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SpaceTroll

SpaceTroll

8 years ago Jul 07,2016, 10:56:00 AM

Amplitude joins the SEGA family!

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Dear Endless Players,

 

Starting today, at 9 am, Amplitude will be writing a new chapter of its history. Since the beginning and our first success with Endless Space (which became a million-seller!), the market has become increasingly crowded. Even some of the biggest publishers want to make their own 4X games, and in an intense market like this, a small studio like Amplitude can get steamrolled.

 

What we want to do is to focus on making games; that is why we created Amplitude. But with the pressure on sales and marketing we found that more and more time was dedicated to everything else – everything that we didn’t have the size and scale to deal with. So we decided to look for the best partner we could to protect us from these distractions so that game development did not become a chore, but remained a passion. 

 

Therefore, we have decided to join forces with SEGA – yes, that SEGA! We want the only question that keeps us up at night to be, “How do I make better games?” Partnering with SEGA will bring us to a whole new level.

 

Of course you could wonder, “Why Sega?” If you were to ask just Mathieu and I, we could easily answer with the words “Creative Assembly and Relic!” because we are HUGE fans of their games. The opportunity to join them is incredible for us, a real dream come true.

 

But the bigger reason why we wanted to join SEGA was how they treat their internal studios. Often, studios are controlled by a central department that dictates what games they should do, and how and when. But SEGA is a company that offers its support to the creators, positioning itself as a service provider, helping studios to reach their goals with only one objective in mind: Quality!

 

We announced the news a few days ago to the Amplitude staff, and we were amazed to see how well they received it. You know why? Because it was SEGA, and we all have a good reason to love them.

 

Today we will answer all your questions on our brand new Games2Gether forums. To ask us anything, about Amplitude, our games, and our decision to join SEGA, just press "Comment this blog" below that post!

 

Thank you so much for all your continued support. Let’s make sure, together, that the next chapter is the best one of the book!

 

Spacetroll and AmpliMath

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 4:27:12 PM

I sure hope you're happy... because I'm not. I don't like SEGA, I don't trust SEGA. By proxy I won't be able to trust you guys now. SEGA isn't a good company, not consumer friendly at all. If I can be honest, I'd prefer to see you associated with Paradox Interactive, not SEGA, but what can I do...? Well, I move Endless Space 2 from my "to buy" list and put it on my "to observe cautiously" list.  

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 4:31:43 PM

I'll go ahead and agree with the others, I'm happy for you, but this news has me nervous beyond belief. Dawn of War went off the rails, and also started feeling the "make everything DLC" effect of Sega with the second entry. I don't doubt Sega is capable of greatness, I've enjoyed many of their games, but I'm going to be far more nervous about DLC announcements following this.

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 4:42:47 PM

Hi guys,


a lot of people here have legitimate fears about SEGA and DLC's policy... As you probably know it, SEGA has really agressive DLC policies, such as Total War dlcs, where you have to pays 5$ to activate a gore mode, or play with just 2 news units (Pope guards for exemple...)


At this time, you never did something like this in your games: Endless games DLC's were always full of content and really interesting regarding the cost. 


The question is precisely: Is SEGA will influence your DLC's policy for future games, and how? Are they the ones to control this part of your games, or are you close to 100% free?

Thank you very much for your anwser, because i'm really worried about this.

Hotage


PS: Sorry for bad english.


EDIT: I just want to add that i'm really happy for all of you if it can allow you to create the games you always dream of. I'm just worried about this.

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 5:12:33 PM
Romeo wrote:

I'll go ahead and agree with the others, I'm happy for you, but this news has me nervous beyond belief. Dawn of War went off the rails, and also started feeling the "make everything DLC" effect of Sega with the second entry. I don't doubt Sega is capable of greatness, I've enjoyed many of their games, but I'm going to be far more nervous about DLC announcements following this.

Yep, it will be really sad to see something like: "Pre-order Endless Space 2 and get United Empire "race pack" DLC for free".

SEGA have some of the best development team, but their DLC policy is not fair to customers. And this makes customers angry.

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 5:16:40 PM

well just great.

i am (and stiil is) a big fan of Amplitude and espetialy the GAME2GETHER (in fact that is what got me to buy the Endless Space in the first plase)/

Howewer SEGA as a publisher is rather infamos, espetialy for the DLC policise they use.

But my bigest question is the future prise of the Endless Space 2.

See i live in Russia and afer resent political and economical ''events'' pirices for game got up realy high.

SEGA is the second vorse case it this, their prises thripled resently(even old games became quaite exspansive).

But francli i still belive in you and will support the new game regardless of the prise, but i wold like to now if it will change or not.

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 5:31:51 PM
sibir13 wrote:

Yep, it will be really sad to see something like: "Pre-order Endless Space 2 and get United Empire "race pack" DLC for free".

SEGA have some of the best development team, but their DLC policy is not fair to customers. And this makes customers angry.


In the past pre ordering or pruchasing a founder pack brought unique races too in Endless Space One.I am Speaking of the Sheredyn (wich in the beginning was just a skin change for the United Empire) but then (If I remember correctly before they become a race with their own technologys and race affinity) became available to anyone.

It was the same with the Vaulter race (a fully fleshed out race) which you were able to get acess by purchasing Dungeons of the Endless if i remember correclty.

But then again at some point were made avaible to all the Endless Space owners.


Speaking of that I had no problem with that policy because it was announced that sooner or later all players could enjoy those other races sooner or later without any further costs.


What I am realy concerned about is as by MANY an me mentioned impudently 5€ Dlcs  policy  from other SEGA partners where you have to pay for a bunch of new units or other things which should be in the vanilla in the first place or things which would benefit other players in things like the Multiplayer.


A lot of actually great games got a bad reputation out of that policy which can be found by all members of the SEGA family

If you are still independent enough I beg you to not adopt that policy if your contract allows it.


For my you are the best Game Studio out there and I wouldnt want that your excellent reputation suffers from a crazy DLC policy.I also hope your G2G concept does not suffer from SEGA and that you can still do anything you want in collaboration with the best community in the world. (But at least at this topic you seem quite  confident)

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 5:41:44 PM

I hope you read all the concern about about Sega.  before your studio and website, i never wrote on blogs or help play test beta versions.  you have something special with Amplitude and we would hate to see you lose it.   

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 5:58:27 PM
Sovereign wrote:

In the past pre ordering or pruchasing a founder pack brought unique races too in Endless Space One.I am Speaking of the Sheredyn (wich in the beginning was just a skin change for the United Empire) but then (If I remember correctly before they become a race with their own technologys and race affinity) became available to anyone.

It was the same with the Vaulter race (a fully fleshed out race) which you were able to get acess by purchasing Dungeons of the Endless if i remember correclty.

But then again at some point were made avaible to all the Endless Space owners.


EL too have Vaulters, but all this is more a skins, and as you pointed out - it is available later for free . 

My main point is SEGA not just do one more race DLC, they do players favorite races as DLC: Sparta in Rome 2 TW and Chaos in Warhammer TW. And doing it on release date.

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 6:04:35 PM

Better SEGA than Paradox. But you only get one chance, if Endless Space 2 suffers from the publisher's influence then Amplitude is dead to me.

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 6:18:29 PM

Devs, can you tell us, if Denuvo will be enforced on ES2 now? You know, that shitty anti-tamper bullcrap, that puts numbers of virtual machines and tones of garbage code in your executable, making it large, slow, memory-leeking and buggy? The one that only temporary stops pirates, but hurts legitimate players forever?

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 6:18:43 PM

I'm following you since endless space and i really love your game and the way you make it :) In fact i fell in love with your studio since  if i hadn't follow the infrastructure and network way but the development instead in my engineering school, you would have been one of the few company i would have killed to join


I won't do my hipster saying i prefered you staying inde, for me it's really a good news that you have that kind of opportunity and you're not really forced into it but instead was one of your wish


But like the other i'm a little sceptical by you being under a big developper as SEGA. I don't really know how they work with studio under their shoulder, but i know for sure that i'm a big fan of relic for there dawn of war and company of heroes game, and i'm a even greater fan of CA for Shogun 2 and medieval 2 (but Rome 2 was a disgusting joke). I'm just afraid of seeing you being pushed by Sega with deadlines and obligation of sells and being forced to do things you didn't want to, and impact the quality of the game or even the way you would have make this game


I think it's the same fear that when parents see the child leave home. You're not inde anymore, you have a greater sea in front of you, but nothing is free, and you may have obligation to respond for.  Now we can just wait and see if great things will emerge of it, or in reverse, it will bring doom and apocalypse into the world (thinks i'm going to far ).


Anyway, i just hope you will evolve the way you like, cause that's the best way for you, it didn't deceive me at the moment  Wish you great luck for the years coming and waiting patiently for Endless Space 2 now


Greetings from France

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 6:54:59 PM
Falkner wrote:

Better SEGA than Paradox. But you only get one chance, if Endless Space 2 suffers from the publisher's influence then Amplitude is dead to me.

we will do everything we can not to disapoint you guys!

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 7:08:08 PM

Sounds really good, lets not worry :)


Keep up good work Amplitude, cant wait for your next game already :D

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 7:31:46 PM

Hello.


Congrats. :)


It's just crazy to imagine you in the same boat of Sonic parents. : D


Though I'm a little worried like others here, I will not talk about that. I can clearly see the advantages of a publisher for a developer like you. Yet, it's clearly a huge change. But I'm pretty sure you can not really comment freely previous decisions of SEGA on their other games, so it will be hard to have a real talk about that. I will just follow you like usual and hope for the best (for you and for us :D).


So, a question now: I have some concern about the creation of more minor games like Dungeon of the Endless? Will it be still possible for you to do that? Since it's my favorite game of yours, I would like to know if SEGA will let you this kind of thing anymore? I'm pretty sure it's not really your best-selling game. :D Though I have no idea if you were planning to do something like that again (but I would love it, sequels are not my style, and I love weird and hybrid game mechanisms more than 4x :p), but, well, I hope there will still be a chance for that to happen. : )


Félicitations encore ! Rejoindre le giron de SEGA, c'est quelque chose. : D


Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 7:37:26 PM
SpaceTroll wrote:
Falkner wrote:

Better SEGA than Paradox. But you only get one chance, if Endless Space 2 suffers from the publisher's influence then Amplitude is dead to me.

we will do everything we can not to disapoint you guys!

I'm sure you will ^^

Keeping my fingers crossed for my favorite devs :)

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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 9:19:38 PM

Well I really don't know what to say. I have really come to love Amplitude and everything they represent. Most especially I loved the idea of an indie company working closely with the community to make great games even better.


I can't judge your decisions because I don't know what the position is inside your company, but like many people here, it is hard for me to believe that Sega is as benevolent as you are making them out to be.


Like many I have been absolutely supportive of your DLC releases and very happy that they have never seemed like a fluff cash grab, but Sega has several games that went absolutely the opposite direction than this and it worries me greatly. 


I'm going to wait and see what ES 2 brings and what you do next for EL, but I am very far from comfortable right now with this announcement.


I do wish you guys all the best though because up until now you have not disappointed me.

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 5, 2016, 9:22:07 PM

Registered to say congrats and to say I've really been enjoying Endless Legend. It's a video game equivalent to my favorite author and series of books The Stormlight Archives - it seems like the world building of the game was a key point. And I love that about it.


Suffice to say - wanted to start following the company and get excited for Endless Space 2.


The Sega business, to me, is good based on the answers you provided. Publisher who can help spread the word about new games is always good. And I'm sure it made a lot of sense economically.


Cheers!

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 2:29:49 AM

I sencerely hope you guys will do "your thing" with EL2, and not let SEGA influence your work. All the titles you produced were extremely good creatively and technically.

If SEGA tries to meddle, send them away. You guys already showed the world  that you can do awesome things on your own! :)

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 6:51:12 AM

Congratulations on the new Website, it looks fantastic!

However, the announcement of this DevBlog has me very skeptical. Of course SEGA published a lot of great strategy games (DoW,CoH,Total War) but ,as has been said ,these games suffer from an extensive DLC-policy. I do not know how much your creative work is going to be limited by your new Publisher, but who controls the money makes the ultimate decision, at leasts that is my experience with SEGA. I really like the Universe you have built, it is not only "different", but also deep and fascinating, but will this stay the same? How much will you be allowed to try new things with future titles? Would a crazy game like DotE even be considered for developing now? And how will you combine your G2G-modell with having a big publisher behind you?

To make it clear, I still think you´re the same boys and girls who made Endless Space, Endless Legend and DotE and that you still have the imagination, talent and passion to make games like this. But I am worried that this might change gradually with each new release. Your Endless-Franchise was growing and attracting attention, did you really need a big publisher?

Ultimately it boils down to that I never want to see something like TOTAL WAR: Rome II ever again and I never thought that I would had to write this here.
Good luck with your games, I will still be here and I will still participate in your G2G events and eagerly await your new releases, but not without an ounce of caution and warieness.

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