Working Designs. "Our games go to 11!" will be written on your tombstone..

I stuck with you when Arc the Lad Collection was delayed for so friggin long....even my best friend waited so long for Growlanser...Yet we still collected your games without any complaints...

You will forever be remembered for Lunar however. Yet you do so much more for Saturn, PSX, and Sega CD days.

You ended up being a collector's paradise with the variants and taunted us all with the different designs.

[Blackjax]

Crap, this isn't the first thing I wanted to see in the morning...

Why do I have a sneaking suspicion that Sony rejected Goemon for one reason or another and that was the final nail...

Working Desgins was easily one of my favorite publishers. Sure, they had their flaws in the translations, and usually had glacial release schedules that frustrated a lot of people, but somehow the games that came out in the end were quite worth it.

Both the Lunars on the SegaCD are games that I'll rate above any Final Fantasy released (and don't get me wrong, I like Final Fantasy) and Popful Mail was a great action RPG. Vay, well, I bought Vay and we'll just leave it at that

The first PSX Lunar, quite frankly, is probably my favorite RPG made. While I perfer the SegaCD EB over the PSX one, the PSX one certainly was also a great game to play. I also recently played through the entire Arc The Lad Collection after owning it for years, and a few really irritating bugs aside, really enjoyed them.

WD will be missed

As far as someone asking why WD dropped off the Saturn, there was a really big incident at one of the E3s (1996? 1997? one of those) where Working Designs was supposed to be featured in the Sega area, but instead of showing off WD's games, Sega of America's president shoved them all the way in the back of the area, in a corner away from all convention traffic. I believe this may have been the same E3 that Sega announced one of the systems that would be in competition to become the Dreamcast and declared the Saturn to be history. Some other things happened too that I don't remember (I'd have to dig out my old email archives, but this was a huge deal on a mailing list I was on at the time) but the upshot was that the translation of Lunar: Silver Star Story was immediately cancelled and WD wouldn't do any more games for Sega as long as the current management was in place. Magic Knight Rayearth came out after this, so I have to assume that too much work was done on that game at that point to scrap it.

[exit]

I've always rememberd Working Design as the company that released unique games, well nothing lasts forever and I will always remember them.

[koster]

Truly a sad day...

Working Designs, R.I.P.

[Melf]

It's always sad to see a developer die, but I honestly can't say I'm surprised at this news. They were releasing what, like 2 games a year lately and were taking forever to get them out. I know people are going to say that they weren't a big company and were doing the best they could, but honestly, in this day and age of mega corporations like EA and Square-Enix, WD just couldn't compete. Add that companies like Atlus were doing the same thing with more regularity and the writing was on the wall years ago.

As for the delays affecting me, I must have reserved Magic Knight Rayearth about 7 times. Pissed me off to always see it was delayed. This is what killed them, not Sega's poor treatment, or Sony's practices. If you want to compete, you have to actually release more than a game or two a year.

WD was great up until this generation, then they all but became irrelevant.

[RevQuixo]

I will miss you Working Designs. "Are games go to 11!" will be written on your tombstone..

That would suck for them as it is "Our Games go to 11!"

Still it would be ironic considering their "loose" translations.

[RevQuixo]

As for the delays affecting me, I must have reserved Magic Knight Rayearth about 7 times. Pissed me off to always see it was delayed. This is what killed them, not Sega's poor treatment, or Sony's practices. If you want to compete, you have to actually release more than a game or two a year.
.

Magic Knight Rayearth's delay had to do with the legal wranglings of releasing the game with the proper names of the characters *not* with Working Designs desire to delay it. IIRC their was an American version of MKR on television that changed the names of the characters and WD didn't want to do it in the game...so it went back and forth forever until the MKR tv show was taken off the air and WD was free to release it as they originally intended. It is a credit to WD that they even stuck by the game...they could have canned it when the Saturn died...instead they brought it out anyway knowing that Sega wasn't supporting the Saturn anymore.

[Ed Oscuro]

VADER: SNIP

man i get such a hard-on from format fuxx

I bet GnG was joking on the "Are games go to 11." Either way, pretty good

[TurboGenesis]

This is sad news indeed. I had been a supporter for Working Designs since the Turbo Grafx days. They brought us the Japanese games that no one else would. If not for them many great rpg's and shooties would not have been realized on these shores further fueling casual American gamers appetite for junk games. This market is in need of more translating publishers to bring the many unique and FUN games over from the east. I grow tired of FPS, sports and sandbox games that continue to flood the American market.

With deepest sympathy
Godspeed Working Desings

[Melf]

I know, and there was a hard drive crash to blame as well. I was just using it as the most extreme example of a problem that is basically what killed them. People aren't going to sit around and wait for one or two games a year, not when other companies are doing the same thing (sans the great packaging, to be sure) with more regularity. His indirect blaming of everything on Sony comes off more like denial to me.

[norkusa]

I was never big into RPG's but I played a little bit of Vay on SegaCD. Any company that localizes a RPG with a fart joke within the first hour of play is okay in my book. I'll miss them.