Jolt Online ceases trading

[Aphra K]

so the rumours were true..

sad to hear that Jolt has ceased trading..

http://www.joltonline.com/

Aphra.

[Anonymous]

So who owns Zork now?

[Anonymous]

There is more to this story…. i think something new will come out of it.

[Anonymous]

That’s pretty rotten news. Weren’t Jolt Irelands biggest games development (not porting, or localisation or customer support etc.) studio?

[Anonymous]

Terrible news, very sad to see a creative company close. :(

[Anonymous]

Really sad, wonder what happened?

[Aphra K]

So apparently Jolt were going from 1999 and OMAC bought them in 2008 according to gamesindustry.biz.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/omac-industries-acquires-jolt-online-gaming

And yes their description on our website says they had three dev. teams working on different genres…

I don’t think it will be the last of them…

Aphra.

[Anonymous]

Really sad, wonder what happened?[/quote:02c5ea3dc9]

I don’t want to speculate but they were bought by a high street shopping chain that is in serious financial difficulty. The guys in Jolt were doing and awesome job but I’d imagine the pending administration of their owner had a major bearing on the closure.

[Aphra K]

can someone tell me if Gamestop is the same company as Game?

I think they might be different companies…just based on initial web searching.

Aphra.

[Anonymous]

—

[Aphra K]

that is what I thought Thane..

Aphra

[Anonymous]

Ex-Jolt Game Designer here,

I think we were all pretty disapointed when we heard the news but the studio heads all gave us a lot of support and made the process easier for us. Jolt isnt the first games company to go under and unfortunately I don’t think it will be the last, but such is the nature of our industry.

So who owns Zork now?[/quote:27cecb83d6]

Hey dude, activision are the license owners of Zork, Jolt developed Legend of Zork under agreement with Activision.

[Jamie Mc]

Best of luck to everyone who worked there, I worked there before GameStop took over, and the guys there were pretty ambitious.

Goes to show that it’s a pretty ruthless industry we’re all in if you don’t hit the numbers. But… I’d say this has more to do with GameStop’s recent purchase of Kongregate, than anything that happened in Dublin :/

They’d prefer to own the platform (kongregate) than be invested in an individual studio, and with the talent that Jolt got together under the same roof in Stephen’s Green, i hope that we see what happens when a studio in the UK goes under, and three or four new studios emerge from the ashes.

I know that Dave and Kulpreet have recently launched World of the Living Dead (wotld.com) from Omac days, so I’m sure the guys in there now have plenty up their sleeves, and I hope they find employment quick. Maybe this is where EI can step in and take a failure and turn it into a success or two…

Jamie

[Anonymous]

I’ve been out of the loop for a year now but yeah, very sad to see. Jamie’s post pretty much nails it. Unfortunately, acquired companies getting closed down is not uncommon at all. Internal strategies change and these are the sucky consequences :(

*But*, this is usually how new startups are spawned so keep an eye on things. Btw I presume you all saw the RockPaperShotgun love which Kulpreet and Dave got the other day: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/16/google-your-way-out-in-world-of-the-living-dead/

On a more macro level, all games retailers are under huge pressure as they try and transition to a new retail channel (and business model) in some cases. It’s not easy and a great many mistakes will be made on the way.

Dylan

[Aphra K]

how long is it appropriate to wait before we remove Jolt from the company database??

Aphra.

[Jamie Mc]

How about you turn it into a register, and that way we can use it for a timeline of companies?

[Aphra K]

that might be tempting fate…I am hoping this won’t happen too often!

Aphra.

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