Dovetail Games Bought By Focus Entertainment

I’d like to remind everyone that DTG have not been bought by EA, so no worries there.

 

Horn DLC available for 500 action points per toot.

Scenario requires frequent use of the horn.

Repeat ad nauseam.

 

Back in the day when the Amiga was king we had great software houses like Bullfrog who released Populous, Syndicate and Syndicate Wars. We also had Westwood studios releasing Dune and the Command & Conquer series. EA bought and butchered them all. They'll do the same to Codemasters which they acquired last year. I haven't bought this years F1 game because EA have their grubby lil hands all over the licence again.

Hentis

 

Not to mention Digital Integration (F16 Combat Pilot and Tornado) and the legendary Microprose!

 

Microprose was bought by Spectrum Holobyte in 93, then from Hasbro in 98 and in 2001 from Infogrames, which marked the end of Microprose. Nothing to do with EA. Digital Integration was also never related to EA.

 

I was more referring to great software houses in general. Both were the king of flight simulation, though in their earlier days EA released the Janes titles my favourite being Longbow 2 which brought my Voodoo graphics card to life!

 

Many fond memories of Bullfrog games on PC (mostly Dungeon Keeper and Hi-Octane though), and Westwood (Dune II, C&C). Even early Electronic Arts (I treat them as different to EA) was solid (the original Need For Speed) and the "golden age" of EA Sports (early-mid 00s, so NBA Street 2, SSX Tricky/SSX3, Tiger Woods, FIFA 2002 etc)

 

Imagine where we would of been if EA bought Kuju back in the day, if you remember, EA did publish Rail Simulator....

 

Coming from EA, I'm surprised that the headlight & ditchlight sockets don't have neon lights in them

 

Microprose put out some pretty good stuff, including a terrific RPG set in medieval Germany called Darklands. But hoo boy, talk about a company that embodied the release now/patch later mentality to a fault.

 

Microprose is still going

 

"Light is visible. Next task."

 

It was that weird time in EAs life where they did some interesting things, like the EA UK studio making the PS3 port of Vavles The Orange Box.

 

Ahhhhhh ----- so that's where the new free French route came from. Thanks! I've enjoyed driving it, even though it's 99% passenger-based.

 

Played Darklands a lot myself, but probably the best thing to come out of Microprose was Sid Meier and the juggernaut that was Civilisation (along with the seriously under-rated Colonisation, and who can forget Pirates!). If I had to narrow down my childhood gaming experience to just one developer it would be Lucasarts, but Sid Meier would be an extremely close second.

 

Have loved every version of Civilization.
Waaaaay back in 1992 I had 8 days between my fourth and fifth exams in university. We spent 8 days playing the original Civilization, dawn to dusk. Incredible.

 

I totally forgot Sid Meier and Civilization came out of Microprose. My dad loves the Sim City/Civilization genre, but that kind of micromanagement and trial-and-error strategy game drives me batty.

 

I lost track with the series after about ~IV, CivII and Colonisation were the major ones along with Alpha Centuari (the spiritual successor to CivII that Sid Meier made after he left Microprose)

 

Now with focus games buying DTG do they work with DTG or just buying them.

 

According to what DTG has said, they have been left alone. Quite sad as they could use the help.

 

Standard PR whenever a company is acquired. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes.

 

Probably the acquisition could have forced TSW4 a year early… never know

 

That's possible. Focus may want original content with their logo on it. Hopefully when the next version comes out Focus will perhaps add additional support to improve the game. For the time being for me it's all a wait and see. I'm no longer on a buy, wait, and hope cycle

 

Does seem suspicious that they release a new game earlier than usual after being acquired doesn't it.

 

On the other hand, I suspect TSW4 was probably in the works by the time Focus bought DTG, and considering TSW3 probably had a one-year dev cycle as well I don't think Focus had much to do with TSW4. But I suspect they will be the ones making the decision over whether to release a TSW5 next year.

 

Has Focus Entertainment made any statements as to what direction and focus they will bring the games of DTG?

 

I see what you did there.

 

Maybe next year we'll start seeing some of that Focus hocus pocus.

 

No and I doubt Focus will ever get involved with TSW as people are hoping.

 

Does their office really smell that bad?

 

I mean it is in Chatham...

 

Fantastic riff by the great Jan Akkerman (was used in a Nike commercial a few years ago). Off-topic, but as there is so many false tabs around here's my version which should be correct in case you play the guitar (figure out timings yourself ) Basically the a unison, then 4 minor7/major7s, the Hendrix chord, second round is straight chords instead of 7s.

Code:

  |   (2x)     |
E -x-------------7---8-------------------------------7---8---5---7---7-------------------------------0-
B -x-------------8--10---8---6---8-------------------8--10---7---7---9-------------------------------8-
G -x-------------7---9---9---7---7-------------------9--10---7---8---9-------------------------------7-
D -5h7-7-7-7-7---9--10---9---7---6-----5h7-7-7-7-7---9--10---7---9---9-------5---7-------7--10--12---6-
A -0---0-0-0-0---7---8-----------7-----0---0-0-0-0---7---8---5---9---7---7---3---5-------5---8--10---7-
E -x---------------------8---6-----------------------------------7-------5-----------------------------

Slower album version (yes I am obsessed with that riff - the original version was too long for airplay on US radio stations, so they just played it faster)


Edit: Mistake in the tab opening corrected, happens when you tab from memory

 

Is paul jackson still working for dtg?

 

He and the other remaining co-founder resigned as directors the day the Focus sale was officially announced. Don't know if that means they've left the company entirely, or if one or both have stayed on in an advisory position to help with the assimilation.

 

Jon Rissik is CEO, Jackson has retired. Probably gone fishing

 

And it will depend on TSW4's sales figures so get ready for a ride I would say.

 

Again, they have almost no interaction with Saber's Snowrunner, other than having their name on the loading screen, so I doubt DTG will have any more interaction
For Focus, it's just another asset to their financial structure

 

There must be some really successful companies represented here with all the business experts in the Forum

 

No-one here is claiming to be an 'expert', but when Focus Entertainment have 8 delevopment studios and countless more clients who they publish for, it is hardly realistic to expect that they will take a leading development role in every project under their financial ownership.

They may make small operational directives, but they won't sit down at running meetings and explicitly say TSW needs this/ that/ the other.

I've seen this thread on Farm Sim forums and Mud/Snowrunner before. Nothing changed when they were taken over either.

 

Well there are plenty who seem to know the simulation business better than DTG!

Ever since Rail Simulator circa 2008 I have seen posts predicting RSDL then DTGs demise on various forums, due to the way they "do things", I would love to chat to some of the posters from back then and see if they think their comments have aged well!

 

I got to meet him and shake his hand a few years ago when he played at the theatre I worked at. On a separate occasion, when Focus played there I had to manhandle Thijs van Leer out through the door when he lit a cigarette inside just before going on stage. Later in the gig he spilt a can of Red Bull into his Hammond organ. The Jan Akkerman gig was less eventful.

 

That's correct; they will look at the bottom line and if it doesn't say what they like to see, a new arrangement will be made. Could be bad or good, depending what the original reason for the buyout was.

 

What kind of "cigarette" ?
Great, Jan still shreds like a god, and never ever performs a song the same way twice. I watched a performance of Pietons and Crackers on a german TV show in the early eighties where he built that HocusPocus riff into, its stuck in my head ever since.