PME buy out

[Jayne]

This is just a question. But I need to ask because of a rumor I heard.

Don't companies that file bankruptcy end up changing there names and starting over?

[Ankua Daru]

Hehe, I knew something was going down. It is strange about the dates though we will see if this is only a name change or actual new blood coming into ownership.

Now with the new change in ownership lets reopen the boards and let all speak. I would also ask for the overmoderation to cease. Lets try to edit rather than delete whole threads as a start.

This is only the beginning the pool seems calm but the water down below is turbulent.

[Steelclaw]

Dangit! Stupid forum software ate my post. "you must be logged in"... I... Well.. I was logged in. o_O

Anyway.

It can mean good things, it can mean bad things, but it can also mean no change. I guess we sit back and wait to see if they post a statement of intent and team introduction. Let's see how long it takes.

[Tantalyr]

This is just a question. But I need to ask because of a rumor I heard.

Don't companies that file bankruptcy end up changing there names and starting over?

That depends on the chapter of the Bankruptcy Code under which the company files for bankruptcy, Jayne. If a company files for reorganization under Chapter 11, the company usually keeps its name (e.g., Continental Airlines). If a company files for liquidation under Chapter 7, then once the bankruptcy proceedings are completed the company is legally dead. Its name can be sold as an asset (if it has any value remaining) as part of the liquidation and the entity which purchased the name can legally use it. That rarely happens, though.

[Alpion]

All this is is EI adding new money names to the ownership to try to impress us I suppose. There are no new employees or actual "game people" brought in to help develop the game...not as of yet anyways. It's EI with a name change. It's New Game World with a name change.

From PME site:
"This provides one stop shopping for the young or old design or development game builder to add the resources necessary to achieve their goals. New Game World eliminates the brick and mortar business requirements from the path to success. The hassle of promoting, hosting or handling every specialized language by themselves is eliminated. In doing so, the list of contributing team members is virtually endless. We provide the basic instruction, community support and tools necessary to help amateur game designers refine their abilities, though our online community."

From NGW site (view source):
"New Game World provides the opportunity for independent developers to publish their games and websites within a community of players and developers who participate in and seek innovative content. This provides one stop shopping for the young or old design or development game builder to add the resources necessary to achieve their goals. New Game World eliminates the brick and mortar business requirements from the path to success. The hassle of promoting, hosting or handling every specialized language by themselves is eliminated. In doing so, the list of contributing team members is virtually endless. We provide the basic instruction, community support and tools necessary to help amateur game designers refine their abilities, though the New Game World community."

It's all word for word copied over very lazily and not edited to correctly show their new and improved business (notice the typos included hah!). With all the work they are going to to "start fresh", they'd better be bringing in a ton of new REAL game developers to help work on things. If they don't, then it's just another ploy to start fresh and hopefully cover their awful tracks so far in the gaming industry.

Time will tell, right Justa? lol

[Theros Ironfeld]

"We provide the basic instruction, community support and tools necessary to help amateur game designers refine their abilities, though the New Game World community."

That sounds like no professional devs but a host of uni students to ' decode' the horizons world.

More rubbish to be filed in the useless bin

not impressed one iota and wont be 'til this game is either reserected or flushed completely

I stand by my statements made when eii came on board
I still play ... but am ever so slowly walking away

[LaughingOtter]

"We provide the basic instruction, community support and tools necessary to help amateur game designers refine their abilities, though the New Game World community."

Hmm. "Dude, we want to publish your game!!", only with bigger words.

[Phillip]

give them time crew...lol

Defensive Stance VI, Take Cover Istaria VII.

Results takes time, especially with Horizons. My dead cuban chihuahua on prozac told me.

More money? Good.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Hey kids! Let's play with Frontpage 2000! Take a peek at the source from both http://www.pixelmagicentertainment.com/ and http://www.eiinteractive.com -- sure, it could be a coincidence, but what other respected companies out there use circa 1999 WYSIWYG HTML editors and heavily compressed images for designing their corperate website?

This looks just like the legal waltz that took place when Artifact turned into Tulga Games. Major financial problems force the original company into financial problems so half the people jump from one sinking ship to another. This time, no one knows how to drive.

[Jayne]

Thanks Tant for clearing that up

[Vlisson]

wow

i wonder what happens now?

any news about this 2 month plan we got 3 month ago ^^

[Ssilmath]

This game is so screwed...

Horizons: The experiment

See how much people can take before they finally leave...

It's too bad...There was a great community and a lot of good lore that's gonna go bye bye...

[snickel]

Reminds me of the old Chinese malediction: 'May you live in interesting times'.

But I agree with those that stated that as long as we don't know anything specific to the contrary we might as well hope for something good (like money influx) to come out of it.

[Denrath]

...I think what bothers me most about this (even more than the fact that Hz was bought out again) is that the directors there seem to have a nack for building up businesses to sell them. Or at least that was something I pulled from it. I am fully expecting to see it get sold again. I wonder who will take it the next time...would EA take it like so many before it? (I hope not)

I am giving them 5 months to show something tangible. A real team, some updates...something that says they are trying. The only reason I am giving them that long and not say...a month...is because there really isnt much I am going to do about it from my present location.

[Ar-Narluin]

Another change in the "never ending story" of Horizons. I'm referring to a post from EII

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=15634

Now that they are acquired by Pixel Magic Entertainment’s I hope, really hope that some thing could move on both for NA shards and EU shard.


The "story" of Horizons: Empire of Istaria till now:

- Artifact Entertainment
- Tulga Games
- EI Interactive
- Pixel Magic Entertainment's
- ...

I still wait with patient, as only an ancient dragon can do

[Milandra]

How come when I read all this, I can't stop thinking about Ryzom that maybe "open source" ?
Waiting now some information about what's comming next...

edit: link's dead at the bottom of the news (contact link)

[Garfonso]

Why not EA? EA has money, EA has devs, EA has expirience..

Ok, they wouldn't buy HZ, because they have expirience and know that it will never attract a huge community again...
But maybe they are able to do a good HZ 2?

For me this news tells me just one thing:
Hooray, I can play a while longer for free on Unity
My guesses that the transfer to NA wouldn't happen this year seemed to be perfectly right and even a bit to scary... maybe we will still be on unity next easter... hm... hopefully unity isn't to expensive, so that GN won't shut it down someday... *sigh*

[IndyMan]

could it be it was all the overbilling that was done earlier. They do a shell game with the company and ditch all those that got billed when they were not (according to the explayers) supposed to be, or those that got double billed ?

[Sunuke]

Why not EA? EA has money, EA has devs, EA has expirience..

Ok, they wouldn't buy HZ, because they have expirience and know that it will never attract a huge community again...
But maybe they are able to do a good HZ 2?

For me this news tells me just one thing:
Hooray, I can play a while longer for free on Unity
My guesses that the transfer to NA wouldn't happen this year seemed to be perfectly right and even a bit to scary... maybe we will still be on unity next easter... hm... hopefully unity isn't to expensive, so that GN won't shut it down someday... *sigh*

Just come visit on Chaos and I'll help you out.

[Takora Drakan]

Quite amusing. HZ looks for me at the moment like the "black peter" that everyone is trying to pass to another company until someone trows it in the garbage bin.