Strategy First Dumps GFI : JA3D and JA3 Terminated?

Shagnak · Sep 2, 2006

[ Update ]

Hot on the heels of our <a href="http://www.tacticularcancer.com/content.php?id=22">interview </a> with the developers of Jagged Alliance 3D comes the <a href="http://www.strategyfirst.com/press/DisplayArticle.asp?sLanguageCode=EN&iArticleID=3299" target="_blank" title="news">news</a> that StrategyFirst have dumped GFI as a developer of Jagged Alliance-related games:<blockquote>Software publisher Strategy First, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings, Ltd. (NASDAQ: SSTR) announced today that their Agreements with Game Factory Interactive relative to the development, publishing and distribution of the titles “Jagged Alliance 3” and “Jagged Alliance 3D” have been terminated. Game Factory Interactive will therefore not have any right to publish, distribute, license nor to develop any Jagged Alliance title or derivative products for any platform.</blockquote>Oops.The question now is, what becomes of the work already done? Will GFI slap another label on it and try and sell it as something else?We'll keep you posted.

Atrokkus · Sep 2, 2006

I don't think JA3D is terminated. In fact, Strategy First stated quite the contrary.

I smell something fishy here... Something between the two companies that went wrong.. but it could be the project itself too.

According to your latest interview, GFI were confident enough in making "a separate title in the same universe", and not a successor to JA2, which could pretty much set the scandal off.

Jason · Sep 2, 2006

Will GFI slap another label on it and try and sell it as something else?

Very unlikely. Strategy First hired GFI/MiST land to work on JA3D, so it's a pretty safe bet that SFI owns all the assets created in the development so far. The real question is whether SFI is going to hire another developer to come in and finish what GFI started (using the work GFI did) or start from scratch. Or scrap the project altogether.

Shagnak · Sep 2, 2006

Oh, well it's an even bigger smack-down on GFI than I thought then.
(Should've edited the story, but I guess it's too late now)

Metallix:
I think...
"Strategy First is confident that it will access additional development resources so that the new addition to the Jagged Alliance franchise will not only equal but surpass its predecessors in scope and play value."
...could still include the possibility of a different game in the JA franchise eventuating altogether (as per BA's post above). They didn't come out and directly say "we'll have the resources to finish [the specific product known as JA3D]", as I guess that leaves them without an out. In fact, given that the above statement is in the context of both JA3 and JA3D, it is (deliberately?) unclear as to which they are could be referring to. I guess they will have to assess the state of the game as it stands before knowing for sure what they will do.

Direwolf · Sep 3, 2006

Best news I heard today. Whatever happens to JA3 now is going to be way better than the version that hacks from GFI were making.

Jason · Sep 5, 2006

OK, here's what GFI Russia told me (via email):

GFI verifies the fact of cancellation of the agreement with Strategy First, Inc. for Jagged Alliance titles development.

The project under the working title Jagged Alliance 3D, developed by GFI Russia (former MiST land â€“ South), is going to be released in October, 2006 as expected.

At present the development is going on in a quiet atmosphere and in compliance with the scheme approved earlier. The official title of the game will be announced in the nearest future.

And here's what Strategy First told me:

At the moment the status of JA3D is 'cancelled'. Several possibilities had been offered to GFI but we havenâ€™t received a response yet.
Hope this answers your questions. More information on this will be available soon.

In related news, Richard Therrien (of Strategy First) has been making the forum rounds. Here's what he said at The Bear's Pit.

You guys should not speculate too much.
Just so you know, JA 3 will not be affected by this.

And here's what he said at the SFI Forums.

Actually, we do have a team with experience and talent to complete JA3.
I can't mention who at this time but I have much confidence in them.

Jason · Sep 5, 2006

Richard Therrien had more to say in that Strategy First thread.

JA3 was never meant to be based on Alfa.
JA3D was supposed to use the Alfa engine and I presumed that it was only related to the rendering.

JA3's design has been completed. The base design doc was done by the original team and has been amended/completed.

Many details were left out and some assumptions made by the original team had to be corrected (having to do with wrong assumptions made over how well the game mechanics could translate to a 'free' 3D world. For instance, they had provisions for free character placement and that was going to eat up too much cycles for useless collision tests. Instead, we will retain some form of grid (nod) placement. The strategic layer complexity level too that required dealing with multiple factions instead of the bad/neutral/allies format of the former game, etc.)

Other things had to be dealt with too such as the reinclusion of bodies of water and the inclusion of some vehicles without creating a nightmare for the team.

So, don't expect JA3 to be an underwhelming game, on the contrary.

The new team has proven themselves before and... [must clam up... [Embarrassed] ]

Shagnak · Sep 5, 2006

Hmmm. Maybe my first assumption will turn out correct after all...

GFI will do everything they can to get the game out regardless, under a different name. They are are currently operating under the assumption that they will be.

SFI have said 'JA3D' is cancelled, but have not made up their mind about what should be done with the existing work - "Several possibilities had been offered to GFI but we havenâ€™t received a response yet" indicates to me (combined with the above) that the possiblity of allowing GFI to release it as something else is high.

JA3 is a separate entity, and is what is being referred to in ""Strategy First is confident that it will access additional development resources so that the new addition to the Jagged Alliance franchise will not only equal but surpass its predecessors in scope and play value." Not JA3D.

If GFI do get to release their work (through another publisher), I imagine they'll have to make it even more un-JA-like, and there will be some interesting financial wrangling.

Jason · Sep 5, 2006

Hmmm. Maybe my first assumption will turn out correct after all

Yeah, looks like you're right. I hope it turns out that way because I'd still like to see what GFI Russia has been working on and it's not like there's a glut of turn-based tactical games out now. Taking the JA franchise from NotJA3D will take off some of the pressure and expectations and "you're killing Jagged Alliance" concerns. A lot of the sales, too, but that's how it goes. It would do well in Eastern Europe regardless.

Direwolf · Sep 6, 2006

From the rumours I heard that's been circulating around russian gaming forums - GFI might release the game under the name "African Alliance" and they mentioned that there will be a full strategic map included.

Atrokkus · Sep 6, 2006

I, too, received mail from SFI:

We are not willing at this point to comment on the specifics that led to this decision except to say that JA3D would not have been up to the standards of a Jagged Alliance game unless much additional work was put into it, meaning that the development effort would have had to be extended seriously in time.

Jagged Alliance 3 will not be affected by this move.

Jagged Alliance 3D is considered cancelled for the time being.

Vitaliy Shutov, one of the founders of Mist-land south, has gotten all pissed off about this in his personal web-blog and said that what SFI did was basically a set-up. Furthermore, he was eager to announce his team's determination to continue working on JA3D -- of course, with a different title -- and what's even more interesting, they are going to implement some features that we were blaming them for not including in the original project, like, world map travel, for instance. Interesting, but it could only be inferred from the blog that Shutov actually blames SFI for the abscence of world map. As he put it, "it was cut in order not to intersect with JA3 too much". Same goes for some other features.

He is very caustic about SFI, naturally, and he says that many developers aknowledge SFI's bad reputation in dealing with partners (he illustrates that with mentioning JA2 Wildfire's dev team). He says it was basely of them to announce the contract termination so abruptly, in the weekend night, anticipating a late reply because of that. "Very crafty of them", he says.

Direwolf · Sep 7, 2006

Wait. Let me get this straight. Judging by some of those comments JA3D and JA3 were going to be completely different games?

Slaughter · Sep 7, 2006

JA3D was basically a new 3D version of JA2. JA3 was to be a sequel to JA2 adding new features and so on. That's how I understood it at least...

Frankie · Sep 9, 2006

Why do good games have to go to pot because companies don't know what HELL they are doing.

Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, TES, Jagged Alliance, Heroes of Might and Magic....

The state of PC gaming is sad shape.

Direwolf · Sep 9, 2006

I don't really agree with HoMM and Duke Nukem parts of your post. HoMM 5 is a great game. Duke Nukem 3D was awesome. I don't really remember other Duke Nukem games after that, so what was your point?

Psilon · Sep 9, 2006

After DN3D came Manhattan Project, which was supposed to be decent if not great, Balls of Steel, which basically sucked from what I hear, and a truckload of console ports and expansions/repackagings (Hail to the King, Land of the Babes, Plutonium Pak, etc.). Let's not forget Duke Nukem Forever, the only title which makes the dev cycles of Battlecruiser 3000AD, Neverwinter Nights, and Daikatana look manageable by comparison.

onerobot · Sep 9, 2006

Direwolf said:
Wait. Let me get this straight. Judging by some of those comments JA3D and JA3 were going to be completely different games?

From what I can remember, initially there was only going to be a single sequel, JA3D, which added in a ton of "mainstream friendly" changes like RTwP, a heavier focus on action and all of that. Of course the fan base went beserk, and there were problems with the developer along with a few other things which caused them to splinter another game off from the existing work which became JA3, a turn-based and overall much more faithful sequel.

It's nothing to be sad about, really; it's as if Bethesda started Daggerfall 2 halfway through the development of Oblivion, then one year later cancelled Oblivion altogether. It's just really, really odd, as you have to wonder what compelled them to fork instead of cancel in the first place.

Direwolf · Sep 9, 2006

Psilon said:
After DN3D came Manhattan Project, which was supposed to be decent if not great, Balls of Steel, which basically sucked from what I hear, and a truckload of console ports and expansions/repackagings (Hail to the King, Land of the Babes, Plutonium Pak, etc.). Let's not forget Duke Nukem Forever, the only title which makes the dev cycles of Battlecruiser 3000AD, Neverwinter Nights, and Daikatana look manageable by comparison.

Well my point was, that there is no Duke Nukem Forever. Anyone who was still paying attention to it after about 2000 is a complete idiot.

Slaughter · Sep 9, 2006

onerobot said:
From what I can remember, initially there was only going to be a single sequel, JA3D, which added in a ton of "mainstream friendly" changes like RTwP, a heavier focus on action and all of that. Of course the fan base went beserk, and there were problems with the developer along with a few other things which caused them to splinter another game off from the existing work which became JA3, a turn-based and overall much more faithful sequel.

...

It is true that JA3D was to be RTwP at first, but when we tried it at E3 it was more or less a remake of JA2. Only thing lacking was travelling on the map I think. You can see the hands-on preview here if you like. Since GFI seems determined to publish it under another name, you might see it released after all.

Frankie · Sep 9, 2006

Direwolf said:
I don't really agree with HoMM and Duke Nukem parts of your post. HoMM 5 is a great game. Duke Nukem 3D was awesome. I don't really remember other Duke Nukem games after that, so what was your point?

I'm talking Duke Nukem Forever. They have totally screwed up the series and have left the fans with no interest left because of their stupidity of taken 10+ freaking years to make a damn game.

I don't think we'll ever see Duke Nukem Forever.

As far as Heroes V, I've played the demo some. I dont' know, the demo just didnt' have the same appeal that Heroes III had. I might try it again, but I just think the series went downhill with Heroes IV and I don't think it'll recover.

Shagnak · Sep 10, 2006

Frankie said:
I'm talking Duke Nukem Forever. They have totally screwed up the series and have left the fans with no interest left because of their stupidity of taken 10+ freaking years to make a damn game.

I don't think we'll ever see Duke Nukem Forever.

I keep wondering as well.
The thing is, they had it largely finished a while ago, but it was with an engine around the Quake 2 era, so looked kinda old compared to its FPS peers (might have even been the Q2 engine, can't recall). So then they decided to use some new funky engine (can't remember which, but I'll dig out the PCPP article - I think it was one of the Unreal ones) and they had some new ideas that they just had to implement, and my guess is that when they get near a release stage that that engine will look aged as well. So, then they'll try and convert it to...

Okay, maybe things won't even get that far. It amazes me that the thing hasn't been cancelled.

Direwolf · Sep 10, 2006

I think they killed themselves back in 1998 when they decided to switch engines. They had about 1.5-2 years of development done on Quake 2 engine, but when Unreal came out they saw teh grafiks and thought "OMG!! WTF!!111!! We gonna have that!!". Sure Unreal looked great, and was easily the best game in 1998, but it was buggy as hell and it was from a smal and relatively unknown company. I bet Unreal engine at that stage was not up to scratch either, and I bet Epic provided virtually no support to other developers who were using the engine. They just were not big enough. Some managerial dude at 3D Realms estimated that it will take 2-3 months to switch the engines, in reality it probably was closer to 6-9. By the time they did Half Life and Sin came out, that had ideas that just had to be implemented in DNF and it was all downhill from there. They never recovered from that original engine switch. They had to cancel Prey because of it. So now 3D Realms are bunch of nobodies, while if they released DNF and Prey back in 1998-1999 they could've been bigger than id and Epic combined.

Ryuken · Sep 10, 2006

Hmm, judging by the best trailer ever made (E3 2001 DNF trailer) they were on their way to owning everyone in the bizz in 2001 with a great-looking Unreal-engine based game. After that something occurred (employee exodus is my guess, just like with Prey at the time) which made them start from scratch all over again in 2002-2003.

Don't know what is happening at 3D Realms now but last I heard is that one of the NWN2 graphics programmers will be heading up there so they're still alive and producing other titles is going smooth for them as well, so I am still expecting "something" to come from them.

Jason · Sep 11, 2006

Back to JA, Polish site JA Center has another interview. There's nothing new, except this one comment:

25. Are there any chances to agree with SF?
No.

Ok then.

Jason · Sep 12, 2006

Here's a very illuminating interview at AG.ru with both Vitaly Shutov from GFI and Richard Therrien of Strategy First.

AG: In a recent post (dated 09/03/06) in the "MiST land Diaries" blog, it is mentioned that Strategy First currently owes an undisclosed sum of money to GFI. Quote: "SFI is not going to pay any penalties, they don't like to settle the accounts on the whole and generally speaking, they owe us a lot of moneyâ€¦" Can you comment on that? Who currently owns code, art and other assets of the Jagged Alliance 3D project?

VS: All assets of this project will remain in our possession, since GFI fully founded its development, and Strategy First paid nothing. As for SFI owing us money â€” our legal department is already working on this issue. I cannot disclose any further details.

RT: That is Mr. Shutov's perception of things. The fact is that we do not owe GFI a 'lot' of money. I am not willing to discuss contractual particulars in public so I will leave it at that.

AG: Initially, GFI were supposed to work on Jagged Alliance 3D and Jagged Alliance 3. However, a year ago, the latter was dropped in favor of another Russian developer. We can't help but wonder as to whyâ€¦ Did MiST land have any concrete stuff on JA3 to show to SFI?

VS: The trick is that JA3 and JA3D were developed under the same contract. So, one can't lose the JA3 license and continue working on JA3D. Moreover, SFI informed us about their intention to terminate the agreement only in late August, so we haven't even prepared our response (by the time stipulated in the agreement) when our partners unexpectedly issued the infamous press-release.

Before that, we were officially working on both Jagged Alliance games in full accordance with the agreement. When we found out that JA3 was being developed by another Russian company (and we found out that quickly enough, since we have a good knowledge of our local market), we asked SFI's president a direct question if that was true. His reply was, "I will neither confirm nor deny this".

That is when we began wondering if JA3D would ever be completedâ€¦ at least under that title. At the same time, we stopped working on JA3.

So, to recap: the agreement in question refers to two projects â€” Jagged Alliance 3 and Jagged Alliance 3D. You cannot revoke one license without revoking another.

RT: MiST land never had anything concrete to show us for Jagged Alliance 3. They did mention from time to time that they had ideas for it though but I would then tell them to forget about JA3 and concentrate on 3D since a complete design existed for 3 already.

In any case, I would not have accepted to look at anything in regards to JA3 until I was satisfied with what was going on with 3D.

Furthermore, I had already worked on completing the missing pieces of JA3 and was not willing to negotiate the design and its scope.

There's a lot of interesting tidbits in this interview so check it out. Now.

Strategy First Dumps GFI : JA3D and JA3 Terminated?

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