Company News Harebrained Schemes acquired by Paradox Interactive

[Jarpie]

I'm far from an expert but I'm thinking it's not necessarily that cheap for a studio that owns no valuable intellectual property.

I agree with this:

Has anyone brought up the possibility that HBS already has another game in the works that Paradox would like to take over?

Don’t forget that HBS is very much a budget dev. They never really overextend themselves budget-wise and if the end product is limited due to this reason then so be it.

Paradox might have seen a game in dev and thought: Hey we can do more with this than HBS ever could.

I dunno. It’s a stretch, sure. But I’m also at a loss as to why they’d want to buy HBS.

EDIT: Also, if Paradox wanted to get into the tactical game space what are its options? Build a studio from scratch? They might feel that would be a waste of time and its worth acquiring HBS to dev tacticool games now while the genre is hot. HBS is basically ready to go in that regard.

True, it's usually the owned IPs which makes the value of the game development company, as HS doesn't really own anything, it doesn't make much sense for Paradox to buy them IMO.

 

[Belegarsson]

I'm far from an expert but I'm thinking it's not necessarily that cheap for a studio that owns no valuable intellectual property.

I agree with this:

Has anyone brought up the possibility that HBS already has another game in the works that Paradox would like to take over?

Don’t forget that HBS is very much a budget dev. They never really overextend themselves budget-wise and if the end product is limited due to this reason then so be it.

Paradox might have seen a game in dev and thought: Hey we can do more with this than HBS ever could.

I dunno. It’s a stretch, sure. But I’m also at a loss as to why they’d want to buy HBS.

EDIT: Also, if Paradox wanted to get into the tactical game space what are its options? Build a studio from scratch? They might feel that would be a waste of time and its worth acquiring HBS to dev tacticool games now while the genre is hot. HBS is basically ready to go in that regard.

YEAH BOI WE'RE FINALLY GETTING A SEQUEL FOR HBS'S NECROPOLIS MASTERPIECE THAT Y'ALL HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR

 

[Bohr]

Have seen them at various stages claim to be "talking" to Paradox about another game, but most of the studio seemed to be heads down on BT which was their largest project to date - and now working on expansions and further content for it. Of course various artists/writers could already have been doing something else or there would have been some downtime.

Ultimately, Necropolis bombed so the studio probably wasn't in a great situation before BT came out, because of this I imagine they had to get PDX to take a larger role on BT than they may have originally wanted and there could have been debts to clear as well (remember Swen's tales of getting DOS finished). Not surprised Jordan wants to cash in now that they have had a successful release, the guy has had a long career of starting and selling various ventures.

 

[thesheeep]

fundamentally oriented around publishing strategy games

Primarily, yes, but you can also find some other stuff among their games. Including RPGs.
Just because you now belong to Paradox, doesn't mean you are suddenly forced to develop strategy games.

 

[Van-d-all]

We'll see how it turns out. But HBS is no wonder-child. Battletech is just meh, because despite having decent battle mechanics, gameplay gets tedious and boring after few hours (unlike, say, Battle Brothers). Never understood why Americans like the generic teknophantasy mash-up setting of Shadowrun so much, but whatever. The first game was rather good, because it seemed fresh and had decent quality for an indie title. Dragonfall is overrated beyond belief and the shitty, tearjerker backstories about Satan and whatnot seemed like written by angsty teenagers. Hong Kong was just like cutting off coupons, with addition of stretch goal Recter dropping walls of text like a broken printer.

 

[Van-d-all]

Hong Kong was just cutting of coupons, with addition of stretch goal Recter dropping walls of text like a broken printer.

Of all overwritten characters in Hong Kong, you choose Racter to whine about?

Of course, because he was not only uninteresting but also ostentatiously graphomaniac just to skyrocket the word count as if this snooze fest justifies it being a stretch goal. A reminiscing hungover bum on a lengthy public transport cruise is less talkative than that bastard.

 

[ArchAngel]

Hong Kong was just cutting of coupons, with addition of stretch goal Recter dropping walls of text like a broken printer.

Of all overwritten characters in Hong Kong, you choose Racter to whine about?

Racter and the samurai guy killed my will to continue playing after I spent way too long time reading through their walls of text. I actually enjoyed reading background info for companions in Dragonfall, but HK ones bored me to quit the game.

 

[Thonius]

As already mentioned, this only makes sense if Paradox feels it can use Harebrained Schemes reputation for recreating tabletop games as a means to acquire a popular license. It would be interesting if they could leverage this in order to get long-term permission to use another tabletop IP license such as D&D, Pathfinder, World of Darkness or even something like a recreation of the Star Wars tabletop game.

Does anyone have a listing of game companies that currently hold rights to IP tabletop games, along with a list of IPs for those tabletop games not currently being held by computer game companies?

We already have Pathfinder in the works...

 

[Bocian]

Make some more Shadowrun games, and make them Returns/Dragonfall good pls. Not Hong Kong meh-esq

Dragonfall was a turd. HK is better.

Of course, because he was not only uninteresting but also ostentatiously graphomaniac just to skyrocket the word count as if this snooze fest justifies it being a stretch goal.

Racter is actually semi-interesting, the best companion available, I'd say. It's La Goblina and a black lesbian midget that's the problem.

 

[Roguey]

Fabulously optimistic to assume that a dev that finally made it big with an XCOM-like was acquired to develop a straight-up RPG. Some kind of "tactical RPG", maybe.

"Tactical games with rich stories" would be a description of the Shadowrun series as they see it. How did Battletech finally make it big? Looking at Steamspy, it did all right, but not Shadowrun Returns numbers.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

fuck the gay storyfag tacticool games.

give me a straight no nonsense kill monsters and loot treasures blobber any day.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

Dragonfall was a turd. HK is better.

It is also a turd.

fuck the gay storyfag tacticool games.

give me a straight no nonsense kill monsters and loot treasures blobber any day.

They are not making good combat, but it is not because of the story, you know. If you remove the story you will end up with shallow combat and a generic concept. It will be worse.

 

[Bohr]

How did Battletech finally make it big? Looking at Steamspy, it did all right, but not Shadowrun Returns numbers.

Would be interesting to see some accurate, GOG-inclusive numbers. Although Shadowrun wasn't $40, so given they were already calling BT a success in the first week and planning more content it must be well into profitable territory now. Whether it ends up being "big", I guess depends on what one means by that for a studio of their size.

 

[Roguey]

SRR is 1€ bundleware, BT is a 40€ game that has yet to go on sale.

It did well back when it was $20. A million copies at $20 versus 500,000 at $40, which one is better and why?

 

[Van-d-all]

SRR is 1€ bundleware, BT is a 40€ game that has yet to go on sale.

It did well back when it was $20. A million copies at $20 versus 500,000 at $40, which one is better and why?

SRR somewhat delivered and is a way more relaxed setting, BT is just a bigger yet grittier brand and the game feels lackluster. The latter attracts initial buyers, but the former actually makes them recommend the title to someone else, just like I'd rather suggest SRR to SR fan than BT to tabletop or p&p player.

 

[Bohr]

SRR is 1€ bundleware, BT is a 40€ game that has yet to go on sale.

It did well back when it was $20. A million copies at $20 versus 500,000 at $40, which one is better and why?

Wouldn't say it was anywhere near a million at $20 though. Back in April 2015 Steamspy had it at 771k ± 51k, and by then the game had been out since July 2013 and had been on multiple sales.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

It was easier and faster for Paradox to buy a semi well known, already functioning studio with an existing fanbase ready to kickstarter their products rather than to make their own studio from scratch. They literally can count that the next two or three kickstarters will return a part of the 7.5 million. There is nothing mysterious about this acquisition at all.

 

[Infinitron]

Seems doubtful that there will be any more Kickstarters now, no?

 

[DeepOcean]

I dunno about this secret game theory that HBS might been developing, they barely got the money to make Battletech.

It is hard to know about the licence terms HBS had with Microsoft.

However, Paradox might had bought the studio to get the rights for Battletech, not the IP, but the game.

I dunno, but by buying now when the game just got released, the future sales will pretty much alone cover the cost of the acquisition.

The sweet money however is on the DLC, Pdox wont have the IP but they will have a nice platform for milking Battletech fans with DLC and a team that actually got some experience making the game.

If they do some asset flipping, and make an open ended DLC where you can work for all houses, expanding the mercenaries portion of the game and removing the linear campaign out of the picture, they could make some decent cash and it would be a bargain for them to make.

Battletech fans are some of the easiest cows to milk.

Imagine removing all the pretension of RPG and releasing endless DLC like they do with Stellaris?

That is some easy money.

 

[DalekFlay]

As much as I loved Dragonfall and look forward to playing Hong Kong I'm not exactly heartbroken by the idea of Paradoze keeping these guys on strategy games I'll never play. Too much of a good thing wears you out, makes it less special. I think these guys are a good fit developer wise, so hopefully they find success instead of the usual corporate ass fucking. "Fabulously optimistic" I know, but hey...

 

[imweasel]

7,5 million sounds kinda cheap, I'd think that the studio would've been more valuable.

The figure sounded low to me too.
It only covers retirement for one, not for 2.
That said, given the size of their dev team, I wouldn't be surprised by HBS having some prior debt.

Correct. Battletech didn't sell well enough to pay off all of the debt and now the owners have to sell out for chump change. That is what you get for shoehorning far left politics and SJWism into your game. SJW Jew is gonna SJW Jew... Amirite, @Inshillitron?

Anyway, this probably a pretty good deal for Paradox. HBS is a functioning American studio with talent. Once both of the former owners are finally gone then the studio can start concentrating on just making good games.

 

[imweasel]

Facts and the truth hurt, don't they, Infinitron?

Don't worry, your favorite SJW Jew Goldenboys will eventually open up another studio that you can shill for. It won't be easy with the peanuts they got from Paradox, but they'll survive.

 

[Morality Games]

Fabulously optimistic to assume that a dev that finally made it big with an XCOM-like was acquired to develop a straight-up RPG. Some kind of "tactical RPG", maybe.

"Tactical games with rich stories" would be a description of the Shadowrun series as they see it. How did Battletech finally make it big? Looking at Steamspy, it did all right, but not Shadowrun Returns numbers.

It was $40.

 

[Goral]

Paradox getting even bigger is bad news if you ask me. The bigger the company the more mainstream their games must be to keep the ball rolling and Paradox is already very big. Then again it's possible that if not for Paradox HBS would go under or not release anything other than mobile games (even simpler than Shadowrun series) - in that case it would be the best news we could get.

 

[imweasel]

^
Generally you'd be right, but Paradox isn't very mainstream IMO.

The bad thing is the Paradox doesn't really seem to be into RPGs (especially after Tyranny), so it is doubtful we'll ever see a solid RPG like Dragonfall from HBS again.