It's unclear.

Publicly, it was all Luthier's project. Oleg Maddox appeared in one Kickstarter video where it was claimed that he would be "advising" the project, but he was never heard of again.

As for Matt Wagner and Igor Tishin, there must have been some connection since ED were bankrolling the lion's share of the cost, but the details were never publicly discussed.

Yes, sort of.
Luthier as RRG with Oleg as advisor (I personally doubt it, more as a marketing name) and Igor was presented in the kicker, not sure what Igor's involvement was though.
Matt more as DCS representative, not really in the project until it flamed out and became an all ED project.


Edit: or what Pizzicato the Ninja said

I remember a video were they presented the project - although I never heard of Maddox in connection with it again.

definitively, it was an ED project from the start with Luthier as the guy in charge of the team.

if that is so, maybe Luthier not being involved in it could be that he is now in charge of another ED project only that they are not being able to tell us so due to NDA.

Anything's possible, but I'd be surprised if that was the case. Nothing about any of his projects has given me any confidence in his abilities as a producer, so there's a certain Occam's Razor quality to him no longer being involved with DCS:WWII.

If there is any blame should be placed, I feel it should be placed on the team as a whole and not on a single individual, since we don't know what happened and no one yet has explained either, pillorying Luthier for any problems on a project that was until a few weeks ago on track, in my personal opinion unwarranted.

Luthier ASAIK could be ill as well, and that being the reason of his absence.

I'm certainly not pillorying him. I was simply stating my suspicions based on what we've seen and heard over the past many years. I'm not stating them as facts or an attack - just a scenario that I think is very plausible for a variety of reasons.

I don't know that I'd place blame on the team, though. In my experience, a bad game is most commonly the result of bad management (and I speak as management) as opposed to the wider team.

anyhow, it would be nice to see ED clarifying this situation.

Yeah, I agree. They've been clear that they can't/won't talk about the details, though, which I can understand.

would not hurt anyone if ED were to add that he left for 'personal reasons not related to the project' which is a nice formula many use, then add that 'if Luthier wants to add to that, he will do it in his own good time'.

it is always nice to protect the reputation of a person you worked with for years, this way when it is your turn to leave, others will do the same for you.

Sure, but Luthier does have a track record of not being the greatest at project management. Pacific Fighters, then CLoD, and now this. I would love to be proven wrong that it was again his lack of management skills that led to his downfall with DCS:WWII, sure, but with the way ED worded their announcement it tells me that he just couldn't hack this.

Sadly I remember his attempts at managing the initial IL2 3rd party aircraft scene via the IL2 Centre website...

Some people are leaders and others are followers. I think it's important to understand where your skills lie when you make life choices.

I missed completely the Il-2 sim development - but from my personal experience sometimes it is hard to gauge a person skills online.

Many times the one that gets the #%&*$# end of the stick is the one placed on a tough spot to be the fall guy for a team's shortcomings.

again, my 2c.

Well if that is the case, then I never knew that Luthier looked like Lee Majors

Hi all,

ED did not blame Luthier for anything.

All that Wags stated is that Luthier is no longer involved with the exception of writing manuals.

Due to the legal agreement that led to the transfer of IP, ED cannot comment on what led to the change.

something that I mentioned as a possibility a few posts back:



which turns out to be true.

What turns out to be true?

I think you are confused with who got the #%&*$# end of the stick...

I don't believe you can reach that conclusion from the information you have. Luthier signed on as a 3rd Party or Partner, I don't know which. That doesn't make his project an ED project.

No one said Luthier is working on another project with ED.

RRG was a Partner, meaning (from what we can see) ED committed some resources to help RRG (sim core, people), but this was Luthier's/RRG's project/vision. For whatever reason now, RRG cant continue and ED is tasked with picking up the pieces.