Amplitude Goes Independent

[Quintillus]

Amplitude Studios will soon have more amplitude to make their own decisions in the game-making process:

We’re thrilled to announce that our studio is officially returning to independence!

Amplitude is now owned by members of the internal team, meaning that the future of our studio and games is staying in the hands of those who know them best.


Being part of the SEGA family and working with their team for the past eight years has been an incredible journey. We’ve learned so much, have grown in ways we never could have imagined and have made great friends along the way. As our paths now head in different directions, we’re parting ways on the best of terms and we’ll continue to cheer them on as they take on new and exciting things in the future!

By returning to our indie roots we’re getting back to the heart of what drives us: creativity, innovation, and close-knit collaboration with our community. These values have shaped who we are from the beginning, and will lead the way forward in this exciting next chapter.

Thank you for being with us every step of the way! Here’s to a new beginning, and to all the amazing things we’ll create together.

Certainly interesting, and not something I saw coming. Potentially good for the future of their franchises. They also announced on Steam that they have a Humankind patch upcoming and two titles in development - anyone hoping for an Endless Legend II?

 

[The_J]

I was about to post this in the Humankind forum, saw it too.
How do you even become independent again? Does that mean that the owners bought it from SEGA? And why would they want that? I don't think that Humankind was a big enough hit that they plan to make better money like this.

 

[Quintillus]

I was 50:50 on which forum to post it in.

They did indeed buy the company back. Probably for more creative freedom? Or to avoid layoffs that Sega was considering imposing (they did some early in 2024), and thus be more likely to succeed with their next game?

Amplitude likely loses out on marketing might but perhaps they figure they are well-known enough by now to self-publish?

Sega may have been receptive to it in part due to some of their recent financial failures, most notably Pharoah: Total War, and that Humankind wasn't a smash success critically (though I suspect it was profitable financially). Still surprised me when I saw this though.

 

[Patine]

I was about to post this in the Humankind forum, saw it too.
How do you even become independent again? Does that mean that the owners bought it from SEGA? And why would they want that? I don't think that Humankind was a big enough hit that they plan to make better money like this.

Blizzard became independent of Actiivision (then I believe they bought the latter, as Call of Duty is still on the same launcher as WoW, Starcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo, here, installed, on my computer.

 

[Blake00]

Good news, but am surprised they had the funds to buy themselves back too. Maybe SEGA took most of the pain on Humankind's lack of sales, or maybe it did sell quite well after all despite the reviews. The review count (over 20k) is quite high for a 4X game (that isn't official Civ) on Steam so it probably did sell reasonably well.

And yes here's hoping the next big project is Endless Legend 2 as we still haven't found out what FFH2's Kael has been doing for them, would be epic if they've got him on that. Surely watching Age of Wonder's 4 success has them hungry for it too, as I also saw Brad Wardell at Stardock talking about being inspired by the AoW4 success (ie maybe they'll do a new Elemental game too).

Also of note I just saw the AoW4 devs posting about the 25th anniversary of the franchise and mentioning AoW4 being their most successful AoW game ever (meaning it even beat AoW2) yet when you look at it's steam reviews it's at 11k received which is only just over half what Humankind has so yeah maybe Humankind did sell quite well after all (although it prob had a bigger budget to cover) even if it wasn't as well received.