Texas-based TimeGate Studios made a name for itself with the early-2000s real-time strategy series Kohan. Those titles were acclaimed for their fresh take on a relatively stagnant genre, and now the studio hopes to repeat that trick in the multiplayer first-person shooter arena with Section 8.
The PC and Xbox 360 game is influenced by the likes of large-scale shooters like Tribes and the Battlefield series. Like Tribes, its characters are equipped with jetpacks allowing for a high degree of mobility, but with its core conceit of "burn-in spawning" -- the ability for players to drop in (nearly) anywhere on the battlefield when they spawn -- TimeGate hopes to introduce a new level of dynamism and tactics into the genre.
Section 8 includes a single-player campaign, but its multiplayer mode (and its deployables, vehicles, and huge maps) is clearly the main attraction.
Gamasutra sat down with producer Robert Siwiak to discuss the game's conception and spiritual heritage, what TimeGate hopes to bring to the table, the game's unusual server strategy for the console version, and how depth emerged during development.
SegmentNext writes: "Defunct developer TimeGate Studios is currently experiencing interest from numerous bidders on its intellectual property (IP). After its bankruptcy earlier this year, due to lawsuits and other bad press, the studio’s shooters are up for grabs."
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Venturebeat.com: Publishers and developers are like soap-opera characters. One day they’re working together, then the next they’re plotting how to take each other down.
That’s how developer TimeGate, which produced the Xbox Live Arcade first-person shooter Section 8, ended up owing publisher SouthPeak Interactive $7.3 million in damages, as originally reported by Polygon. This comes after the latest court appeal in the long-running case went in favor of SouthPeak.
Awww, this is horrible. This is going to destroy them. Southpeak, this is not cool. You could of just told them to pay your lawyer fees and then just let them be. I know what company I will be boycotting in the future.
"I" will be boycotting in the future?
It's not a boycott if it's only one person.
No offense, but I think people on the gaming scene just use words they don't know :O
No idea why I'm getting (at the moment of this edit, only one...) disagrees...
It's true.
Hey I just googled for the official meaning of boycott including dictionary. Com, Wikipedia amongst others, but it doesnt state anywhere that there needs to be a headcount requirement.
From my reading, it seems like one or a party can boycott whatever they want.
Idk but if there's anything else to it, plz enlighten us.
Both sides are idiots here. TimeGate isn't innocent, they are the ones that originally opened the lawsuit. Their publisher just said "yeah? Well take this" and won.
Honestly I'm normally on the developers side, but it was stupid to do that and greedy. Just say "we are done" and walk away, find someone else to publish. If they want the crappy Section 8 license, let them have it.
Whenever someone says both sides are wrong, it means they don't have the balls to be fair or they just don't know the facts.
To be fair to what? The developer was stupid for opening the lawsuit, and the publisher is stupid for taking it too far.
I would say it takes a lot more balls to say both sides are morons instead of picking a side.
The law is always on the side of the guys with more money.
In this case, the publisher paid more so now the developers have to give up the franchise and go bankrupt. Justice isn't served.
