A Fond Farewell (with Invitation)
As some of you who follow us pretty closely may have already surmised, Malfador Machinations has chosen not to publish Space Empires V with Shrapnel Games, opting instead to publish through Strategy First and go after the retail market. Although we regret Aaron Hall’s decision, we respect his motivation and wish him the best of luck at retail with a niche product. We only hope he makes enough changes in his game to allow for a broader audience. All of us here at Shrapnel Games wish him a great deal of success.
We will continue to sell Space Empires IV Gold and Space Empires: Starfury until current inventories are exhausted. We want to thank everyone who has supported Shrapnel Games and Malfador Machinations with their purchases of these excellent games.
We have grown to love the Space Empires IV forum community and want to extend an invitation to these rowdy, crazy, and somewhat warped individuals. We would like you to stay with us, and to that end, we will install a Space Empires V forum for you to populate and enjoy! You are always welcome at Shrapnel Games.
Thanks to all who made Space Empires IV a roaring success.
Its a shame Aaron is leaving. I hope he continues doing well and I still look foreward to SEV, Hopefully he will return to Shrapnel once again. We’ll miss him. I don’t know if Strategy lst will have as good a forum following there for SEV as we have here for SEIV, but only time will tell. I wish him luck on his new endeavor
Comment by mac5732 — 3/8/2005 @ 1:29 pm
I too hope Aaron has a lot of success, and I’m sorry to see the SE series leaving Shrapnel. You guys have been amazing with your support of our forum community and I wish SEV was going to be published here. Alas, it is not to be, but you can be sure we’ll stay around here to enjoy your other products and the wonderful community. My heartfelt thanks Shrapnel, and good luck Aaron.
Comment by Renegade 13 — 3/8/2005 @ 2:01 pm
Wow, I can’t believe that this is happening. I always saw Shrapnel as the only place I would buy Space Empires games from. I am not sure if this is a good thing. One negative thing about opening up to a much broader audience is that the community will be filled with flamers and whiney 12 year olds screaming that there should be a real time gameplay mode.
Also sorry to say this Aaron but I view this move as alittle greedy. I just hope that Aaron continues with his legacy of making good gameplay ahead of snazy graphics. Also Thank You Shrapnel for continueing to support the Space Empires community even though you will no longer directly make a profit from it. This is the perfect example of the kind of great company you are. I think I might go as far to say that this is the darkest day in the history of space empires. Please don’t let SE5 turn into a MOO3, Please!
Comment by Combat Wombat — 3/8/2005 @ 5:26 pm
I don’t know what to say.
Comment by Atrocities — 3/8/2005 @ 5:51 pm
And Malfador further moves away from the community that has stood by them in an effort to line their pockets. Though this isn’t the first time.
Comment by Reich — 3/8/2005 @ 6:26 pm
Well that might be a little harsh. Malfador has continued to support their product for far far longer than most game producers do. Yes, they are moving perhaps a little farther from the loyal community of enthusiastic fans, but they’re still way closer to us than most developers.
I too am shocked.
Comment by Renegade 13 — 3/8/2005 @ 7:27 pm
I agree with Renegade 13. Malfador is a one man operation and has supported his game above and beyond what all other game developers normally do. This move, albeit a painful one, is not a sell out or a betrayal.
Comment by Atrocities — 3/9/2005 @ 3:42 am
bah grow up reich. the game is evolving. and so is the developer.
Comment by tesco — 3/9/2005 @ 10:52 am
How is this going to affect Shrapnel? SEIV is one of their top-sellers, and the sequel surely will be… How is going to evolve now their marketing plan?
Comment by tayete — 3/10/2005 @ 11:51 am
To put it simply-it’s not. This information is new to the public, but it is something we have internally known for about a year now. Although SEIV has been a successful product for Shrapnel, so have many other games. We have several new games on the horizon as well as some exciting new projects. The future is bright for Shrapnel Games.
Comment by Mindi Arnesen — 3/10/2005 @ 12:22 pm