The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[Sno]

So Epic has sold Gears of War to Microsoft, and apparently that big Vancouver studio Microsoft has been staffing up for the last few years, the Vancouver-based Black Tusk - the studio nobody was willing to say much about - turns out they're the new stewards of Gears. Whether they've been secretly working on a new Gears of War game for the last few years, or if something got canned in light of this announcement, is an interesting question to ponder. (Additionally, a few of the key people involved with Gears have left Epic to join Black Tusk.)

1. Microsoft's secured themselves another important first-party IP at a time when they desperately need first-party IP's. (Hey, i like Gears, but i also didn't play Judgement, it seemed obvious to me that the series suffered without CliffyB at the helm.)

 

2. This would seem to continue Epic's slow shift towards being purely a technology outfit. (Which leaves me worried for teams like Chair and People Can Fly.)

[JonCole]

I thought Judgment was actually quite good, I just think it had some plot missteps - relying on a shit final boss instead of leveraging the narrative established in the first two acts as well as making Baird, a character most players don't care about, the protagonist - and a lack of Horde Mode that didn't make it particularly memorable. Plus, it came out at an odd time in the year that pretty much disqualified it from GOTY categories that it might have had a shot at given greater proximity. So I'd personally posit that it wasn't a lack of CliffyB secret sauce that made it the latest GoW entry less than a stunning success, and MS/Black Tusk has a good a chance as any to make GoW good this generation.

 

That said, GoW was huge in the multiplayer department in the first two iterations and really lost steam in 3 and Judgment, so they'll need something quite compelling to reel in people from COD/BF and Titanfall/Destiny. Just being a notable franchise doesn't seem to do it anymore, especially when you look at how poorly Halo 4 did in the long run as far as multiplayer numbers go.

 

And to address #2, I think Epic at some point announced that Epic Poland (PCF) is helping Epic US work on Fortnight. No idea what Chair is up to with Infinity Blade on the outs.

[elmuerte]

People Can Fly has been re-branded as Epic Games Poland. Only Chair has their original name. But it does look like tech is getting more focus given that EG HQ+Poland work on a single title.

[Bjorn]

This was kind of disappointing all the way around.  For a software company, MS seems to have struggled to decide what their role as a game developer should be.  You can see the weight of the plodding MS bureaucracy and executive changes in how they've handled the management (and the brief swing away from) internally developed games.  They shuttered multiple studios in 2009, let Bungie go, were abandoning internal development.  Then 2 years later, whoops!, that maybe wasn't the best idea for a console maker.  So they start buying and building studios again.  Sony, for all their missteps, have at least had a consistent investment in developing a wide range of IP. 

 

As for Epic, I had hoped that projects like Shadow Complex and Infinity Blade were the front wave of some new and interesting games from Epic, but it's looking more like that was a brief creative hiccup and not a brave new direction.  Hopefully Chair is working on something new.

[Henroid]

So Epic has sold Gears of War to Microsoft, and apparently that big Vancouver studio Microsoft has been staffing up for the last few years, the Vancouver-based Black Tusk - the studio nobody was willing to say much about - turns out they're the new stewards of Gears. Whether they've been secretly working on a new Gears of War game for the last few years, or if something got canned in light of this announcement, is an interesting question to ponder. (Additionally, a few of the key people involved with Gears have left Epic to join Black Tusk.)

1. Microsoft's secured themselves another important first-party IP at a time when they desperately need first-party IP's. (Hey, i like Gears, but i also didn't play Judgement, it seemed obvious to me that the series suffered without CliffyB at the helm.)

 

2. This would seem to continue Epic's slow shift towards being purely a technology outfit. (Which leaves me worried for teams like Chair and People Can Fly.)

They also got the guy from Epic that was in charge of GoW.

 

All in all, huge win for Epic. GoW couldn't have been cheap, and I doubt MS is going to be able to flare up GoW's appeal. As far as I know that series was on a downward spin for excitement / appeal. I'm sure the first game will do as well as the series has so far, but after that people just aren't going to care.

[Sno]

The person they're bringing over is one Rod Fergusson who apparently served as a producer on the original three Gears games, left to do work with Irrational and 2k on BioShock Infinite, and then returned to Epic for Gears: Judgement.

As for the series itself, i think Gears 3 was actually quite uniformly the best game the series, but it definitely didn't have the following of the previous two. So you're right, the big winner here is Epic, selling off a series that appears to have waning interest.

Microsoft still needs good first-party IP right now, but who knows how much life Gears has in it. (I'm not convinced they can reinvigorate it, seeing how they're handling Halo post-Bungie. That scene has collapsed, 343 has bull-headedly pushed on with things that are absolutely wrong for that series and detested by the fans.)

[Henroid]

My view on MS is starting to change too because of this - look how much effort they're putting into locking developers or series into exclusivity. On the one hand, video game players care about video games. On the other, it almost looks like MS doesn't have any confidence in their hardware or services.

[Justin Leego]

The person they're bringing over is one Rod Fergusson who apparently served as a producer on the original three Gears games, left to do work with Irrational and 2k on BioShock Infinite, and then returned to Epic for Gears: Judgement.

 

I thought he left Epic before Judgement shipped and left Irrational when his job getting Binfinite into a shippable state was done? Then there was talk that he would head up 2K's SF team after Marin's headcount was reduced. So that might not be good news for 2K on the east coast. Be interesting to see what comes out of Irrational once the second crossover BioShock expansion comes out.

 

Anyway, smart acquisition of talent, there's been a high rate of departures at Epic (senior People Can Fly peeps left at the same time as Rod, now making The Vanishing of Ethan Carter).

 

But yeah like you say there can't be much doubt Epic is now a technology outfit, depending on what happens to the Infinity Blades.

[elmuerte]

As for Epic working on Games:

https://twitter.com/WesPhillips/status/427808767866961920

And for people saying Epic isn't making games anymore, we currently have multiple games in development, including @FortniteGame.

[Justin Leego]

Fortnite, Infinity Blade ∞, Unreal 4rtnite IV, Tournament Jackrabbit.

[Merus]

2. This would seem to continue Epic's slow shift towards being purely a technology outfit. (Which leaves me worried for teams like Chair and People Can Fly.)

 

I don't really understand this criticism; BioWare left lots of doctors in the lurch when they decide they were going to start making video games instead of medical programs, and it turned out they were better at making video games than they were at making medical programs. Epic is in the same position: they are better at making tools than they are at making video games.

[Sno]

Well, i would count a number of Epic's games among my favorites, so i don't necessarily agree with the premise of your statement. Undoubtedly though, Epic today is not that Epic anymore.

Either way, it wasn't really meant as a criticism of Epic, and Epic's current status aside, your response doesn't address the future of PCF and Chair, both excellent Video game developers shackled to a company that no longer seems interested in making video games.

[SiN]

Epic will keep making games. Their engine development workflow benefits greatly from the eat your own dogfood nature of the company.

[Merus]

Epic made some pretty good video games. They make some of the most popular middleware in the world.

 

Epic will keep making games. Their engine development workflow benefits greatly from the eat your own dogfood nature of the company.

 

This is true, I think; it's hard to know what they'll do with PCF and Chair, but they benefit from having first-party teams to dogfood the engine and make the flagship games for the engine. It's possible they might spin the companies off, so that they can focus on what they do best while not being shackled to a company that doesn't need them; they might just shut them down.

[Bjorn]

Not sure this is quite the appropriate thread, but it doesn't really need it's own and I can't think of a more appropriate threads. 

 

Chris commented on Twitter about this article about Blood Dragon designer Dean Evans.  It's the most batshit interview I've seen in awhile, alternating between being genuinely amazing and absolutely horrifying, sometimes in the same paragraph.

[Twig]

Not sure this is quite the appropriate thread, but it doesn't really need it's own and I can't think of a more appropriate threads. 

 

Chris commented on Twitter about this article about Blood Dragon designer Dean Evans.  It's the most batshit interview I've seen in awhile, alternating between being genuinely amazing and absolutely horrifying, sometimes in the same paragraph.

Holy shit this man is insane!

[Nachimir]

"We had so many [QTEs], but we had to cut them all out," he explains. "There was a part where someone dies and you had to press A to cry, so you press A and Rex would stand and try to cry, but because he was a cyborg tears wouldn't come out."

 

[SiN]

This is true, I think; it's hard to know what they'll do with PCF and Chair, but they benefit from having first-party teams to dogfood the engine and make the flagship games for the engine. It's possible they might spin the companies off, so that they can focus on what they do best while not being shackled to a company that doesn't need them; they might just shut them down.

 

PCF is a coin-toss... maybe they'll spin them off, but I think they're valuable as a second-tier development team. I mean, Judgement wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.

 

Chair, on the other hand, is *insanely* important to Epic. They're a premier mobile studio, and Epic are moving fairly aggressively into targeting mobile development along side their well established console/PC space. Epic really don't want to lose out to Unity in mobile.

[Bjorn]

I never really get tired of reading news about Eve Online.  I don't always understand it, but it's fascinating.  So apparently one of the largest wars ever wiped about $300,000 (like, actual real world value) worth of fleets, and was all sparked due to a late payment between corporations.  It's almost as bizarre as how some real life conflicts get started.

[Henroid]

So the news is still breaking, but the company that made The Secret World - Funcom - is being poked by the Norweigin government. And when I say poked, I mean investigated for lying about financial information, and the company has been delisted from the stock market. That's the official news. Unofficial news via hearsay on Twitter includes government vans rolling up to the premises and loading up their stuff.

[Dewar]

Uh oh, I just started playing that again too.

[Bjorn]

Last report I saw said that the stock wasn't delisted, but trading was temporarily halted, then restarted before the end of the day.  And the investigating office said that the company is cooperating.

 

It's not good, but it doesn't sound like anyone is expecting the company to crash and burn this week over this.

[tegan]

Highlights from the Nintendo investor meeting, taken from Neogaf:

 

Summary:

Wii U
- The problem is that people think it's an accessory for Wii
- They can't cut the price
- The Gamepad needs to be emphasized more
- The first game to emphasize the Gamepad will be Mario Kart 8, which uses off-tv play
- They will announce NFC games at E3.

 

General Direction
- No major changes in company's direction
- Further hardware R&D will continue
- They won't release games on other peoples platforms, including mobile
- They want to have a platform where the platform is not the device, but rather the user (IE integrated over multiple hardware platforms)
- They are considering a streaming service
- They have solved technical hurdles related to Virtual Consoles
- They will license characters to new partners -- it's unclear if this means merchandise or games

QUACK ZONE WARNING QUACK ZONE
- Nintendo wants to get into health care and wellness and lifestyle products
- They want to improve your quality of life
- This has nothing to do with games
- They want to announce ways to make you healthy
- This will not involve wearable devices because there are too many of those.
- This is integrated with games
- This will launch in April 2015

 

 

 

Not specifically mentioned here: those Virtual Console technical hurdles? They're putting DS games on the Wii U as VC releases. Hooooly shit.

[Ucantalas]

All that stuff under the "Quack Zone Warning"...

Wii Fit U. (also that is the creepiest name I have ever heard.)

[Merus]

I am super not surprised 64 that Nintendo thinks that health and lifestyle products are a natural evolution for the company, and I'm honestly a bit annoyed that I didn't see it coming myself. Nintendo see themselves as a hardware company, and their software makes their hardware more compelling. Health and lifestyle is a market segment that is completely moribund and unimaginative - the biggest thing that has happened in years is a GPS device you can put in your shoe - and Nintendo would do extremely well in a field where the technology is well understood and applied without any creativity whatsoever.

 

Nintendo makes games because it was the best fit for their company culture, but this would give them a major new revenue stream and a way out of the games industry if they ever wanted it. I think they have too many people at Nintendo invested in the idea of Nintendo as a games company to ever fully pull out, though.