19-April-1999 [Artur Marques]
Today [23:45]: #1) Swatch goes Russian; #2) Psygnosis in trouble, again
Swatch has abandoned its "publicity from space" program, after strong protests from the amateur radio community (ARC). Swatch had plans to broadcast messages from a small satellite, that would be launched from the MIR space station, but the ARC did NOT find that interesting... as they would be the only ones with the hardware to listen to the messages... More: their media is known for being 100% publicity free.
Somewhat showing that the boycott to Swatch products was a bad thing, the swiss company did a loop and surprised everyone, including Rob Carlson, one of the boycott organizers.
The twist is that Swatch OFFERED the batteries that would power the satellite transmissions to the MIR station, allowing much better communications between the station and Earth. MIR has been suffering communication problems the whole April, and was really needing a new uplink. Swatch solved the problem...
...and the Russian Space Agency showed its appreciation by printing a "thank you" on both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times! The add includes some of the messages that were to be broadcasted from space :-)
More Trouble for Psygnosis [Gamasutra]
In the company’s 16-bit days, DMA Design was published by Psygnosis, but it doesn’t seem terribly likely that will be on its way back anytime soon. Psygnosis’s pitiful fall from industry Goliath to Sony's whipping dog seems is complete now that the Liverpool company is reinvented as a mere first-party developer under the SCEE [Sony Computer Entertainment Europe] umbrella. Only 25 out of 65 Psygnosis UK employees will retain their jobs as a result. The various PC titles currently in development, including potential hits such as Drakan and Hired
Guns, will be published by a separate company, with GT Interactive looking most likely at this stage. Outside of Liverpool, most of Psygnosis’ remaining external offices and studios are getting the chop. The German and Nordic offices have already gone, and the Stroud-based English studio will also close down as soon as work is finished there on G-Police: Weapons Of Justice. Meanwhile Psygnosis’s Paris team has been snapped up by — you guessed it — Infogrames.