EI Interactive, the current owners of Horizons, who bought the company from Tulga Games, which came from/had roughly the same management as Artifact Entertainment, has been bought by Pixel Magic Entertainment, which not only has roughly the same management as EI Interactive but, according to a WHOIS check, arose forth from Athena’s brow earlier this month (11/9/06).
That makes this the fourth company since launching to operate Horizons, and the fifth management team to work on Horizons since its inception as a wisp of magic fairy dust in David Allen’s eye.
Apparently, the experience dealing with Horizon’s somehow beyond all reason still extant community has given the Pixel Magic Entertainment team experience to…
provide the basic instruction, community support and tools necessary to help amateur game designers refine their abilities, though our online community.
I am making absolutely none of this up. I’m not nearly that creative.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
This is like some sick, twisted MMO version of the old Abbot and Castello “Who’s on first?” routine.
So if Athena sprang forth from the brow of Zeus, and Pixel Magic from Athena, I guess I expect Dawn out any time now…
Time for the reorg boots.
Scott, you’re a savvy MMO insider. Dave Bowman had a very bad relationship with the community, starting right at the launch. After all the lying and ill will he engendered during his time with Horizons, does he have a future in the industry?
WELCOME TO ANOTHER EDITION OF QUESTIONS SCOTT WILL NEVER ANSWER!
Would probably be faster to ask the magic 8 ball
*shakes 8 ball*
Signs point to no
I dunno, he could be dev material at SOE or community rep at Blizzard pretty well.
Just to spite Pop, I’ll answer. I don’t know David Bowman and only am familiar with his associated drama very peripherally. There are many people however who are great at what they do but I would never let near the public, ever. (Some would argue I am one of those people.) So pissing off the community isn’t automatically hot flaming death for your career.
David Bowman hasn’t been associated with Horizons since July 22, 2006, when Tulga (Company number 2) sold Horizons to EII (Company number 3).
EII made some people wish that Bowman was still involved.
I have been following the development of Horizons since Beta; just out of morbid curiosity. The creativity displayed by its owners to keep this MMORPG going never cease to amaze me.
He who probably shouldn’t be named is still making games, so why shouldn’t anyone else?
I think these guys should take a page from the guy who wants to Open Source Ryzom… 3 companies so far couldn’t make Horizons work, so why not let the players have a shot? heh.