Delphine Software International

[Tanegashima]

Man, its so strange to me that a company that developed such stellar games as

Out of this World/Another World

Flashback (this and the above were literally ported to every video game system known to man at the time, including home computers...)

Moto Racer 1 & 2 (I loved these games and the graphics...)

Darkstone

Future Wars (Amiga gem...)

Went bankrupt. I mean yeah they had Shaq Fu and the lousy Flashback sequel but two lousy games shouldn't sink a company.

But damn, they made some amazing and revolutionary games. Not to mention that despite Shaq Fu being rather lame...the graphics are still very impressive.

Part of me thinks though that almost all of Delphine's talent was basically Paul Cuisset and Eric Chahi (who also made Heart of Darkness for the Playstation...).

I dunno...they made some crazy, unique games and I sorta miss their style.

Am I wrong? Or was Delphine just riding the wave of Another World and Flashback for over a decade?

[Phantar]

Did they produce or publish ANYTHING in the past 8 years? I distinctly remember Moto Racer 3 and Darkstone, but that was back in 2000/2001 if I'm not mistaken.

Considering this I'm surprised that they're actually still around!

[mick_aka]

Didn't they go bust in 2003?

As fantastic as they had been they only ever seemed to churn out 1 or 2 games every couple of years, and the vast majority of those were not big sellers.

Very sad that they went, but mightier have fallen.

[Tanegashima]

Yes they did, that's my point. I was curious as to why...

[Youngie]

The guys who made Thief for PC (Looking Glass) went out of business too. Sad.

[Scooter]

Making successful games doesn't necessarily mean they knew how to run a business. We don't have any idea how many stillborn projects they might have had which may have cost them lots of money but never brought in any revenue. They also may have all bought gold plated PCs to work on with no grasp that ridiculous spending will come back to bite you on the butt when you are inbetween some of those hits.

I've seen as many companies succeed over time with a steady stream of moderate success as companies that make wildly successful products that tend to go bust. A LOT of failure has to do with ego and greed providing motivations that take things in a negative direction. To use a tired old analogy, even the greatest home run slugger fails to hit it out of the park the vast majority of the time. Failure to plan for those times in which you aren't hitting it out of the park brings things to a grinding halt more often than failure to produce a killer product.

[j_factor]

Adeline Software was a subsidiary of Delphine, so Little Big Adventure (Twinsen's Odyssey) kind of counts as a Delphine game. But Adeline was sold off to Sega, changed their name to No Cliché, made Toy Commander, and were shut down after the cancellation of Agartha. When they sold off Adeline, they lost a lot of staff, and Eric Chahi left the company at around the same time. Moto Racer Advance says on the box that it was developed by Adeline, but it wasn't. Moto Racer Advance was also Delphine's last game. They were working on a GBA sequel to Flashback, and supposedly a ROM of the proto is floating around on the internet (but I have yet to play it myself).

I think people stopped caring about Moto Racer after the second one. Darkstone sold like crap, too.

[Phantar]

Making successful games doesn't necessarily mean they knew how to run a business. We don't have any idea how many stillborn projects they might have had which may have cost them lots of money but never brought in any revenue. They also may have all bought gold plated PCs to work on with no grasp that ridiculous spending will come back to bite you on the butt when you are inbetween some of those hits.

I've seen as many companies succeed over time with a steady stream of moderate success as companies that make wildly successful products that tend to go bust. A LOT of failure has to do with ego and greed providing motivations that take things in a negative direction. To use a tired old analogy, even the greatest home run slugger fails to hit it out of the park the vast majority of the time. Failure to plan for those times in which you aren't hitting it out of the park brings things to a grinding halt more often than failure to produce a killer product.

The entire time I read this I kept hearing "John Romero, Iron Storm - John Romero, Iron Storm..."

Those were the days, when computer game programmers behaved and believed like they were rock stars... and actually believed it...

Although it would be unfair to reduce it to that... Warren Spector for example was way more down-to-earth than that (at least he appeared to be that way) and the games (Thief, Deus Ex) were great - but didn't sell well enough, and the company (Looking Glass) still went under.

Or what about Interplay? In the nineties they had great (and also great-selling) successes with Baldur's Gate (and other d&D-based RPG's) and Fallout? And now? They've also filed for bankruptcs, and two of their most succesful franchises (Neverwinter Nights and Fallout) now belong to different companies...
(btw, does anyone else find it funny that Blizzard started out making games like Rock'n'Roll Racing or Lost Vikings for Interplay, and now Interplay is bankrupt and Blizzard one of the biggest gaming giants there is?)

[Youngie]

John Romero aka the inventor of Daikatana...

nuff said.

On the other hand the creator of the Sims games is made for life...

[NeoVamp]

(btw, does anyone else find it funny that Blizzard started out making games like Rock'n'Roll Racing or Lost Vikings for Interplay, and now Interplay is bankrupt and Blizzard one of the biggest gaming giants there is?)

Rock & Roll Racing MMO!!