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Carmack vs. Romero. Who do you like more?

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Please explain what Romero had to do with Looking Glass's demise.

By the way, here is a good in-depth story on the dream that was Daikatana.
 
I assume you're talking to me - At the time Ion Storm was bleeding Eidos dry, Looking Glass was in a bit of a tight spot because Thief 2 wasn't selling as much as they hoped. IF Edios wasn't busy bailing out Romero's hairy arse, they may've been able to float LGS the cash necessary to continue on, but because Romero's ego needed so much funding, LGS starved to death. (Some apologists for JR try to deny that LGS was his fault, but they're kidding themselves.)

Fortunately, a bunch of the LGS crew landed at Ion Storm-Austin (now called Ion Storm) and Thief 3 is in the works under the oversight of Warren Spector and the GROWN-UPS at his place.
 
That is a shame. If there is any truth to that, I would hate to think that that Looking Glass Studios unwillingly took a dive just to keep Daikatana afloat. Can you imagine having to carry the guilt of helping kill a legendary pc game developer? Tsk tsk.....
 
Romero? Guilt? Bwhahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Check out this Salon.com article about Looking Glass' demise and draw your own conclusions. Some snips:

What happens when one of the most respected computer game creators in the industry releases its latest title to universal acclaim and impressive sales?

Sometimes, in this volatile business, the company closes up shop and lays off all its employees.

That's what happened to Looking Glass Studios, the independent developer renowned for groundbreaking classics such as Ultima Underworld, System Shock and Thief: The Dark Project. On a May day some former employees now call Dark Wednesday, only months after Thief II: The Metal Age debuted on store shelves, vaulting immediately up near the top of bestselling PC game lists, the Massachusetts company abruptly announced its closing, thereby scattering its 60-plus employees into the interactive-entertainment job market.

[snip]

But aesthetic quality that engages the mind does not necessarily coddle the creditor. As Paul Neurath, the company's managing director, puts it, "Looking Glass Studios grew extended on debt, which put it in a vulnerable position. Then we got caught by several surprises in a row, which when combined with an inability to secure a funding partner, sealed our fate."

To make the knife cut even more keenly, just one day before its closing, Eidos Interactive, Looking Glass' parent publisher, finally released Daikatana -- created by Ion Storm, another studio within the Eidos fold. Many game industry observers had wondered if Daikatana's moment would ever come, considering the legendary delays, mutinies and overruns that had stretched its production time to three controversial years.

Eidos spent, by some estimates, nearly $30 million to ensure Daikatana's completion. (Thief II, by contrast, cost an estimated $2.5 million to develop.) But Daikatana's mastermind, John Romero, has now earned some of the most savage reviews a major game designer has received in recent years. For outraged gamers, the confluence of fortune was too infuriating to forgive. Surely a fraction of that capital could have been diverted to save Looking Glass? Via flames and even cartoons, the accusation roared through online gaming boards: John Romero and Eidos killed Looking Glass.

[snip]

Thief II probably will make some money. But System Shock II, LG's well-reviewed, equally sophisticated Christmas 1999 release, will barely break even. Previous PC game failures, like Looking Glass' Terra Nova, and planned projects like Deep Cover, a title scrapped by its co-developer, Irrational Games, and financial backer, Microsoft, added to the company's long-term debt.

At that point, the company's survival seemed pinned to releasing Thief II by March 2000. In contrast to current gamer sentiment, Eidos initially appeared intent on helping Looking Glass survive. During its final months of development, says LeBlanc, "Eidos was writing a check every week to cover our burn rate."

But despite monumental efforts, the studio fell a few weeks behind schedule, and as March 31 approached -- coincidentally, the close of the publisher's fiscal year -- Eidos' generosity came to an end. The company had its own troubles: At $21 per share in December 1999, its stock plummeted to nearly $5 by March 2000. With no other major title ready to ship that quarter, Eidos' pressure focused on Thief II.

As Neurath describes it, "Eidos told us that it was not an option for us to slip ... Despite our pleading for more time, Eidos stood firm on the date, with suggestions of dire consequences if [we] missed by even a day."

Efforts in the Cambridge office were redoubled, accompanied by classic archetypes of the new economy: office floors that become beds, employees who never bathe. In the end, they made their deadline -- though not, in some team members' opinion, without compromises.

"Granted, it's not just an artistic medium, it really is a business," says LeBlanc. "But certainly I think that Thief II was not as good as it should have been." Neurath says the development team "felt as if they should not have been put into the critical position of having to deliver Thief II exactly on schedule because other Eidos titles had slipped months, and in some cases years."

One of Looking Glass' senior developers, speaking anonymously, fumes more pointedly: "We ended up ... spending the company's sanity and morale by throwing together this thing so [Eidos] could have a product in that quarter, when Ion Storm hadn't shipped a product in all that time. While Daikatana was busy not shipping, and while they were writing blank checks to John Romero to do Daikatana ... they told us basically to ship [Thief II] by their fiscal quarter or die."

Still, other members in Looking Glass development dispute any supposed malice in Eidos' ultimatum. "I don't know what Eidos could have or would have done if circumstances were different," Thief II's lead designer Tim Stellmach says. "[Eidos] went out of their way to help us out by expediting the payment of that milestone," Steve Pearsall adds.

The payment came, but even with Thief II selling well, the company wouldn't see its royalties for months. And payroll was still due, debts still unpaid. Some last-minute attempts to secure the company's sale seemed promising, but ultimately fruitless. Including -- after so much effort on its behalf -- a buyout offer to Eidos. "From what I can determine," says Neurath, "the Eidos team in the U.S. championed this opportunity, but they were not able to get senior management in London to approve an acquisition."

Despite several requests, Eidos spokesmen declined any comments on the matter, but Ion Storm's Romero disagreed with the thesis that the fates of the two companies were intertwined, noting that Eidos was the publisher for only one of Looking Glass' games. "Our studio is linked with Eidos on an exclusive, multiproduct deal and they are also a major shareholder," says Romero. "It is impossible to draw direct parallels between the studios."

In any event, Romero adds, Ion Storm's fortunes are now fully golden: "With Daikatana riding high in the charts and Deus Ex about to hit the streets," says Romero, "Ion will have successfully transitioned into a profitable venture and has long ago ceased to be a financial burden on its publisher."

Yeah, Johnny Boy...whatever you say. That's why Warren Spector runs Ion Storm and you got a haircut and aremaking PocketPC and GBA games. Loser.
 
I dunno, I like them both I guess. Carmack is just awesome though. Romero is too but I don't like how he got out of PC games, I don't know anyone who plays handheld games.
 
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