Amplitude has lost their way

[chairman_mentos]

I'm sure big daddy SEGA already knows , but Amplitude is not doing well. Look at Endless Dungeon, poorly received and didn't sell well at all (should have been obvious from the beta, the game should have been scrapped). This game also, a Civilization reskin of Endless Legend, not very good at all despite numerous patches, DLC, etc (I bet the attach rate is low).

It's sad to see Amplitude dying like this, to be honest, I don't think they deserve it. I don't understand what happened to them, maybe the pandemic drained them of all their good talent? I don't really see the same level of greed that you see in sister SEGA properties like Creative Assembly.

So what happened? Bad luck? SEGA will be coming for them to make line go up now. Maybe this will be their last PC release and they will make mobile games.

It's sad to see it end this way

[ashbery76]

I bet you're fun in a pub.

[oddball]

IDK why they thought that "dungeon of the endless" thing would ever be a good idea. Their core IP endless stuff isn't particularly popular, they already had one flailing game on their hands and who on earth wants a tactics game from a studio with no experience in the space.

[chairman_mentos]

Originally posted by moca loca:

IDK why they thought that "dungeon of the endless" thing would ever be a good idea. Their core IP endless stuff isn't particularly popular, they already had one flailing game on their hands and who on earth wants a tactics game from a studio with no experience in the space.

My gaming group [not amplitude fans] all wanted to try the Endless Dungeon beta and we did. After playing it for a while we all agreed it was lacking.

I thought Endless Dungeon was a phenomenal game, I bought it during its kickstarter or early access days, way back when. Even then, it was a great game, when it was only half complete or less.

[chairman_mentos]

It all makes sense now. Look at the timeline of Amplitude Studio:

2012 - Endless Space
2014 - Endless Legend
2014 - Dungeon of The Endless
2016 - Acquisition of Amplitude by SEGA
2017 - Endless Space 2
2019 - some free visual novel for Endless Space 2
2020 - Pandemic starts
2021 - Humankind
2023 - End of the pandemic (as defined by USA)
2023 - Endless Dungeon

So they spent 5 years developing Humankind, and it turned out like this. I am guessing what happened is that when SEGA came in they cleaned house , or some of the best talent must have fled. I think this would make a great Youtube documentary to get to the bottom of why Humankind turned out to be such an awful game, after 2 years of patching and a 3 dollar dlc.

Putting in the pandemic to the timeline, I'm not sure you can blame it entirely on the pandemic now, because they had 4 years of development time before that happened. However, the final stretch (2020-2021) was impacted by the Pandemic, so perhaps that was time needed to make the game click and be fun. Overall, all signs point to the acquisition of the studio by SEGA still.

[ashbery76]

You say turned out like this,but compared to 4X games that are not a 30 year franchise called Civ the player number are good.

[oddball]

Originally posted by ashbery76:

You say turned out like this,but compared to 4X games that are not a 30 year franchise called Civ the player number are good.

Are you joking?

AAA developer game owned by sega:
https://steamcharts.com/app/1124300

Literally like five dudes:
https://steamdb.info/app/597180/charts/

Notice how the numbers are basically the same?

[oddball]

IDK what it takes to convince people that this game is bad and the studio has no clue how to fix it. Over half the reviews are negative. Player count dropped like a rock after launch and never recovered. DLCs have reviews telling people the game is better without them. Updates somehow make things worse.

Heck even most of the people who used to defend the game have silently given up on it.

The problem with this game is that it is bad.

Civ doesn't do huge numbers because people have heard of it, it does huge numbers because it wasn't a total mess of bad design and bad aesthetics and joyless spam.

It is entirely possible for the plucky upstart to wrest the crown from the king. Look at what happened with Football Manager and FIFA or Cities Skylines and SImCity. The reason Humankind couldn't pull that off despite a ton of media attention and excitement is that it sucked.

[ashbery76]

Originally posted by moca loca:

Originally posted by ashbery76:

You say turned out like this,but compared to 4X games that are not a 30 year franchise called Civ the player number are good.

Are you joking?

AAA developer game owned by sega:
https://steamcharts.com/app/1124300

Literally like five dudes:
https://steamdb.info/app/597180/charts/

Notice how the numbers are basically the same?

Depends how you look at it.Old world is great game by Civ4's lead designer and cant beat a first Civ iteration by Amp.

[pi73r]

Originally posted by chairman_mentos:

It all makes sense now. Look at the timeline of Amplitude Studio:

2012 - Endless Space
2014 - Endless Legend
2014 - Dungeon of The Endless
2016 - Acquisition of Amplitude by SEGA
2017 - Endless Space 2
2019 - some free visual novel for Endless Space 2
2020 - Pandemic starts
2021 - Humankind
2023 - End of the pandemic (as defined by USA)
2023 - Endless Dungeon

So they spent 5 years developing Humankind, and it turned out like this. I am guessing what happened is that when SEGA came in they cleaned house , or some of the best talent must have fled. I think this would make a great Youtube documentary to get to the bottom of why Humankind turned out to be such an awful game, after 2 years of patching and a 3 dollar dlc.

Putting in the pandemic to the timeline, I'm not sure you can blame it entirely on the pandemic now, because they had 4 years of development time before that happened. However, the final stretch (2020-2021) was impacted by the Pandemic, so perhaps that was time needed to make the game click and be fun. Overall, all signs point to the acquisition of the studio by SEGA still.

What do you mean turned out like this? The game's better than civ 6 (though sure the bar wasnt that high).
Though yea, too bad they didn't build more and better upon dungeon of the endless. That game was great.

[pi73r]

Originally posted by moca loca:

Originally posted by ashbery76:

You say turned out like this,but compared to 4X games that are not a 30 year franchise called Civ the player number are good.

Are you joking?

AAA developer game owned by sega:
https://steamcharts.com/app/1124300

Literally like five dudes:
https://steamdb.info/app/597180/charts/

Notice how the numbers are basically the same?

Old world is the best 4x on the market currently with a new big dlc just released. The fact that humankind got similar numbers is pretty good lol

[oddball]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Originally posted by moca loca:

Are you joking?

AAA developer game owned by sega:
https://steamcharts.com/app/1124300

Literally like five dudes:
https://steamdb.info/app/597180/charts/

Notice how the numbers are basically the same?

Old world is the best 4x on the market currently with a new big dlc just released. The fact that humankind got similar numbers is pretty good lol

Amplitude has more people working in their HR than Old World has total. If they're that ineffective an org they should rethink what they are doing.

[Thunder Bagel]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Originally posted by moca loca:

Are you joking?

AAA developer game owned by sega:
https://steamcharts.com/app/1124300

Literally like five dudes:
https://steamdb.info/app/597180/charts/

Notice how the numbers are basically the same?

Old world is the best 4x on the market currently with a new big dlc just released. The fact that humankind got similar numbers is pretty good lol

Old World released on Epic a year before Steam so much of their player base isn't being represented in the Steam player count

[Ericus1]

Other than not really liking the orders mechanic (like, I get it, and recognize it is a innovative and fresh take on trying to solve a problem - I still just don't like it at all) I also find Old World is the vastly superior entry to the genre over Humankind.

[BatMart]

it's hilarious how half the people calling the game bad just don't understand the basic mechanics of the game ;)

[DNLH]

I wouldn't say it's git gud issue, there are definitely design decisions that fall into "love it or hate it" category, purely technical issues aside, but it does get a bit annoying when people irked by HK deviating from standard formula keep leaning on negative reviews ignoring people who enjoy the game.

I didn't 'go silent', even if I wasn't really actively defending the game in the first place, because I got tired of HK, I did it because I was done reading over and over again how the core mechanics that make me enjoy it should be the ones thrown out of the window. There's no middle ground, I want HK, people who hate it don't, if we settle on kinda HK halfway through we'll both be unhappy, so what's the point?