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Author Topic: Working Designs Closes Its Doors  (Read 30 times)

KAGE360

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« on: December 13, 2005, 08:26:00 AM »

sad news as they offered us some of the best gaming moments in the good ol' days.  

QUOTE
Working Designs, the publisher of such games as Lunar, Growlanser, Shining Wisdom, and Magic Knight Rayearth, has closed its doors for good. They also designed and developed the Lunar series, in case you forgot. It is a shame to see such a great company go, but it seems to be the trend lately. Check out the post at the working deisgns forum for more info.


http://www.gamersreports.com/news/515/
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Deftech

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2005, 10:21:00 AM »

I remember the name, although I definitely never had any of those games listed. Let them die(working designs), Im sick of the japanese right now. They can take their culture and follow Kutaragi to the depths of....

The good ole days are dead, let them rest in peace (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

and which games of those did you have? I dont recall you having any. They didnt do Dark Saviour did they?

This post has been edited by Deftech: Dec 13 2005, 06:39 PM
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Shinamano

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2005, 10:50:00 AM »

Working Designs was a great company...not only did they have the highest production quality of their games, but the booklets were the highest quality I have ever seen...high gloss full color booklets at the time of the Sega CD. Working Designs was not a Japanese company, they did translate and bring over many Japanese games to the us (many from Game Arts) such as: Silpheed, Vay, Lunar, Popful Mail and Magic Night RayEarth...

If you question the quality I speak of look on eBay for a copy of Lunar The Silver Star...try and get all 7 disk covers or look at it on the Playstation and see the beautiful hardcover manual with developer translation notes...they were a company that truly gave back to its fans and it is a shame to sse them go.

It seems that this is how it goes for the companies that try to do too much for its fans...
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Shinamano

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2005, 11:15:00 AM »

Seems it is true...and I am sad...however it looks like Victor may have things in store for the 360 now..and Def you will be pleased to know that WD did not like dealing with Sony and they inpart led to WD closing its doors...

Copied from the Working Designs messageboard, posted by Victor Ireland:

"First of all, sorry for being incommunicado for such a long time. It's been a busy time, as you'll see.

There's no easy way to say it, so I just will. Working Designs is gone. All the staff has been laid off and the office is closed and has been for some time. Yes, the website is still here, and I am going to do my best to keep it tucked away somewhere on the 'net so it doesn't become an illicit domain. (Of course, some of the haters may be of the mind that it's been illicit all along, heh!).

The most frustrating part of all of this is that I know that our fanbase is still there. Growlanser Generations sold well, but of course not better than it would have sold as two separate titles. We just spent too much time fighting the good fight to even get it out, and other games approved.

Though almost finished and substantially improved from the Japanese release, Goemon is dead for the US, and that was really the final straw. If I can't guarantee that the games I personally choose for us to release in the US can actually get approved and come out, there's no business to be done. There is a possibility that it may be released in Europe (as well as Growlanser Generations), but nothing is finalized yet.

I know many of you will have lots of questions, and there will be some I can answer, and some I can't. Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public. Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it.

I want to thank each and every one of you personally for being a fan, buying the games we released, and telling your friends. You HAVE made a difference, because you bought the crazy things we did. Thanks to YOU, there are deluxe packs, pack-in soundtracks, better packaging, great hint guides, and better localizations in general. We said it a lot, but it really was true. We were nothing without you.

For the future, there are still great opportunities. I have been in touch with a number of other publishers and manufacturers and I will be working with some of the WD staff to do games for other publishers for the time being, but not as Working Designs. One thing that holds a ton of promise is XBOX 360 RPGs, and I've contacted MS about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it - I think you will, too.

Thanks for everything. It's a tough road ahead for games that aren't of the least-common-denominator variety. The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us.

With that, I bid all of us...

...Good night, and Good Luck."
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Shinamano

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2005, 11:40:00 AM »

Sorry to go three in a row, but here is a complete list of games they brought us...
2004 Growlanser: Generations Deluxe Pack PlayStation 2
2001 Silpheed: The Lost Planet PlayStation 2
2001 Arc the Lad Collection PlayStation
2000 Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete PlayStation
2000 Gungriffon Blaze PlayStation 2
2000 Vanguard Bandits PlayStation
2000 RayCrisis: Series Termination PlayStation
1999 Silhouette Mirage PlayStation
1999 Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete PlayStation
1998 Magic Knight Rayearth Saturn
1998 Elemental Gearbolt PlayStation
1997 Alundra PlayStation
1997 Sega Ages Saturn
1996 Dragon Force Saturn
1996 Iron Storm Saturn - this one ROCKED
1995 Shining Wisdom Saturn
1994 Lunar: Eternal Blue Sega CD
1994 Vay Sega CD
1994 Popful Mail Sega CD
1993 Exile: Wicked Phenomenon Turbo CD
1993 Vasteel Turbo CD
1992 Lunar: Silver Star Sega CD
1992 Exile Turbo CD
1991 Cadash TurboGrafx-16
Unknown Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean
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deadpool66

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2005, 12:17:00 PM »

Dragon force rocked hard did you know there putting it out on the ps2?
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georaldc

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2005, 09:20:00 PM »

That's the remake right, under Sega Ages? Man, dragon force had to be one of the coolest games I've played (heck I still have my saturn with dragon force here by my side right now). Also, dragon force 2 should have been translated too. Heard it was a good sequel.

But yeah, back on topic, it sucks that working designs is gone. I really loved all they're releases back in the Saturn days.
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Marrvia

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2005, 03:27:00 PM »

What does that have to do with Xbox 360 though?
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EverestX

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #8 on: December 14, 2005, 03:51:00 PM »

ALbert Odessy: UNKOWN?? WTF... That is the best god damned RPG of all time.  Infact the only RPG I was ever even interested in enough to play all the way through. The game is utterly amazing in a way simialr to the whole Lunar Series.  God bless this compnay and may they rest in piece. They made the Final fantasy series look like maggot filled dog shit.

and By the way it was on Sega saturn.   I beat it 2x  Still own it infact.

Edit:  Oh I think you meant you didn't know what year it came out. neither do I..  But you didn't mention it was on Saturn.. sorry for my rash response.. But dammit I love this game.. I always wanted a second one..  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

 Now I am going to cry..  I was content not knowing what happened to theis company.. then I find out they make games for shit station... nowonder they are a dead company now.

This post has been edited by EverestX: Dec 15 2005, 12:06 AM
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miggidy

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2005, 01:11:00 AM »

Working Designs were just a publisher though.
They never developed any games, however they were one of the few if not the only publisher who had the balls to publish some of Japan's best games over here in America.

But fudge'em for dicking Sega (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)
Ooh, where are they now?
hahaha Ok ok.... That was wrong, I loved most of the games they brought over.
But I just wish they pulled out of Sony's a$$ for once. Oh well, now they're dead.
That's what happens for sticking to one partner (IMG:style_emoticons/default/jester.gif)
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Shinamano

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Working Designs Closes Its Doors
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2005, 01:53:00 PM »

The thing it has to do with the 360 is this...the president of Working Designs Victor Ireland is looking at working with MS:

"One thing that holds a ton of promise is XBOX 360 RPGs, and I've contacted MS about getting what's underway in Japan out in the US and helping to get more done worldwide. We'll see what happens on that front, but please let them know that YOU WANT MORE JRPGs here. There's some amazing stuff coming for the '360 in Japan, and I know I want it - I think you will, too."

And for the Sony haters he is no fan as one of the things that led them to go out of business was Sony's policy about 2D games needing to be compilations...

"I know many of you will have lots of questions, and there will be some I can answer, and some I can't. Sony has made it clear that they do not want the details of their dealings with any publisher made public. Suffice to say that you would buy what we wanted to sell if we could sell it."

and...

"The choices you make with your hardware dollars are more important than ever for the generation that is upon us."

He was one man that was dedicated to giving us quality with everything he did...to bad he picked the wrong company to do business with...hopefully he is in the MS camp for good.
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