This stinks, Troika is gone.
Link:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/vampire-the-masqu...s/590958p1.htmlBoyarsky Discusses Troika's Closure (PC)
Company's joint CEO not sure what's next for him, some members of the team.
By John Keefer | Feb. 25, 2005
Troika Games officially closed its doors this week after a tumultuous few months since the release in November of its last game, the Source-engine powered Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. We contacted Leonard Boyarsky, former joint CEO at Troika, to get his take on the closure.
GameSpy: Troika has been around for several years, and had three good titles under its belt. Why do you think you weren't able to secure funding for your next project?
Boyarsky: I'm not sure, you'd have to ask the publishers. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because triple A titles are costing more and more to make, and people are looking for titles that will appeal to a more mainstream audience than ours have traditionally. In plain English, our games just didn't sell enough units.
Bleh @ their games not reaching a mainstream audience.
Arcanum was very good, and Bloodlines is just plain awesome.
GameSpy: Did you have any projects in the works? If so, what will happen to them now?
Boyarsky: We had several projects in various stages of pre production, mostly just documents, though. We did have our own tech demo, as well as another pitch/demo using the HL2 engine, but that was about it. I don't suppose anything will happen with any of our proposals.
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GameSpy: What happens to Bloodlines in terms of support? Were any patches or updates in the works?
Boyarsky: I cannot comment on Bloodlines' support, you'd have to talk to Activision about that. We were not working on any patches or updates - we haven't had a team since mid December.
Wow -- it been that long since they had a team? Wow
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GameSpy: Facing the closing of your studio must have been tough. When did you start to see that as a real possibility?
Boyarsky: I continued to think something would come through until about the middle of January. That was also the time a lot of our former employees gave up waiting and started getting jobs, so it became pretty dismal around that time. Not much fun, to say the least.
GameSpy: How many people were let go? Do you know if any of them have gotten jobs or offers elsewhere yet?
Boyarsky: All of our employees were let go - 32 including us. We laid off the first group in November, and the second in December. I was surprised that it didn't become public knowledge sooner. A lot of our people have taken new jobs, and I'd vouch for any of them - they were all great.
I hope all goes well for 'em.
GameSpy: What's next for you?
Boyarsky: I have absolutely no idea. Any suggestions?
Hopefully land a job w/ somebody to make RPG's, like BethSoft who is working on next Fallout game or Bioware.
