Can you tell us about Standing Stone Games?

[Loromir]

Now that we are a solid 2 months into this new venture...could we get some insight on Standing Stone Games, the company?

We all know that Severlin is the Executive Producer...but who exactly is running the company? Who is the owner? Is there a company president/CEO?

Was it a single person who was the investor? A group of employees pooled together resources to by the games? An outside investor?

I saw from Severlin's Linkedin page that Amanda Grow (Is this Tolero?) is a senior manager for SSG. If so, Grats to Tolero.

Anyway you could tell the story of how the SSG thing came about (Behind the scenes stuff). Not looking for confidential details...just curious about the maker of my favorite game.

Inquiring minds....yada yada....

[Coyopa]

It's the same development team as it was when it was "Turbine". The only real difference is they're now called "Standing Stone Games" and they're a separate, independent company. What else do you think there is to know?

[Loromir]

It's the same development team as it was when it was "Turbine". The only real difference is they're now called "Standing Stone Games" and they're a separate, independent company. What else do you think there is to know?

I know its the same development team. But Developers need to focus on Development....game building. Somebody has to run the company. Somebody had to pony up $$$ to buy the games?

Just what I asked in the OP. Who is in management? If Severlin is trying to Executive Produce and run the company at the same time...then he is overworked. You don't think there is behind the scenes management that has noting to do with actual hands on game development? Even if it is just one or two people...there is some sort of administration team.

[Coyopa]

You really think it's one person trying to run the entire company? Clearly, the developers themselves got together and decided to create a separate company in order to purchase DDO and LOTRO from WB/Turbine. Who cares what their manglement structure is? Either they exercised their intelligence and distributed the responsibilities for running the company in an intelligent manner or they didn't. And if they didn't, that'll become apparent in the not-too-distant future. They're not required to explain themselves or how they've structured their company to us. Most likely, some of that information is public knowledge since it'll be on business records filed with the government. Go look that up if you're so keen to micromanage their management decisions.

[Coyopa]

This is relevant: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38928528

Maybe they don't have any one single person in charge?

[Loromir]

...Who cares what their manglement structure is?...

Dude....I care...or I wouldn't have asked the question.


Feel free to ignore this thread if it bothers you this much.

[KoobTheProud]

It would be interesting to know if they're in their own space or sheltering in place in the old one. It would also be interesting to know what intellectual assets they have on hand. Do they have in-house artists, network coders, etc?

Basically it would be interesting info in terms of parsing whether or not we might have a DDO 2 on the way or whether this was just a venture designed to keep DDO active as long as possible.

One of the potential benefits of splitting DDO and LotRO off from Turbine/WBE is that the decision-making is no longer tied to corporate direction given way up the chain - sometimes completely out of sight of the division or group that will be carrying it out. I saw very little chance at a DDO 2 as long as WBE was the guiding force in the company. The first iteration hasn't been profitable enough to justify doing much more than passing the profits up the chain to make the corporate balance sheet look better (or not worse depending on your criteria).

Given that SSG is independent of that superstructure they now have the choice of whether or not to reinvest in the franchise by making a sequel or just milk it for what it's worth. It's a different perspective and it might give us a nice surprise down the road.

[HAL]

If SSG wanted to give details about the company structure they have their website, Facebook, etc. to house that information. I doubt they are going to go into details here if they haven't elsewhere. Its not usually in a company's interest to publish this kind of information. Publicly-held companies are forced to by regulations.

[KoobTheProud]

If SSG wanted to give details about the company structure they have their website, Facebook, etc. to house that information. I doubt they are going to go into details here if they haven't elsewhere. Its not usually in a company's interest to publish this kind of information. Publicly-held companies are forced to by regulations.

In today's environment it can be downright hazardous for the public at large to know who does what and where.

John Smedley was forced out at DBG because he incurred the wrath of hackers over hacks published for Planetside 2. He was very public about breaking the hackers and instead they DDOS'd PS2 for long enough that DBG chose to remove him from his position in a face-saving manner for him and the company. Obviously he was in a troubled position from the start of the DBG acquisition because he was the top guy coming over from SoE and typically those guys don't last too long when there are vested interests in the acquiring company at the same level.

[HAL]

In today's environment it can be downright hazardous for the public at large to know who does what and where.

John Smedley was forced out at DBG because he incurred the wrath of hackers over hacks published for Planetside 2. He was very public about breaking the hackers and instead they DDOS'd PS2 for long enough that DBG chose to remove him from his position in a face-saving manner for him and the company. Obviously he was in a troubled position from the start of the DBG acquisition because he was the top guy coming over from SoE and typically those guys don't last too long when there are vested interests in the acquiring company at the same level.

Nevermind more information for people to criticize. I feel badly for those who present a public face for DDO

[slarden]

You can get limited info from the Delaware website

https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/Ecorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx

You generally can't get as much information from a company incorporated in Delaware compared to most other states. Also, a convoluted ownership structure (intentional or unintentional) will make it exponentially harder to get information.

It's possible that Turbine still has an ownership interest (these type of transactions are often does as installment sales) with the intention of selling 100% to the new owner over time.

[RoberttheBard]

I wouldn't blame them if they withheld all relevant information, considering what happened with Mary Kirby, I think it was, over at BioWare. She expressed an interest in a "skip combat" feature in a story mode for games, and got lots of gamer reaction: death threats, stalked on twitter, etc. Yeah, keeping as far out of the public eye as possible is kinda necessary for game devs, you just never know when you're going to get that "one guy/gal", and have to hide behind another ID.

Actual intent of the OP aside, my first thought when reading the topic title was "It's a trap".