JoWood goes tits up

[Daehawk]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/42437/JoWooD-declares-insolvency

Basically they are out of money.

[Blackadar]

Good riddance.  These are the bastards who wouldn't release the (very crucial stability) patch for The Guild and instead tried to make people buy the expansion in order to get the patch.  Fuck 'em, glad they're gone. 

Yeah, I hold grudges. 

[Zekester]

They burned me on a couple games that were never patched sufficiently as well.

[hepcat]

I think the more important question is "why when something dies, it does so tits up?"  Are tits full of helium or some other lighter than air gas that turns the body tits up in order to fulfill the need to rise?  Also, was Jowood female in gender?  Or does the definition of "tits" also include the nipples on a man? 

[theohall]

Why does hepcat hate tits being up? 

[hepcat]

can we get isgrimmur (isgrimmer?  isgrimacefun?  icelandicgrimwar? ) in here?  I just want to know the origin of the saying "tits up".  I won't be able to sleep until I do.

edit:  never mind.  I need to learn how to fish so i can feed myself.

Meaning

Inoperative; broken. The term is also used to mean fallen over (on one's back)
Origin

This is a 20th century phrase, probably of military origin. There's certainly no mention of it in print prior to WWII. It has been suggested that the term derives from the behaviour of aeroplanes' altitude indicators, which turn upside down when faulty and display an inverted 'W' resembling a pair of breasts. There's no real evidence to support this speculation and it seems more likely that the phrase is just a vulgar alternative to the earlier 'belly-up', which has the same meaning.

'Belly-up' is an allusion to fish, which float that way when 'dead in the water'. This expression was known in the USA by the 1920s, often related to bancruptcy or other commercial disasters. For example, this extract from John Roderigo Dos Passos' Letters, 1920:

[Gromit]

Good riddance. 

Agreed.

[EngineNo9]

But, but, but...Rally Trophy! 

JoWood was also the company that sent me a free Sam & Max statue after I entered a contest on their website.  (which is odd, because they were the European publisher of those games but I'm in the US and they actually shipped me the statue from Austria or something)

[Turtle]

Strangely enough I bought the guild and tried it, and abandoned it after experiencing the game stopping bugs right away.

Not sad to see them go, there's better options for publishing now.

[Purge]

But, but... torchlight!

[Teggy]

But, but... torchlight!

I thought this myself, but it seems that JoWood was only responsible for the retail copies of Torchlight, and they probably did most of their business on downloads from their site and sites like Steam.

[Blackhawk]

To be fair, they did publish Gothic II.  Of course, they published it alongside a pile of nightmarish catastrophes, but hey. 

[kronovan]

They also published some racing and simulation games in the early 90's while most publishers were abandoning those genres like a plague. I haven't had any problems with the games I own that they published, but I also haven't bought anything they were behind for over 5 years.

[Scraper]

Can't say I will miss them, especially since the Gothic Dev team is still alive and released Risen, which is far superior to Arcania.

[CeeKay]

looks like it's finally over since they couldn't find a way to re-capitalize.

[Caine]

not surprised they couldn't right the ship.  at least they got gothic 2 into our hands.  that counts for something in my book.  of course, there's a huge turd under that silver lining so i wouldn't go that far in heaping praise or anything.