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After the acquisition, speculation abounded that Eidos would push Daikatana out the door for the holiday season -- ready or not. That didn't happen. Now, a recent e-mail newsletter from Eidos glibly announcing that the game is "coming soon to your PC in this millennium" is prompting jokes like: What century?

How did things get this way? A series of ego clashes by the top talent at ION Storm, chronicled a year ago in the Dallas Observer, may have been to blame. Former CEO Mike Wilson moved on and started a game-making company called the Gathering of Developers, or G.O.D. He was soon joined by eight key designers and programmers who had been working on Daikatana. At the time, Romero posted a note to ION Storm's Web site expressing that these people left "at an opportune time," since "most of the levels are in a final state [and] much of the coding has been completed for most of the game." But those departures happened more than a year ago -- and the "completed" coding has yet to appear as a game.

One of the finalists in the December Daikatana tournament, Phillip Marcus, a 20-year-old from Virginia, whose expression is locked in a permanent, asymmetrical smirk, happens to work as a first-person shooter game designer himself. He offered his insightful, albeit cynical, observation of modern game-making: "This is how you design an actual first-person shooter: You make sure the first two levels are completely beautiful so the reviewers love it. You make sure you have half-naked women in it, so the players love it. And you make sure there are big guns in it and they have big explosions. And there you go: There's your successful first-person shooter."

Fortunately for ION Storm and Romero, the views of Marcus' fellow competitors are more optimistic. "Daikatana is cool from what I have seen," said Phil Kennedy, 19, who came from Florida to play in the Daikatana Deathmatch in December. Another tournament player, Eric Hong, 21, from New York, said he preferred Daikatana over Unreal Tournament or Quake III.

The Daikatana release party, attended by approximately 300 guests, had open bars, plenty of catered Tex-Mex food and a band covering pop tunes from the '80s and '90s. It was quite a spread to celebrate the "release" for a game. Maybe the event was less for Daikatana and more a victory party of sorts for ION Storm itself for having survived so long.

During the evening, I asked Romero: "After what's been a tumultuous year for you and ION Storm, what's one of the important things you've learned?"

He gave a wistful chuckle and said: "Having the right people" -- an acknowledgement of the fracas that erupted over the departures of Daikatana's designers and programmers.

Amid the people dancing, eating, drinking and schmoozing, Kennedy and Hong spent most of their time at one of the computers demoing Daikatana. Between bites of food, the young men tinkered with the game, eyes locked on the monitor. They didn't look like they were playing but, rather, studying it. "The top players do not play for fun -- they play for blood! It is like any other professional sport: Money and fame control man's direction," said Kennedy.

Kennedy and Hong were the few at the party who actually bothered to play Daikatana. After all the hype and rumors, what ultimately matters isn't Romero or his company, but maybe young men like these two. Is this game going to ravage the first-person shooter world or be a flop? Or will there even be enough gamers to care when Daikatana is finally released sometime "in this millennium"?

Kennedy thinks so: "I still believe Daikatana will be extremely successful. It is one of the most anticipated games on the market."

Even Marcus is willing to concede. He'll buy the game when it comes out, though "only out of an odd form of respect for what Romero attempted with it."
salon.com | Feb. 8, 2000

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