Ship Simulator

English forum => Ship Simulator 2008 => General discussions => Topic started by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 17:43:28

Title: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 17:43:28
Sad news from Magnum over at SimHQ....

"SimHQ has learned the unfortunate news that Lighthouse Interactive has
become insolvent. We have been told their parent Canadian company has become
insolvent and also their UK distributor has gone bankrupt. At this time, the
future of their two armor sims, "Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942" and "WWII Battle
Tanks: T34 vs. Tiger" is in question."


Hope this has no negative impact on V-Step/SS09.
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Shipaddict on January 19, 2009, 17:47:34
Gee, I hope VSTEP are alright :(
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: IRI5HJ4CK on January 19, 2009, 17:48:11
Oh no!! :'(

Could this possably mean Ship Simulator is over? Could one of the developers/moderators let us know? :'(

Jack :'(
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Carl ov plymouth on January 19, 2009, 17:48:18
omg


NOOooooooooooooooooooooooo

it can't be :(  :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 17:51:33
Such a shame, hope that Nitro can find a new publisher for 'East India Company' as that one also looked like a 'must buy.'
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Captain Darling on January 19, 2009, 17:51:59
This sad news..
Oh no!! :'(

Could this possably mean Ship Simulator is over? Could one of the developers/moderators let us know? :'(
Doubt it, I'm sure VSTEP can find a different distributer/publisher. ;)
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: IRI5HJ4CK on January 19, 2009, 17:56:23
This sad news..Doubt it, I'm sure VSTEP can find a different distributer/publisher. ;)

Its not that, I'm worried that the way the economy is, that V-STEP could be in any possable danger :-[

Jack.
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Agent|Austin on January 19, 2009, 18:24:04
All Light House does is print CD's. Even if we don't get CDs in the US anymore,we still download it. :P

Jack, VSTEP makes $30 for every ship sim, I am sure they are fine. Although they may be taking some cuts. But there other (non ship sim) department is probably doing just fine.
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 19:22:30
The real reason it's sad is that for once in these times of the 'console kid' a publisher took a genuine interest in PC simulation gaming, unlike most major publishers EA etc who avoid sims, and soon the PC, like the plague. Lighthouse brought us Ship Simulator, T34 , Steel Fury & was on the verge of delivering another maritime epic in the shape of East India Company.  
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: TerryRussell on January 19, 2009, 19:24:00
Strange thing is that the Lighthouse Interactive site says nothing about this.

And they released news articles on it earlier today.

Even stranger, I just went to the Simhq site and searched the news releases for today and couldn't find that news report anywhere on it.

Sonarman, can you give me the link to that report, please?
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 19:43:56
Hi Terry,
It's from a post  (http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2651175/So_what_about_the_2_new_armor_.html#Post2651175) on the forum by Magnum the land & armor combat editor, one of SimHqs most frequent posters
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Mad_Fred on January 19, 2009, 19:47:19
Ah.. well that's hardly an official statement, I'd say.  :-\
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 19:56:34
Some more evidence (http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=29051)...
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: TerryRussell on January 19, 2009, 20:24:12
Did the search all the way through both of your links.

The second one links to a site that claims to link to a statement by the CEO of a completely different organisation. But it doesn't. It simply links to more gossip, claiming to have heard it on SimHQ.

The first link goes back to exactly the same source.

They claim that the UK distributor has gone bankrupt. But I checked the Lighthouse Interactive site, which is Dutch and that says nothing.

There is still not a single fact available. We have one vague statement from one person in Florida, who doesn't identify their source. The word "hoax" is starting to loom large...

Give me one link to Lighthouse themselves, or their parent company and I'll be more convinced.

[update]

So far, every one of the reports of this from "all over the net", links back to the same single source on SimHQ (where those posts actually have any links).

Most of the threads don't have any links and seem to be just people making panic-posts.

I have been in touch with an Administrator on another games site and he has been in touch with Lighthouse. Apparently their parent company is having troubles in Canada, but they don't know what effect if any, this will have on the UK or Dutch operations. But he emphasised that even this information is unconfirmed.

However, I am still suspicious of these claims. Lighthouse Interactive's Head Office is in Haarlem, Netherlands. I've been there.

These posts are talking about the "Canadian Parent" and the "UK office". Are we all talking about the same company?
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 21:40:32
The second  post does link to the Kerberos forum, they are the developers of the "Sword of the Stars" series (published by Lighthouse) I'm assuming since it is the official Kerberos forum  that and by the reactions of the others users to his posts that Mecron is indeed CEO of Kerebros. Having said that he may just be going on the posts from the forum users.

As far as I know Lighthouse was bought over by the Toronto based Silverbirch Holdings last year. The UK connection is probably just a distributor perhaps Entertaiment UK? the now defunct media arm of Woolworths which has also caused the downfall of Zavvi.

Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Master Captain on January 19, 2009, 21:50:21
hmm interesting, but like some have said, VSTEP should be fine
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: TerryRussell on January 19, 2009, 22:00:46
I was away, checking.

The Silverbirch Inc web site is now off-line and its shares are no longer quoted. But the Dutch Lighthouse Interactive site is working and they're doing a bit of recruitment.
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: sonarman on January 19, 2009, 22:07:23
Let's keep our fingers crossed for them (and all buy East India Company & SS09) too many companies have already been 'crunched'!
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Drakko on January 20, 2009, 02:39:05
nnnnnnnnnnnnooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :o :'(
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: firestar12 on January 20, 2009, 02:43:45
I wouldn't worry. Vstep are RICH! (And Dutch, the two best things you can be in the world hehe... :P)
Title: Re: Sad News from SimHQ...
Post by: Agent|Austin on January 20, 2009, 03:33:56
Vstep is RICH!

Where did you get this information?