Usually, when companies/IP/properties start going through acquisition after acquisition - they are dead men walking.
Each time they change hands a little more of it gets peeled off, nothing ever gets invested back into them, and by the end it will be a penny stock with nothing but it’s name and a memory left.
You do realize that all the devs worth anything are long gone - the folks that are left are truly incapable of making anything decent
So I have no idea why anyone would wait for any games from DBG - since they can't make anything that would be even half-decent.
The studio is far beyond any hope or chance for redemption.
People hoping for EQ3 announcement - like imagine the shittiest version of EQ3 - now take that and imagine it being even 10 times worse.
That is the kind of EQ3 that you'd be waiting for... anyone really want that, if so... why?
You know ALL of the games under Daybreak have been pushing out quality content non-stop with the same devs for years now?. How do you think those games retained tens of thousands of paying subs each month? People don't usually stay subbed to games for years/decades if they're garbage, right? The losers are the ones that left either by choice or force. Smed + his crew that couldn't even complete Hero's Song a single player minimal game in 1 year...
SSG/Turbine remaining devs are geniuses compared to every last person at AGS and probably even Blizzard.
"The studio is far beyond any hope or chance for redemption." Yeah, that's why someone just bought em' for 300 mil.. not the budget Trion/Gamigo price.
SOE was 60 mil in debt when they sold and became Daybreak. Daybreak just sold for 300mil. Factor in just two games under SSG/Turbine and that's what you call turning shit into gold. Hartsman and Trion on the other hand turned gold into shit but keep preaching that preach.
Usually, when companies/IP/properties start going through acquisition after acquisition - they are dead men walking.
Each time they change hands a little more of it gets peeled off, nothing ever gets invested back into them, and by the end it will be a penny stock with nothing but it’s name and a memory left.
See: MySpace, Yahoo, Sears, etc...
Like how after SOE became Daybreak and Turbine became SSG under Daybreak they created more content than they did before?
Not saying I know what the future holds but the company that once caused 60 million in debt just sold for 300 million. Spending 300 million to shut down your primary sources of income doesn't really make much sense in this situation.
Don't get the idea that a company consists of exactly the same employees throughout its existence. Employment in the game industry is extremely volatile, and it's unusual for a single person to work on the same game continuously for ten years. Most or all of the original talent that created older games has since moved on, but if you've got money to hire people, you can hire new talent. That depends on whether they're willing to spend money for further development of an older game, however.
It's also important to distinguish between what employees can do if they have to constantly make small changes that leave the game in a playable state after every patch and what they can do if they have the freedom to tear up and redo large chunks of code that have been held together by duct tape for the last decade. The latter takes more time and more money, but can fix a whole lot of problems that you'll never fix with incremental patches.
The big question is how much EG7 is willing to spend on development, whether to create new games or to add to old ones. If they're willing to pour a lot of resources into creating a new, modern MMORPG engine and moving the older games to the new engine, this could be a really good thing. If they're just planning on collecting revenue from existing players without creating anything significantly new until all of the existing players leave, it could be quite a bad thing.
I really hope that when they talk about making a console version of LotRO, they're not thinking that you can just take the old code base and run it on a PS5 without much in the way of changes. If they are thinking that, then they'll deserve to lose whatever money they spend on the acquisition.
I think they could start with a new modern game engine and make an upgraded EQ graphics wise, game play ect somewhat. Use mostly the same lore and content.
And do a lot better than most of the WoW and EQ clones that keep being made.
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Each time they change hands a little more of it gets peeled off, nothing ever gets invested back into them, and by the end it will be a penny stock with nothing but it’s name and a memory left.
See: MySpace, Yahoo, Sears, etc...
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/It's also important to distinguish between what employees can do if they have to constantly make small changes that leave the game in a playable state after every patch and what they can do if they have the freedom to tear up and redo large chunks of code that have been held together by duct tape for the last decade. The latter takes more time and more money, but can fix a whole lot of problems that you'll never fix with incremental patches.
The big question is how much EG7 is willing to spend on development, whether to create new games or to add to old ones. If they're willing to pour a lot of resources into creating a new, modern MMORPG engine and moving the older games to the new engine, this could be a really good thing. If they're just planning on collecting revenue from existing players without creating anything significantly new until all of the existing players leave, it could be quite a bad thing.
I really hope that when they talk about making a console version of LotRO, they're not thinking that you can just take the old code base and run it on a PS5 without much in the way of changes. If they are thinking that, then they'll deserve to lose whatever money they spend on the acquisition.
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.