As readers will have noticed, posts have been less frequent in the last few months, for lack of time, decreased motivation and conflicting interests. Although this site was initially conceived as a collaborative project, with several contributors, few voices have risen to join in addressing the technical issues and/or the working conditions within the industry. At this point, given other emerging priorities, I must therefore put this site on hiatus for an indefinite period.

This site has achieved two of its three initial goals: to spread awareness of the working conditions of game developers, and to dispel lies and rumors as it relates to console development. However, getting other game developers to write about their experiences has proven frustratingly difficult.

Despite the multitude of bitter complaints voiced privately in forums or in person, and with few notable exceptions (japanmanship, particleblog, Magical Wasteland, ea_spouse , Alphabet City), most colleagues seem unable or unwilling to speaking-up publicly (albeit anonymously) for themselves. Also, this site has attracted much more interest in insider information and rumors (rumble controllers, memory constraints and so on), than in overtime and management issues, which are closer to my heart.

While I enjoyed writing the first few Sony firmware-related articles (pre-launch, post-launch, 1.60 and 1.80), as the public facts at the time were very muddled, and the constraints do impact consumers in one way or another, most people are still more interested in the little details that will differentiate their preferred console in the console wars than they are interested in the working conditions of game developers.

Thanks to all the readers over the past year, It’s been a very liberating experience being able to share my thoughts on issues I care deeply about. I may well post again occasionally as the mood strikes, and will maintain this space should others want to step in to cover topics of interest to game developers, as they fell comfortable. Just drop me a note at raoul@innerbits.com

Posted by Raoul on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 1:46 pm.