Update: Feral got in touch, all is fine. As I suggested it was, it's due to a late filling of accounts. Phoronix has now removed their article and Feral has given permission to quote them on this:
Hello Liam,
Thank you for your email.
Sorry to give a mundane explanation, but this is a non-story. It is simply due to late filing of our accounts, not great, but not terribly unusual.
It’s a shame Michael Larabel didn't contact us before publishing this piece, we would have been happy to set him straight.
Feral is in good health and we look forward to continuing to bring great games to our favourite platforms for many years to come.
Regards,
Timur
Original article:
Feral Interactive, the porting company that has made many games available on Linux (as well as macOS and mobile) may be in a spot of trouble.
Reported first on Phoronix, as found out from the UK's Companies House, they're being given a "First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off" which is not exactly a good sign for any company. What this means, is that they have a few months before they might cease to legally exist. There can be a few reasons for this, like not sending in their accounts or an annual confirmation statement. Looking at Feral, it seems theirs are overdue as they should have been done by 31 December 2019.
This would be really bad for Linux gaming as a whole considering just how many ports they've given us including: Mad Max, Shadow of Mordor, XCOM, XCOM 2, Life is Strange 1 & 2 + Before the Storm, HITMAN, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, numerous Total War titles and they were supposed to also be bringing Total War Saga: TROY to Linux this year too.
However—given how they've only somewhat recently expanded into Nintendo Switch and mobile porting with multiple titles (and they're pretty lucrative platforms), and they only just released Company of Heroes on iPad, something about this seems a little odd. Hopefully it's a case of some missing paperwork that's being prepared late with this notice perhaps being automatic.
We've reached out to Feral Interactive, to see if they can provide a statement.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: JJNovaI'm actually disappointed that they aren't in trouble. If they were in a situation, maybe they would sell their games somewhere other than Steam.
What a ridiculous thing to say!
leillo1975 Feb 27, 2020
BrazilianGamer Feb 27, 2020
Quoting: pete910Quoting: JJNovaI'm actually disappointed that they aren't in trouble. If they were in a situation, maybe they would sell their games somewhere other than Steam.
What a ridiculous thing to say!
WTF? Indeed
Quoting: PhlebiachQuoting: Whitewolfe80wb ... promised Arkham then pulled the plug on feral.
Do we know for sure who pulled the plug? It happened when it was getting review bombed and everyone was using the (brand new!) Steam refunding system. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Feral backed out at that point. Either way, it's disappointing, as it seems the reviews turned quite positive after the initial hatred.
Yes Warner brothers cancelled the port, the statement came out the see time as they said the team that developed the game has already moved on to other projects and there was no further patches expected Jim Sterling did a video on it ages ago.
Quoting: Liam DaweUpdate: Phoronix removed the article, and placed up an apology.
Partly due to the stick he was getting for it too I reckon .
Think he realised his error in eagerness to jump in without clarification so to speak.
It would have come across more sincere if it was published like all the others and not buried 3/4 way down the front page!
Last edited by pete910 on 27 February 2020 at 5:55 pm UTC
Quoting: Liam DaweUpdate: Phoronix removed the article, and placed up an apology.
Feral considered (or took) legal action?
After all this kind of news can seriously affect your business.
I've never seen Phoronix taking down a news and apologizing before.
Quoting: pete910Quoting: JJNovaI'm actually disappointed that they aren't in trouble. If they were in a situation, maybe they would sell their games somewhere other than Steam.
What a ridiculous thing to say!
*shrugs*
They currently aren't making any games for people that prefer their privacy to playing games. Seems weird to think that them distributing on more platforms would be bad for consumers.
Quoting: JJNovaQuoting: pete910Quoting: JJNovaI'm actually disappointed that they aren't in trouble. If they were in a situation, maybe they would sell their games somewhere other than Steam.
What a ridiculous thing to say!
*shrugs*
They currently aren't making any games for people that prefer their privacy to playing games. Seems weird to think that them distributing on more platforms would be bad for consumers.
*face plams*
Regardless of where you want to buy games from is no reason to wish/say such things about any firm/devs ect. You've basically ssaid you want people to lose there jobs just so you can buy "x" game on another store.
As stated by others, 99% of the time it's not ferrals decision to make. Which in turns makes the statement you make even more ridiculous due to your lack of knowledge of porting/licencing games/software/propriety IP.
And please, stop with the BS "Privacy" rhetoric.
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