CU Amiga Super CD-ROM 21/CU Amiga Magazine's Super CD-ROM 21 (1998)(EMAP Images)(GB)[!][issue 1998-04].iso/CUCD/Magazine/VulcanStatement

Text File | 1998-02-11 | 35KB | 729 lines

STATEMENT TO THE AMIGA COMMUNITY From VULCAN SOFTWARE LIMITED
-------------------------------------------------------------

Wow! where to begin? We have been inundated with emails regarding our
future plans for 1998, some best wishes, some disgust, some confusion
and some worries.

As Vulcan is the oldest, most active, longest surviving Development and
Publishing company the Amiga has left I feel a certain responsibility
towards the Amiga community and would like to make an official statement
to endorse some facts about the Amigas commercial market and Vulcans
plans for the future.

This statement is very long indeed and comes from the heart, hopefully
it will answer all the questions `I receive daily` about the decisions
and changing direction of Vulcan aswell as giving a true account of our
experiences over the last 4 years in the Amiga market. I dont know what
reaction this statement will receive but, as it is based on our
commitments, efforts and dreams for the Amiga platform then I am hoping
it will be understood.

TRUTH
-----
Not many companies have really spoken out about the past, current and
future Amiga market, instead wild rumours seem to circulate based on
past events and lies, I feel it is about time to lay down some facts
about the Amiga market, some are not what people want to hear, some are
already well known, some simply are so unbelievable they make you weep.
Nevertheless with our 4 years experience in this ever changing market I
feel we are in a very good position to be able to comment truthfully and
openly about the Amiga market which is based on our experience and
ventures.

Background & Overview
---------------------
Since 1994 Vulcan has been developing and Publishing Amiga games for the
Amiga market. To date we have released 10 x floppy titles, 3 x CDRom
titles and have several Amiga CDRom titles still in production which
includes some PPC specific projects.

PAST
----
In 1994 we developed our first title, as you all know, this cult classic
(Valhalla) was either hated or loved, either way this title was
developed, manufactured and Published, but most importantly it was
distributed in retail outlets around the UK using a software
distribution company.

The point here is that this fully boxed floppy based title was available
in the shops!

At that time in the UK there were 8 Amiga magazines, all of which
reviewed the title, carried demos of the title and advertised the title
not to mention newspaper coverage, radio coverage, television coverage
with personal appearances and interviews.

The upshot was, that if an Amiga user heard about Valhalla and liked the
product then the next time they went into their computer shop they could
pluck it from the shelf and buy it.


PERFECT MODEL
-------------
Sounds perfect doesnt it? And it was, as it meant a developer could
develop a product, a publisher could publish a product, a distributor
could distribute a product, a magazine could advertise and review the
product, a retailer could sell the product and a user could buy the
product.

When the Amiga market in the UK worked like this it was fair all round,
and everybody made money from their efforts as tens of thousand of units
could be sold in the first week of launch.

WHAT DID IT RELY ON
-------------------
The above model relied completely on one thing to make it all work, and
that was, that there had to be a good healthy `available pool` of Amiga
buying users and accessibility.

Sure the Model would fail if inferior products were developed but
overall the only reason a publisher published, a distributor distributed
and a retailer sold was due to the users purchase.

Adding to this model the Amiga user could only purchase the product if
they new about it from magazines and other media and also had access to
the product via shops, so its easy to see that the whole intricate
commercial Amiga software market was finely balanced and self
perpetuating.

Of course the Amiga users had to have an Amiga! :)

WHAT WENT WRONG
---------------
The 69 thousand dollar question, many things went wrong with this model,
becoming apparent in the middle of 1994.

Dont forget, that at this time in the UK you could go into any high
street electrical store and buy an Amiga computer and many pieces of
software from publishers as it was a rife and healthy commercial market.

What went wrong can be blamed on many things but to start with, this was
the year that Commodore went into liquidation, reasons why have always
been given and attributed but for now I am only interested in what
happened with the Amiga commercial market.

HARDWARE TO BLAME?
------------------
In 1994 the most popular Amiga computer in the UK was the A500, Some
lucky users had souped up A500`s in the `desktop form` of the A1500 and
there were also some A2000`s.

Commodore tried to push the Amiga hardware forward, the market saw the
A500+ were a percentage of loyal users upgraded instantly, we saw
upgraded Operating Software, we saw the dying CDTV, we saw the A600
which sounded great with its 1Mb chip but was smaller and cheaper
looking, we saw the dying CD32 (way ahead of its time) and we eventually
saw the A1200 with 2Mb chip, AGA chipset and 68020 CPU.

Throughout this gradual advancement we saw many third party devices such
as external/internal Hard Drives, ram expansions, extra floppy drives,
flicker fixers, monitors, accelerators, OS chip upgrades and many more
interesting devices for connection.

Sure these hardware improvements were absolutely vital to the Amiga`s
future (as if a technology stays still it dies) but with so many
failings of hardware launches the UK Amiga community was definitely
becoming split and diversity was rife.

For example you had Amiga users screaming for AGA specific or CD32
specific or Hard Drive Installable specific aswell as floppy A500 users
still wanting 1Mb floppy based titles.

This was not too much of a big problem but developers and publishers had
to strike a balance whether to support the low spec machines for bigger
sales or higher spec machines to advance the market or in some cases
both but there was something vitally important missing and that was an
owner of the Amiga who could officially advance its technology.

OTHER COMPETITION
-----------------
Just around the corner in 1994 something was happening, it was called
the PC,  now the PC was used all around the world but mainly in
educational and business situations. The big change was when PC hardware
prices tumbled and PC technical specifications rose, both at incredible
rates and I also believe a game `I had never heard of` called DOOM had
something to do with it!

Suddenly average home computer users could find themselves in a position
were they could afford a PC, after all thats what they used at work or
at school and its technology was being pushed and advanced at incredible
rates and DOOM offered something unique and wonderful to games
enthusiasts.

PUBLISHERS
----------
The big publishers at this time (many who had begun on the Amiga
platform) saw an opportunity to develop for this growing market, and why
not? After all they were mainly business motivated and with the Amigas
technology in a temporary halted state it seemed a good gamble.

I remember at that time (in June 94) when Vulcan was working on our next
Amiga title `Valhalla II` that all the companies we spoke to on a
regular basis kept saying that they were going to PC formats. It was a
strange time as I began to notice distributors and retailers and users
alike all asking if we were developing for PC, `no` we said, `whats
wrong with the Amiga market?` we said, `its a big market and we have
only just begun`...

AS TIME WENT ON
---------------
From June 94 to June 95 it became apparent that this delicate commercial
Amiga market model had been altered, with no new Amiga hardware to
compete, with Amiga users moving to PC, magazines moving to PC,
Developers and Publishers moving to PC, distributors moving to PC and
retailers moving to PC the whole thing was hit hard.

By the time Vulcans third Amiga floppy title `TimeKeepers` was released
in June 95 there was no longer a distribution network in the UK, our
Amiga products (and others) found it harder to be available to Amiga
users via the shop shelf.

This was mainly due to the distributors who would only distribute a
title if it was on the PC format as this was the format that the
retailers could sell and the users were buying in vast quantities.

Now sure there were still Amiga users around the country who wanted
Amiga titles but due to the way business decisions dictate market
changes the majority market soon became the minority market and things
got harder.

I remember many heated conversations with distributors trying to get
them to stock our Amiga titles and often blamed them for killing the
Amiga market but at the end of the day the Amiga platform had no active
owner, no new hardware development, fewer users, fewer developers, fewer
publishers and allot of PC competition.

AND ON...
---------
Vulcan had a decision to make, we either went with the flow and switched
to PC or.....and heres the or.....adapt to the changing market and base
our companies future on a dream. We chose the latter, we believed that
it would only be a matter of time before a new owner was found for the
Amiga and when it was supported again we believed we would be right at
the top of the proverbial ladder as a mainstream development and
publishing company on the Amiga platform.

HOW TO SURVIVE WITH NO COMMERCIAL RETAIL MARKET
-----------------------------------------------
Many people over the years have enquired as to how Vulcan managed to
survive in the Amiga market were others could not and this has been the
key to our existence. In June 95 to account for the lack of retail
support in the UK we set-up Vulcan Mail Order to provide our products
direct to the Amiga user.

VULCAN MAIL ORDER
-----------------
This turned out to be an excellent move for Vulcan at the time as it
meant that Vulcan as a developer and Publisher could now distribute and
sell our own products direct to the user which meant allot more revenue
was generated for per title (as we cut out the middle men) and allowed
us to sell our titles cheaper (around 12.99 as opposed to 24.99) which
resulted in more Amiga users buying our software due to the price drop
and the direct personal attention they received through our company.

Because of this unique set-up (being 3 companies in 1) we were able to
continue as normal and did not notice the pinch in the Amiga market as
other companies had, towards the end of 95 we released Hillsea Lido and
had just started signing external development teams to our label, the
year ahead 1996 was looking great!

PIONEERING
----------
In 1996 Vulcan took on a pioneering role and we dedicated allot of our
time to getting our products back in the UK shops, alas without much
success. We did however start to supply many independent retail outlets
in the UK with our software range but could not convince any UK
mainstream distributor to stock our products in favour of PC titles.

Beginning our expansion and aswell as selling our products to Mail Order
users and UK retail outlets we started to convert and develop our titles
for the German market.

Running up to the middle of 1996 we saw Valhalla III and the TimeKeepers
Expansion being released with now 6 external development teams signed to
the Vulcan label.

To keep pushing forward we founded Vulcans own International
Distribution Company whos main purpose was to distribute our products
by bulk retail and wholesale outlets around the world. Vulcan
Distribution supplied our products to retailers spanning 14 countries,
Vulcan Mail Order supplied our products to many thousands of registered
users, Vulcan Development signed up many teams and individuals. Briefly
(now and then) we glimpsed at the Amiga markets commercial situation,
but only briefly.

RECAP AND WARNINGS
------------------
To recap, by the middle of 96, there was still no Amiga owner (or
perhaps there was a brief handling by an Eskimo? or something), very
slowly we began to notice some new changes. Amiga magazines were
starting to close and many Vulcan registered users were asking to be
removed from the Vulcan database as they had moved to the PC platform.
Now this change should have been more noticeable to us and a bigger
warning sign but as we had now entered the world distribution market,
were now supporting other languages, were receiving allot of publicity
and talking to allot more developers, we got carried away with our own
companies expansion.

The run up to the end of 96 saw us release Bograts AGA and
Jetpilot.....Happy X-mas! :)

THE SMACK IN THE MOUTH
----------------------
January 1997 was the hardest month of Vulcans entire existence, I still
joke about the fact that Santa Claus delivered a Playstation or
Multimedia PC to every household for Xmas of 96.

Literally overnight Vulcans Amiga Mail order sales plummeted, now we are
not just talking about latest release performance, if we were then I
could understand the change but we are talking about all Vulcan titles
that sold regular and maintained a constant level for years suddenly
decreasing to an all time low. We lost over 4,000 registered Amiga users
in a 4 week period, Vulcan Distribution saw previous bulk purchasing
retailers around the world go bankrupt, we saw wholesalers ceasing to
order, we saw more Amiga magazines fold, we saw development companies go
into liquidation, we saw developers leave the Amiga platform, we saw
hell itself and all at Vulcan had to come to terms with this new
reality.

PLODDING ON
-----------
End of January 97 we plodded on, releasing Burnout AGA and Tiny Troops,
we feared the worst and were proven right, the sales were not there in
any quantity to justify the investment. Sure we could say its the type
of title but sales right across the spectrum of the entire range were
getting smaller and smaller, registered users, retailers and web
ordering was diminishing fast.

By March 1997 we had 2 Amiga magazines left in the UK and in vain we saw
many small Amiga companies start up and try to do something like,
Mediasoft who tried to publish a new Amiga fanzine, Direct software who
promised new hardware bundles, both of which folded, we saw long
established mail order companies like Premier Mail Order collapse along
with others. The commercial Amiga software market was at rock bottom
with only the strongest companies surviving.

COMPETITION
-----------
Thinking back to March 97 we saw PC computers in shops, not just in
shops but in a world of their own, namely PC World were they had slowly
been selling to millions of users all around the world. Walk in and be
bombarded with hundreds of PC system choices that had plenty hardware
and software support.

Now Im not talking an 020 CPU, 2Mb Memory, extended keyboard with a
floppy drive attached for 350.00 via mail order, No no, Im talking all
singing all dancing complete systems at 133Mhz, 16Mb memory, Graphics
Cards, Hard Drives, modems, Monitors, keyboards, floppy drives, sound
cards, software bundles and a bill gates special promotion devil hat for
500.00 in every shop in the high street that has been advertised to the
hilt in every paper, magazine, television program you can imagine.

Now anyone in the Amiga community knows that the Amiga has a far better
approach to things but lets face it if your a family purchaser who uses
a PC at work and your kids use a PC at school or your a student who uses
a PC at college or your a games freak who simply must have Doom, Quake,
Tomb Raider, Star Trek, Theme Hospital and zillions of other software
tiles and applications `right now` then it doesnt take Einstein to
figure out what the average computer purchaser will buy.

I mean, just look at the Investment, the hardware, the software, the
promotions and the technology that the PC has had over the previous
years compared to the orphaned Amiga with no owner.

MIRACLE
-------
Would you believe it! We couldnt! Just as everything was about to hit
the fan, in March 97 the Amiga found an owner, not just any owner but an
owner with money, namely Gateway 2000.

Immediately Vulcan planned for the future! Our dreams that held us tight
were going to happen, our hopes raised at the prospect of new Amigas
being made, perhaps a complete unit ready to buy that will be marketed,
distributed all over the world and available to users in the high street
shops at a price that would compete with current PC`s and with
technology to match.

Vulcans plans for the rest of 1997 was to make Amiga titles for higher
specifications, we chose to go CDRom only with all future titles knowing
that we could catch up with PC competition, we started catering from
other language support to ensure world wide penetration, we invested
heavily in our company and started to live again, we signed up more
development teams, we started on higher specification development
strategies catering for graphics cards and sound cards.

Throughout the rest of 97 we published Strangers, Uropa2 and Finally
Odyssey which were all re-vamped and turned into Multi language Amiga
CDRom titles.

Hellpigs the Multi-CDRom adventure was going to be awesome, Wasted
Dreams was looking incredible, Hard Target the virtua cop clone is
looking fantastic, Genetic Species is absolutely outstanding, Breed2000
was being revamped, Valhalla IIII was re-written to cater for full actor
speech,  3D Games creator was re-designed to cater for Graphics cards,
JetPilot expansion was initiated, Desolate was signed,  overall 1997 was
looking great with renewed hope,  Phase 5 with PPC boards, Vulcan
signing the World Foundry with PPC projects like Explorer and Maim &
Mangle, investing in development hardware, PPC boards, Graphics Cards,
faster processors, going to Cologne and meeting the new owners of the
Amiga, new contacts, new possibilities, everyone I spoke to was excited,
magazines were happy, developers were happy, publishers were happy, I
was ecstatic at Sadeness starting in the games market, finally some good
competition, I helped AliveMedia start up their games publishing company
and finally felt like the market was coming together, I was encouraged
by Aurora works entering the publishing market from across the water,
Amiga shows began popping up, Ohio, Italy, Germany Belgium, what a
brilliant beginning to the rest of 1997 indeed!

...but all the while....software sales were falling, companies were
closing, projects were being cancelled......

Forget it! because Amiga speeches were being made, hope was back with
vengeance, everyone I spoke to was on a high, other developers stated
CDRom only titles, more projects were being developed for graphics
cards, high CPUs and now PPC specific......we saw the potential in the
platform, we opened up Vulcan America to supply our titles to America
and Canada, our expanding development and publishing responsibilities
became more demanding so we transferred our Mail order operations to
Weird Science Limited and we transferred our Distribution company to GTI
in Germany so we could spend more energy in our development dream, we
established a development network of support and help for all our new
Amiga development teams, we concentrated on bigger and better Amiga
CDRom productions, we were on the road to glory! Nothing could alter our
destiny, nothing can stop the Amiga being reborn!

.....this is where we were wrong.....

2 things, just 2 little things kicked us where it
hurts....................

.....one thing is something we RELIED on, and the other is something we
ASSUMED.

SOMETHING WE RELIED ON
----------------------
The Amiga has something unique, a community, many individuals and
companies who believe in the Amiga and its future with many users around
the world. All sounds great but lets analyse it in detail to get a
complete picture of what the Amiga community is made up from and what
makes it work commercially.

Youve got Amiga magazines all around the world who love doing what they
do, putting so much of their lives into their jobs and all need
advertising revenue and Amiga users buying their magazines to continue.

Youve got Amiga web promoters who, review Amiga software and hardware
and offer excellent Amiga support to users around the world with
information and news, they do this because they love doing it and many
are non-profit orientated.

Youve got hardware development companies like Index and Phase5 who are
trying to push the Amigas hardware forward, realising there is a
commercial gap to be filled and doing what they do out of inspiration,
they depend totally on the Amiga users buying their hardware.

Youve got shops and mail order companies around the world who sell
hardware and peripherals who advertise in magazines who all rely on
Amiga user upgrading their hardware.

Youve got shops and mail order companies selling software around the
world who advertise in magazines who all rely on Publishers publishing
and Amiga users purchasing new software.

Youve got dedicated Amiga distribution companies who exist in the
minority market who all rely on the Amiga retailers purchasing the
Software.

Youve got thousands of talented artists, musicians, coders, developers
and teams who invest their time, money and lives to create software on
their prized platform because its in their blood who all rely on the
Amiga Publishers Publishing their creations.

Youve got Amiga publishers who publish Amiga products, invest their
time, money and lives into producing and marketing Amiga titles and
making them available in the market place to retailers and distributors
who rely on the Amiga developers developing and the Amiga users
purchasing the software.

The list goes on and on but the moral of the story and the `simplistic
flow chart` dictates that every single related Amiga company and active
individual in the Amiga commercial market all rely on each other, and
all rely ultimately on one thing to make it all possible!

One thing that makes everything else work.
One thing to give it a purpose and a way of making a living.
One thing to ensure magazines keep printing new issues.
One thing to ensure hardware developers continue to progress.
One thing to keep all the retail outlets in business.
One thing to ensure the publishers remain.
One thing to ensure the developers remain.
One thing to keep the Amiga Alive!

And that one thing is the Amiga user Buying the merchandise, whether
its magazines, hardware or software.

I cant speak for magazines sales but there are fewer magazines around
with extremely low ABCs compared to 94.

I cant speak for Hardware sales but I do know we get so many complaints
about supporting CDRoms, Graphic Cards, fast CPUs, Hard Drives and even
AGA...and why Genetic Species wont be on floppy for the A500 :)

However I can speak for software sales and sadly this element has
decreased ridiculously over the last 4 years from mail order, retail and
wholesale all around the world.

They say that hundreds of thousands of Amiga users still use their
Amigas, I honestly dont know the number but I do know that Amiga
software piracy is rife and with the total Amiga buying user base at
its lowest current level, that there is simply no longer enough users
left who BUY software to justify the developers and publishers
investment.

PIRACY
------
A quick note about piracy. It does sadden me to see our latest Amiga
releases and other recent Amiga titles available on pirated CD`s. It
tears me up to think that people are making money from the illegal
duplication instead of my developers, my company, my distributors and
all the other hard working people in the Amiga industry who deserve that
revenue, however I do not blame the pirates or the piracy for the
current Amiga situation.

Piracy is rife in any industry whether its, designer jeans, music, video
or other computer platforms but because the buying share of these
markets is large enough, it can sustain the illegality and still
continue.

The Amiga market however cannot sustain the piracy due to its size, an
Amiga users who uses pirated software cannot really care about the
Amigas future so do not enter into the equation but the Amiga users who
truly cares about the Amiga`s future make up the users who BUY.

USERS WHO BUY
-------------
The Amiga user who BUYs is the thing we relied on (and many other
companies too).

Yes there are allot of you out there who have upgraded your machines,
bought your towers, bought your CD drives, bought your Memory and CPU
upgrades and bought all the latest software and my hat comes off to you,
I understand that you also share the same frustrations as we do and that
you have done everything in your power to help keep the Amiga market
alive, but unfortunately your numbers are at an all time low right
across the scale all around the world. This results in developers,
publishers, distributors, retailers and mail order companies all feeling
the squeeze and licking their wounds.

SOMETHING WE ASSUMED
--------------------
From March to December 1997 (10 months) Vulcan prepared for the Amigas
future, I know things dont happen overnight but with the Amiga market
being at its most critical and at its lowest point ever I knew that if
Vulcans dreams and hopes for the Amiga as a commercially successful
platform did not materialise in that specific period of time then the
Amiga market would never recover.

Perhaps its time to share Vulcans vision, I know from my experience and
my logic that the only way the Amiga computer can ever make a commercial
comeback (and I enforce the word commercial) and for the Amiga to once
again have stupendous and vast software development, once again have
millions of buying software users, once again have huge publicity with a
plethora of magazines, once again have hundreds of publishers, retail
outlets, distributors, once again have continued and advanced 3rd party
hardware development, once again be the leading computer in
technological advancements and as a result once again be the best home
computer used throughout the world, it all comes down to one essential
ingredient called...................Money.

Certainly by licensing the Amiga technology and allowing many companies
to build components, motherboards, and complete systems allows the
Amigas technology to progress but we must ask ourselves a simple
question, who is going to buy this upgraded technology?
Certainly not the new computer purchaser in the high street, as for one
they cant see it in their shops, would be hard pushed to hear about its
availability, cannot see the vast software support to the scale of other
platforms and certainly would not be turned on by the end price of the
components or systems being sold.

So that simply leaves the existing Amiga users and loyal enthusiastic
upgraders.

The problem is that this number alone is way too small. This means that
re-sellers of systems and components need to rely on mail order and
specialised outlets and due to small potential sales it requires higher
purchase prices which causes the vicious circle creating fewer
upgraders. Not even thinking about the small amount of developers and
publishers who would support this new technology due to the small amount
of potential software sales.

You see the idea of technological advancement with PPC, Graphics Cards,
3D Chips, better motherboards faster CPUs, towers etc. is all very well
and all something I believe the Amiga needs but the current Amiga
community or market is already way too small to make any of this worth
while.

To me it seems that, the companies and users who really care about the
Amigas future and have stuck it out through the worst of times and
invested a good number of years of their life into the Amiga and want to
build the Amigas future suddenly have the whole responsibility, with all
the risk, expense and investment to bring the Amiga back to glory, this
is something that will not happen at the current level, no matter how
hard Phase5, Index and other hardware companies try, no matter how hard
developers push the limits, no matter how hard Publisher promote, no
matter how hard the re-sellers sell and no matter how hard the existing
users buy, this approach is never going to work due to the size of the
existing user base and it will never encourage new users to the platform
as there is no cohesion, no distribution, no marketing, no price
benefits, no software support and no overall direction for it to become
apparent and compete in the world computer industry.

MONEY
-----
The only way the Amiga has a chance of revival in Vulcans opinion is
Money!

Money poured into the cream plastic until it spews out the sides, money
at the level of Sonys investment into its Playstation.

We are talking a complete base Tower computer system, with High
resolution Monitor,  keyboard, floppy drive, a 24xSpeed CDRom, 1Gig to
10Gig hard drive, a modem, A graphics card with 4Mb on board, 3D
Chipset, 32Mb memory, combined 060 CPU with 200Mhz PPC board, Mpeg
decoders, sound card, external speakers, (backward compatible only) AGA
chipset, new operating system, pre-installed web broswers, Email
applications, word processors, spreadsheet and accountancy software, and
bundled games software which has all been invested into and acquired for
the purpose and finally the word AMIGA on the outside.

This is not good enough on its own, no far from it, this needs to
manufactured in masses by one company or at least co-ordinated by one
company, this needs to be sold to distributors and re-sellers all around
the world, this item needs to be available to buy in every shop on the
planet, this system need to be backed up by world-wide advertising and
marketing promotional campaigns in consumer press, magazines, radio and
television adverts, it needs to be launched as an awesome computer with
an incredible future that is an alternative the current PC platform and
finally this system has to be around the user buying price of 400 to
enable it to work.

Anything less, anything removed, anything left out and the Amiga has not
got a hope in hell of catching up in the ever moving commercial computer
market....even the above specs will only work with dedicated software,
massive marketing and extremely low price point.

No money will be made by the company who initiates these actions, on the
contrary money will be lost as the hardware and software would cost far
more than the distribution price, but the money spent now will be
creating a future goldmine with greater potential than any one can
imagine.

If this `base level` launch was combined with investment in future
hardware advancements, investment in software support to allow
developers to excel it would give reasons for publishers, magazines and
shops to once again think `Amiga` and this dream will become a reality.

Currently the Amiga community has all the people and companies available
to make the above system a reality...the thing lacking is the direction
and the money.

REFLECT
-------
So to reflect, Vulcans Amiga vision and Vulcans existence in the
commercial Amiga market relies on 2 things which are not making
themselves apparent. Throughout the last 10 months our Amiga development
and Publishing continues whilst the commercial Amiga market gets worse.
If Vulcan continues its recent strategy on the same level of waiting for
the Amiga market to recover whilst still investing in a decreasing and
more diversified market then it would only be a matter of time before
Vulcan Software would cease to exist and only the 2 mentioned things can
alter that fate for us and others.

As we have invested so much of our lives into the Amiga market, we do
not wish or intend to leave it, but rather see it through to its
ultimate destiny, as with any good book or film the Amiga market is the
similar where you never know whats going to happen next.

The only way Vulcan can remain active in the Amiga market and to support
its future to the full is if we can stay financially sound, strong in
resource and talents and function as a successful business.

This is why in 1998 Vulcan plan to develop entertainment titles for the
PC and Playstation platforms where there is a combined and large active
user base. Certainly we are aware that these markets are saturated but
these market do have active distribution network with millions of
potential customers.

AMIGA TITLE CANCELLATIONS
-------------------------
To enable a smooth transition to other platforms we have invested a
great deal in our teams and development operations and as a consequence
many Amiga development projects have been cancelled namely, Breed2000
CDRom, 3D Games Creator CDRom, JetPilot expansion CDRom and Valhalla
IIII CDRom so the teams and individuals can concentrate on other formats
and other projects. This is a decision that didnt come easy for us but
one that is vital to our future plans that enable us to support the
Amiga.

AMIGA TITLE CONSEQUENTIAL EFFECTS
---------------------------------
As a consequence of the last 10 months the development team responsible
for Hellpigs the Multi-CD adventure title has halted development of that
title and also decided to move onto other business ventures.

AMIGA TITLE PENDING
-------------------
Currently the Wasted Dreams development team is waiting another few
months to see if anything happens in the Amiga market that would
indicate a reason to continue with their development plans.

AMIGA TITLE FUTURE RELEASES
---------------------------
Genetic Species CDRom is all ready for a February 98 launch and close
behind it we will see Desolate CDRom and Hard Target CDRom closely
followed by the Genetic Species World Creator CDRom.

AMIGA DIRECTION
---------------
Our future Amiga development is based on extremely high specifications
and will take advantage of Graphics Cards, fast CPUs and 060/PPC boards.

We are actively supplying a selection of our developers with PPC boards
and along with Explorer 2260 and Maim&Mangle we will see other exciting
high specification Amiga titles being developed and published by Vulcan
through 1998.

PUBLISHING
----------
We will still operate our Amiga Publishing operations and actively sign
new Amiga development teams and individuals. As long as there are
developers developing for the Amiga we will always be available as a
mainstream commercial publisher.

OVERVIEW
--------
I hope all the above will clarify Vulcans future plans and that it shows
that our plans are not carried out in spite or malice but are simply
choices that our company is forced to make if we are to continue. Vulcan
as with many other Amiga companies have worked extremely hard and you
will find no one more loyal to the Amigas future than we `are` and `have
been`, but we simply cannot change the Amigas future with all our
efforts alone.

2 things are needed if the Amiga is going to survive, 1 thing is in your
grasp and the other is the responsibility of the owner of the Amiga.

Live Long & Prosper!

Paul Carrington BA Director Vulcan Software Limited
---------------------------------------------------

(c) 1998 Vulcan Software Ltd. This document must not be altered or
extracted, if used in a news context it must remain `as is` with no
editing to ensure statement adheres to Vulcans wishes.
Kind Regards
Paul Carrington BA (Director) Vulcan Software Limited http://www.vulcan.co.uk