Has anyone ever seen a crystal interactive game in a store that wasn''t published through e-games? I have to question if they have any real distribution at all. On their website at http://www.crystal-interactive.com/corporate/index.html they list 35 store chains, but I have never seen a game from them in any of thse stores, or on the websites for these stores (for those that have them). I''m beginning to think that crystal interactive has no distribution channel of their own, and I don''t think anyone has actually ever been paid by them.. of course they can''t comment on that because of the non-disclosure agreement.

I am quite new to the world of shareware/small time games development but I have read up everything I possibly could about Crystal-Interactive and even though it does sound quite a good deal, in my experience that''s usually not a good sign heh.

To be honest I don''t have a clue either way but my instinct tells me that no matter what - I shouldn''t try it...

I know they are a small time publisher, but a visit to my local PC/Video game stores resulted in absolutely no sign of the Crystal Interactive logo anyway, I live in the UK by the way, a supposed channel for them...

Anyway, its just my humble opinion and like I say I have no idea what is the truth... Just remember that companies main goal is survivability - Crystal Interactive won''t care much for the game developer yet if they are a business they have to get money and not promoting products as well as possible is a sure fire way of dropping profits no?

Philip Lutas

I too feel as though I have been ripped of by crystal, they have been selling my game on their website for some time now, but I have yet to receive a penny, and my game is yet to be in stores. I won''t comment specifically or tell you what game because of the non-disclosure agreement, but I am getting very angry at the run around they give me, and how it sometimes takes weeks just to get any sort of reply. As soon as the contract will allow me I plan to get out of it - and unless something drastic happens between now and then I will do whatever I can to make sure no one is ripped off by these con artists ever again.

sorry posted to wrong thread.

I can tell you this.
Crystal has not payed anyone they have a deal with.
We have been with them for 2 years and all I have ever gotten was talk. No money, promises of money but nothing.

Alex Devries from what Riza Rahman has told me ...is not in charge and is full of shit (Riza''s EXACT words in a phone conversation) he has no athority to say or do anything as Riza claims he owns the company now.

Riza claims a lot of things...like the fact that the company is bankrupt...yet in the same breath he tells me that they just inked a deal with a big company. and that they are going to send money soon,.(sound familiar)

Why can I tell you all this?
Cause our contract expired 2 days ago and we have yet to see a dime from the sales of our game...I was quoted in March to a 50k unit order for china.
then they told me it was for 10 cents a copy...yeah you read right 10cents!!

The contract we had was for selling our game wholesale for 6 dollars a copy. Alex claims to have lost our contract.(so says Riza)

I would advise strongly that any and all small development companies think twice about dealing with Crystal.

any developers who have grieviance against Crystal or feel they have been cheated please email me. I think we can help you.

Hi,

May I just remind everyone here (especially Lutas), that the Crystal Interactive that you are discussing IS NOT the same as the UK Crystal Interactive, which is now known as Clearwater Interactive. They did split, for reasons which I''m not at liberty to say.

I''ve never had any experiance with the CI you are talking about, except one phonecall with Alex De Vries himself, so I won''t comment on my opinions about them.



Threads that discuss this subject here, have been shut down before, so be careful about what you say.








Marc Lambert

marc@darkhex.com