News from the lovely world of the Games Industry.

[Solmyr]

They seem to not have marketed it at all. I only learned about its existence from a Youtuber I follow. The game's premise looked interesting, though not something I'd pay full price for.

[Syt]

Yes, seems it was seriously underhyped. I thought the premise was interesting, but honestly didn't follow it closely (I generally rarely do anymore, but normally you pick up a few things here and there in the run-up to a game).

Could be various reasons for that - they thought it was so niche, that hype would be wasted. Or that the game would not be a great final product. Or that they thought it would do well based on word of mouth or the reputation of the developer/publisher. But other games don't seem much different - sure, Cities Skylines II has its dev diaries, and some Youtubers have been able to try it out. And similar with Millennia. Maybe they got burnt on the Victoria 3 hype/reception?

[celedhring]

I fear we may be entering the Hollywood phase of the gaming industry where it's either IP, indie, or bust.

[garbon]

I fear we may be entering the Hollywood phase of the gaming industry where it's either IP, indie, or bust.

Other links in that chain beyond this subpar game published by paradox?

[The Minsky Moment]

I saw it go onto GamePass on release; seemed like a bad sign for a non-MSFT controlled title.

[Syt]

https://www.pcgamer.com/harebrained-schemes-is-independent-again-paradox-parts-ways-with-the-studio-less-than-a-week-after-confirming-major-layoffs-earlier-this-year/

Harebrained Schemes is independent again: Paradox parts ways with the studio less than a week after confirming major layoffs earlier this year

Paradox and Harebrained say the split was a mutual decision.

Less than a week after saying that sales of turn-based tactics game The Lamplighters League were "a big disappointment" and confirming major layoffs at developer Harebrained Schemes, Paradox Interactive has announced that it has "decided to part ways" with the studio. Paradox said the split was a mutual decision, "stemming from each party's strategic and creative priorities," and that HBS will officially be independent again on January 1, 2024.

"Paradox has refocused its strategy towards its core niches within strategy and management games with endless qualities," Paradox COO Charlotta Nilsson said. "We and HBS' leadership have been discussing what would happen after the release of The Lamplighters League, but a new project or sequel in the same genre was not in line with our portfolio plans. Hence, we believe that a separation would be the best way forward."

The separation will leave Paradox with ownership of The Lamplighters League and "other games developed by the studio," although specifics about which games were not provided. Of particular interest on that front are Harebrained's best-known games, Shadowrun and Battletech: Both videogame series are based on tabletop games created by FASA, an RPG and tabletop gaming company co-founded by Jordan Weisman, who is also the co-founder of Harebrained Schemes.

It's something of a long and complicated history but the short version is that FASA launched a videogame studio called FASA Interactive in the mid '90s, which was eventually acquired by Microsoft. FASA Interactive was closed in 2007, but Microsoft licensed the rights to make new FASA-based videogames back to Weisman through his then-new, now-closed venture Smith and Tinker.

Those rights seemingly went with Weisman when he co-founded Harebrained Schemes in 2011 (the studio made three Shadowrun games and was deep into development of Battletech prior to its acquisition by Paradox) and the absence of those titles in the 'parting of ways' announcement makes me think that Harebrained Schemes may have retained them. HBS offered no insight into that possibility in its own comment on the split.

"Harebrained Schemes will support The Lamplighters League through the end of the year while we seek funding and partnerships for an independent future in 2024," studio operations manager Brian Poel said. "Our studio mission remains the same: to make games that challenge your mind and touch your heart."

What sort of resources Harebrained will have to pursue that mission remains to be seen. One person claiming to be a former employee of the studio said roughly 80% of its employees were laid off in June; Paradox didn't provide numbers in its confirmation but acknowledged that the headcount had been "significantly reduced." The one bright spot for the studio is that it has had consistent success with crowdfunding campaigns for its earlier project: Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, and Battletech all far surpassed their goals on Kickstarter, and they all turned out to be pretty good games, too.

Not a huge surprise, but the comment about the portfolio seems weird, considering they have a Sims-like, a Civ-like, and a Factorio-like in the works. I would have thought turn based tactics would be more in their wheelhouse than at least Sims and Factorio.



In other news: Bobby Kotick will leave ActiBlizz Dec 31st following the successful buyout by Microsoft.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2023/10/ceo-bobby-kotick-will-leave-activision-blizzard-on-january-1-2024/

CEO Bobby Kotick will leave Activision Blizzard on January 1, 2024

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, emailed employees after news of Microsoft's successful $69 billion acquisition to say that he was "fully committed to helping with the transition" and that he would stay on as CEO through the end of 2023.

Kotick's statement left some ambiguity about his plans for 2024, but Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reports that on January 1, Kotick will depart. It's "a massive change for the video game industry," Schreier writes, which seems almost restrained, given Kotick's longevity and recent history. Several employees Schreier spoke to are "very excited for this deal to go through," specifically to see leadership change.

Kotick, who has led Activision for more than 30 years and orchestrated its merger with Blizzard, had considered stepping down in late 2021. Following a lawsuit from the state of California alleging a "frat boy culture" rife with pay disparity and sexual harassment, a Wall Street Journal report alleged that Kotick failed to act on hundreds of abuse allegations within the company and also kept the company's board of directors in the dark. Activision was also sued by its shareholders and pressured by state treasurers over its secrecy and responses regarding the California lawsuit. All of this led to an employee walkout and calls for Kotick's resignation.

Kotick stood fast through the flurry of criticism in 2021. In early 2022, Microsoft announced its intent to buy Activision, and the timing, according to reports from Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, was not a coincidence. Kotick, according to Bloomberg, didn't want to sell but had little leverage with Activision's board to refuse an offer. Microsoft's purchase, at $95 per share, compared to the roughly $65 per share when the deal was announced, offered Kotick both a financial and narrative "graceful exit," according to the Journal's sources.

Kotick told VentureBeat after the Microsoft announcement that he didn't believe the harassment and mismanagement accusations hurt the company's stock. He cited delays in shipping Overwatch and Diablo titles, along with Call of Duty's sales performance.

While CEO of Activision, Kotick's termination without cause, or "Termination by employee for good reason following a change of control," guaranteed him nearly $300 million. Bloomberg reports that Kotick's windfall will likely be $375 million now that Microsoft's acquisition has gone through.

Phew, for a moment I was worried that Bobby would not be adequately compensated at the end of his tenure.

[Josquius]

Must have been some real boardroom bollockings over Lamplighters.
Shame, it looks potentially interesting, but so many other good games at the moment.

[The Brain]

Why didn't they market the game?

[garbon]

Why didn't they market the game?

Maybe because it was shit?

[mongers]

Why didn't they market the game?

Maybe because it was shit?

That's not stopped marketeers before.   

[Syt]

In the Paradoxplaza subreddit there's a thread about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/paradoxplaza/comments/17a59f6/harebrained_schemes_and_paradox_interactive_to/

Someone posted screenshots of Discord messages from supposedly a former HBS employee (so impossible to verify) posting this:

[Jacob]

Why didn't they market the game?

Typically the rough calculation is something like:

• If we spent X to develop the game.
• And if we spend Y to market the game (note that Y can easily be equal to or more than X, depending on dev costs)
• Based on sales projections, will revenue be equal to or greater than X+Y+[required margin]?
• If no, then games can get cancelled with little mercy

There's also the factor of slots on the calendar and resources within the publisher organization. Typically they only have bandwidth / staffing for a given number of releases a year and DLC / missed deadlines / market conditions can cause a release to be pushed back, having knock-on effects on lower priority releases.

That's the general case.

For Paradox specifically I've read that there's been a change in executive management (bringing back earlier executives), and that the incoming leadership wants to refocus on Paradox' core business - grand strategy games. Which Lamplighter is not.

[Syt]

I've seen comments that it's not so much grand strategy games, necessarily, but "endless" games, i.e. sandboxes with a potentially long life span, like EU4, HOI4  , Cities Skylines, and also now Millennia, Life by You, and their Factorio-like.

[The Minsky Moment]

I don't get the discord message.  It says that the former President was ousted "and replaced by a status quo techbro board member."  But the replacement was Fredrik, who owns the company.  This isn't the replacement of one outside CEO by another outside CEO, it is the principal owner retaking over management.  That would also explain the tone of the company meeting.

[Solmyr]

Why didn't they market the game?

Maybe because it was shit?

Apparently it wasn't though, according to the reviews I've seen it's pretty good.