Not many people outside of the gaming world knew of InstantAction. That was one of its problems. Like Ask.com, it too started life as a geek-driven indie outfit, eventually bought up by Barry Diller’s InstantAction Corp. And like Ask.com’s search business, it too has been consigned to the dust bin of history.
“The new InstantAction.com is Coming Soon!” the website has said for some time. But as of today, the doors are closed on an intriguing experiment in rendering AAA games in a web environment.
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InstantAction grew out of GarageGames, famous for build-your-own gaming code tool Torque. GarageGames itself grew out of a group of Oregon gaming devs who had gotten international attention with Tribes, a pioneering first-person shooter game, later sold to Sierra.
The possibility of leveraging a burgeoning online sphere with a cadre of developers who had serious hardcore gaming chops led IAC to buy GarageGames and start up InstantAction. The site was plagued with problems from the beginning, however. Early on the improperly-tested site would often crash with just 600 users on it.
Several years ago, the company was split in two, with most of the developers relocated from Eugene, Oregon to Vegas and the marketing and sales arm moving to Portland.
An update appeared today on the GarageGames site.
“Today, InstantAction informed employees that it will be winding down operations. While we are shutting down the InstantAction.com website and Instant Jam game, Torquepowered.com will continue to operate while InstantAction explores opportunities with potential buyers for Torque. We thank all of our past and current customers for their support.”
The author served as social media manager for the company lo these many years ago.
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