I’ll be very interested to see how the realities behind this announcement shape Paradox entries to the BattleTech franchise in the next 3, 6, 12 and 24 months ahead. : )
Besides, that Kickstarter money is long gone. I'd be extremely surprised if it wasn't gone a year ago, or even earlier. Running a 40-60-employee company in any business isn't cheap*, and game development doubly so since you have little to no revenue stream while in development.We gave them money to make BATTLETECH, and they did. What they do after that, to insure continued success.. has zero to do with the Kickstarter.
A small independent studio on it's own has a lot on it's plate. It has to be able to fund their projects (in HBS's case, with Kickstarter), it has to be able to get word of it's product out, and with a sea of titles out there it needs to get noticed and sell enough copies to not just break even, but make a profit.
But this partnership could be freaking awesome. Don't know why we have to assume the worst here. Now, if Harebrained were being bought out by Sony or EA....
It seems every time Jordan has a golden goose, he sells it. This move betrays the very concept of why HBS was created in the first place. An independent studio that could do whatever it wanted. Not having their ideas shot down by a publisher. I guess we should have all seen it coming when HBS put in the online only DLC. Next will be hundreds of microtransations. I'm so disappointed we are losing such a great company. I hope they dont have the audacity to ever go back to kickstarter moving forward.
Is HBS going to shift its focus to developing tons of DLC?
We will be supporting BATTLETECH with updates and additional content and we are starting concept development for a new title.
Who knows, maybe the bosses at Paradox will want to discontinue the Battletech franchise [audible gasp from the audience] for something, well, more oriented towards the average playerbase?
I am sure this will be crystal clear to us all in due time, but no, I have not heard anything to confirm or deny changes to HBS’s original intent with regard to DLC.Cautiously optimistic.
I may have missed it, but has anyone clarified the plans for DLC - are they the same as they were previously? i.e. sizeable free DLC, not paradox-style (sorry) drizzles?
Based on my experience in the software industry, that 1.25 number is rather low. I’d use something more like 1.5 given the costs of payroll taxes, benefits, hardware, and software.quick and dirty estimate of break-even revenue for any company: # of employees x average salary for the industry x 1.25
The sky isn't falling and the whole point of this merger is so that HBS has financial backing so they don't have to rely on Kickstarter ever again. I suspect that the only change will be greater stability and whose signature is on employees' paychecks.
Paradox needs to expand their horizons and has money. HBS needs financial stability to bring their dreams to reality and exists inside the capital of games development in the US. It's a win-win-win for them and us.
Considering Paradox was always a part of that decision as the publisher, I suspect that plans haven't changed. More, Mitch and Jordan retain creative control over the studio because the real value of the company is in its talent and the name recognition of its two directors. The philosophies seem to align, and now they'll have more revenue to work with.Cautiously optimistic.
I may have missed it, but has anyone clarified the plans for DLC - are they the same as they were previously? i.e. sizeable free DLC, not paradox-style (sorry) drizzles?