Daikatana

Matt Rycroft
Chris Shaw
Thomas Chamberlain
 What is Daikatana?
● An FPS set in the dystopian future of 2455 A.D. Japan

● Developed by Ion Storm

● Published by Eidos Interactive

● Designed by John Romero

● Released on Windows then ported to Nintendo 64

● Another version was released on Game Boy Colour

● The game was also to be released on the PlayStation but was cancelled
during development
 The developer: Ion Storm (Dallas)
Formed by John Romero November 15 1996 After Romero was fired from id
Software. Formed with Tom Hall (co-founder of id), Jerry O’Flaherty (now
famous for Art Direction in Gears of War), Todd Porter (7th Level).

Known as the ‘Fab Four’.

Based in Dallas, Texas. Romero used his influence to get a fancy office at the
top of a skyscraper. (An indicator of style over substance?)

Publishing deal with Eidos, Romero’s job was to work on the design doc for
Daikatana.

Warren Spector (Ultima & System Shock) formed an Ion Storm branch in Austin
(late 2007)
 John Romero
Renowned as one of the men who defined first person shooters with his work
on Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake

Entered the game industry in the 1980s

Co-founded id Software in 1989 and was fired in 1996.

 What happened and why-
Development
Romero originally scheduled the game to take 7 months to complete. Former
colleague John Carmack (id Software) said this was “patently ludicrous”

Romero’s design was too big, wanted 24 levels and 64 monsters.

Hired inexperienced staff, ‘mod makers’ not experienced programmers.

Being made on Quake engine, then Romero saw Quake II’s engine and was
blown away. He knew Daikatana couldn’t compete with it so he decided to
convert it to the new engine.
 What happened and why-
Development
Licensing meant that they couldn’t use the new engine until after Quake II’s
release, meaning they had to delay the game and scrap 11 months of work.

Romero thought the engine switch would take until March 1998, in fact it took
until January 1999.

Staff become frustrated and started to leave. E3 demo ran at only 12fps even
though the game had cost $25 million so far.

August ‘99, the lead programmer left.

April 14, 2000 the game finally released to highly negative reviews.
 What happened and why- PR
Premature PR (and bad PR) was the instigator of widespread criticism and
ridicule.

The bitch ad gave Romero and the studio a bad image.

The 12fps E3 demo gave the game a very bad reputation
within the press.

John Carmack(id) claimed that “After Romero got rich and

famous, the push to work wasn’t there anymore”.

Romero got a playboy style image, people thought he

didn’t care about the game at all.
 Consequences
Blamed for bringing an end to developer Ion Storm's Dallas office.

Eidos made a massive loss and fired many of the Ion Storm staff including
Romero.

Many people believe that the Daikatana fiasco alone ruined Romero’s career
within the PC gaming world forever.

In February 2005 Eidos closed down all Ion Storm offices.

 Sources
Daikatana on Giant Bomb
http://www.giantbomb.com/john-romeros-daikatana/3030-7747/

John Romero on Giant Bomb

http://www.giantbomb.com/john-romero/3040-2/

The top 7 PR disasters - Games Radar

http://www.gamesradar.com/the-top-7-pr-disasters/?page=5

Time Magazine Article

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101970623-137916,00.ht
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