![]() Instead of shutting down the company and letting its 30 designers and graphic artists hunt for jobs elsewhere, Miller hopes to land a few deals soon to put them to work. “We would really like to try to do some games for the online casual market,” Miller said in a recent interview. In late November the online content site Fanista released Cosmic Osmo Hex Isle, a revved-up retooling of the second game Cyan created (called back then Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel). It’s already done that, and released a boxed version of one of its classics earlier this winter. While Cyan considers its options, Miller said the north Spokane company is looking for ways to spin out quick and casual online games, instead of the more detailed, labor-intensive projects it’s best known for. ![]() The company does not disclose how many players any of its games attract, said Sanchez. Ricardo Sanchez, a GameTap vice president, said in an online post that the decision to not continue Uru a second year was “a business decision.” Players would pay GameTap roughly $10 a month to play the game. The games’ fans worldwide say Myst and Uru – which allows people to interact online in real-time and solve problems in the Uru universe – provide a perfect alternative to the alien-hunting, sword-rattling videogames that most online communities play. It took Cyan more than two years to develop Uru, which is a 3-D version of the mythical world D’ni first developed in its landmark 1993 videogame, Myst. That option would only work, he noted, if Cyan and GameTap – a division of Turner Broadcasting – can arrange for Miller and his team to regain rights to the online game. He said that he and others at Cyan are contemplating an assortment of options, including relaunching Uru on its own. The first time occurred in early 2004 in that case, French content company UbiSoft shut down Uru after just a few months of a beta launch.Ĭyan CEO Rand Miller is uncertain what the options are. This was the second time Uru began a promising life, only to be shut down by its online publisher. ![]() Last week online video game site GameTap said it would shut down Cyan’s vast and multilayered game, Uru, within 60 days. Twice burned by companies that published and then shut down online versions of its most ambitious project ever, Spokane’s Cyan Worlds is looking at options and seeking new partners to keep its offices open.
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