My thoughts on Unreal II...

I look at it this way, Legend is contracted by Epic to do the job of making Unreal II. Who knows how much they were contracted for, but it couldn't have been enough money to make up for how long they spent working on the product, obviously it was suppose to make Christmas. This spilt in the product was the only plan they "the producers/epic/legend" could come up with to have the much needed 3rd quarter revenue. Legend for pure survival reasons needs to move on, so they can start making real money again, not just enough to survive this horribly long hall. They want to do a good job, they did. I am sure the best they could, and now they must move on. Simple.

Infograms is in financial trouble, and has been for a few years this also not news. The only part of Infograms that is making money for them is the Unreal franchise. EA, Rockstar, Activision, and even sad little THQ are making a ton more money and product. Infograms have no console business, this is 95% of industries revenue the other 4% is the SIMS, 1% left for the rest of the PC products. Maybe my math is off a bit, but it not far off.

Infograms/Atari have also been late in paying bills, royalties, and generally mismanaged their products into a sad state. Epic knows this, they would rather be the shinning example of success in a smaller pond than just loose change on table of an EA or Microsoft. This puts them in a position of power, and I respect them taking advantage of creating a franchise that is in demand enough that they can get away with this way of thinking. The only other team is id software. Activison has a team of monkey’s working round the clock kissing everyone at id’s ass, and rightly so. They are Good money makers, and set a standard in technology that none have matched consistently.

Don't feel sorry for Infograms, they are short sighted, greedy, and not generally good decision makers. I predict Epic's properties will go to one of the larger more stable publishers Microsoft, and or EA very soon. Everything that everyone here is complaining about is a symptom of an under powered, under funded, under managed publishing house who is trying to compete in the modern sales war, and losing.

Many things could have been done to prevent this from happening, but they didn't do them. I am sure if the sales of the product are hurt by this lack of support Epic will move their great products to someone who can sell, market, and promote them properly.

Mr. Vexar has left the building under the cover of an Oakland Raiders banner and is moving to downtown Oak town, he is drawn to the warmth of the burning tires, and the friendly faces who reside there.

And as Yoda likes to say "These flame wars have just begun!"