[DaveyJJ]

This just hit the Kotaku RSS feed ... serious grain of salt or ... ??

"Austin-based developer Aspyr, best known for their work porting PC titles like Call of Duty 4 and Sims 2 to the Mac, were hit with layoffs this week, according to sources in the industry.

More than a dozen temporary full time employees were let go from the developer yesterday as well as some regular full time employees, with more layoffs expected. The company has also shut down their internal servers, sources say.

Founded in 1996, the developer has also published ports of Guitar Hero III to the PC and Mac and published 1701 A.D.

Reached for contact this morning, Aspyr declined to comment on the rumor."

PS. My bad for starting a new topic but this seems to move the month-old thread here forward a bit, no?

[bobbob]

GameAgent sales will save them.

[Janichsan]

Well, this would suck.

[devSin]

I think the real question here is if Apple is willing to take Brad back so readily as Aspyr did. My guess: no. :(

[ltcommander.data]

I guess this might explain the lack of announcements of AAA Mac games in development. I guess with this economy thing, they might just hunker down and concentrate on lower cost iPhone and DS games.

If money and lending is a problem for Mac developers and Apple being all flush with lots of cash on hand, maybe they could support the Mac community by opening an Apple Bank.

[dojoboy]

This is a great time to renew, or gain, rights to older, beloved titles. Repackaging them could be less expensive in regards to time and technology.

[Brad Oliver]

devSin, on December 18th 2008, 02:38 PM, said:

I think the real question here is if Apple is willing to take Brad back so readily as Aspyr did. My guess: no.

I think we're putting out a PR tomorrow? At any rate, Glenda, myself and most of the other Mac devs you know and love (and sometimes hate) are not affected. I should probably wait until the PR to open my yapper further, but suffice to say I'm not looking for a new job any time soon, believe it or not.

[dojoboy]

ltcommander.data, on December 18th 2008, 04:30 PM, said:

If money and lending is a problem for Mac developers and Apple being all flush with lots of cash on hand, maybe they could support the Mac community by opening an Apple Bank.

Yes! And, it would offer "frequent gaming" dollars! Or, a person could opt for credit with a select few online stores.

[the Battle Cat]

What with the layoffs I guess today was a bad time to send in my application to be eye candy at Aspyr's front desk. Well, the layoffs and me messing with Brads forum display name.

[DaveyJJ]

the Battle Cat, on December 18th 2008, 08:36 PM, said:

... and me messing with Brads forum display name.

Reported.

[charmin]

dojoboy, on December 18th 2008, 09:48 PM, said:

This is a great time to renew, or gain, rights to older, beloved titles. Repackaging them could be less expensive in regards to time and technology.

Why did nobody think of this before?

[jackdawsson]

ltcommander.data, on December 18th 2008, 09:30 PM, said:

I guess this might explain the lack of announcements of AAA Mac games in development. I guess with this economy thing, they might just hunker down and concentrate on lower cost iPhone and DS games.

If money and lending is a problem for Mac developers and Apple being all flush with lots of cash on hand, maybe they could support the Mac community by opening an Apple Bank.

I fear things may get a lot worse before they get better re AAA Mac games.

Not only would I support Mac game developers now if I were Apple, but I think they should have done a lot more years ago when the economy was bullish - I mean, even giving the likes of Gabe Newell the $1 million up front he supposedly asked for to port "Orange Box" for Mac. I think your "support" idea is a very is a good one, but sadly corporate Apple under the present regime are extremely unlikely to ever support Mac game developers one iota. - Mr Jobs, make me eat my words!

[Janichsan]

jackdawsson, on December 19th 2008, 11:20 AM, said:

... even giving the likes of Gabe Newell the $1 million up front he supposedly asked for to port "Orange Box" for Mac.

I think the million was just for HL2. For the whole Orange Box, he'd probably ask for $5 million. I suppose, he'd buy hamburgers for all that money.

[charmin]

He could get a pretty good gym membership for $5 million.

Edit: Wait, I've missed a trick here:

OH MY GOD IT'S THE END OF MAC GAMING!

[dojoboy]

charmin, on December 19th 2008, 01:52 AM, said:

Why did nobody think of this before?

Not exactly.

Feral is porting those for the first time, where Aspyr considered repackaging games that were already out for the Mac - beloved, but no longer in circulation. Aspyr had actually considered it about a year ago.

[Kaoro]

I hope Aspyr isn't going under. Or switching to a BS casual game for iPhone dev, that may be worse than death!

As cool as it is that some companies are resurrecting old titles for the platform, gaming will never take off if the latest titles aren't brought over as well. Maybe I'm just a dirty graphics smurfette (LOL @ filter) but I have a hard time getting excited for a game that looks like it could run on my ancient HP.

[teflon]

QUIET!!!! EVERYBODY JUST STOP FREAKING OUT!!!!
THIS ISNT THE END OF THE WORLD.... (yet)

AFKABO already said that his job and glenda's job is safe, and the internal porting team is not going to be massively big anyway. Aspyr diversified quite a lot a few years back, with PC publishing, X360 porting and even game developing (though only The Sims) so its more likely these areas which are going to get hit depending on how successful they were.
My guess is that theyll back off from the publishing racket, which is where theyre far more likely to lose money, and stick to porting.

but lets wait for the press release eh?

edit: fixed.

[dojoboy]

teflon, on December 19th 2008, 08:19 AM, said:

I think everyone needs to calm down a bit.

I wouldn't exactly say people here are freaking out. On the other hand, maybe someone should light a fire under your ass! Wait, that'd be a bad idea.

[Brad Oliver]

dojoboy, on December 19th 2008, 06:43 AM, said:

I wouldn't exactly say people here are freaking out. On the other hand, maybe someone should light a fire under your ass! Wait, that'd be a bad idea.

I'm freaking out...

about my new "name". I've asked that tBC's application for eye-candy be "approved". We have a horrifying hazing process for new hires that is both physical and psychological in nature that we've dubbed "bioshock". Wait, isn't that name in use by something else? I can't remember.

[the Battle Cat]

Janichsan, on December 19th 2008, 03:05 AM, said:

I get the distinct impression that this guy is reaching for my sandwich.

Artist Formerly Known As Brad Oliver, on December 19th 2008, 06:09 AM, said:

about my new "name". I've asked that tBC's application for eye-candy be "approved". We have a horrifying hazing process for new hires that is both physical and psychological in nature that we've dubbed "bioshock". Wait, isn't that name in use by something else? I can't remember.

Just promise me that it includes naked spanking games.