So Just Who Is MumboJumbo?

[badman]

If you're like most hardcore gamers, you won't really be familiar with MumboJumbo. You might have played one of their games, but probably can't remember the name of it. So thankfully GamaSutra comes to the rescue here with a rather thorough interview with MumboJumbo's secretary general Mark Cottam, covering pretty much everything there is to know about what the company does and how it operates. Here's a slice:

All right. So that's just on the development side, but as far as publishing, you obviously publish – as far as retail anyway, and perhaps online also – games that were developed outside of MumboJumbo, right?

Mark Cottam: We do. We've branded MumboJumbo as a developer and publisher of "premium casual games." Everything that is either developed internally or being licensed and published into retail falls into the casual game category, and a lot of our content does come form the other developers in the casual games space.

Mark also mentions that MumboJumbo is currently looking to break into the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS markets, which would certainly go along with their multi-platformed reasoning for buying Ritual. And yes, he does roll around in a giant monkey ball, at least in the office. Click here to read the rest.

On a somewhat similar note, we're going to have an interview with the Ritual wonder twins Levelord and Robert Atkins in the next few days, so stay tuned for that.

[DI_MeisterM]

It's about time that Ritual takes their balls and talk to the community what will happen in future...if something will happen at all.

Originally Posted by DI_MeisterM

It's about time that Ritual takes their balls and talk to the community what will happen in future...if something will happen at all.

With an attitude like that I am not surprised that they are not rushing to respond to you. Geez.

[elwing]

well, actualy i really do not like the kind of game devloped by mumbo jumbo... the only thing that could make me change my mind would be creating sin1 on DS, psp or even ngage... lol

[DI_MeisterM]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

With an attitude like that I am not surprised that they are not rushing to respond to you. Geez.

I only think that we long time fans should get an official update about the future of Ritual and their games. Very clever that you post as Unregistered

Who is MumboJumbo? The company that killed Ritual (and Sin) and pissed off the fans. Well, that was easy to answer. I hope some of the hardcore designers form their own company and keep making great games. To the rest as was said in another thread, I hope you guys can stomach the fluff that you'll now have to make. I certainly hope that we don't see the characters from Sin used in one of those dreadful casual games.

[ninken]

I always believe Ritual under-priced SiN EP1. Pricing FPS as cheap Bejeweled is not smart. I also believe most of Steam is under pricing their products, but HL has such a large fan base it don't matter for them. We all seen signs of trouble with eveyone leaving these last few weeks.

I though Mark Dochtermann setup most of Mumbojumbo, but he not Mumbojumbo site. I thought he loved SiN maybe he can save it, if he still a major player.

All I can say is at least Ritual was saved by x-employees, than dieing out, or bought up by a big corporate monsters. If Ritual going to me made into making Non-FPS, then I guess people like me will wish the Ritual Team the best of luck, but my love with FPS so I must go!

Best Wishes guys!

Signing off! -ninken

[Grandpapa]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

With an attitude like that I am not surprised that they are not rushing to respond to you. Geez.

Originally Posted by DI_MeisterM

I only think that we long time fans should get an official update about the future of Ritual and their games. Very clever that you post as Unregistered

I agree with DI_MeisterM (and i'm really not the only one here), talking bs as unregistered is easy, but it only shows that your attitude isn't any better.

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Who is MumboJumbo? The company that killed Ritual (and Sin) and pissed off the fans.

No, they're the company who bought Ritual instead of watching them close up shop, as would've otherwise happened.

[The MiMiC]

No, they're the company who bought Ritual instead of watching them close up shop, as would've otherwise happened.

Uh, what's the difference?
Many (most?) of the longtime Ritual members have left, Mumbojumbo does not do FPS games like Ritual does, and they've pretty much said in a diplomatic, press friendly way they're not going to do another SiN game, or any game of the type Ritual usually does or contributes to.

So again, how is it different from Ritual closing up shop?
At least then the SiN IP would still belong to someone who might eventually have a shot at releasing part 2, and not a company that has already killed it off. And seeing as most mergers result in a lot of firing, I don't think it will end up saving many people's jobs.

[Apprentice]

Originally Posted by ATimson

No, they're the company who bought Ritual instead of watching them close up shop, as would've otherwise happened.

In most cases that's no guarentee that the franchise can/will be saved. Just look at Westwood when they were bought by EA . . .

[Gabbo]

Originally Posted by ATimson

No, they're the company who bought Ritual instead of watching them close up shop, as would've otherwise happened.

Except MJ has pretty much canned Sin and any other project that Ritual would have made on their own. I can only hope a lot of the team form a new studio and pull an Irrational and make a 'spiritual sequel' to SinEp1

I suppose this is in some ways better than hearing that EA had bought them out.

Originally Posted by ATimson

No, they're the company who bought Ritual instead of watching them close up shop, as would've otherwise happened.

You don't really believe that Ritual as company will continue under that name, do you? As I stated before MJ is the company that killed Ritual and the Sin franchise. I understand it's about the bottom line and it's unfortunate that those of us that love Sin and bought into the episodic release idea are getting screwed. At the very least we are owed the multiplayer part of the game that was promised. I would be very surprised (and happy) if MJ backtracked and decided in the near future to do more SIN epi's, but I won't be holding my breath. It'll be interesting to see if Levelord continues on with MJ. He doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would be satisfied with fluff.

MF9000

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You don't really believe that Ritual as company will continue under that name, do you?

No, but I believe that without the MumboJumbo buyout, they wouldn't have continued as a company anyways. At least this way their employees and their IP have a home, instead of being jobless and in legal limboland respectively.

At the very least we are owed the multiplayer part of the game that was promised.

Agreed...

Originally Posted by ATimson

No, but I believe that without the MumboJumbo buyout, they wouldn't have continued as a company anyways. At least this way their employees and their IP have a home, instead of being jobless and in legal limboland respectively.


Agreed...

I too am glad they still have employment, but I don't think they would have had any problems getting jobs with their talent. As far as the IP is concerned it appears to be dead since Sin and the other action games don't seem to interest MJ. So IP is irrelevent other than being an asset that can be sold off and thus no longer in the hands of the former Ritual employees. Very sad indeed. Ritual is a dead entity unless MJ plans to keep them as a subsidiary and keep the name. I imagine after a while this website will be gone as well.

[Zer0]

I don't think MumboJumbo is going to shed a tear if all 5 of the Ritual fans get angry about Sin Episodes going into permanent retirement. Do you guy seriously expect a company to blow money developing a game that isn't going to sell? Get real.
The first Sin game was somewhat of a failure although I don't think anyone at Ritual can be blamed. But making a Sin sequel was probably not the smartest idea. I think it would have been smarter to go for something entirely new without any baggage. Don't get me wrong though, I loved the original Sin game, even if I am one of a handful.
If you really love the game, you should cry for MumboJumbo to OpenSource all of the Sin content they own. Would be interesting to see if there are enough fans to keep it from becoming a relic of little known gaming history.