Amiga Flame - News - Vulcan Software Hits Out At Pirates And Amiga International (Page 2)

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Vulcan Software Hits Out At Pirates And Amiga International (Page 2)
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MIRACLE

Would you believe it! We couldnt! Just as everything was about to hit the fan, in March 97 the Amiga found an owner, not just any owner but an owner with money, namely Gateway 2000.

Immediately Vulcan planned for the future! Our dreams that held us tight were going to happen, our hopes raised at the prospect of new Amigas being made, perhaps a complete unit ready to buy that will be marketed, distributed all over the world and available to users in the high street shops at a price that would compete with current PC`s and with technology to match.

Vulcans plans for the rest of 1997 was to make Amiga titles for higher specifications, we chose to go CDRom only with all future titles knowing that we could catch up with PC competition, we started catering from other language support to ensure world wide penetration, we invested heavily in our company and started to live again, we signed up more development teams, we started on higher specification development strategies catering for graphics cards and sound cards.

Throughout the rest of 97 we published Strangers, Uropa2 and Finally Odyssey which were all re-vamped and turned into Multi language Amiga CDRom titles.

Hellpigs the Multi-CDRom adventure was going to be awesome, Wasted Dreams was looking incredible, Hard Target the virtua cop clone is looking fantastic, Genetic Species is absolutely outstanding, Breed2000 was being revamped, Valhalla IIII was re-written to cater for full actor speech, 3D Games creator was re-designed to cater for Graphics cards, JetPilot expansion was initiated, Desolate was signed, overall 1997 was looking great with renewed hope, Phase 5 with PPC boards, Vulcan signing the World Foundry with PPC projects like Explorer and Maim & Mangle, investing in development hardware, PPC boards, Graphics Cards, faster processors, going to Cologne and meeting the new owners of the Amiga, new contacts, new possibilities, everyone I spoke to was excited, magazines were happy, developers were happy, publishers were happy, I was ecstatic at Sadeness starting in the games market, finally some good competition, I helped AliveMedia start up their games publishing company and finally felt like the market was coming together, I was encouraged by Aurora works entering the publishing market from across the water, Amiga shows began popping up, Ohio, Italy, Germany Belgium, what a brilliant beginning to the rest of 1997 indeed!

...but all the while....software sales were falling, companies were closing, projects were being cancelled......

Forget it! because Amiga speeches were being made, hope was back with vengeance, everyone I spoke to was on a high, other developers stated CDRom only titles, more projects were being developed for graphics cards, high CPUs and now PPC specific......we saw the potential in the platform, we opened up Vulcan America to supply our titles to America and Canada, our expanding development and publishing responsibilities became more demanding so we transferred our Mail order operations to Weird Science Limited and we transferred our Distribution company to GTI in Germany so we could spend more energy in our development dream, we established a development network of support and help for all our new Amiga development teams, we concentrated on bigger and better Amiga CDRom productions, we were on the road to glory! Nothing could alter our destiny, nothing can stop the Amiga being reborn!

.....this is where we were wrong.....

2 things, just 2 little things kicked us where it hurts....................

.....one thing is something we RELIED on, and the other is something we ASSUMED.

SOMETHING WE RELIED ON

The Amiga has something unique, a community, many individuals and companies who believe in the Amiga and its future with many users around the world. All sounds great but lets analyse it in detail to get a complete picture of what the Amiga community is made up from and what makes it work commercially.

Youve got Amiga magazines all around the world who love doing what they do, putting so much of their lives into their jobs and all need advertising revenue and Amiga users buying their magazines to continue.

Youve got Amiga web promoters who, review Amiga software and hardware and offer excellent Amiga support to users around the world with information and news, they do this because they love doing it and many are non-profit orientated.

Youve got hardware development companies like Index and Phase5 who are trying to push the Amigas hardware forward, realising there is a commercial gap to be filled and doing what they do out of inspiration, they depend totally on the Amiga users buying their hardware.

Youve got shops and mail order companies around the world who sell hardware and peripherals who advertise in magazines who all rely on Amiga user upgrading their hardware.

Youve got shops and mail order companies selling software around the world who advertise in magazines who all rely on Publishers publishing and Amiga users purchasing new software.

Youve got dedicated Amiga distribution companies who exist in the minority market who all rely on the Amiga retailers purchasing the Software.

Youve got thousands of talented artists, musicians, coders, developers and teams who invest their time, money and lives to create software on their prized platform because its in their blood who all rely on the Amiga Publishers Publishing their creations.

Youve got Amiga publishers who publish Amiga products, invest their time, money and lives into producing and marketing Amiga titles and making them available in the market place to retailers and distributors who rely on the Amiga developers developing and the Amiga users purchasing the software.

The list goes on and on but the moral of the story and the `simplistic flow chart` dictates that every single related Amiga company and active individual in the Amiga commercial market all rely on each other, and all rely ultimately on one thing to make it all possible!

One thing that makes everything else work.
One thing to give it a purpose and a way of making a living.
One thing to ensure magazines keep printing new issues.
One thing to ensure hardware developers continue to progress.
One thing to keep all the retail outlets in business.
One thing to ensure the publishers remain.
One thing to ensure the developers remain.
One thing to keep the Amiga Alive!

And that one thing is the Amiga user Buying the merchandise, whether its magazines, hardware or software.

I cant speak for magazines sales but there are fewer magazines around with extremely low ABCs compared to 94.

I cant speak for Hardware sales but I do know we get so many complaints about supporting CDRoms, Graphic Cards, fast CPUs, Hard Drives and even AGA...and why Genetic Species wont be on floppy for the A500 :)

However I can speak for software sales and sadly this element has decreased ridiculously over the last 4 years from mail order, retail and wholesale all around the world.

They say that hundreds of thousands of Amiga users still use their Amigas, I honestly dont know the number but I do know that Amiga software piracy is rife and with the total Amiga buying user base at its lowest current level, that there is simply no longer enough users left who BUY software to justify the developers and publishers investment.

PIRACY

A quick note about piracy. It does sadden me to see our latest Amiga releases and other recent Amiga titles available on pirated CD`s. It tears me up to think that people are making money from the illegal duplication instead of my developers, my company, my distributors and all the other hard working people in the Amiga industry who deserve that revenue, however I do not blame the pirates or the piracy for the current Amiga situation.

Piracy is rife in any industry whether its, designer jeans, music, video or other computer platforms but because the buying share of these markets is large enough, it can sustain the illegality and still continue.

The Amiga market however cannot sustain the piracy due to its size, an Amiga users who uses pirated software cannot really care about the Amigas future so do not enter into the equation but the Amiga users who truly cares about the Amiga`s future make up the users who BUY.

USERS WHO BUY

The Amiga user who BUYs is the thing we relied on (and many other companies too).

Yes there are allot of you out there who have upgraded your machines, bought your towers, bought your CD drives, bought your Memory and CPU upgrades and bought all the latest software and my hat comes off to you, I understand that you also share the same frustrations as we do and that you have done everything in your power to help keep the Amiga market alive, but unfortunately your numbers are at an all time low right across the scale all around the world. This results in developers, publishers, distributors, retailers and mail order companies all feeling the squeeze and licking their wounds.

SOMETHING WE ASSUMED

From March to December 1997 (10 months) Vulcan prepared for the Amigas future, I know things dont happen overnight but with the Amiga market being at its most critical and at its lowest point ever I knew that if Vulcans dreams and hopes for the Amiga as a commercially successful platform did not materialise in that specific period of time then the Amiga market would never recover.

Perhaps its time to share Vulcans vision, I know from my experience and my logic that the only way the Amiga computer can ever make a commercial comeback (and I enforce the word commercial) and for the Amiga to once again have stupendous and vast software development, once again have millions of buying software users, once again have huge publicity with a plethora of magazines, once again have hundreds of publishers, retail outlets, distributors, once again have continued and advanced 3rd party hardware development, once again be the leading computer in technological advancements and as a result once again be the best home computer used throughout the world, it all comes down to one essential ingredient called...................Money.

Certainly by licensing the Amiga technology and allowing many companies to build components, motherboards, and complete systems allows the Amigas technology to progress but we must ask ourselves a simple question, who is going to buy this upgraded technology? Certainly not the new computer purchaser in the high street, as for one they cant see it in their shops, would be hard pushed to hear about its availability, cannot see the vast software support to the scale of other platforms and certainly would not be turned on by the end price of the components or systems being sold.

So that simply leaves the existing Amiga users and loyal enthusiastic upgraders.

The problem is that this number alone is way too small. This means that re-sellers of systems and components need to rely on mail order and specialised outlets and due to small potential sales it requires higher purchase prices which causes the vicious circle creating fewer upgraders. Not even thinking about the small amount of developers and publishers who would support this new technology due to the small amount of potential software sales.

You see the idea of technological advancement with PPC, Graphics Cards, 3D Chips, better motherboards faster CPUs, towers etc. is all very well and all something I believe the Amiga needs but the current Amiga community or market is already way too small to make any of this worth while.

To me it seems that, the companies and users who really care about the Amigas future and have stuck it out through the worst of times and invested a good number of years of their life into the Amiga and want to build the Amigas future suddenly have the whole responsibility, with all the risk, expense and investment to bring the Amiga back to glory, this is something that will not happen at the current level, no matter how hard Phase5, Index and other hardware companies try, no matter how hard developers push the limits, no matter how hard Publisher promote, no matter how hard the re-sellers sell and no matter how hard the existing users buy, this approach is never going to work due to the size of the existing user base and it will never encourage new users to the platform as there is no cohesion, no distribution, no marketing, no price benefits, no software support and no overall direction for it to become apparent and compete in the world computer industry.

MONEY

The only way the Amiga has a chance of revival in Vulcans opinion is Money!

Money poured into the cream plastic until it spews out the sides, money at the level of Sonys investment into its Playstation.

We are talking a complete base Tower computer system, with High resolution Monitor, keyboard, floppy drive, a 24xSpeed CDRom, 1Gig to 10Gig hard drive, a modem, A graphics card with 4Mb on board, 3D Chipset, 32Mb memory, combined 060 CPU with 200Mhz PPC board, Mpeg decoders, sound card, external speakers, (backward compatible only) AGA chipset, new operating system, pre-installed web broswers, Email applications, word processors, spreadsheet and accountancy software, and bundled games software which has all been invested into and acquired for the purpose and finally the word AMIGA on the outside.

This is not good enough on its own, no far from it, this needs to manufactured in masses by one company or at least co-ordinated by one company, this needs to be sold to distributors and re-sellers all around the world, this item needs to be available to buy in every shop on the planet, this system need to be backed up by world-wide advertising and marketing promotional campaigns in consumer press, magazines, radio and television adverts, it needs to be launched as an awesome computer with an incredible future that is an alternative the current PC platform and finally this system has to be around the user buying price of 400 to enable it to work.

Anything less, anything removed, anything left out and the Amiga has not got a hope in hell of catching up in the ever moving commercial computer market....even the above specs will only work with dedicated software, massive marketing and extremely low price point.

No money will be made by the company who initiates these actions, on the contrary money will be lost as the hardware and software would cost far more than the distribution price, but the money spent now will be creating a future goldmine with greater potential than any one can imagine.

If this `base level` launch was combined with investment in future hardware advancements, investment in software support to allow developers to excel it would give reasons for publishers, magazines and shops to once again think `Amiga` and this dream will become a reality.

Currently the Amiga community has all the people and companies available to make the above system a reality...the thing lacking is the direction and the money.

REFLECT

So to reflect, Vulcans Amiga vision and Vulcans existence in the commercial Amiga market relies on 2 things which are not making themselves apparent. Throughout the last 10 months our Amiga development and Publishing continues whilst the commercial Amiga market gets worse. If Vulcan continues its recent strategy on the same level of waiting for the Amiga market to recover whilst still investing in a decreasing and more diversified market then it would only be a matter of time before Vulcan Software would cease to exist and only the 2 mentioned things can alter that fate for us and others.

As we have invested so much of our lives into the Amiga market, we do not wish or intend to leave it, but rather see it through to its ultimate destiny, as with any good book or film the Amiga market is the similar where you never know whats going to happen next.

The only way Vulcan can remain active in the Amiga market and to support its future to the full is if we can stay financially sound, strong in resource and talents and function as a successful business.

This is why in 1998 Vulcan plan to develop entertainment titles for the PC and Playstation platforms where there is a combined and large active user base. Certainly we are aware that these markets are saturated but these market do have active distribution network with millions of potential customers.

AMIGA TITLE CANCELLATIONS

To enable a smooth transition to other platforms we have invested a great deal in our teams and development operations and as a consequence many Amiga development projects have been cancelled namely, Breed2000 CDRom, 3D Games Creator CDRom, JetPilot expansion CDRom and Valhalla IIII CDRom so the teams and individuals can concentrate on other formats and other projects. This is a decision that didnt come easy for us but one that is vital to our future plans that enable us to support the Amiga.

AMIGA TITLE CONSEQUENTIAL EFFECTS

As a consequence of the last 10 months the development team responsible for Hellpigs the Multi-CD adventure title has halted development of that title and also decided to move onto other business ventures.

AMIGA TITLE PENDING

Currently the Wasted Dreams development team is waiting another few months to see if anything happens in the Amiga market that would indicate a reason to continue with their development plans.

AMIGA TITLE FUTURE RELEASES

Genetic Species CDRom is all ready for a February 98 launch and close behind it we will see Desolate CDRom and Hard Target CDRom closely followed by the Genetic Species World Creator CDRom.

AMIGA DIRECTION

Our future Amiga development is based on extremely high specifications and will take advantage of Graphics Cards, fast CPUs and 060/PPC boards.

We are actively supplying a selection of our developers with PPC boards and along with Explorer 2260 and Maim&Mangle we will see other exciting high specification Amiga titles being developed and published by Vulcan through 1998.

PUBLISHING

We will still operate our Amiga Publishing operations and actively sign new Amiga development teams and individuals. As long as there are developers developing for the Amiga we will always be available as a mainstream commercial publisher.

OVERVIEW

I hope all the above will clarify Vulcans future plans and that it shows that our plans are not carried out in spite or malice but are simply choices that our company is forced to make if we are to continue. Vulcan as with many other Amiga companies have worked extremely hard and you will find no one more loyal to the Amigas future than we `are` and `have been`, but we simply cannot change the Amigas future with all our efforts alone.

2 things are needed if the Amiga is going to survive, 1 thing is in your grasp and the other is the responsibility of the owner of the Amiga.


Vulcan SoftwareVisit their web site at :-






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E-mail - philip @ amigaflame.demon.co.uk

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