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That's sorta the problem yeah. Even parting ways with Paradox, can they realistically come back from an 80% layoff? Probably not.
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Oct 17, 2023 20:33
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Anticheese posted:I just got a press release saying that hbs and Paradox have parted ways. loving lmao does Jordan Weisman now own the company again? The dude is really good at making companies and then selling them, but being able to sell the same company twice would be a new one. Captain Oblivious posted:That's sorta the problem yeah. Even parting ways with Paradox, can they realistically come back from an 80% layoff? Probably not. Probably yes, very much depending on who is still there. A game studios have a lot of turnover just as a normal course of operations. And a lot of successful studios have been started when a small core group of devs says "let's make our own studio with hookers and blackjack". It very much seems to me like if you have that core of experience and institutional knowledge, you can scale up and down pretty well.
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Oct 17, 2023 20:51
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The original BTech game was kickstarted. They did it once they can do it again.
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Oct 17, 2023 21:27
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- 80% of HBS staff was laid off Summer 2023 per posts on resetera by ex-HBS staff - The Lamplighter's League quietly releases in a stacked October and Paradox declares it a write-off within days - Paradox Interactive and HBS will separate starting Jan 2024 - Microsoft owns the BattleTech and Shadowrun game IPs while Paradox has the publishing rights to both HBS developed game franchises - Some of the HBS heads were ex-FASA who were screwed over during the Don Mattrick era of Microsoft (Shadowrun 2007) - ??? - return to doting mother microsoft?
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Oct 17, 2023 21:44
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https://www.ign.com/articles/paradox-and-harebrained-schemes-parting-ways-after-lamplighters-leaguequote:Paradox Interactive and developer Harebrained Schemes have announced they are parting ways on January 1, 2024, following the commercially disappointing release of The Lamplighters League.
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Oct 17, 2023 21:53
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Bentai posted:The original BTech game was kickstarted. They did it once they can do it again. Despite Lamplighter being shoved out the door to die by Paradox, I think they still have a huge amount of player goodwill for Shadowrun and Battletech on their side, which would probably help them a lot if they wanted to go the crowdfunding route.
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Oct 17, 2023 21:54
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Gyoru posted:- Microsoft owns the BattleTech and Shadowrun game IPs while Paradox has the publishing rights to both HBS developed game franchises This is where the big question lies, I think. Does Paradox still own the rights to publishing BattleTech and Shadowrun games as a franchise? Or do they just own the rights to those specific titles? I was going to say "hell, do they own the Shadowrun trilogy?" but it looks like info on Steam and whatnot got updated to indicate that they own all three, though "Harebrained Holdings" also has a stake, so hopefully the HBS folks still left are seeing a little of that continued money. Kanos posted:Despite Lamplighter being shoved out the door to die by Paradox, I think they still have a huge amount of player goodwill for Shadowrun and Battletech on their side, which would probably help them a lot if they wanted to go the crowdfunding route. Crowdfunding has always been a sliver of the actual funding required for a game, though, short of truly independent projects. A BTech fully funded by a KS wouldn't look like BTech 2018. (The player goodwill would likely help with securing a different publishing partner, though.) SpaceDrake fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 21:58
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SpaceDrake posted:Crowdfunding has always been a sliver of the actual funding required for a game, though, short of truly independent projects. A BTech fully funded by a KS wouldn't look like BTech 2018. Yeah, the latter is the point. Getting 80% of your studio axed and then getting dumped by your publisher after a failed title would make it very hard to actually find funding unless you can prove you still have an audience for your products, which a successful crowdfunding campaign would do.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:18
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lagidnam posted:None of the 3 big overhaul mods require any of the expansions. They just add additional content when you have them. Ah excellent. That was the piece of info I couldn't track down. SpaceDrake posted:Crowdfunding has always been a sliver of the actual funding required for a game, though, short of truly independent projects. A BTech fully funded by a KS wouldn't look like BTech 2018. Battletech is orders of magnitude more popular now than five years ago. I think the sheer number of BT-hungry eyes online these days would make a kickstarter for a new turn-based game reach insane funding levels.
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Oct 17, 2023 22:23
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SpaceDrake posted:This is where the big question lies, I think. Does Paradox still own the rights to publishing BattleTech and Shadowrun games as a franchise? Or do they just own the rights to those specific titles? Considering they didn't do Battletech 2 because they didn't want to pay MS, I'm guessing just the HBS-developed games and direct IP. So like if HBS wanted to make Battletech 2 they'd only have to talk to MS and not Paradox. Then not use Lady AranoTM, The ArgoTM, or other original stuff they made for the first game.
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Oct 18, 2023 00:20
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While we're wish listing I'd love for it to be not in the succession wars. Hell, go for left field and have it be in the ilClan era.
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Oct 18, 2023 01:28
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The issue is Paradox has no ownership over virtually anything BattleTech setting related but they may still own the source code from HBS's game. If that is the case HBS would have to start from complete scratch. Klyith posted:So like if HBS wanted to make Battletech 2 they'd only have to talk to MS and not Paradox. Then not use Lady AranoTM, The ArgoTM, or other original stuff they made for the first game. Actually (akshewally) CGL released a sourcebook canonizing the setting and major Arano characters. HBS could use anything in that since it's tabletop material now. Sky Shadowing fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 02:17
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Sky Shadowing posted:The issue is Paradox has no ownership over virtually anything BattleTech setting related but they may still own the source code from HBS's game. Given Battletech's constellation of crippling performance issues, that might be a net positive for a theoretical sequel.
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Oct 18, 2023 02:41
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Yeah I mean, especially with recent Unity issues I'd assume anything developed now would use a completely new engine.Floppychop posted:While we're wish listing I'd love for it to be not in the succession wars. Hell, go for left field and have it be in the ilClan era. Also, yeah, this unironically. The latest The Video Games have ever gone is the lead-up to just before the Word of Blake War. It'd be neat to see something set during the ilClan era, especially kicking off a new game set. SpaceDrake fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 02:45
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dingo with a joint posted:Battletech is orders of magnitude more popular now than five years ago. I think the sheer number of BT-hungry eyes online these days would make a kickstarter for a new turn-based game reach insane funding levels. So we've now reached eight people that have heard of it. Battletech is one of those IPs that has a small following which makes it sound like the biggest thing ever. Despite whatever renaissance it seems to be experiencing, it's still very small. Nobody's heard of Battletech or MechWarrior. And it doesn't help that it's strung out between multiple rights holders depending on the medium and mired in copyright hell.
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Oct 18, 2023 04:20
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Star Man posted:So we've now reached eight people that have heard of it. Battletech had a peak concurrent of 36,000 people on Steam, which is very successful for an AA title from a relatively small studio in a supposedly unknown franchise. It's not CoD numbers but it never was going to be and doesn't need to be to be considered relatively popular.
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Oct 18, 2023 05:19
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Kanos posted:Despite Lamplighter being shoved out the door to die by Paradox, I think they still have a huge amount of player goodwill for Shadowrun and Battletech on their side, which would probably help them a lot if they wanted to go the crowdfunding route. I can say with no reservation that I'd toss money at HBS for a new Shadowrun game sight unseen. Hong Kong and Dragonfall were bangers. I'd do the same for Battletech. Star Man posted:So we've now reached eight people that have heard of it. I think you're underselling things a bit here. With the notable exception of Armored Core 6 which is boosted by the Fromsoft legacy, the mech genre itself is relatively niche. The problem isn't audience, it's licensing.
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Oct 18, 2023 05:39
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https://twitter.com/mitchgit/status/1714685092705280285 Mitch confirming that the source code for the Shadowrun games and BattleTech remains with Paradox.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:07
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so officially ded game territory. I don't see paradox ever touching either one
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Oct 18, 2023 21:14
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Anybody can make Battletech 2 or Shadowrun Again if they ask MS.They just can't use assets from the existing games.
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Oct 18, 2023 21:22
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Eej posted:Anybody can make Battletech 2 or Shadowrun Again if they ask MS.They just can't use assets from the existing games. Exactly. Though as one correction: they can absolutely use the 'Mech models, because those belong to Pirahna Games. HBS used the MWO models for a sense of continuity and to keep costs down. So they could just dial up the MW5M/upcoming MW5 Clans models any time they want to, assuming they can get the funding together to make a go at everything else. If anything, Shadowrun is a bit stickier because it'd all have to be re-asseted from scratch. (And some of those Shadowrun assets are a decade old, so it'd be good to move on in any event, but that's still $$$.)
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Oct 18, 2023 22:09
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Super glad that the dudes who had no interest in a Battletech 2 because of licensing fees retained the rights because it looks good to shareholders to hoard IPs like a dragon.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:14
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Captain Oblivious posted:Super glad that the dudes who had no interest in a Battletech 2 because of licensing fees retained the rights because it looks good to shareholders to hoard IPs like a dragon. They didn't retain any rights, they own the game and presumably Mitch didn't want to buy it back. e: I'm not sure there's anything from the code you'd want to take for a game 2 anyway. It's bad old Unity.
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Oct 18, 2023 22:22
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Captain Oblivious posted:Super glad that the dudes who had no interest in a Battletech 2 because of licensing fees retained the rights because it looks good to shareholders to hoard IPs like a dragon. I mean, HBS can make a new BattleTech whenever they like. The name and all the IP rights belong to Microsoft. They probably can't call it specifically BattleTech 2 but that's about it. (The Shadowrun games weren't even numbered, so that's whatever.)
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Oct 18, 2023 22:22
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Alchenar posted:e: I'm not sure there's anything from the code you'd want to take for a game 2 anyway. It's bad old Unity. Yeah if they were to make a new Battletech game I really wouldn't want them to use the engine from the first game because the game's greatest weakness is that it runs like absolute poo poo for what it is and is horrifyingly unoptimized. I love the game to death and have 800 hours in it both modded and unmodded and hearing "we're making Battletech 2 on the same engine" would be enough to make me at least hesitate briefly.
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Oct 18, 2023 23:00
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I'd like to see a Solaris VII game. Build a stable, climb the ladder, earn a shield in Valhalla.
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Oct 30, 2023 14:56
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The fact that Microsoft have the Battletech IP, saw Battletech be successful (for genre and budget), see that Piranha can ouch out uninspired bland junk and still make piles of cash, and aren't doing more is incredible. Hell the setting is literally CK in space, there is *so much* they could greenlight across the genres.
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Oct 30, 2023 20:01
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PhotoKirk posted:I'd like to see a Solaris VII game. Build a stable, climb the ladder, earn a shield in Valhalla. There was some mech arena game I remember playing in the 90s and it ruled It was sorta like that
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Oct 31, 2023 01:17
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PhotoKirk posted:I'd like to see a Solaris VII game. Build a stable, climb the ladder, earn a shield in Valhalla. Assassinate sons of House intelligence organizations
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Oct 31, 2023 01:38
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Alchenar posted:Hell the setting is literally CK in space brb checking Nexusmods
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Oct 31, 2023 01:57
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Captain Oblivious posted:Super glad that the dudes who had no interest in a Battletech 2 because of licensing fees retained the rights because it looks good to shareholders to hoard IPs like a dragon. Paradox will be defeated after all their blunders, inshallah
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Oct 31, 2023 02:16
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Okay I'm trying not to stack OP poo poo as much now, can I get a lorecheck for YAML in MW5: ripping out XL engines and putting them on other mechs is fine, but endosteel is deffo a thing you need to build into a mech from the start, not some poo poo you salvage and add to an existing frame?
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Nov 29, 2023 05:47
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toasterwarrior posted:Okay I'm trying not to stack OP poo poo as much now, can I get a lorecheck for YAML in MW5: ripping out XL engines and putting them on other mechs is fine, but endosteel is deffo a thing you need to build into a mech from the start, not some poo poo you salvage and add to an existing frame? yeah pretty sure you could add ferro or engine swap but not endo
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Nov 29, 2023 05:54
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Gotcha, thank you. XL Engines are the real gamechangers anyway, it feels like. I've somehow managed to run out of critical slots for an Atlas without maxing out its weight with both an XL engine and endo once.
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Nov 29, 2023 05:59
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At least YAML makes ripping out and installing Endo stupid expensive and time consuming.
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Nov 29, 2023 06:18
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toasterwarrior posted:Okay I'm trying not to stack OP poo poo as much now, can I get a lorecheck for YAML in MW5: ripping out XL engines and putting them on other mechs is fine, but endosteel is deffo a thing you need to build into a mech from the start, not some poo poo you salvage and add to an existing frame? I think it even mentions it in the flavor text somewhere that endosteel is some fancy poo poo that's built in special facilities in zero-G. I think by that point I had every mech equipped with endosteel and a bunch of spare sets in storage.
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Nov 29, 2023 07:08
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Endo-steel is better at saving weight than ferro-fibrous, but ferro-fibrous is way cheaper and easier to make.
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Nov 29, 2023 07:23
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I hate using ferro armor period, though. I can manage most missions without getting my armor breached, but you're definitely not leaving a mission without armor damage 99% of the time.
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Nov 29, 2023 07:26
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Alchenar posted:The fact that Microsoft have the Battletech IP, saw Battletech be successful (for genre and budget), see that Piranha can ouch out uninspired bland junk and still make piles of cash, and aren't doing more is incredible. Because no one's heard of Battletech. The only people buying it are already up to their eyeballs in Battletech.
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Nov 29, 2023 15:13
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Star Man posted:Because no one's heard of Battletech. The only people buying it are already up to their eyeballs in Battletech. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. "no one's heard of this IP, so we can't make games in the IP, ensuring no one's ever heard of it". It also ignores that the Battletech fans that do exist are huge evangelists, a basis for word of mouth that would not exist for a fresh IP. Battletech(the HBS game) sold extremely well for a game based on a niche IP - far greater numbers of sales than could be reasonably supported by the vanishingly small number of grogs reminiscing over the good old days of MW2 while rolling dice and looking at record sheets - suggesting that maybe people just like good-looking, well-made games that feature grungy ponderous giant robots shooting each other. I don't think there's any basis for an AAA budget game in the Battletech universe, but I think there's absolutely a market for smaller titles(such as Battletech itself).
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Nov 29, 2023 15:21
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