I called NASCAR's licensing department today and then spoke with Adam
Levesque, one of the lead programmers for NASCAR Racing at Papyrus.
According to Adam, the new deal between NASCAR and Electronic Arts is
NOT exclusive. Adam says that Papyrus still has a very good
relationship with NASCAR. However, NASCAR wanted to involve another
strong company in promoting istelf. Thus, it has allowed EA to
produce another racing title.
Yes, this does mean there will be added competition for Papyrus, but
it will in no way prevent further releases of NASCAR Racing and
related products.
Thank goodness!
Kirn Cromur
> I called NASCAR's licensing department today and then spoke with Adam
> Levesque, one of the lead programmers for NASCAR Racing at Papyrus.
Adam is, in fact, our Executive Producer and General Manager. Our
programmers are mostly too busy to take phone calls.. ;-)
I think you'll find that the expanded competition will result in a much
bigger market for NASCAR and other racing titles. It also means
everyone in the industry is going to have to improve their products. As
a Papyrus employee, that puts pressure on me to do my job better. As a
racing sim fanatic, it makes my mouth water like nobody's business!
--
Papyrus Design Group, Inc.
The views expressed are mine alone and
do not represent Papyrus in any official capacity.
>I think you'll find that the expanded competition will result in a much
>bigger market for NASCAR and other racing titles. It also means
>everyone in the industry is going to have to improve their products.
Great. I hope this could mean a much better Verite version of Nascar 2
that performs as well as ICR2 and includes features like
anti-aliasing.
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Papyrus still is a seperate entity. Their offices are in Somerville, Mass
while Sierra's are in Bellevue, WA. Papy's products have been and will
continue to be their own.
--
http://ebusch.akorn.net
> I think we should quit using "Papyrus" unless you are talking about the
> racing games they produced up to N2; Papyrus won't be making any more
> racing sims; Sierra will, and put Papyrus on the box for sales.
This is unfounded. Sierra is on the West Coast, while the complete
Papyrus operation is located on the East Coast.
God Bless,
Steve
I think we should quit using "Papyrus" unless you are talking about the
racing games they produced up to N2; Papyrus won't be making any more
racing sims; Sierra will, and put Papyrus on the box for sales.
I'm going to wait for the next upcoming team/company to start producing
racing sims. Probably only around the corner anyway. We will have another
great team/company in the future, and the cycle of life will continue
(really good game, great game, a upgrade with #2 on it, then the god
MEGACOMPANY kills it by buying the company).
That's an incorrect assumption. Papyrus still exists -- while we are
technically a development house for Sierra and not a stand-alone
company, the engineering, marketing, licensing, and marketing is all
in-house.
Well, if that's your plan, I wish you luck. You're going to miss out
on some really incredible stuff, though.
--
Papyrus Design Group, Inc.
The views expressed in this message are mine entirely
and do not represent Papyrus or Sierra in any official capacity.
Boy, how you draw your conclusions is beyond me. Sierra bought Papyrus
because we've been successful at creating great racing sims. They want
us to keep doing what we're doing. No one from Sierra has written a
single line of code in our racing sims.
steve
Quoted text (19 lines)
>>I think we should quit using "Papyrus" unless you are talking about the >>racing games they produced up to N2; Papyrus won't be making any more >>racing sims; Sierra will, and put Papyrus on the box for sales. >That's an incorrect assumption. Papyrus still exists -- while we are >technically a development house for Sierra and not a stand-alone >company, the engineering, marketing, licensing, and marketing is all >in-house. >>I'm going to wait for the next upcoming team/company to start producing >>racing sims. Probably only around the corner anyway. We will have another >>great team/company in the future, and the cycle of life will continue >>(really good game, great game, a upgrade with #2 on it, then the god >>MEGACOMPANY kills it by buying the company). >Well, if that's your plan, I wish you luck. You're going to miss out >on some really incredible stuff, though. >-- >Papyrus Design Group, Inc. >The views expressed in this message are mine entirely >and do not represent Papyrus or Sierra in any official capacity.N2 is the best Racing Sim on the market. By not playing it you're only
hurting yourself. I'll race it until someone comes out with a better
sim, which will hopefully prod Papyrus to make an even better sim.
Bottom line is 'the racer' wins!
My only complaint with Papyrus is the length of time it's taken to
implement NROS, but Sean Butcher's e-mail clarified that a bit.
RS
No, Papyrus will continue to make the games, and Sierra will make the
boxes and ship them to the stores. The only code that is written by
"Sierra" is the installer and the SIGS patch mechanism, if Papyrus
ever uses that. Papyrus will continue to write the physics, graphics,
AI, session management, etc... In short, the technical success or
failure of the racing titles will be Papyrus'; Sierra (or CUC
software) does the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution,
but NOT the coding.
As it happens, I just got back from a lapping day in the Skip Barber
2-liter Formula Dodge cars. I went with several Papyrus folks, and no
Sierra folks. That's cause we were there for racing, not installing,
selling, or marketing...
---Jim
That's correct, except Papyrus moved in November 1995 to new offices
in Watertown, MA...
---Jim
