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High Voltage responds to allegations, says most are bogus
The following is a point-by-point response to the state of High Voltage from High Voltage's own Eric Nofsinger...
It’s probably easiest to go point-by-point through their diatribe:
- The company has laid off many people in the past couple years.
[EN] In our 19 year history, High Voltage has been put in the unfortunate position of having to lay people off. During the past two years our last layoff was in May of 2011, where we had to say goodbye to 8 people. Although we aren’t happy about that at all; we certainly aren’t alone. Still, I believe our track record with company stability has got to be one of the best in the industry.
- Many of the employees have been demoted to jobs well below their skill level.
[EN] This is completely false. To my knowledge, no employee has been demoted at HVS in a decade.
- After employees were laid off, one of the studios producers purchased a new sports car.
[EN] Again, super false. Although many of our employees drive nice cars, no one purchased a sports car around the time of the layoff.
- The company has some very good, talented people, but their work suffers under lackluster management.
[EN] We have amazingly talented people that I’m proud to work with every day. I sincerely believe we have a fantastic management team.
-Animales de la Muerte is actually completed, but the studio has no interest in releasing it
[EN] Preposterous. Seriously? What possible motivation would we have to sit on a fully completed game?
- even the employees don't know why this is happening
[EN] I know I was puzzled. =P
- HVS showed off footage of Animales de la Muerte that didn't show any blood or gore, all in the hopes of getting cash for the project
[EN] Animales without blood and gore wouldn’t be Animales. This makes no sense.
- HVS is very upset that Sega shipped a very low amount of Conduit 2 copies to retailers.
[EN] We do wish that Conduit 2 had been carried by more retail outlets but we harbor no ill will towards Sega.
- Conduit 2 features MotionPlus support, but there's no actual programming in the game's engine for it. In other words, it doesn't actually support the device.
[EN] This is 100% false. C’mon, do you really think Nintendo would allow that?
- The studio is likely going to focus purely on licensed kids games with short development cycles of 4-5 months.
[EN] Completely false. While licensed kids games will remain a healthy part of our balanced portfolio, we are working on many kinds of games. And for the record: while our licensed kids games do tend to have shorter developments, they aren’t 4-5 months. We hope to be able to share a lot of what we have cooking with you soon. In the meantime, please pick up the Zone of Enders HD Collection when it releases. It was a lot of work and we’re really proud of how it turned out!
- it's also likely that the company is going to work on iOS games in the near future
[EN] Thank you, great Nostradamus. Actually, we’ve been working on iOS development. Hope to have news on this all soon. =)
So there you go, a very direct and clear response from High Voltage. Now which side of the fence do you sit on?
It’s probably easiest to go point-by-point through their diatribe:
- The company has laid off many people in the past couple years.
[EN] In our 19 year history, High Voltage has been put in the unfortunate position of having to lay people off. During the past two years our last layoff was in May of 2011, where we had to say goodbye to 8 people. Although we aren’t happy about that at all; we certainly aren’t alone. Still, I believe our track record with company stability has got to be one of the best in the industry.
- Many of the employees have been demoted to jobs well below their skill level.
[EN] This is completely false. To my knowledge, no employee has been demoted at HVS in a decade.
- After employees were laid off, one of the studios producers purchased a new sports car.
[EN] Again, super false. Although many of our employees drive nice cars, no one purchased a sports car around the time of the layoff.
- The company has some very good, talented people, but their work suffers under lackluster management.
[EN] We have amazingly talented people that I’m proud to work with every day. I sincerely believe we have a fantastic management team.
-Animales de la Muerte is actually completed, but the studio has no interest in releasing it
[EN] Preposterous. Seriously? What possible motivation would we have to sit on a fully completed game?
- even the employees don't know why this is happening
[EN] I know I was puzzled. =P
- HVS showed off footage of Animales de la Muerte that didn't show any blood or gore, all in the hopes of getting cash for the project
[EN] Animales without blood and gore wouldn’t be Animales. This makes no sense.
- HVS is very upset that Sega shipped a very low amount of Conduit 2 copies to retailers.
[EN] We do wish that Conduit 2 had been carried by more retail outlets but we harbor no ill will towards Sega.
- Conduit 2 features MotionPlus support, but there's no actual programming in the game's engine for it. In other words, it doesn't actually support the device.
[EN] This is 100% false. C’mon, do you really think Nintendo would allow that?
- The studio is likely going to focus purely on licensed kids games with short development cycles of 4-5 months.
[EN] Completely false. While licensed kids games will remain a healthy part of our balanced portfolio, we are working on many kinds of games. And for the record: while our licensed kids games do tend to have shorter developments, they aren’t 4-5 months. We hope to be able to share a lot of what we have cooking with you soon. In the meantime, please pick up the Zone of Enders HD Collection when it releases. It was a lot of work and we’re really proud of how it turned out!
- it's also likely that the company is going to work on iOS games in the near future
[EN] Thank you, great Nostradamus. Actually, we’ve been working on iOS development. Hope to have news on this all soon. =)
So there you go, a very direct and clear response from High Voltage. Now which side of the fence do you sit on?