46 replies to this topic

[Bud Crue]

Nightbird, on 07 December 2018 - 07:32 AM, said:

Or M$ starting making MWO2 themselves...

This exchange gets me to thinking...

Let’s assume Russ is being honest and that a substantive upgrade to their single product upon which their entire revenue stream is based, is really on hold until MS renews the license that that product requires. Doesn’t that suggest that there is in fact a very real possibility that MS won’t renew the license? I mean if you can’t or won’t dedicate resources to the product’s substantive future development because of that license issue, it is presumably because you don’t want to risk resources on something that might be taken away.

So what happens to PGI, a company with something like 65 people, if MS really doesn’t renew the license?

If we assume that the majority of the next year is all MW5 development and then suddenly there is no renewal shortly after MW5 releases, then what? What does PGI do for immediate revenue? Go under because they put all their eggs in one basket? I can’t imagine a company of that size risking everything on a single revenue source if there was even a remote chance that the license holder might eliminate that source within a time frame of a little more than a year. So does PGI have other non MW/BT projects in the hopper to start working on or maybe even release in case the worst happens?

Anyway, just pondering.

Edited by Bud Crue, 07 December 2018 - 08:01 AM.

[Nightbird]

Bud Crue, on 07 December 2018 - 07:57 AM, said:

Anyway, just pondering.

They'll have to announce a sunset date for MWO, and turn the servers off then. That's what it means to lose the IP license.

[Bud Crue]

Nightbird, on 07 December 2018 - 08:02 AM, said:

They'll have to announce a sunset date for MWO, and turn the servers off then. That's what it means to lose the IP license.

That is what happens to the game.
What happens to PGI? They presumably go under?
I find it difficult to believe that they have put themselves into a position wherein they either continue to exist or go under a bit more than a year from now all based on the whim of Microsoft.

[Humpday]

Bud Crue, on 07 December 2018 - 07:57 AM, said:

Anyway, just pondering.

There would have to be some unbelievable mismanagement if thats the case(eggs in one basket). Less people playing the game, lack of new players, lack of new content...loss of revenue.

If its easy to see for the consumer, surely the financial department is saying something.

MWO is dead. It needs to die to be honest. Thats the only way it'll be rebooted and gain some life back.

[Nightbird]

Bud Crue, on 07 December 2018 - 08:08 AM, said:

That is what happens to the game.
What happens to PGI? They presumably go under?
I find it difficult to believe that they have put themselves into a position wherein they either continue to exist or go under a bit more than a year from now all based on the whim of Microsoft.

Oh, not at all, they're an independent studio. They just had a license from MS. Even without the IP, they can continue to develop anything they want, like Transverse.

[Bud Crue]

Humpday, on 07 December 2018 - 08:08 AM, said:

There would have to be some unbelievable mismanagement if thats the case(eggs in one basket).

And that’s what I am wondering about. What other eggs are in that basket? Transverse II? Another fishing game? Nakatomi Plaza John McLain vs Duke Nukem?

[FireStoat]

No sense in asking for something a company won't hold themselves to.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

I would think if MS decided they wanted Mechwarrior back under their banner (by not renewing the license), they could easily buy PGI to maintain the work done on MWO and MW5, while they did the work for something like MWO2. Paradox bought Harebrained Schemes for $7.5 million...not a ton for a company with a successful product (Battletech) which is still in the early part of its product-life. PGI would go for less I would think....or maybe more likely would be Paradox buying PGI if they can get their hands on the license. To create a true Battletech Universe of games under one banner. It would make sense to put everything together if you could. But, it’s probably just wishful thinking even though it might make sense for everyone

[Nightbird]

Marquis De Lafayette, on 07 December 2018 - 11:06 AM, said:

I would think if MS decided they wanted Mechwarrior back under their banner (by not renewing the license), they could easily buy PGI to maintain the work done on MWO and MW5, while they did the work for something like MWO2.

Very true! It'll depend on the population of MWO though, if it's <100, I don't think MS would bother. MW5 is a standalone game so they could just allow PGI to keep selling it and patching it, without releasing more content.

[Spheroid]

Microsoft is not going to yank the license. Xbox got beaten badly this generation for lack of exclusives.

Microsoft as of late has been buying up game development studios left and right in anticipation of the next gen console wars which will begin sometime in 2020.

They will extend PGI's license on the condition that MW5 might be ported to Xbox to address lack of software at launch. Mechcon showed it being run with joysticks so I don't know why a gamepad would not work. Microsoft as the holder of the IP would have one more third party title to fight Sony with.


Retracting the license without a business purpose is not logical.

Edited by Spheroid, 07 December 2018 - 11:30 AM.

[Nightbird]

Spheroid, on 07 December 2018 - 11:27 AM, said:

Retracting the license without a business purpose is not logical.

Performance is everything. Well, BT might be too niche anyways for MS to care, but they might also decide to tap into Star Citizen's success and make a big investment into a grand MMO. There would be space ship battles, and mech battles in space, on stations, and on planets. If they decide to do that, you can be sure PGI will lose the license.

[Marquis De Lafayette]

Nightbird, on 07 December 2018 - 11:24 AM, said:

Very true! It'll depend on the population of MWO though, if it's &lt;100, I don't think MS would bother. MW5 is a standalone game so they could just allow PGI to keep selling it and patching it, without releasing more content.

Well, for me.....MS or Paradox taking an active hand in shepherding MW5’s and MWO’s future would excite me and I think we are at (or at least darn near) a point with the current developer where the player base of MWO is tired of the status quo (in terms of development) and has lost faith. MW5 looks great, but how confident are we in how it will actually be great on launch? Mmm..... Part of that is due to the history with this current developer. If we had even a single top level guy in place from an acquiring company...and a new vision or just some new management coming in some “there’s a new sheriff in town” attitude to how they do things. I think players would come back to Mechwarrior game(s). It’s a great franchise, a fun game and has very passionate fans (yes, I am looking at you lore-hounds). Barring MW5 being a massive success (due to being awesome), I can’t see faith being restored in the current developer’s capabilities or vision. PGI can’t be raking in the $ at this point, so their financials probably aren’t going to jack up an acquisition price much. I am glad for the guys who put in all the work to cash out though and hope if they ever sell they do well....they have run this fun game for enough years to deserve good things if a sale happened. Again, probably pie in the sky.....but how excited would the playerbase be about such a thing? I think it would bring a lot of excitement back to these parts.

[The Unstoppable Puggernaut]

Bump, this needs an official response...

[Alexandra Hekmatyar]

The Unstoppable Puggernaut, on 16 February 2019 - 02:44 AM, said:

Bump, this needs an official response...

Well in the end you gotta bomb our PGI overlords on their twitter account with this.
Soooo

[Grus]

Alexandra Hekmatyar, on 16 February 2019 - 04:32 AM, said:

Well in the end you gotta bomb our PGI overlords on their twitter account with this.
Soooo

Last time I did that I got blocked from Russ's Twitter... thread carefully.

[LTC Kilgore]

PGI has stopped doing roadmaps, support no longer responds to issues, patches have little to no content or improvements

pretty obvious that PGI has simply put MWO on life support in order to do other things..

[JediPanther]

i'm sure the new Founders of mw5 will be the Whales pgi needs while the mwo founders (and other pack former purchasers) will just go meh and keep their money. I haven't fallen into that trap again especially when a pre-order for one game has bonus fake money for a different game as its pre-order reason to buy even if the ip are the same. google pgi's past work and you learn a lot.

[Ronan]

I want a roadmap, I want CW to improve, I want the money I put into MWO to mean something. I also want world peace and all that jazz too. AAANNND this is me not getting everything I want.

[Alexandra Hekmatyar]

Ronan, on 16 February 2019 - 06:39 PM, said:

I want a roadmap, I want CW to improve, I want the money I put into MWO to mean something. I also want world peace and all that jazz too. AAANNND this is me not getting everything I want.

You getting non!
Wanna buy some glowing eyes with that?

[Dogstar]

Here's the latest roadmap from PGI: