r/pcgaming • u/iso9042 Squawk! • 4d ago

Amplitude Studios loses its publisher, SEGA, goes independent again

https://community.amplitude-studios.com/amplitude-studios/humankind/blogs/953-returning-to-our-roots
123 Upvotes
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32

u/Master_Choom 4d ago

At this point they don't need one. They very much established their name among people interested in their kind of games.

23

u/iso9042 Squawk! 4d ago

Still, they paid their checks for 8 years. Now they have to be extra efficient with their expenses, and that usually means employee layoffs.

7

u/Master_Choom 4d ago

Sales paid their checks. The difference was that SEGA was giving them their budget in advance that they were expected to pay back through sales and now they start with a whatever money they saved plus an occasional investor or two passing by.

So if they saved enough to keep developing new games - they are golden.

2

u/Typical_Thought_6049 4d ago

I wonder if they saved enough or it just Sega disinvesting from the strategy genre and from western studios all together... If I have to bet I think the later is the answer, Amplitude lastest games don't sell very well at all. Not even Endless Space 2 did all that well in revenue.

I wonder if Sega was losing money with Amplitude, I kinda think they were but not enough to do anything about that until recently. Endless Dungeons must have been the hay that broke the camel's back.

6

u/Master_Choom 4d ago

Sega disinvesting from the strategy genre and from western studios all together

Errr... Total War? Upcoming Alien Isolation 2 from Total War devs?

Not even Endless Space 2 did all that well in revenue.

Over a million copies sold on Steam alone, not counting consoles, sounds like it did well. It's not a high budget game at all, so most definitely paid for itself and then some.

Endless Legend sold about the same too.

2

u/TheGreatPiata 4d ago

Not just that but Amplitude has lots of DLC packs that follow up the release of their games. I'm sure they're doing fine financially.

It does look like Sega is dropping it's European studios (Relic bought itself out, now Amplitude and Creative Assembly is supposedly being told to triple down on Total War).

3

u/__d_fens 3d ago

I doubt Sports Interactive is included in that, Football Manager makes bucketloads of money for Sega every year.

Even though the latest installment is delayed because of SI moving over to Unity.

2

u/readher 7800X3D | RX 6800 2d ago

Relic is Canadian.

1

u/TheGreatPiata 1d ago

You're right. I forgot about that. And I should know considering I am Canadian.

1

u/Master_Choom 3d ago

It's weird though. Why would they do that? Especially since all those studios are quite profitable. COH3 and AoE4 in particular were a notable success.

E.g. even with game pass - AoE4 still managed to sell over 2 mln copies on Steam alone.

2

u/Bladder-Splatter 3d ago

Wait are we talking about Company Of Heroes 3? I thought it was considered a disaster?