By Jim Rossignol on December 13th, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Arma 3‘s release has been postponed and made rather vague, with the release window now being a wide-open “2013.” With reference to the arrested Arma 3 developers, the new project lead, Joris-Jan van ‘t Land, said:
“We’ve been in the process of implementing changes that will help us innovate as a studio under unexpected circumstances – facing problems we simply couldn’t have imagined… We’re still trying to make sense of the situation and hope that our colleagues will be released soon. Although their plight has certainly affected us on a personal level, we continue working on the tasks identified as key to the release of Arma 3.”
Bohemia also reconfirmed that they are still working on standalone DayZ, and say that a more detailed Arma 3 announcement is coming in the new year. So we’ll look forward to that. Fingers crossed for Martin and Ivan, too.
13/12/2012 at 18:01 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Arma 3: Even the water is brown.
13/12/2012 at 18:04 SkittleDiddler says:
I wonder if their downtown is brown?
14/12/2012 at 00:34 arleneroberts says:
upto I saw the check which was of $4567, I have faith that my father in law woz like realey bringing in money part time on-line.. there moms best frend has done this 4 only 12 months and just now paid the debts on their villa and got a great BMW 5-series. this is where I went..Read More
13/12/2012 at 22:29 Dowr says:
I know, it’s ridiculous; we all know water is actually Pebanje.
14/12/2012 at 07:45 hansbadu says:
Ha ha! I gave the wife a Christmas present! Satin Stiletto Heel Wedding Women `s Shoes! She definitely likes it! Now 50% off! http://lukash.de/s/1gq
13/12/2012 at 18:03 Bostec says:
Place your bets please ladies and gentlemen. Will the game release first? or will half of the developers? only TIME will tell!
13/12/2012 at 18:11 Rhin says:
Maybe they can negotiate a hostage trade.
13/12/2012 at 18:17 Bostec says:
Of course! thats what they want, free copies of the game so the Greeks can run scenario after scenario on their secret base. IN GAME! Nice and cheap. How could we all be this stupid.
13/12/2012 at 18:09 Smashbox says:
Please stand by as we extricate our game from Gamespy’s careless clutches.
13/12/2012 at 18:12 diamondmx says:
Leaked from the game’s script:
Pvt. Alan: “Sir, Greece is under attack, we’ve got to go help them!”
Mjr. Steve: “No, fuck Greece.”
13/12/2012 at 18:15 Xaromir says:
Hated their “more recent” games, but i hope they’ll do great. Seems kinda stupid that they are still held, but that’s Greece i guess.
13/12/2012 at 19:31 Dahoon says:
Well, at least in Greece they have all their rights intact, it might just take a bit to get it straighten out. In some other places they would just be “Missing” now.
Good thing it wasn’t a U.S. base for example (or NK or…. but I doubt they’ll get bases in Greece).
13/12/2012 at 20:45 Havok9120 says:
Oh come on. I’ve gotten used to a certain amount of America-bashing in the comments on RPS but this is just silly. The US military generally doesn’t much care if you photograph their bases. Heck, just check out Google Earth, based in the United States and subject to US law, if you want to check out American military installations. The exceptions are usually bases in isolated areas where it is necessary to breach fences and trespass in order to photograph them at all. In the cases where it is illegal and it happens anyway you won’t be “disappeared.” You’ll have your film confiscated and you’ll be released. Ask the guys who spent the ’90s trying to photograph Groom Lake and Dreamland.
Trying to compare the policy of the United States to the policy of a totalitarian police state is either ill-informed or purposefully misleading. Or both.
13/12/2012 at 22:14 Supahewok says:
It’s not worth the fight, dude. Those who would compare the US to a totalitarian police state aren’t going to be able to be reasoned with. Just gonna have to live with some (not all) stuffy Europeans making fun of America, like they’ve been doing since 1783.
14/12/2012 at 06:00 f1x says:
You are right with the USA part
But Greece is not a totalitarian police state, talking about being ill-informed..
edit: Sorry my bad, I thought you were refering to Greece not NK
14/12/2012 at 07:26 jrodman says:
Your seemingly deliberate error was skipping over the direct comparison of the United States to North Korea.
14/12/2012 at 07:52 f1x says:
Yes, you are right
I shouldn’t be writting replys this early in the morning, my apologies, even tho it was easy to be mistaken :(
On the other hand, I should come in defense of this Europeans who dont hate or make fun of USA but actually see it as a great country,
Just as much as “Americans are those guys with tons of guns which are crazy” is a stupid cliche, the “Europeans are this bunch of snobs that think too high of themselves” is also a cliche
14/12/2012 at 08:05 a2360891 says:
The fire was referring to the fights that always break out around posts about these imprisoned devs. Thankfully, they seem to have passed over this one, although it leaves me looking like a dick. Oh well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up7u2O5n9xg
14/12/2012 at 08:12 f1x says:
Damn you spambot, are you european or american? ;D
14/12/2012 at 13:33 Aaarrrggghhh says:
” The US military generally doesn’t much care if you photograph their bases. Heck, just check out Google Earth, based in the United States and subject to US law, if you want to check out American military installations.”
This is simply not true. At least not for all installations.
For one it is against the law in the US and you will get punished if caught (but surely depends on the installation) AND many of those images in Google Maps are “photoshoped”.
The actual base layouts are similar, but they are not identical. A lot of details are chaged, roads and buildings cut out and/or added and the like. You won’t be able to get around with Google maps material on many military bases. And it’s not just the US military doing that.
It’s common practice around the world as Google would violate laws with showing “real” satelite pictures of those installations. So both parties kinda meet on “middle ground”.
13/12/2012 at 18:28 Mr-Link says:
Obviously, the Arma series is no stranger for technical related delays and for good reason. But even if there were no technical issues, I would still feel awkward about playing Arma 3 while those devs are still in jail.
13/12/2012 at 21:22 hatseflats says:
I dunno whether it’s just “technical difficulties”. “unexpected circumstances” and “problems we simply couldn’t have imagined” don’t really match that description, since technical difficulties are to be expected, even if the exact form of these problems is unknown beforehand.
Perchance this has something to do with the arrested members? Perhaps Greece does not want to allow Bohemia to recreate a Greece island, and they’re more or less using the team members in prison to put pressure on Bohemia? Alternatively, perhaps Bohemia now realises that they can get into trouble by doing what it is they’re doing, and they have to overhaul the game to make all places imaginary to prevent legal problems?
13/12/2012 at 18:54 Njordsk says:
Man, I pity those guys in jail just because they did their job, which is making games.
I mean PRISON, it’s all but fun. In a foreign country on top of that. I wish them to be strong.
13/12/2012 at 18:57 Hoaxfish says:
I guess you could say, the release date has slipped
13/12/2012 at 19:02 Turin Turambar says:
Being honest, this isn’t news, the game slipped to 2013 months ago. The only news is that they will say something more concrete next month. Announcement of announcement .
13/12/2012 at 19:02 Lord Byte says:
If only they use this time wisely and for once release a more feature-complete and much less buggy version of their game.
I LOVED OFP, Arma, even Arma 2 but the last iteration really got on my nerves due to the amount of show-stopping bugs, many of which have never been fixed, then 701 different versions, with 4 different expansions…. I never got into DayZ BECAUSE all that hassle with beta patches and updaters…
And then there’s still the blurry screen bug and the one that overly lights every scene.
13/12/2012 at 19:29 WayneTedrowJr says:
Is it wrong to have zero sympathy for the two arrested developers? Not to be a jerk, but they knew full well what the job entailed. Not necessarily that they’d be taken into custody, but certainly that working in proximity to military installations has its dangers. I don’t really feel bad for them.
Moreover, it’s a bit sickening that Bohemia would use their arrested employees for justification on why they can’t ship their products on time. Not to mention that everything they’ve shipped since Flashpoint has failed to move forward technologically and gameplay-wise and has been pretty mediocre at best.
13/12/2012 at 19:33 Dahoon says:
Mediocre? Maybe, but name one game that is anywhere near it? There are no other games like this made. At all. It’s as big as all the CoD games in one and a hell of a lot more advanced for christs sake.
13/12/2012 at 19:37 WoundedBum says:
I would enjoy seeing you get punched in the testicles.
13/12/2012 at 19:42 MrLebanon says:
how much are you willing to pay? I’ll ensure it is done.
13/12/2012 at 20:43 Sheng-ji says:
If there’s a kickstarter, count me in for £20
13/12/2012 at 20:48 MrLebanon says:
Ooooo time to think of creative stretch goals!
13/12/2012 at 22:08 Arglebargle says:
Punching, then stretching! Testicular torsion!
13/12/2012 at 22:17 Lord Custard Smingleigh says:
Backers at the $30 tier get a signed photograph of the facial expression taken immediately post-punch, but there’s a $25 “early bird” tier that’s selling out fast.
For $1,000 you can do the punching yourself, and for $5,000 you can name one additional person to get punched!
13/12/2012 at 22:20 darkChozo says:
At $10000, free airfare and lodging for a party with the balls in question. Est. delivery May 2014.
13/12/2012 at 20:02 HothMonster says:
I know right, where do they get off going on vacation and doing touristy things? Fucking foreigners think they can just take short videos near an airport?!?! Don’t they know that it’s impossible to take pictures of Greece via satellite and all their enemy countries regularly send their spies in disguised as vacationing game developers so they can take pictures of hangers in the distance! Good thing arrested them before they made it to the airshow
“They took photographs and videos in public areas, as countless tourists arriving to enjoy the beauty and hospitality of Greece may well do. These included a short video as they drove through the main road passing around the international airport, where in one short part of the video off in the distance some hangars and other buildings of the complex can be seen. It’s very likely that many tourists may have pictures similar to those taken by Ivan and Martin in their own family albums, without being aware that they put themselves or their families at risk.”
13/12/2012 at 21:27 Hahaha says:
They didn’t get caught, how do you know the same wouldn’t of happened?
Also I thought Bohemia said that the arrest of these two wouldn’t effect the development of the game
13/12/2012 at 21:23 Skabooga says:
Well, this is just one person’s opinion, but yes, it is wrong to have zero sympathy for two unjustly imprisoned people. It’s like, a failing at the level of basic human feeling.
13/12/2012 at 23:12 Deadfast says:
Oh, here we go again: “The developers were caught espionaging the hell out of military bases as instructed by the BIS HQ.”
Yeah, not so much. They were there on holiday and inadvertently captured 14 frames of the military part of the civilian airport they landed on with a video camera.
14/12/2012 at 11:28 SanguineAngel says:
WayneTedrowJr, they were not working there. This is not a case of Risks of the Job or Knew what theya were getting into. They were on holiday and taking photos/home video in a public space. Add to this the fact that there is a real possibility, even probability that they will be found guilty of espionage and their lives will be wasted. This is not the first time this has happened.
If you are having trouble empathising imagine that you yourself have just snapped a picture of your partner on arriving in a foreign country – and are immediately arrested, put into jail, treated like a spy, roughed up (perhaps), forced to sleep on a bare, cold concrete floor in a dismal cell for months on end whilst your fate is decided by people whose intentions towards you are uncertain, in a confusing justice system and the president of your own country can’t even pull enough strings to straighten out the mess because the country you are in just doesn’t give a shit. You’re staring down the barrel of years of imprisonment in a foreign country in shit conditions and probably not in a greatly safe environment when you came here for a weeks vacation after a hell of a time at work.
13/12/2012 at 21:09 iZen says:
Honestly, I get sick of you guys making jokes about the two imprisoned developers. Its a tragedy and I cannot imagine the horrors they must face; they will probably be traumatized for the rest of their lives, let alone the motivation to continue their jobs.
For the love of god, how can greece do this to them, and nobody from anywhere else seems to particularly care either (CZ president tried to put in a good word for them at least)
Of course, we don’t know all the circumstances about what really happened as well as the motivation of greece gov., but at best this seems to be an extreme measure to me.
I mean, after all, they are officially and undoubtedly the developers of a VIDEO GAME.
I feel pityful for them and sincerely hope they will soon be released.
13/12/2012 at 22:24 Supahewok says:
“nobody from anywhere else seems to particularly care either ” Since you mentioned the Czech President, and I’ve seen plenty of people in this thread and other threads on this site and other sites who were brimming to the rim with sympathy for the imprisoned devs, I’m going to assume that you’re talking about other governments. So, as to that, why should any other government care? These guys are two tourists who are wrongfully imprisoned, sure, but there are way bigger things that other countries have to worry about. Global recession. Civil war in Syria. North Korea demonstrating their ability to launch a long range missile. Hell, even in Greece, their total financial meltdown is a way bigger deal. So why should other governments even pay attention to this? This is a problem directly between the Czech Republic and Greece, no other country should be sticking their nose into this. The only intervention that could be justified would be the EU moving in on a humanitarian/anti-stupid clause.
That is not to say that I, as an American, do not care for these devs. I do. I am so sorry for their families. But my government has no business commenting on Greece’s affairs when we have so many of our own problems in need of fixing.
13/12/2012 at 23:37 SominiTheCommenter says:
Of course! There are people being unjustly imprisoned all over the world, we can’t afford to take time for unjustly imprisoned people. It’s a know fact that Greece has only 1 judge, and he’s busy right now.
\s
14/12/2012 at 01:58 Supahewok says:
Not saying anything about what’s fair. If the world was fair everyone would have a lollipop and not go to jail because they had perfect childhoods. It’s simply not a government’s job to interfere in the affairs of other countries, particularly when it is of no gain to the people these governments serve. That’s the point of government: do FOR the people what the people can’t do for themselves. All this bit of intervention would do would be to release two innocent men and inflame relations with another country. That’s not a net gain for the people of the country intervening when the innocent men are of another nationality. Therefore, it’s not an affair for their government to be involved in.
I’m all for getting those guys out ASAP. They’ve already been there too long. But the OP asked, and I quote, “how can greece do this to them, and nobody from anywhere else seems to particularly care either”. I have now, at great length, pointed out why other governments aren’t helping them. You might not like it, but it’s just the way real life works. Gimme something to do to help them, like donate to their defense fund or sign a petition to free them, and I will do that as soon as I come back and see it. But it’s not my government’s place to interfere here. Nor is it any other’s. With the possible exception of Turkey cuz they want their “spies” back. That would be kind of darkly funny, really.
14/12/2012 at 01:18 uh20 says:
and then theres people brimming to the top with questions as to what cant be done
are we sheep or something…
honestly your sentence is simply telling people “i cant do it”, thats not a good thing, its the opposite mind you.
14/12/2012 at 01:47 Supahewok says:
Since when have people wanted America to interfere in global politics? Or is it only for when you have a personal stake in the matter?
I’m not trying to be inflammatory here. Think long and hard about the question. If these weren’t game devs, odds are, none of us would want them out as bad. We’d still want them out, because it’s an unjust situation. But we have bias. We want them to make games. To the rest of the world, though, these are just two guys who got a bad deal. Billions of other people get a bad deal every day, and have a limited amount of time and energy to devote to other peoples’ bad deals. Why should they focus on these two little guys when there are literally wars being fought in unstable regions?
As I said, I am very sympathetic to these guys. If my dad was arrested wrongfully in another country, and furthermore wasn’t given a fair and speedy trial, I would be spitting fire, so I feel for them. But this level of crap happens a lot around the world. And governments don’t have time to get involved in all of the little issues between other countries. Moreover, its not appropriate for them to do so. As I said, who really wants the US intervening in more stuff? Why would you want other countries intervening in what’s none of their business?
13/12/2012 at 21:26 guygodbois00 says:
they bloody well deserved the arrest, I mean dressed like that, touting guns and all…
13/12/2012 at 21:40 herpderpalis says:
I hope you’re kidding. That’s a screen from the game idiot.
13/12/2012 at 21:59 Hoaxfish says:
don’t worry, he works for ITV
14/12/2012 at 13:05 guygodbois00 says:
You are onto me, and so soon.
13/12/2012 at 22:32 Supahewok says:
Oh, this is fuel for the fire. Supposedly, the game was near finished at the time of these arrests. So you could say there was no point in them doing research for their game like they were accused of, since there wouldn’t have been time to put any of it in anyway.
Now they’re saying that they can’t finish on time because of the missing devs. If all they needed was a prgrammer and an artist (or whatever these two guys are), they could just hire a couple of temp guys or outsource the work to get it done. In a big team of devs, two people aren’t going to make much of a difference unless they’re leaders of their teams, which I haven’t heard. So is it *gasp* possible their devs were doing research needed for the game, and know Bohemia can’t finish the game on time without it? That seems to be the logical conclusion.
Or Bohemia Interactive is lying through it’s teeth when it uses these guys as their excuse, which is shameful. But the first possibility is much more fun to see people arguing with each other about it. (even if it’s more unlikely)
13/12/2012 at 22:56 Pindie says:
Ivan was the project lead and creative director.
Then this happened:
“Recently, Joris-Jan van ‘t Land, a 10-year veteran of Bohemia Interactive, took over the role of Arma 3 Project Lead from Daniel Musil, who left the studio to pursue other opportunities.”
14/12/2012 at 01:20 Supahewok says:
Huh, so one of them was a lead. (or rather, THE lead) And I guess that guy who’s left now was… under duress? Or something? Seems kinda crappy to leave a company when it’s trying to fight for a couple of employees imprisoned in another country. But his life, I guess.
I’m still somewhat dubious about this announced delay. Up until the arrests, everything was all “yeah, we’re good, we’re on time, we’re wrapping things up here.” Woulda thought that by that (presumably) late point everyone’s work would be laid out for them, since there’s no longer time to add new content and it’s all about chasing down bugs and implementing fixes. But what do I know, I’ve never worked on a game in my life.
14/12/2012 at 01:54 Pindie says:
There has been no announcements for like 6 months at this point.
Might be blackout due to situation in Greece or might be consecutive reorganizations meant nobody felt like they are permanently the leader and can make the call on release of materials.
Maybe the team was being pushed forward by Ivan’s personality, 22cans style.
The least likely possibility is that the works have halted.
Now the way Bohemia operates when they release a new game is to patch their old game’s engine with public Beta patches. It is their way of testing performance and catching bugs.
Last Beta patch release was last month. It contained engine changes, tweaks to net code and scripting, some of which seems like inspired by DayZ development (like adding more options in regards to Player ID function).
However some fixes are to soldier AI and pathfinding, artillery system etc, which is ArmA specific.
ftp://downloads.bistudio.com/arma2.com/update/beta/ARMA2_OA_Build_99806.log
So we can know for fact they are still working and we can check (czech) up on the programmer progress at least.
Obviously they are in progress of patching Carrier Command but that was developed by separate team and so is DayZ being made by Rocket’s team.
13/12/2012 at 23:07 Mr-Link says:
Please take your fire elsewhere. No one said the game was finished, they said the work on the “islands” was finished, that includes any hypothetical or realistic military installations that Bohemia Interactive might have decided to include on those islands, which seems to be the source of contention for the Greek authorities.
If you have played any of the previous iterations of the series, you will know that technical delays are inevitable. Even ignoring that, one wonders how much work can you put in place when two important colleagues (and friends) are locked up in a foreign prison.
Edit: Reply fail, this was meant for Supahewok.
14/12/2012 at 01:34 Supahewok says:
The fire was referring to the fights that always break out around posts about these imprisoned devs. Thankfully, they seem to have passed over this one, although it leaves me looking like a dick. Oh well.
And I would imagine you would get quite a bit of work done. Money doesn’t stop getting spent just because your friends got an all expenses paid for side trip to hell. Staff is a huge expense, and unless everyone decides to take a big unpaid break, they’re still obligated to work for their company. Even if it sucks. I don’t know where you work, but if you work at a good sized company, work doesn’t stop if somebody, say, dies. It can’t. If you work at a place where your boss has a soul, the HR department will be making the rounds consoling people, and you and your buddies would probably get together to help the aggrieved families. But work doesn’t stop.
And I know technical delays are chronic for these guys. Really, though, after 10 years of them they out to have figured out by now what they can or cannot do. And if it’s just a technical delay, they should say so rather than blame it on their missing people. ‘Cuz using their horrible situation for an excuse for a delay they would have made anyway is disgusting to me.
14/12/2012 at 03:50 Mr-Link says:
Well yeah you are right, work doesn’t stop obviously. But, I would imagine it would certainly stall a little bit or a lot depending on those two people’s level of input. Especially, in such a limbo situation as the one they are in right now, it is pretty hard for the HR department or whoever is in charge to make the correct decision as to how to proceed from here (e.g. Hire replacement workers or not).
My personal interpretation of their statement is that it is little bit of both; they seem to be having some technical problems in addition to worry-ness/anticipation whatever you want to call it about what is going to happen to their friends. I find nothing wrong with delaying Arma 3 (whether on purpose or not) until this situation with imprisoned devs is properly resolved, again maybe that’s just me.
14/12/2012 at 00:42 BrightCandle says:
While its rather unfortunate these 2 individuals are being held I doubt this is why the game is late. Seems like a convienent get out of jail free card (I really do feel for the two guys, but the pun was necessary).
I think its far more likely diverting resources into carrier command and dayz standalone is what has made Arma 3 slip. But to be fair we did know this at gamescom in Cologne, they were thinking it would be Q1 2013 due to dayz.
14/12/2012 at 01:21 uh20 says:
correction: it was a reason why game development may have slowed down, but it cant be responsible for all, this means bohemia smudged a little bit themselves to have the game delayed.
i dont like these single answers.
14/12/2012 at 01:36 Supahewok says:
Well, at least this spam uses its real name and advertises on a subject related to this website. Progress!