82 replies to this topic

[Knight Captain Morgan]

I hope that when your deal to acquire Piranha games is finalized next quarter, you do a lot of good for the mechwarrior franchise.

[w0qj]

Executive Summary:
"The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, at which point Piranha Games will continue to operate as an independent studio within the group."

[Edit: Italics as added by this poster]

- - - - - - - - - -
www.thegamingeconomy.com/2020/11/25/eg7-to-acquire-piranha-games-appsflyer-extends-series-d-to-usd225m

EG7 to acquire Piranha Games

Stockholm-based video games holding group Enad Global 7 AB (EG7) has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Canadian PC and console developer Piranha Games for an initial consideration of CAD$31.4 (£18.0m), of which CAD$20.9m (£12.0m) is in cash and the remainder in newly issued share capital at an EBITDA multiple of 3.7x, plus an additional earn-out consideration of up to CAD$63.4m (£36.4m) payable by the close of 2025. Piranha Games, which operates out of Vancouver, is best known for its recent work on the MechWarrior series and generated net sales of CAD$22.7m (£13.0m) over the 12 month period ending 30th September 2020. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021, at which point Piranha Games will continue to operate as an independent studio within the group.

Edited by w0qj, 25 November 2020 - 06:23 AM.

[Bud Crue]

The press release in case anyone wants the details.

https://www.enadglob...1645C48E654694/



So the question on my mind: what motivation does a new company have to keep this product (MWO) going when the current president of the company announced -some 18 months ago- that this product doesn't make enough money to justify its further development?

[Lieutenant Hedgehog]

Bud Crue, on 25 November 2020 - 05:58 AM, said:

So the question on my mind: what motivation does a new company have to keep this product (MWO) going when the current president of the company announced -some 18 months ago- that this product doesn't make enough money to justify its further development?

Do you have a link to that? My understanding (from the NGNG podcast) is that Russ said it didn't generate enough revenue to sustain the company. Not that it wasn't sustainable or profitable, just that it's not a huge blockbuster that carrys the cost for other titles.

[Hunka Junk]

Lieutenant Hedgehog, on 25 November 2020 - 06:21 AM, said:

Do you have a link to that? My understanding (from the NGNG podcast) is that Russ said it didn't generate enough revenue to sustain the company. Not that it wasn't sustainable or profitable, just that it's not a huge blockbuster that carrys the cost for other titles.

It paid for every cent of MW5 development at the expense of MWO. To be fair, it didn't pay **** to the community dude who fixed MW5 for PGI.

[Bud Crue]

Lieutenant Hedgehog, on 25 November 2020 - 06:21 AM, said:

Do you have a link to that? My understanding (from the NGNG podcast) is that Russ said it didn't generate enough revenue to sustain the company. Not that it wasn't sustainable or profitable, just that it's not a huge blockbuster that carrys the cost for other titles.

No cite other than the maintenance mode podcast of June 2019. I mean he said mech packs don't make the enough money to justify continuing to make more of them on a monthly basis and that mech packs were the primary means of monetization of the game. At that time he announced MWO would in fact be in a maintenance mode hence forth. Thus, my conclusion that they weren't making enough money to "justify its further development".

I didn't think any of that was a matter of debate. My question is why would a new company want to bother with this game (MWO as it is, right now) as a potential future money making endeavor? MWO may have made 75Mil (CAD) over its life but that is in the past; a past based on monetization via the sales of mech packs, which Russ says don't make them enough money to be worth developing. What am I missing?

[RickySpanish]

So now we know the reason for the renewed efforts to promise to renew efforts to continue MWO development in the near future. It looks good when cooking up a deal to give a damn about the thing you're trying to sell. But in January MWO can be somebody else's problem. Perhaps it is time to deploy the golden parachute?

Edited by RickySpanish, 25 November 2020 - 07:09 AM.

[Lieutenant Hedgehog]

Bud Crue, on 25 November 2020 - 07:02 AM, said:

What am I missing?

Nothing! Not that I know of. I'm just trying to get up to speed on the history and what's happened before and I think my takeaway from listening to that podcast was different than yours. So I just wanted some more information to understand where you were coming from.

[VonBruinwald]

RickySpanish, on 25 November 2020 - 07:09 AM, said:

So now we know the reason for the renewed efforts to promise to renew efforts to continue MWO development in the near future.

This.

If I was to guess I would say EG7's takeover would includes clauses requiring them to continue developing their products as an independent studio. Whether PGI receive additional funding from EG7 for this is questionable. They're not going to pay a studio to sit on their laurels:

Heroes of the Inner sphere is their development of MW5 and there's likely a clan pack further down the line as part of this.
MWO has nothing which is why they're reaching out to the community. It's been so long since they've thought about this game that there's nothing in the pipes.

The alternative is they're trying to acquire the Mechwarrior License on the cheap form Microsoft. If anything the community has proven to stick by the IP for far longer than its contemporaries and in that case the smart move is to push PGI to develop MWO2.

[bilagaana]

The press conference video is now at:

[Nightbird]

Was anyone able to find a track history for EG7? Are they better or worse than PGI?

I was only able to find they are formed from Toadman Studios, Sold Out, and Petrol in Jan of 2020. Their first game to come out soon is EvilvEvil https://www.evilvevil.com/

Edited by Nightbird, 25 November 2020 - 08:25 AM.

[martian]

bilagaana, on 25 November 2020 - 08:17 AM, said:

The press conference video is now

Thanks for the link.

[Nightbird]

Lockheed_, on 25 November 2020 - 08:36 AM, said:

Formerly Toadman Interactive. 3 games on Steam on of them is in beta. Nothing that looks really impressive. Looking at the more recent negative reviews of 2 of the games, it sounds like the games are either dead or have been abandonend by the devs.
I can't help but feeling some bad vibes. Reminds me of how the game Hawken died. Game got accquire witht the purpose of restarting development, lots of community feedback, then was screwed up majorly, ported to Xbox and then the PC part of the game was shut down. I believe the Xbox game is dead too.

I wish PGI nothing but the best, I hope it works out for them, but I wonder where EG7s money is coming from. IMO, MWO and MW5 are way more prestigeous titles than then stuff coming from EG7.

There are ways in which it would make sense financially, but I can't detail it without getting banned.

[KHETTI]

lol it's like a really badly written comedy sketch show, glad i bailed when i did, RiP MWO.

[Faithsfall]

I personally would like to great our new overlords, I abase myself in your glorious presence and am blinded by your bright infinite wisdom.

[evil kerensky]

anyone else notice how russ slipped in that pgi was starting work on a new IP?

it was super quick in his portion of the aquisition video, but it really put the breaks on my hopes for mwo. my guess is that their trying to rejuvenate the community for just long enough to fund their new game, then mwo will be gone. lot of things are making sense now.

[martian]

evilelrond, on 25 November 2020 - 10:58 AM, said:

anyone else notice how russ slipped in that pgi was starting work on a new IP?

it was super quick in his portion of the aquisition video, but it really put the breaks on my hopes for mwo. my guess is that their trying to rejuvenate the community for just long enough to fund their new game, then mwo will be gone. lot of things are making sense now.

Yeah, we older MWO fans still remember that PGI's "Transverse" debacle.

[Nightbird]

I bet PGI will put out a statement today about continued support for MWO blah blah blah, but yeah, continued maintenance mode confirmed!

edit:
here it is:

Quote

And finally, how will this decision affect MechWarrior Online? It won't! There will be no impact on our MechWarrior Online initiatives, and in fact this will likely benefit MWO in the long run by bringing more eyes to our multiplayer PvP MechWarrior experience. By the release of MW5 in Spring 2021, we should be well on our way towards implementing significant updates to MWO, including exciting improvements to the new player experience, making sure we’re ready for new players.

No mention of new IP being worked on.

Edited by Nightbird, 25 November 2020 - 12:02 PM.

[Jolly Rogers Folly]

[color=#959595]Yes but they are delaying the MW5 DLC untill spring which happens to be when the new company takes over[/color]

[TheCaptainJZ]

They're also releasing MW5 for XBOX which wasn't in the original plans. Sounds like they're hoping for a stronger revenue stream by doing some polish in the next few months before releasing on Steam, GOG and XBOX.

As for MWO, I don't see much changing here. I have a feeling the new company is interested in MW5 as a current title, not MWO as an old one. But hopefully, there's actually a chance for an engine upgrade in the future now.