David Perry Resigns From Shiny

[xanthome]

The Orange County Register is reporting (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1005598.php) that Shiny Entertainment founder Dave Perry has resigned from the company he founded, right before Atari sells off the company.

The head of Shiny Entertainment in Newport Beach resigned just before parent Atari Inc. announced plans today that include the sale of its internal game studios, including Shiny.

David Perry said that he resigned Thursday because he wants to find the perfect buyer for the game studio he started in 1993. The money-losing Atari is in the process of restructuring and said today it would cut 20 percent of its workforce. Last year, Atari said it had about 490 employees.He is going to quit, so that he can help Atari find buyers for Shiny? Um, Kay.

[Wombat]

My guess is that what this means is he wants to partner with someone to buy Shiny back himself. It would probably be a conflict of interests if he was still working for Atari.

[fitbabits]

What I don't get is the whole 'resign now, rejoin when we've been bought.'

[EternalGamer]

My guess is that what this means is he wants to partner with someone to buy Shiny back himself. It would probably be a conflict of interests if he was still working for Atari.

Thanks Wombat, that makes a lot more sense now.

Dan

[motor]

Shiny is much more sellable without David Perry as part of the deal.

[fitbabits]

Shiny is much more sellable without David Perry as part of the deal.
But everyone knows that he intends to rejoin Shiny once they've been bought. :confused:

[Derwin]

Man, i liked Shiny. they made the MDK series.

[Neverborne]

Man, i liked Shiny. they made the MDK series.

They made MDK, but didn't they turn MDK2 over to Bioware?

Anyway, for the most part, Shiny was all promise and never delivered.

"Oh, you'll be blown away by this and that and the other thing," but that never happened.

[eatme]

"But everyone knows that he intends to rejoin Shiny once they've been bought. "

If you own Shiny, you get to decide if he rejoins it....

[earthworm48]

Have Shiny made anything worth playing in the last decade? (Or well like 9 years at least now, I remember MDK in 97? Or nearabouts might have been sooner or a bit later can't remember but it was a long time ago and I can't think of anything else from Shiny since then.)

[fitbabits]

"But everyone knows that he intends to rejoin Shiny once they've been bought. "

If you own Shiny, you get to decide if he rejoins it....
Read the whole interview, especially this paragraph:

"To be clear, I cannot sell the company but I can get publishers excited about the company enough to get a bidding war going on," said Perry, who plans to rejoin Shiny after he finds the right buyer.

I'm willing to bet that he's already signed an agreement with Shiny stating that he will be allowed back once the sale is finalized.

[Royal Fool]

This is rather silly, but I guess he has ample reasoning.

Atari turned Shiny into a piece of crap when they decided to focus all their resources on making Matrix games. Ridiculous management... but then again, isn't that why Atari is going down in the first place? Too many risky titles.

In short: Atari decided that Shiny was better off making licensed movie-games rather than original and award-winning IP. Too bad for them.

[Returner]

Shiny turned to crap way before Atari and the matrix game.

[CaptSqueeze]

Doesn't this kinda translate to:

"I made a bloody FORTUNE when I sold to Atari, then they made me do things I didn't want to do (even though I originally brought Matrix to Atari, not the other way around), so I quit. And in quitting, I won't get to watch Atari make money off of Shiny, when *I* should be making the millions selling it to another publisher."

Please...tell me that Mr. Perry has the decency to make sure his team makes some of the money if he can successfully buy it back and sell it to another publisher, and it's not just him pocketing large sums of cash. Give me SOME hope that there is a silver lining.

Oh, and Atari were FOOLS to not make a new Earthworm Jim game. Ohhhhh.. maybe THAT'S how he will sell the studio!

[Sion]

DP is a nice guy. I have been to the office when it use to be in Laguna Beach. Just becuase you didnt like the matrix games does not mean he shold be fired. He loves his company, the industry and helping people go about getting into the industry.

If this whole deal goes to shit then he might start making cell phone or handheald games. He never said he planned to do so, but he has admired the way they are developed, wich is basicly how games were made in the 16 bit days.

[fitbabits]

DP is a nice guy. I have been to the office when it use to be in Laguna Beach. Just becuase you didnt like the matrix games does not mean he shold be fired. He loves his company, the industry and helping people go about getting into the industry.

If this whole deal goes to shit then he might start making cell phone or handheald games. He never said he planned to do so, but he has admired the way they are developed, wich is basicly how games were made in the 16 bit days.
An Earthworm Jim cellphone title would be awesome! You reading this, Mr. Perry?

[mister_slim]

The next couple years will be filled with similar news. We're about to see a serious industry shakeout, I think.

[Beelzebud]

Shiney has always been all hat, no cattle.

Remember Messiah?

Hyped to oblivion. Daikatana was at least successful, in that it made people talk about why it sucked. Messiah was released and forgotten about with little fan-fare.

Can't blame Atari for them sucking. They seemed to have had that down way before Atari got ahold of them.

[Abash Alarmist]

Shiney has always been all hat, no cattle.

Remember Messiah?

Hyped to oblivion. Daikatana was at least successful, in that it made people talk about why it sucked. Messiah was released and forgotten about with little fan-fare.

Can't blame Atari for them sucking. They seemed to have had that down way before Atari got ahold of them.

Remember Sacrifice?

[Taco]

The last good game Shiny made was EW Jim on the SNES. And I hate the internet(yeah all you you) for convincing me to by the hunk of crap that was MDK2.

[hooby3D]

Have you played Messiah or Sacrifice? They are two seriously awesome games. Go look at Shiny's track record at their website or here: http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/shiny-entertainment-inc/offset,0/so,1a/list-games/
They were on to some really cool concepts before the Matrix games came out.

[Abash Alarmist]

Messiah was horrible
Sacrifice was the shit.

[Taco]

Played them both. Messiah was a highly hyped good idea that was trash. Sacrifice, much like MDK2, is an overrated boring game.

[GrinR]

Have you played Messiah or Sacrifice? They are two seriously awesome games. Go look at Shiny's track record at their website or here: http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/shiny-entertainment-inc/offset,0/so,1a/list-games/
They were on to some really cool concepts before the Matrix games came out.

Awesome how bad they were, yes.

[earthworm48]

NB: MDK = Shiny, MDK2 = Bioware.

I didn't mind MDK2 so much, Sacrifice was pretty bleh for me, my younger brother loved it, Messiah was rather terrible.

[jeffool]

Bah, I don't care what the hell his trackrecord is. According the Jason Rubin, Dave Perry is the guy who gave him the right idea of how game developers should act (be a face for their games,) and on that alone I'll support him until he I have a reason to no longer trust the guy. Now, only if he'd make better games...

[EternalGamer]

Shiny is an example of one of the many talented 2D companies that couldn't transfer their success over to the 3D realm. I don't really blame them as much as I do the incredibly limited genres that took over the marketplace. So Shiny wasn't so great at making FPS, big deal. EWJ and Wild 9's were both great games.

On the subject of EWJ, I beleive the original creator was Doug TenNapel who, last I heard, was busying being an incredibly arrogant and sexist asshole (http://www.samandfuzzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1496).

[Taco]

Fanmail! From a Canadian Chick
Sunday, November 13 2005

"Your comment about women was extremely sexist and not in the least bit relevant. I have to say that any arguments you have made have been cheapened due to your ignorant chauvanist attitude. I have no respect for people who feel the need to show disrespect to women in order to try and prove a point."
I can see why you say this given your judgment is entirely enslaved by your hormones. Try not to cry too much while you type your responses. I wasn't talking to the women anyways, I was talking to the men. I know better than to discuss logic or politics with the ladies. Let me know if you have any recipes you want to swap because I'm a mean cook in the kitchen and I have some excellent tips on raising children.

P.S. when you leave your job to have some babies, encourage your husband to just stay in the waiting room. We can't really do anything in the birthing room and you only want us to help you with breathing exercises so you can curse at us and tell us to shut up. When the horror sets in that you will never find greater satisfaction in life than being a mother, please pass on the message to your fellow working girls because they're taking our jobs and they bogart all the good parking spots.

P.P.S. I'm sure you're not paying attention because it's hard to read this and watch Oprah at the same time, but next time try to see past my gruff exterior and read the content of my posts.

P.P.P.S. HOME AND GARDEN NETWORK IS RE-DESIGNING THIS GUY'S BATHROOM! Quick! TURN THE CHANNEL!

Doug TenNapel

Only cause that's funny stuff(not in a "I agree" way) :).

[EternalGamer]

It does appear that, bastard or not, the guy IS actually working on a new EWJ game (http://tennapel.nomoretangerines.com/viewtopic.php?t=3981) for the PSP, which is now looking for a new publisher since they were kicked to the curb by Atari.

Dan

[Redline]

Messiah was ok. Sacrifice was awesome. MDK kicked major ass too. Earthworm Jim was not too bad either.

[Royal Fool]

On the subject of EWJ, I beleive the original creator was Doug TenNapel (sp?) who, last I heard was when busying being an incredibly arrogant and sexist asshole (http://www.samandfuzzy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1496).

Wow. I had already read some of the stuff on his site a few months back, so I knew he was an opinionated asshole... but yikes. That stuff is just... vile.

[Bushido]

That shit he said is wack./

[Evil Avatar]

Remember Sacrifice?

Yes. And just like Messiah, it was an awesome idea that was totally hampered by the shit game engine that Shiny developed in-house.

Someone seriously needs to remake both titles using good game engines.

[ElPresidente]

Remember Sacrifice?

Thank you... I was pretty much about to respond with the exact same comment.

No matter what you think of Shiny's games all up their entire history can be justified with this one title. Still one of the greatest RTS games of all time.

Yes. And just like Messiah, it was an awesome idea that was totally hampered by the shit game engine that Shiny developed in-house.

:eek:

Shit engine? Were you playing the same game as me? Sacrifice was lauded for its graphics upon release and was certainly one of the best looking games around at the time.

The engine had zero impact on gameplay - it was detailed, ran smoothly and didn't hamper player control - so I'm really at a loss as to why you would say the game engine was shit.

[EGO]

Shiny has consistently made overrated "okay" games and yet Atari somehow messed them up? Are you people smoking crack? DP brought Matrix to Atari and used it as a bargining chip to milk more money out of them, not Atari forcing Shiny to dump their IPs.

Also, how much sense does it make to be the "fan favorite" with games like Sacrafice and MDK versus "straight up rich" with a franchise like Matrix? Anyone that thinks that Atari shoved all the $$$ from Matrix down Perry's 745-driving ass is an idiot! :p

[ElPresidente]

Don't get me wrong, I don't see Shiny as a great developer sitting alongside companies like Pre-EA Origin and Looking Glass... but much like Starship Troopers allows me to forgive Paul Verhoven for Showgirls... Sacrifice allows me to forgive Shiny for... well most of the other stuff bar the early Earthworm Jims.