Interview Matt Chat 188: Joel Billings on the Collapse of SSI

[Crooked Bee]

Tags: Electronic Arts; Joel Billings; Matt Barton; Mindscape; Panzer General; Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Matt Barton offers the final part of his interview with Joel Billings, discussing the company's troubles and eventual collapse:

In the final part of my interview with SSI president Joel Billings, we chat about how his company collapsed despite the success of Panzer General. Joel recounts the troubles he had with Electronic Arts, and why the decision to sell out to Mindscape ultimately proved his undoing.​

Sad stuff.

 

[tindrli]

for some reason i thought that it would be a 10+ mins video.. hell.i even preparead a coffie and shit but.. everything was said in a 30 sec

 

[tindrli]

noup.. hmmmm this is getting weird.. now the video is 26 mins...

 

[Cyberarmy]

How I miss SSI :/ Panzer General and War of The Lance, favorites of my youth...
Another good comapny wasted under Ubisoft...

 

[Tolknaz]

To be fair SSI was dead long before Ubisoft got their claws in its corpse.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I was naive enough back then to think that, they are going to save them and bring to their former glory.
Heh, i was such a positive lad those days :/

 

[Jaesun]

That was pretty good. I didn't know that EA's cancerous tentacles had touched SSI (the partnership program with them).

But he still didn't ask the question about the right's of the old SSI Gold Box Games!

 

[Deuce Traveler]

That partnership program sounded as if it hurt them way more than it helped. I can't help but think that it might be better for game companies to have some cash reserves, keep the ownership of the company private, and build up slowly. But have any game companies succeeded and thrived when taking their time and following such a model? Blizzard or Valve, perhaps? So many others seem to just peak and crash.

 

[Wizfall]

Good interview again.
Fantasy General was my personal favorite and i still think it's one of the best in his category if you can stand the graphics.
Some eastern developers tried to copy FG formula some years ago but the result, while entertaining, was far from being as good.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

That partnership program sounded as if it hurt them way more than it helped. I can't help but think that it might be better for game companies to have some cash reserves, keep the ownership of the company private, and build up slowly. But have any game companies succeeded and thrived when taking their time and following such a model? Blizzard or Valve, perhaps? So many others seem to just peak and crash.

Larian have been carrying out this plan. Original Sin and Dragon Commander are kind of the culmination of it, and are likely to make or break the company

 

[Dorateen]

It seems like this truth is relevant also for software companies:

Only the good die young, but the evil seem to live forever

 

[xilo3z]

"Do you remember that company Microprose?"

Oh Joel...Must not know the target market for these videos