Stainless Steel Studios is no more

[Kierkegaard]

Stainless Steel Studios, the makers of Real Time Strategy games such as the winner of GameSpy's PC Game of the Year 2001 award (http://archive.gamespy.com/goty2001/pc/pc_goty_overall.shtml) Empire Earth, is no more. A fact leaving the January 2006 release of their now final game, Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War (http://www.riseandfallgame.com/), in jeopardy.

No official word has been given yet, but the company's site was taken down earlier this week. Granted, an incident which in itself may be writen off as being the result of techinical difficulties, but the existence of a thread (http://raf.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action=ct&f=9,132,,10) - over at R&F Heaven (http://www.raf.heavengames.com) - started and visited by several now former Stainless Steel employees confirms the sad news. They didn't, however, detail how come the studio was closed just weeks before a gold copy of Rise & Fall where to be handed over to its publisher Midway. There is ongoing speculation as to whether or not a possible bad relationship between Midway and Stainless Steel, notorious for their lack of consistency when it comes to publishers, was the reason for the abolishment of the studio.

Stainless Steel Studios was founded by Age of Empires designer Rick Goodman and other Ensemble Studios employees. Their fate, as well as the fate of all other Stainless Steel employees, is currently unknown.

Incredibly sad, SSSi made some of my favourite games, and R&F was looking very promising both gameplay- and graphics-wise.

[Varsity]

For the lazy ones:This is true, SSSI is no more. I can't give details as to why, but I can tell you the product is in excellent shape, the team was in high morale and plowing ahead at full steam, and we were just weeks from gold disk.

When making games, not all factors are under your control. If one of those uncontrolable factors are important to your company and product, and fails you, bad things like this can happen. It's an unfortunante part of life. You can only learn from the experience, hopefully educate others on your experiences, and everyone in the games industry gets stronger as a result.

Still, this is truly a dissapointment. The talent of our team was incredible, the synergy we had, amazing. We would have been a gold-mine pickup for one of the bigger publishers if they wanted a top-notch RTS game company under their wing.. but alas... People are spreading to the wind now, unfortunantly seperating some amazing talent that worked on, what I feel is one of, if not the most, modern RTS Technology in the industry. 7 years, and.. hmm.. something like 70 programming years (man years) put into the product.

If Rise & Fall is released by someone else (its just a few bugs from finishing), you guys will love it! RAF is an RTS evolutionary game, and its a shame we won't be around to write its XPacks and sequels.

I think the biggest loss here is the fans who love RTS. The death of our AAA RTS company means 1 less team driving to increase the industry's limits. It means 7 years of technology and the team who knew it like the back of their hand, put on the shelf.

I feel bad for you guys. :-(

[danhoo]

This sucks. Hope these guys find work elsewhere. I hear Petroglyph might have some openings.

[jwbxx]

Empire earth 2 sucked, but rise and fall looked promising.

[HellbenderX]

SSSI didn't make Empire Earth 2, that was done by Mad Doc Software. After completing Empire Earth for Sierra, they went on to do Empires: Dawn of the Modern World for Activision and now R&F for Midway.

[Lysimachus]

HellbenderX is right, the poor sloppy work of Empire Earth 2 does not reflect the work of SSSi. Empire Earth was their original title, which was a huge success sales wise, and would have continued to succeed had they been allowed to continue patching the game, but Sierra, from what I understand, did not allow them to continue patching it correctly.

Empire Earth 1's Expansion and Empire Earth 2 were entirely made by Mad Doc Software--totally unrelated to SSSi. SSSi went on to make Empires: Dawn of the Modern World, and now Rise & Fall.

I feel sorry for SSSi, as they, to this day, have not been able to make a single sequel to any of their great titles. :(

[Abash Alarmist]

I found Empire Earth to be a joke, as was Empires:Dawn of the Modern World. They seemed incomplete, rushed, and not really all that fun...Sad to hear these guys are losing thier jobs, but their games weren't exactly AAA...

[Luxoman]

A lot of good people lost their jobs just before Thanksgiving, with little to no compensation. Whether you found it to be a joke or not, take that into consideration and have a little respect.

[Abash Alarmist]

I never said that I found their loss of jobs to be a joke. It was their game. Stop reading between the lines you dumbass.

[Luxoman]

Got it. I'm the dumbass even though you are the one that couldn't keep your opinion to yourself when people lost their jobs at the worst time of the year imaginable. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying that.

At least YOU will have a great holiday season, so what does it matter, right? Excellent. Keep up the love! Have a wonderful holiday season!

[Serapth]

Its a shame to hear about this kinda thing happening, and I feel bad for the people that got turfed in the mix, that said, most of the are probrably already at new homes.

As an aside, ive always had this internal dislike for SS Studios ever since I read their ad in Game Developer Magazine. They always seemed extremely arogant after that day. I dont know if anyone else has seen the ad.

[Abash Alarmist]

Got it. I'm the dumbass even though you are the one that couldn't keep your opinion to yourself when people lost their jobs at the worst time of the year imaginable. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying that.

At least YOU will have a great holiday season, so what does it matter, right? Excellent. Keep up the love! Have a wonderful holiday season!

So you are telling me that I should keep my opinion, about a game, to myself because the people that created it lost their jobs? Right...It is a disappointment and tragedy that these people lost their jobs, but that doesn't mean that I should suddenly view their games in a better light.

[Maskatron]

As an aside, ive always had this internal dislike for SS Studios ever since I read their ad in Game Developer Magazine. They always seemed extremely arogant after that day. I dont know if anyone else has seen the ad.

No, but you have me curious now. What did the ad say?

[Serapth]

No, but you have me curious now. What did the ad say?

It was the founder leaning against a gold pillar or something, and the caption said something like...

"Are you the best of the best, because we only want the best to make the best new games. If you arent the best dont bother applying"

Of course, im paraphrasing. But it was pretty pompous.

[Heretic Machine]

Got it. I'm the dumbass even though you are the one that couldn't keep your opinion to yourself when people lost their jobs at the worst time of the year imaginable. Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying that.

At least YOU will have a great holiday season, so what does it matter, right? Excellent. Keep up the love! Have a wonderful holiday season!

I really wish people would stop taking this kind of shit so god-damned personal. Everytime a studio shuts down we get a post here on Evil Avatar, there is a bunch of feigned sympathy, someone points out that they weren't that great to begin with, and then it turns into a flame war because some asshole can't accept the fact that this is an internet forum and not a support group.

[Hellstorm]

When Midway is publishing your game, you know you are in trouble.

[dark_inchworm]

Right...It is a disappointment and tragedy that these people lost their jobs, but that doesn't mean that I should suddenly view their games in a better light.

I think what he was implying is that he doesn't care whether you liked the games or not, but he thinks it's disrespectful that you voiced such strong dislike for them in a thread about their closing, a seemingly inappropriate context.

Maybe.

(And I'm not speaking for myself here, don't bite me)

[Abash Alarmist]

It is appropiate. If they were sucessful with any of their latest games, do you think they would of closed their doors? Hell no. Look at the big name developers: Blizzard, Valve, Epic, Bioware, Ensemble Studios, etc. What do all of these companies have in common? They consistantly produce AAA games with huge fan fare. Did SSSi? No. They released a B rated game as their first title, and they never did a follow up with a good game. It is their loss as a company, not the employees. If they really wanted to survive in ths extremely competitive and agressive market, then they need to produce. They fell asleep on the job, and that is their fault; not mine.

[reimomo]

It is appropiate. If they were sucessful with any of their latest games, do you think they would of closed their doors? Hell no. Look at the big name developers: Blizzard, Valve, Epic, Bioware, Ensemble Studios, etc. What do all of these companies have in common? They consistantly produce AAA games with huge fan fare. Did SSSi? No. They released a B rated game as their first title, and they never did a follow up with a good game. It is their loss as a company, not the employees. If they really wanted to survive in ths extremely competitive and agressive market, then they need to produce. They fell asleep on the job, and that is their fault; not mine.

Yeah, ok, now you're being a fucker. So anyone who doesn't work at a "good" studio like blizz/valve etc sucks and deserves whatever they get for their Thanksgiving present right before they're supposed to ship a product? It's a dog eat dog world out there, but jesus.

[Abash Alarmist]

Meh, shit happens, people die, life goes on.

[pseudodigm]

It is appropiate. If they were sucessful with any of their latest games, do you think they would of closed their doors? Hell no. Look at the big name developers: Blizzard, Valve, Epic, Bioware, Ensemble Studios, etc. What do all of these companies have in common? They consistantly produce AAA games with huge fan fare. Did SSSi? No. They released a B rated game as their first title, and they never did a follow up with a good game. It is their loss as a company, not the employees. If they really wanted to survive in ths extremely competitive and agressive market, then they need to produce. They fell asleep on the job, and that is their fault; not mine.


You have no idea what you're talking about.

[Abash Alarmist]

Amuse me then.

[OutToLunch]

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Everyone is going to have their opinions, but its a situation of.. "if there are letters in the mailbox, and footprints in the snow, there is a high probability that the mail carrier has been there..."

You're right on Pseudo. Why else would a company who has sold millions of copies of their games, has arguably the best RTS technology coming to market, a staff of over 60 people, and was less than a month from gold disk suddenly shut their doors? I can't tell you why, even though I know... but I can tell you it had nothing to do with the managment, the staff, or the game, all of which are AAA.

As for the AAA arguemument, fun is a matter of opinion. For example, you can argue how incredible the ingame footage from rise and fall is (lots of movies online to do that with). But when it comes to numbers, it gets harder to argue. Considering an RTS gaming community, if you sell millions of copies (like SSSI's games), that says something. It's a real fluke to get a jalopy into the hands of millions of RTS fans now adays where almost all RTS games cost well over 10 million to make and need huge teams.

I do love the quote: "When Midway is publishing your game, you know you are in trouble."
....

I do love that quote.

[pseudodigm]

You're right on Pseudo. Why else would a company who has sold millions of copies of their games, has arguably the best RTS technology coming to market, a staff of over 60 people, and was less than a month from gold disk suddenly shut their doors? I can't tell you why, even though I know... but I can tell you it had nothing to do with the managment, the staff, or the game, all of which are AAA.



Exactly. It's real easy for someone to just throw an off-the-cuff remark that it was a crappy game, that's why they shut down.

I know a few of the guys at SSSI, my brother-in-law (and neighbor, and best friend since college) for one. I've played board games with Rick Goodman. I KNOW why they shut down. And it really bugs me how easy it is for someone to assume they shut down because of the staff. These guys are INSANE.

But I understand that such opinions are easy when you're not affected.

[Abash Alarmist]

Touche, salesman. I would like to retract my previous statements and apologize for what I sai; it was immature and foolish of me to do so.