Ion Storm

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Ion Storm LP

logo
legal form Incorporation
founding 1996
resolution 2001 (Dallas)
2005 (Austin)
Seat Dallas , Texas , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
management John Romero , Tom Hall , Jerry O'Flaherty (Founders)
Branch Software development
Website www.ionstorm.com

Ion Storm LP (sometimes spelled ION Storm) was a well -known American game developer based in Dallas , Texas . The company was founded in late 1996 , but it would take years before the first successful game could be launched. Due to several failures and internal disputes, the development studio was closed in 2005 .

Company history

Ion Storm was founded by John Romero and Tom Hall , both former id Software designers and co-founders of the 3D action genre. Then there were Todd Porter (former chief developer at 7th Level ) and Mike Wilson , a former id manager. Well-known game developer Warren Spector was later added to a branch in Austin , Texas .

John Romero, Warren Spector and Mike Wilson at the 2000 E3 Convention

Ion Storm had big plans, her motto was " Design matters ". They didn't want to be influenced by marketing departments and sales in game development. Ion Storm was seen as the coming star in the game sky, many publishers vied for distribution rights. The value of the company was put at around 100 million dollars in early 1997, even though until then, apart from vague information and conceptual images, nothing of the announced top games was to be seen. Eventually Eidos Interactive was able to acquire the rights to the games, but this turned out to be a money grave for Eidos.

Eidos signed an agreement with Ion Storm to distribute the developers' first three plants worldwide, with a firm option to three additional programs, and poured millions of dollars into the development team in the ensuing period. Allegedly Ion Storm received three million dollars each for three projects: the first person shooter Daikatana , the role-playing game Anachronox and Todd Porter's hired doppelganger . With Deus Ex by Warren Spector, a fourth demanding and expensive title was added. Eidos also entered the real estate business and bought a luxurious penthouse on the 54th floor of the Chase Tower , the second tallest skyscraper in Dallas, with a THX cinema and glazed conference rooms.

Ion Storm intended to repay these sums of money from the sales of their games. However, the first game, Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 , completed in 1998 , received scathing reviews and stayed like lead on the shelves. Porter had acquired the half-finished game from developer 7th Level and likely planned to buy the game for a low price, put a few weeks of work into it to get it done, and receive the designated $ 3 million from Eidos in return. But then Porter changed his mind about the game. He stopped work on his then- Doppelganger project and concentrated on Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 , hired many programmers and invested a lot of money in advertising. The game was delayed by more than half a year, but then failed to convince either critics or buyers.

As a result, there were violent internal disputes at Ion Storm Dallas. In December 1997, Wilson resigned and shortly thereafter started a new company, Gathering of Developers . The Dallas Observer newspaper published numerous internal emails from Ion Storm in January 1999 that cast a bizarre light on what was going on behind the scenes at the company.

Six months later, Wilson was able to poach a large part of the developers of the game Daikatana from Ion Storm. The production of the game, which was to become the flagship of the company, stalled considerably. Published internal documents said that at least 2.5 million copies of the game would have had to be sold to cover the cost - a downright utopian number. The development dragged on and the pressure from Eidos and the fans grew. The game, originally announced for the end of 1997, was finally released in 2000, but it failed to meet the extremely high expectations.

In the same year, Warren Spector's Deus Ex , which was developed in Austin from 1998 to 2000 , was released, which became an award-winning hit and was able to at least partially save Ion Storm's tarnished reputation. The Austin office was more streamlined and placed less emphasis on luxury office space. Spector and his development team had been largely separate from internal operations at Ion Storm Dallas and had not been hindered in their work by the disputes there.

In early 2001, Level designer Stevie "Killcreek" Case left the company.

In mid-2001, Eidos Interactive was forced to close its Dallas offices due to extremely poor balance sheets. The role-playing game Anachronox was still released because it was almost finished after a long development period. Upon publication, Romero and Hall left the company in July 2001 and founded Monkeystone Games .

The Austin branch remained open under the direction of Warren Spectors and continued game development. Consideration was given to renaming Ion Storm Austin to reflect the different design philosophies of the Austin and Dallas offices (the name Manifesto was discussed). The following Austin-developed games, Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief 3: Deadly Shadows , received good reviews and sales.

Randy Smith , lead designer at Thief 3 , left the company in April 2004 . Just one day later, Harvey Smith , Deus Ex 2 project manager , also announced his departure. In November, Warren Spector finally left the development studio. However, he should remain with Eidos as an advisor. In February 2005, parent company Eidos finally closed the remaining development studio in Austin.

Games story

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ www.ionstorm.com ( Memento of March 30, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) (until 2005)