I'm No Longer With Backbone Entertainment
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 2:24PM I'm no longer with Backbone Entertainment.
If you're wondering whether I'm available to work on a patch or update that Street Fighter HD Remix might need, the answer is YES I'm available. No matter what project or company I am working with next, I will be available for anything Street Fighter needs, if Capcom asks (and pays). We all want Street Fighter to be as good as it can be and last as long as possible.
This would usually be a time for biting criticism, but I'll try taking the high road for a change. Let's see what new flowers bloom, and what new articles will show up here.
If you'd like my help with design or balance and you have a lot of money and you don't make me use an alarm clock, I might be available, but I'm honestly pretty busy. Contact me and see though!
I'll leave you with this wikipedia description of Backbone. No I didn't write it, but it's interesting that I'm the only person prominent enough in the entire company to be mentioned:
Backbone Entertainment is an independent video game development company with offices in Emeryville, California, Vancouver, British Columbia, and formerly Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
Backbone Entertainment is the result of a merger between Digital Eclipse Software (which specializes in arcade game emulation), and ImaginEngine (which specializes in children's software). One of Backbone's prominent key members is David Sirlin, an arcade game enthusiast known for his involvement in fighting game tournaments, mostly the Super Street Fighter II titles.
--Sirlin
Reader Comments (48)
These are the most ridiculous comments that I've ever seen on Sirlin's blog. Where did all of these people come from?
Congratulations again Sirlin on moving on! I'm sure you will go on to do great things and to continue fighting against social injustice and product mediocrity.
All the best!
fuck backbone
go sirlin
So many anon's failing.
As far as this event goes, I wish you the best of luck. Often the philosophy to go by is hope for the best and prepare for the worst but in your case, just keep progressing as you have been and showing it through the success so far of STHD remix.
Sirlin left I think because of how shitty a development team Backbone is. He almost had to singlehandedly create the remix mode without Backbone's help.
You left because of Backbone's sucky work ethics probably... am I right?
We still love you. :]
Backbone is a company with many employees. I don't know which of them deserve criticism and I don't know why they do. Sirlin has a point though, the only reason I know their name is because of their involvement with capcom remakes he worked on.
I wonder what happened over there...
all you guys saying he should be "professional" when choosing his words and not bashing the company he left...
WHY ?? when this company is far from professional the way they go about their business and that's obvious from their previous products...
we as the consumer/customer get screwed over all the time by mediocre companies putting out crap and making money off us, thats not "professional" of them at all now is it ?
so if something needs to be said about a certain company or business and it cant be said nicely, it NEEDS to be said.... gamers are sick of low level companies like this putting out garbage for the sake of a quick buck, so thumbs up to this man for exposing some phony stuff, and thats real talk
I don't understand the comments flaming Sirlin.
Most of the negative responses seem to be about 'self importance' with comments like 'get over yourself', 'grow up', 'childish' with a load of downplaying Sirlin and his accomplishments on the side. I won't respond to 'grow up' or 'childish' comments because they weren't actually substantiated and have no meaning in context.
As for self importance - this happens to be his own personal blog that you're visiting and who should be more important to Sirlin than himself? Comments encapsulating Sirlin's accomplishments as 'a few tweaks to boxes on a 15 year old fighting game' are flat out wrong. A cursory investigation shows he's been involved in many more projects than just SF2THD remix: Kongai Virtual Card Game, Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix, SEGA Genesis Collection, Capcom Classics Collection 2, Capcom Classics Collection: Remixed, Capcom Classics Collection. That '15 year old fighting game' is the top selling game on XBLA from a studio that produces mediocre flops.
The only reasonable criticism of the post is that it's possible to interpret Sirlin as embittered by his experience at Backbone. Why is that a bad thing? If this is the case then he has taken steps to separate himself from something in his life which was making him angry on a daily basis. I've been there and had to have my hand forced to get out. It takes courage to walk away.
Trolls and Backbone employees aside the common theme to these types of responses seems to be fear and envy. Why should he remove this entry? Is he supposed to live in fear that every step he takes may be misinterpreted as negative? Is there any way to know whether any given opportunity that comes his way was positively or negatively influenced by this blog entry or any other?
It seems there's this common thread of people wanting to jump down someones throat for having self respect. For the sake of his 'career'? I guess part of being 'grown up' is a willingness to have shit shoveled on you with a smile.
For those of you who want to make this a black and white issue Sirlin vs Everyone-Backbone:
http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2008/12/4/more-street-fighter-hd-remix-reviews-and-response-to-the-pre.html
"So even though it was a struggle and even though I had to fight for a lot of things (that probably made me pretty unpopular...), please know that of course I had help. Everyone sacrificed and suffered."