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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 6, 2016, 8:38:40 AM

I want first to congrats, because it's your hard and so fantastic work who allows today this great new!


Why I'm not anxious about this? Because I know that you have understood the fact that you are making more than video games, but building a really new way to work with the strength of the community. This whole new website, it's the proof, I hope, that the help of SEGA will not change what had made you from the beginning. 


So keep going and let you+we making great video games! ;)


La bise, and congrats again,


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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 9:02:16 AM

having been with ya guys from the start. I am very worried about the partnership with sega.


there are know issues that Sega has been doing a lot for past number of years now I hope that amp studio does not get the bad influence of sega and cause me to not want to further support you guys anymore. while Endless space 2 has been in developement before this announcement this may or may not be the last game that i get from you guys.

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 9:27:08 AM

After having spent all of E3 and the Steam Summer Sale advocating for you as a great independent studio, I'm heartbroken and terrified to the point of having signed up to voice my concern on this topic. I've supported you and brought friends along for the ride since Endless Space, and for almost four years now you guys have held a special place in my heart, which makes this all the more bewildering.


Everyone has their own opinions on SEGA, and they certainly aren't EA or Capcom, but I'm still utterly stunned that someone as successful and independent as you guys would sign your souls over with such a spectacular record in your careers. You proclaim a love for CA & Relic as gleaming beacons of SEGA's mercy, but in reality SEGA has not only gutted Relic and destroyed DoW3 and driven their Total War franchise into the ground, but their most recent release of Total Warhammer has been a widely frustrating and frowned upon boast about their draconian DLC practices, anti-consumer direction, and absolute trainwreck of development management.


You were one of my absolute favorite, and most trusted, developers, but now you have to be put on a list and watched carefully like everyone else. I have to worry whether or not your game is going to have a faction cut for Day 1 DLC, or if you're going to include Orwellian DRM that'll fry my SSD, or have month-long launch issues that make the game unplayable, or has 120$ of DLC in 6 months, and so on, and it all just kills a little part of me inside.


My question is this: What did you need to sign on to a corporation for? Was it funding, manpower, issues with your previous publisher; or something else entirely? And is there any chance that this decision will be reversed before EL2's launch?

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 10:20:52 AM
Tiphereth wrote:

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


Tiphereth, I sincerely hope so, as this is part of our DNA. But this is not something we have covered much really. 

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 10:25:45 AM
Nuke wrote:

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! :)

It was really clear in our deal that we still make the games we love to make. And they made clear that they would not take the chance to break the machine. They only bring in the help we ask for. So again if we screw up, it is on us, not them. And we will need you more than ever before, so together we keep making the best strategy games possible!

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 10:36:05 AM
Bladestead wrote: (...)

My question is this: What did you need to sign on to a corporation for? Was it funding, manpower, issues with your previous publisher; or something else entirely? And is there any chance that this decision will be reversed before EL2's launch?

We are growing very ambitious with our games, we don't want to create clones. When we work on an innovative feature, we tend to probably redo it 3 or 4 times... in the end we actually feel that we did the game several times. So maybe we suck, as some could tell you they get it right the first time, but our way of working certainly has a cost. To keep working that way, we need to convince more players to join us.  We had two major issues when being indie: one was that when we had something to say, it was hard to be heard. The other was, in order to recruit top talent, many did not even dare applying as they be would afraid to loose a stable job to join a studio which could close at any time. 

We hope to solve these issues by joining forces with SEGA.

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 11:04:13 AM
SpaceTroll wrote:
Bladestead wrote: (...)

My question is this: What did you need to sign on to a corporation for? Was it funding, manpower, issues with your previous publisher; or something else entirely? And is there any chance that this decision will be reversed before EL2's launch?

We are growing very ambitious with our games, we don't want to create clones. When we work on an innovative feature, we tend to probably redo it 3 or 4 times... in the end we actually feel that we did the game several times. So maybe we suck as some could tell you they get it right the first time, but our way of working certainly has a cost. to keep working that way, we need to convince more players to join us.  We had two major issues when being indie: one was that when we had something to say, it was hard to be heard. The other was to recruit top talent, many did not even dare applying as the would afraid to loose a stable job to join a studio which could close any time. 

We hope to solve these issues by joining forces with SEGA.

Understandable.


What impact will this have on Endless Space 2 early access and release, if any? Thanks for answering questions

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 11:17:43 AM
SpaceTroll wrote:
Bladestead wrote: (...)

My question is this: What did you need to sign on to a corporation for? Was it funding, manpower, issues with your previous publisher; or something else entirely? And is there any chance that this decision will be reversed before EL2's launch?

We are growing very ambitious with our games, we don't want to create clones. When we work on an innovative feature, we tend to probably redo it 3 or 4 times... in the end we actually feel that we did the game several times. So maybe we suck as some could tell you they get it right the first time, but our way of working certainly has a cost. to keep working that way, we need to convince more players to join us.  We had two major issues when being indie: one was that when we had something to say, it was hard to be heard. The other was to recruit top talent, many did not even dare applying as the would afraid to loose a stable job to join a studio which could close any time. 

We hope to solve these issues by joining forces with SEGA.

Well, I wish you all the best and hope this works out for you and everyone else at Amplitude. You guys have a lot of creativity and talent, and I'd hate to see it got to waste; especially with what a intruiging universe and excellent revitilizing of the genre you've built with the Endless franchise. I'll be looking forward to Endless Space 2's release, if from a distance now.

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 11:26:42 AM

 Been a couple years since I've commented on a forum, this should be fun.

After a bit of passing around in my mind of what I should say and ask. I've got to say I've got my concerns about SEGA but I'll trust you guys have it handled.


How do you feel the transition from indie to having a publisher will effect your immediate work speed? Along with that do you feel this change will allow you to make more job opening in hopes to expand the team? And last I miss the site when do you think it'll be up and raring to go? With those asked, good luck I'll be sticking by you guys and supporting you along the way.

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 11:35:17 AM

Why don't you not anwser about DLC's ?

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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 4:16:11 PM
Sublustris wrote:

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?

Not sure if they're going to answer you or not, but for what it's worth, literally none of your points are correct in this day and age.


  1. Denuvo does allow tampering, hence why Total War: Warhammer still has mod support, as do others.
  2. It does put numbers on virtual machines, you're correct. However it self-validates, and completes within a couple seconds of launching only once. Not exactly sure how you could be so annoyed with something that has basically no long-term consequence.
  3. The speed of Denuvo has no appreciable effect on performance. If a game is unresponsive, it ain't Denuvo, it's sloppy code on their part.
  4. The one that has managed to stop the biggest piracy group on the planet, you mean?


Not sure why you have the huge rage-problem with it, but as far as DRM goes, Denuvo is pretty much the best option out there.

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 6, 2016, 6:32:45 PM

Long time supporter here with a buy everything one sight day one on your products


Happy for you gaining more visibility to the bigger audiences. 


One question. Dlc Prices. Your pricing stays or you follow Sega guidelines?


Thanks in advance for any answer. Hope for the best.

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8 years ago
Jul 7, 2016, 7:02:56 AM

This is the end of Amplitude.


Sega will force their DLC policy, deadlines, DRM solutions and price inchreases on you and you will start nickel and diming your customers.

Lets Plays and youtube coverage are a thing of the past because Sega will claim any video anyone crates to earn money from it.

I was always a supporter, but my support to your company has to end here.

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8 years ago
Jul 7, 2016, 6:04:40 PM

Wow! Amplitude with Sega? That's a big news! The only way to make me more "WTF" is to join Nintendo X)
Hope everything will go well andgood luck :)

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8 years ago
Jul 7, 2016, 8:15:26 PM

I am very disappointed by this news. Amplitude is a strong independent company with independent creative spirit. Why you guys would basically sell yourself into oppressive slavery by a scurpelous publisher, is beyond me. Well, I hope this will work out for you. So far, I have bough every single of your games and releases, even if I don't play much. I simply thought that you guys are doing a great work. But giving money to SEGA? Its really something that I would like to avoid. 


At the same time, the responses by the team here seem very reasonable. I guess let's wait and see what the time will tell. 

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 7, 2016, 11:31:24 PM
Sublustris wrote:

@Romeo Denuvo-dev, please, log-in.

Not in the slightest. But just saying "don't worry about DRM!" is beyond naive. And as far as the options go, Denuvo is one of our better outcomes. So I'm not exactly sure what you want from them. If you have that much of an inexplicable hate for it, don't buy the game. If I were a Denuvo-dev, I'd be closing your help ticket as "solved".

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8 years ago
Jul 8, 2016, 3:33:04 AM

Greetings from Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy..
I am very bitter about this news so I will just write a small message and copy the message I wrote on the facebook post comment space to augment it.
I prefer expansions with a good chunk of content over 448543809438 dlcs.. Price them in a good manner for example 19,99 € for a "good sized" (like in the old days of expansions, data discs and like that but not just a glorified patch like paradox does) expansion and I will buy it because I can understand you need money to run a business but you're not milking me.. I will not buy factions dlc for 8 € like for total war games or stuff like blood and dismembering who should be in the base game.. Also I will not buy a Hissho dlc or will not accept a pre-order or day one dlc for them.. They should be in the base game because they are part of the lore. dlc is not even a PC term.. It's a console term for something minor or part of game like a module you can download after you pay for it on a "marketplace".. (another dumb console term who reeks of consolitis)
Also I will not accept a broken title.. Do your QA before you launch the game and don't use us as free beta testers.
That's bad news.. Very bad.. sega ruins everything it touches with its anti consumer practices.. I'll warn you.. I will not support a company who accept sega dlc policy.. I'm not your personal wallet. And I'm saying that as a "true old SEGA" fanboy who owns a SEGA Saturn (My favourite are Burning Rangers, Virtua Fighter 2, Fighting Vipers, Fighters Megamix, Virtua Cop 2, House of the Dead, Dark Savior, Virtual On) and Sega Dreamcast (My favourite are Shenmue, Ikaruga, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2) still today and played the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive (My favourite games are Quackshot, Castle of Illusion, Ex-Ranza, Thunderforce, Snatcher and obviously Sonic) a lot as a child (I'm now 29 years old) and as a Endless/Amplitude Studios fan who owns every game you made in limited edition..
And I add that if I see that the game is rushed, that you are cutting content and transforming it in pay dlc or that the you plan on milking your customer base by means of many dlcs like company of heroes 2 I will not buy the game at least to the day it will be sold for 5/10 € with all the dlcs..

I'm not a blind fanboy.. I don't condone dishonest practices by a company even if it is one that is part of my life and childhood like sega..

sega now isn't what SEGA was.. (this looks like "SEGA does what Nintendon't" lol)

I've many modern games that SEGA developed or published.. (Company of Heroes+Opposing Fronts and Tales of Valor expansions, Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War GotY, Warhammer 40.000 Dawn of War II, every Total War game including those bad insults toward us that are Rome II and Attila; Alpha Protocol, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Jet Set Radio, Valkyria Chronicles, Condemned, Binary Domain, SEGA Mega Drive Classic Pack, Hell Yeah, Renegade Ops, Viking Battle for Asgard, etc..
But that doesn't cancel the fact that SEGA policies are fraudolent and anti-consumer.. Just look at all the DLCs..
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?publisher=SEGA

Also I will not accept prices more than 49 € and that price should be for a game that has a good chunk of content.. A fully sized game chunk of content.. Not a barebones container to be filled by overpriced dlcs.
Also I will not accept invasive drms like securom, denuvo or crap like that.. I can accept steamworks but I will not accept always online drms, limited activations, IP blocking or IP blocked content, region locking and geolocalization, regional pricing and 1=1 € $ conversion and already on disc/data dlcs..
Hope you will do well and hope that sega doesn't destroys you like ea does..

Updated 8 years ago.
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8 years ago
Jul 8, 2016, 4:59:45 AM
Romeo wrote:

Not in the slightest. But just saying "don't worry about DRM!" is beyond naive. And as far as the options go, Denuvo is one of our better outcomes. So I'm not exactly sure what you want from them. If you have that much of an inexplicable hate for it, don't buy the game. If I were a Denuvo-dev, I'd be closing your help ticket as "solved".

You've provided 4 points, that each of which is either: a) misleading; b) a blatant lie. So you are probably have poor knowledge of how it works.

As far as DRM goes, CDProjekt RED's example shows, that quality of games is the most that affect sales.

Updated 8 years ago.
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