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[StereoVsn]

Watch Epic buy Gearbox.

I can actually see that happening. Not for $1.4 bil though. Even Tim isn't that crazy.

Edit: Also, unless MS really wants to play with fire, they aren't buying anyone.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Post in thread 'Official Sunset Overdrive Trailer' https://www.neogaf.com/threads/official-sunset-overdrive-trailer.815293/post-111129325

Insomniac wanted to retain the IP and MS was ok with that.

That's not confirmation that Sony wasn't.

 

[Punished Miku]

Expecting to see Deus Ex get ruined or forgotten about for good by all of this.

It really never made any financial sense to expect it to come out in the first place. SQEX didn't do anything wrong by them on Deus Ex. Marketed it heavily, and even gave both games phenomenal CG trailers from their 1st party studios.

The games just didn't sell.

 

[ComputerBlue]

It really never made any financial sense to expect it to come out in the first place. SQEX didn't do anything wrong by them on Deus Ex. Marketed it heavily, and even gave both games phenomenal CG trailers from their 1st party studios.

The games just didn't sell.

Didn’t Human Revolution do really well?

 

[Punished Miku]

Didn’t Human Revolution do really well?

Well enough for a sequel I guess. But I think the 2nd one mega bombed. I just remember seeing it for like $15 after 2 months or something unprecedented.

Even then SQEX still didn't drop them and gave them a super popular Marvel IP to work on and funding for a full AAA game.

My only point is that SQEX already gave them every chance. It was always going to be a risky investment at best for Embracer.

 

[feynoob]

That's not confirmation that Sony wasn't.

The company in question made games for Sony, yet they went to MS for funding?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

The company in question made games for Sony, yet they went to MS for funding?

They also worked with EA before Microsoft.

 

[feynoob]

They also worked with EA before Microsoft.

But we are talking MS/Xbox.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

But we are talking MS/Xbox.

“Working with EA Partners allows us to extend the reach of our games to a multiplatform audience while retaining ownership of the intellectual property,” said Ted Price, founder and CEO of Insomniac Games. “We are excited and eager to introduce Insomniac to a new group of gamers while reinforcing to our loyal fans what makes our games special.”

 

[feynoob]

Mibu no ookami
That is EA.
This is MS/Xbox who are competing with Sony. And main reason why Sony went back to them with Spiderman and bought them after that.

 

[Black_Stride]

Embracer always seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, but I hate that it happened. They were one of the few old-school "Let's just make a lot of games!" publishers out there, and they were buying up IP and developers in genres that other publishers had abandoned but that niches of gamers still enjoyed. And these development studios needed a parent publisher, not every studio can operate as an indie. If Embracer had just been able to keep cranking out a slew of 7s forever and making money on the full slate of game interests, that would have been pleasant.

(I can't believe I'm defending the shit-shoveling THQ publishing model, but now that it's gone I miss the stuff I liked to be found among the garbage.)

Embracer is just a holding company that wanted to get into the games industry like Tencent has, Tencent did it the clever way by investing and having a few studios that actually do development, Embracer raised some cap bought a bunch of studios and dying publishers, tried to raise more cap and bought more studios......one of their deals didnt go through and now they have a ton of studios they cant afford to own.

Literally the worst kind of publisher because they will kill hundreds if not thousands of jobs cuz they promise the companies they own money, so those companies work (autonomously) on the promise of money for operations........that money doesnt come and who is left holding the bag?

They needed to have published a lot more titles by now to atleast be in some sense self sufficient and not rely on begging for money.
You knwo you have a bad bad business model when your products dont actually make you money yet are the size of a small city.....they are running the group like its a startup.

They dont give a damn about games and will gladly let a bunch of these studios burn to keep the group alive.

 

[diffusionx]

Embracer thought a random collection of devs and IPs would be attractive to big money investors like the Saudi wealth fund but those wealth funds could diversify on their own, as Saudis did when they bought SNK.

devs come and go, but established infrastructure, culture, pipeline, limited tech debt... all very important...

Borderlands is almost always available for free on a multitude of platforms.

Huh? It’s an extremely successful franchise, whether you personally like it or not. As I said multiple times, the last game did really well too and that was a spin-off.

The series in total has sold over 80 million copies and there’s no reason to think that is stopping.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Mibu no ookami
That is EA.
This is MS/Xbox who are competing with Sony. And main reason why Sony went back to them with Spiderman and bought them after that.

You're writing your own narrative.

Insomniac partnered with EA. That partnership didn't work out. They tried with Microsoft and that also didn't work out.

Before making Sunset Overdrive, they also made RC: Into the Nexus for Sony. After Sunset, they made a slew of PC and mobile games, that didn't work out, but they also made RC PS4 before Spider-Man.

They also made mobile and Xbox games after that before Spider-Man. They also partnered with Oculus and Magic Leap. Not to mention GameStop...

 

[feynoob]

You're writing your own narrative.

Insomniac partnered with EA. That partnership didn't work out. They tried with Microsoft and that also didn't work out.

Before making Sunset Overdrive, they also made RC: Into the Nexus for Sony. After Sunset, they made a slew of PC and mobile games, that didn't work out, but they also made RC PS4 before Spider-Man.

They also made mobile and Xbox games after that before Spider-Man. They also partnered with Oculus and Magic Leap. Not to mention GameStop...

A) You are ignoring the relationship between Xbox and PS.
B) You do not want to believe one of the people who worked there.

I dont know what you want to believe man.

 

[Ar¢tos]

The company in question made games for Sony, yet they went to MS for funding?

FROM SOFTWARE usually makes games for Bamco, yet they made Sekiro with Activision and they are owned by yet another games publisher (Kadokawa) that never publishes any of their games (From self-publishes in Japan).
Things don't have to be always connected.

 

[CamHostage]

Embracer is just a holding company that wanted to get into the games industry like Tencent has... Embracer raised some cap bought a bunch of studios and dying publishers, tried to raise more cap and bought more studios......one of their deals didnt go through and now they have a ton of studios they cant afford to own.
...
They needed to have published a lot more titles by now to atleast be in some sense self sufficient and not rely on begging for money.
You knwo you have a bad bad business model when your products dont actually make you money yet are the size of a small city.....they are running the group like its a startup.

They dont give a damn about games and will gladly let a bunch of these studios burn to keep the group alive.

Oh sure, the business plan was grotesque and concerning, Embracer itself never cared about "games", and their efforts to get big off the backs of struggling studios and shaky publishers and forgotten IP only delayed the devastation (while also probably making it challenging for studios within the system to pivot when they needed to make moves for survival.)

I'm just saying that was their product for the market was games and lots of them (although ultimately you're probably right that the volume was still not high/consistent enough,) and for a short time it seemed like they were more eager than other publishers to feed that market. Activision is down to 1 IP outside of the Blizzard products (and occasionally Crash, plus whatever's left of King,) and EA and Ubisoft and others are consolidating to just select brands. Embracer's THQ Nordic and Deep Silver/Plaion and Saber and Gearbox and Asmodee and these other publisher/developer/operative groups all promising titles in a variety of genres and with names you might recognize from better days, that was a fun bubble to watch float around for a time.

 

[IAmNotFromDelaware]

Jury's still out on that one, 85 meta is hardly a success. Let's wait and see the Xbox hardware sales figures for this quarter.

Wait, you believe a game's score is tied to success?

So if a game sells 10 million but has a meta score of 65, to you, that's not a success?
As for hardware sales, I imagine MS cares more about GamePass subscriptions.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

A) You are ignoring the relationship between Xbox and PS.
B) You do not want to believe one of the people who worked there.

I dont know what you want to believe man.

He never mentions anything about Sony, you've just shifted the narrative to fit what you want. They were making games for multiple platforms.

 

[YuLY]

I've already made peace with the fact that Eidos will probably get sold again and the new Deus Ex wont see the light of day.

Hopefully Space Marine 2 is out before this publisher implodes and is sold piece by piece like THQ. Then we will wait another decade for a 3rd game...

 

[NickFire]

Companies buying up game developers reminds me of pro sports teams signing aging superstars with long and pricey contracts. Sometimes it works out for the right team / player, but it more often blows up in the teams' faces.

 

[feynoob]

Companies buying up game developers reminds me of pro sports teams signing aging superstars with long and pricey contracts. Sometimes it works out for the right team / player, but it more often blows up in the teams' faces.

Which explains why Sony cant rush with these big publishers.
Buying is easy. Managing them is hard. Its alot of money to manage bigger studios. If you dont have that funding, you will have to cut certain departments which can hurt the companies income.

 

[Beechos]

Ms is already..

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Embracer:

(1) Rack up debt to buy every indie and AA studio
(2) ???
(3) BANKRUPTCY!

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]