Many rumors on the BOX forum for the last month or so about the absence of Jason. Now we know why:
Embedded the vidya for you ;)
My goof. Thanks al-infierno!
I thought the only two constants in life were death and taxes...
Wonder what happened. Hope development continues smoothly and that he lands somewhere nice.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on October 25, 2022, 01:17:54 PM
Wonder what happened. Hope development continues smoothly and that he lands somewhere nice.
He probably finally got fed up with dealing with entitled a-holes.
Well, the Chinese company Tencent bought 1c last November. Box dev 1c-777 is still listed as based in Cyprus on the Box website. I'm wondering if Jason is a victim of the Tencent takeover. Hopefully, politics are also not involved here although I wouldn't rule it out.
Quote from: trek on October 25, 2022, 02:59:19 PM
Well, the Chinese company Tencent bought 1c last November. Box dev 1c-777 is still listed as based in Cyprus on the Box website. I'm wondering if Jason is a victim of the Tencent takeover. Hopefully, politics are also not involved here although I wouldn't rule it out.
That's annoying and possibly troubling. I think Tencent own a piece of Paradox too and we've discussed how they have ownership in Epic, as well.
Seems like Tencent owns a slice of everything. Can we be sure they're not the secret overlords of Grogheads? ^-^
Quote from: al_infierno on October 25, 2022, 03:08:36 PM
Seems like Tencent owns a slice of everything. Can we be sure they're not the secret overlords of Grogheads? ^-^
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52454660255_bc7cb36755_z.jpg)
:2funny: Ah crap I mean, hail our Tencent overlords!
^Better.
This comes on the heals of one of the lead Russian devs moving to the west and joining asobo, the team behind MSFS.
I think there's is some stuff at play behind the scenes, but we will have to wait and see. I was really hoping we could get to the pacific before this franchise ended, but who knows, they could just be restructuring for their next move.
I have a stake in the TANKS in il2.
I kinda hope with Jason leaving they focus more on Tanks. Not that I expect anything. He promised to try to get infantry into the tank game as I remember. I am guessing that was probably the whole problem that lead to him moving on.... I wonder what Tencent want from the company, buying the whole lot at once is an interesting move?
I thought il2 was Russian as steam says it's 1C entertainment > 1C game studios which is based in Moscow? I do remember reading a while back they were based in Cyprus though?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1C_Company
Guys, let's stop spreading rumors about 1C having been bought by Tencent, my understand is that these are old fake news.
Tencent hasn't bought 1C, or at least the part 1C Gaming Studios (1CGS) is part of. They went for what the media called "the Polish studio" (a.k.a. "1C Entertainment") in the press releases, basically all EU-related publishing & marketing platforms 1C uses - something 1C did well to part with considering what followed. These assets were rebranded as Fulqrum, certainly due to the fact that they severed their obvious link to the original Russian part of the 1C family tree, and because, well, these days it's better not to be Russian.
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Company:Fulqrum_Publishing
Old 1C remains what it is - old 1C, and it counts 1CGS as a subsidiary. I can understand that truth shall never get in the way of a good story, but we're better than that, aren't we ^-^
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Company:1C_Company
At any rate, I can tell you from what I've heard from others is that you'd rather get yourself bought by Tencent or NetEase on a shopping spree than EA or Activision. At least the Chinese don't buy stuff to close it down and reap the IP, or use it as a money-making zombie punch line, or at least not just yet. I don't doubt they'll learn soon enough #:-)
Cheers
Admiral, you may be right on this and if so I stand corrected. However, I'm not in the habit of spreading "rumors or reading fake news." My source is GamesIndustryBiz.com and several others. They all have one thing in common: That Tencent purchased the Polish Developer 1C Entertainment. They also state that there will be a rebranding of the name. I can only go by the validity of multiple sources as a bellwether of the truth. At any rate the whole infrastructure of 1C and it's subsidiaries is hard to pin down as to what is happening. I also understand that Poland has imposed sanctions against the founders of 1C and Kapersky Lab and have also blocked their subsidiaries in the country.
Admiral, I just realized that I contradicted myself in my reply. What I meant to say is that we agree on who was bought by Tencent. The Polish Studio. That was my error in my original post about Tencent buying 1C. I should have said that. I stand corrected. Anyway the part about Poland and the ban on IC is true. I should have my morning coffee before I post here!
No worries Trek, I hold no grudge, but that's the third time Ive come across this story being spread in relation of Jason leaving, and it was taking the shape of a larger joke in here. Kinda pushes my buttons and I am sorry if I made you think I was branding you as some sort of digital con-artist. :hide:
I won't comment further on how 1C (and WG, etc...) deal with the Cyprus-based business aspect of things & all, but seeing people blaming automatically Tencent "because they're Chinese" for Jason leaving has just reached a point of common cheap yellow peril that I don't particularly enjoy - especially considering they're nowhere to be found in the picture.
I'd suppose people would be quite familiar by now with the fact that 1C is historically a Russian-based game empire, and that it would sound strange that everybody mentions that acquisition as that of a "Polish studio". When I had my early epiphany eating a borscht with Oleg Maddox next to people working on Lock-On Modern Air Combat back in the early 2000s on a cold Russian Winter, I don't doubt I would have realized back then that I got lost in the subway and emerged in Warsaw if it had been the case :crazy2: ^-^
You had a borscht with Oleg? Do tell this story please...
It is now a bit blurry in my mind (it's been more than 20 years now after all).
But.
The Man was very nice and had a mustache.
The Borscht was violet. Super violet.
I watched a Fw190 crash down and marveled at the dynamic damage system.
And Misha my Russian language partner really was a nice guy that indulged in my errand even though he didn't have a computer at home, people were nice with me ^^
Quote from: The_Admiral on October 26, 2022, 10:44:38 AM
It is now a bit blurry in my mind (it's been more than 20 years now after all).
But.
The Man was very nice and had a mustache.
The Borscht was violet. Super violet.
I watched a Fw190 crash down and marveled at the dynamic damage system.
And Misha my Russian language partner really was a nice guy that indulged in my errand even though he didn't have a computer at home, people were nice with me ^^
What were the circumstances of the meeting? Were you involved in the development, publishing, testing, etc.?
Nah, I was just a fan (and a writer online as part of a website) who had been following this all since before the deal with Blue Byte, who wanted to taste the goods and he kindly opened the doors. It's not like they had many visitors from the West, and I was very tenacious. Still am ;)
Quote from: The_Admiral on October 26, 2022, 11:10:19 AM
Nah, I was just a fan (and a writer online as part of a website) who had been following this all since before the deal with Blue Byte, who wanted to taste the goods and he kindly opened the doors. It's not like they had many visitors from the West, and I was very tenacious. Still am ;)
Interesting, and so noted.
While we're (not) spreading rumours, does anyone have reliable info on what Jason has moved onto? Someone told me he's going to be involved with the Microprose B17 efforts.
Quote from: Father Ted on October 26, 2022, 01:14:17 PM
While we're (not) spreading rumours, does anyone have reliable info on what Jason has moved onto? Someone told me he's going to be involved with the Microprose B17 efforts.
That would really explain The_Admiral's mysterious appearance in this thread and would also be great news!
(https://media0.giphy.com/media/kKdgdeuO2M08M/200.gif)
(https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ca5072f523958120344e1ae/1560278152881-L6SCBPBC9F7YMP4EJ6EV/Sgt-Schultz2.jpg)
But really though, I know nothing. Just popped up because I am interested in any topic about Jason so that I can tout how nice a person he was with us, allowing us to entertain our own topic on the Il-2 forum, and for this alone he has my eternal gratitude and respect. We gave a very small hand to Il-2, wish we could have done more (came into a bad moment of the person involved) to repay said kindness. As for the rest, he's just said below the video that he'll happily get in touch again by email soon, so we'll see - but then if I were to know something, I am afraid will still know nothing ^-^
^So you're saying its confirmed then!? Jason is now with Microprose!
Remember guys, you heard it here first directly from The_Admiral!
:D
https://stormbirds.blog/2022/02/26/il-2s-publisher-acquired-by-tencent/
"An important clarification. 1C Entertainment is not our 1C Game Studios (1C-777 Ltd.). 1C Entertainment was the Warsaw based entity that owned several other smaller enterprises and titles. The IL-2 Sturmovik franchise is owned by 1C-777 Ltd which is Cyrpus based entity. Nothing has changed in that regard, but this development should be good news for us in the long-term as whenever this happens someone makes money (not me unfortunately) which could potentially end up doing good things for our team. That's all I can say. There are no negatives here.
Jason Williams"
Most companies hide their brand names so you do not know they own the competition, in those case I wish law would make sure that the root parent was noted in any signposting. In this case a brand splits or has a similar name and makes things confusing by not changing their name. Cyprus based entity. But where is their actual headquarters?
It's a known tendency for Russian (and Belarussian) companies (at least in the video game sector) to base their activities off Cyprus, like many European ones would pick, like, Ireland or Luxembourg based on their interests (in the case of the latter for fiscal optimization, but for the former there's the added bonus/necessity of having a base outside of Russia). This is the same with Wargaming, which has been formally a Cyprus-based entity for years now. 1C-777 (1C Game Studios) is incorporated in Nicosia. But in such cases I doubt anybody besides the lawyers cabinet offering the services is based in Cyprus.
It's like incorporating in Delaware or the Virgin Is. In that regard they're not being more scummy than anybody else, it's not like they're selling themselves as a "well-known Cyprus-based game studio" or anything. The website is only in English & Russian, there's no specific mention of the move in the history, and the only reference is the formal office location, that they share with several other entities.
https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE315619
At the end of the day there's reshuffling in the wake of the acquisitions sure - some of these "Polish" activities were based off Cyprus too. As an example, 1C Online was bought by Tencent & was one of the entities renamed into Fulqrum. They are based at the exact same spot.
https://opencorporates.com/companies/cy/HE268076
But just beware of the info you find online, or at least the freshness. For instance the open corporates page is very much updated in regard of the corporate ID itself, but seems to be lagging behind USPTO as for who owns the actual trademarks. If you take the example of the "Il-2 Sturmovik" name, you'll see that it is listed as part of Fulqrum's portfolio as former 1C Online Games LTD, but an actual research will show that it got transferred to 1C-777 at some point (acknowledged & updated online in September 2021 according to the USPTO data), which is what Jason himself says in his post (aka The IL-2 Sturmovik franchise is owned by 1C-777 Ltd). As in any sort of transaction, seems obvious to me that they cleared all these things (and transferred rights) months before before publicly announcing the sale in February, the timing does fit the narrative.
Here for a quick look
https://www.trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/85282768/IL-2-STURMOVIK
Here for the actual dope
https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=85282768&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch
Corporations are fun to research. But again, nothing especially dirty or scummy in there from my understanding, that's just how things are done in 2022 :crazy2:
All I was wondering was where the money trail ended. Because that is the real home of the company in the end and where the decisions are enacted from.
Not easy to discern with facts without "drawing upon an educated guess" in these cases. It's like an old James Bond film where their are "fronts" for things everywhere.
An interview with Jason.
https://stormbirds.blog/2022/12/22/community-qa-catching-up-with-jason-williams/?fbclid=IwAR2N5wBzxDp6DD9dwQ-GVCpMmeJj3Ez7ViShIX-RBajilUmemvppaGgmICE (https://stormbirds.blog/2022/12/22/community-qa-catching-up-with-jason-williams/?fbclid=IwAR2N5wBzxDp6DD9dwQ-GVCpMmeJj3Ez7ViShIX-RBajilUmemvppaGgmICE)
Read it, and it seems some of my fears for the series are confirmed. Not going to be good with Jason not there to steer the ship. Now it's just a bunch of Russian guys in control. Had Jason stayed, we would all be salivating over the plans for il2 pacific or flyable B25. As it stands now, it's crickets chirping from the current il2 devs on the future. Also he confirmed, the Air Marshal feature is dead, which he stated he wouldn't have given up on, hell I'd even buy it as a module just to back the development.
Yeesh, that interview didn't sound good at all.
I have very low hopes for seeing FCII ever reach the vision that Jason had for it.
I really hope that he gets back into the sim world. We need that danged Pacific Air War game he wanted to pull off.