Sad News in Gaming as Another Popular Developer Shuts Down

GFB writes: "Cing, the developer of popular titles like Little King's Story, Trace Memory, Monster Rancher, and Hotel Dusk, has sadly filed for bankruptcy due to what has been described as "insurmountable debts that the company will never be able to pay". Needless to say it's sad to start the week with this news."

[TOO PAWNED]

never played any of those games, but that sucks

[Bigpappy]

It use to mean that many people knew of the person; Easily recognizable.

[Hisiru]

Hotel Dusk and Trace Memory/Another Code are very popular among Nintendo fans.

[Dark_Vendetta]

Hotel Dusk was one of the best games I played on the NDS. Damn thats sad :(

[tdrules]

Stupid Nintendo, although it is Cing's fault for making good games on a Wii

[qface64]

i fail to see how this is nintendos fault?

[ViciousBoston]

Nintendo is deluded with shovelware and the amount of good games are under 20

[qface64]

what does that have to do with nintendo?
they aren't the ones making the shovel ware and what does that have to do with the studio closing down

[vgn24]

Hotel Dusk was a dark game for the DS. The world economy is nailing a lot of companies everywhere.

[dgroundwater]

I still need to finish Hotel Dusk :o

Does this mean Last Window won't get released in NA? That would be beyond a tragedy considering how good the first is.

[jack_burt0n]

the nintendo 3rd party effect in action

[Optical_Matrix]

This is so true. The Wii is a system only Nintendo is benefiting from financially. Them, and say big corps like Activision and EA who force shovelware of popular franchises on the system. Great 3rd party games however are not selling.

[Shnazzyone]

1 the shovelware made by crap developers make it hard for consumers to find the quality titles.

2. Noone is doing the advertising they need to in order to make the games succeed. They throw a few ads in a couple low level gaming magazines and hope the internet will spread all the buzz they need. They have to start buying tv time to make it work.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Yer like with Pandemic, GRIN, Factor 5, Free Radical and Core Design right?

[Mahr]

"the nintendo 3rd party effect in action"

Not really. There are plenty of successful 3rd party games on those systems. Cing just made the mistake of not diversifying its efforts.

Just think, if they had made the modicum of effort required to release just *one* title like Carnival Games in addition to all those other games, then they could have paid off that 'insurmountable debt' ten times over.

[jack_burt0n]

@Spoony

I am just saying if you have a developer working solely on your platforms support them publish at a loss, yeah maybe they are sinking the company to right off the debt and are lined up with another startup merger or jobs but when you are printing your own cash like nintendo is go at a loss to push the hell out of these games, 3 million dollars? crazy.

And same could be said why doesn't sony come in and pick it up they need more 1st parties like these.

[Shnazzyone]

They made numerous niche titles that wouldn't have sold well on any platform. At least i suppose they are proud of their work. Also, it's only bankruptcy... that doesn't immediately mean they are shutting down. The purpose of bankruptcy is to negotiate with your creditors and stay in operation.

In my opinion they need to make a few more monster rancher games for ds or wii. That is a very established ip and would probably do well on either system. Hopefully the trial goes well for them.

[SpoonyRedMage]

lol @ people blaming Nintendo, CING's only seen success when collaborating with Nintendo with the original Another Code and Hotel Dusk games. and even more lol @ people blaming the Wii, they only made one Wii game themselves and helped with another and they've made other DS games since then.

The reason they went bankrupt is because of the game Again which got delayed for a year and then absolutely bombed under Tecmo.

[ViciousBoston]

Monster Rancher was a huge success on PS1.

[lizard81288]

text based games are ify for me. which i believe most of them are except KS and i don't like RTS or most rpgs, too long and i don't like level grinding. also advertising wouldn't kill them either. i see more adds for ps360 games than nintendo games. i think even the DS gets more tv adds than wii games...

the recession is taking a tole. i'm not buying many games either, and certain games will come 1st, before others. you have to make people want your product, thats why you are suppose to advertise.

[nephalti]

aww no more mochi and suezo.

[tunaks1]

I really want to see how much hardcorez! PS360 gamers would have bought Little King Story
LTK wouldn't have sold beccause of the following: no blood, no nudity, no interactive sex scenes and its not covered in a tint of grey.

[thief]

LBP sold 3 million so far.

[rezzah]

Never heard of these games, or of this developer =/ hopefully they can get back on their feet asap.

[dkgshiz]

Too bad I guess.

[Miacosa]

maybe if they can manage a port to psn or xbl they may see better sales.

[Ace_Pheonix]

SONOFAB!TCH! Hotel Dusk is the only actual entertaining, good game on the DS, and Last Window looked to really improve on it and continue the story. Figures. Guess at least now I can entertain myself by throwing my DS against a wall a few times.

[wh0am1]

We'll never find Bradly?!!

****!!!!!

[pcz]

I think they were respected, not popular. if they were popular, they wouldn't have gone bust.