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They already sold.
To Saber Interactive in 2020, in the Embracer group.
It's unclear exactly who owns Zen right now. It seems to be Embracer still, but it could be Beacon Interactive.
Either way, Zen hasn't been independent for some time. It reports to the mothership every quarter.
No, it's more like $60-70 with Legacy Bundles and seasonal sales, stacked.
"Way to be four years late to that party!" - Nappa
Is it possible that Pinball FX exists (in its current half-baked form) mainly as a means to help increase the price they got when selling to Sabre? Just thinking a lot of the things they promised but failed to deliver or under-delivered on probably sounded great as bullet points in a presentation to whoever bought them out. For example, Pinball Royale, in-game currency, dynamic bundling, paid collectables, a subscription service, a dedicated (but ultimately abysmal) "Pinball Show" on YouTube and "RTX" probably made it sound like FX was going to make money like the next Fortnite when they made their sales pitch. Then when the deal was done they just cobbled together the mediocre product we're left with today and which, by the devs own admission, is unfinished and still has a ways to go in terms of its overall quality. Still, I bet folk like Mel Kirk did quite nicely out of it. Just a theory though...
I hate to break it to you but starting fresh in a completely different engine isn't as simple as you seem to think it is. No doubt some assets were ported over relatively easily but there's a lot more to it than that.
You might not think Zen needed to switch engines but clearly they did and I can think of numerous reasons why. FX3 had it's limitations and it showed. The only feesable way for them to move forward and not charge for remakes would have been to not remake anything, and just continue on with new previously unreleased tables. Imagine the fricken whining there would be if they'd done that. Thats right, it would have been even worse than the whining about having to pay a few dollars to buy the remakes.
People don't work for free and games don't make themselves. Jesus H Christ on an Entitled Cross!
This was a necessary change in terms of the deal and unnecessary in terms of further development of the game.
They shot himself in the foot.
I bought the tables again and I don't have a problem with it because I had the option to stay with FX3 and made the decision to buy again.
The amount and frequency of new content is embarrassingly low.
For me, the game is dying in its current state, maybe it will improve, which is what I wish for all of us.
My *guess* is they always intended to change the engine at some point (and for good reasons) but they rushed out FX before it was really good enough so they could get more money upfront. But who knows...
EDITED for proof.
No, they changed their engine before the Epic deals came into consideration. I see several other games using Unreal, yet don't require any form of deal limiting only to that storefront.
Hades does not use Unreal, and they were the first to deal with Epic. You have plenty of games built like that, that were exclusive to Epic.
https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-store-exclusive-hades-is-headed-to-steam-in-december/
Zen changed to Unreal in 2019 -- they can't whip up a new VR game simply in a few months. First, Star Wars VR was built using Unreal 4, and that is not available on Epic anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLPOCR_48s
Second, Zen Pinball Party was built using Unreal 4, and that is not available on Epic anywhere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQEVZ_OCWj8
Third, Pinball M was built using Unreal 4, and that did not get an Epic exclusive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUaWhdINq_U
There's no way Epic requires the use of Unreal for their exclusivity deals.
I will not engage in further discussions with You because you have nothing to prove Your thesis.
And every time you give the impression of a person attached to your own reasons.
And You defend Zen too fiercely in all possible critical threads that appear on the forum.
I'm not asking if you are in any way related to this company because I'm not interested in it.
Show me where exactly Epic requires using their own engine for their exclusivity agreements.
I know Hades does not use Unreal because SteamDB shows the engines used. Essence, and XNA. I bought Hades myself, and I have proof of purchase through Steam. That was the first game that got signed exclusively using the Epic Games Store for 1 year in Early Access.
Metro Exodus, likewise, uses the 4A engine. Again, SteamDB. Signed on with Epic in early 2019 to the dismay of many. But that's a different story.
What The Golf? uses Unity. Proof: SteamDB. Signed with Epic.
I listed a few examples above, showing games that don't use Unreal but signed with Epic. I'm not defending Zen; I'm rebuking your false claim as above. You yourself have nothing to prove.
I'm here because I'm waiting for the next Williams tables.
It is not up to you to judge who can speak here and how.
I don't like having discussions with people like you, so I'm stopping here.
If you don't like any statement, ignore it, just as I ignore every other one of yours.
Not once have I thought about insulting you personally in this thread. Come on, you're better than this.
Supporting all the various platforms with their own engine was undoubtedly quite labor intensive and therefore expensive. It probably took at least a couple of programmers who specialized in each supported system. And another couple of guys to manage the whole project and coordinate everyone's efforts..
Switching over to Unreal Engine, with its multi-platform support, is likely much easier and cheaper to manage.
That's because it's all been covered before, in the other (massive) threads.
These are business decisions, as much as technical ones.
i.e.
Unreal Engine costs 5% of revenues to use. (The first $1 milion is royalty free.)
Epic Game Store takes 12% of revenue.
But if you use Unreal Engine and publish to EGS, then the 5% is waived.
(Compare, contrast to Steam's 30% cut, lowering to 25, then 20% after the first $50 million of revenues. Plus engine royalty/fee.)
Then there's whatever business arrangement Zen and Epic came to for EGS exclusivity.
Hundreds of dollars? Not unless you're too impatient to wait for things to go on sale. All the old tables I bought, I got like 85% or 90% off due to the bundle discounts and sales.
How do you have any idea what they expect? It's not really likely they expect everyone to buy all of the old tables in FX, is it? Certainly not if you're any indication, or any of the other couple hundred people who have made basically the same post elsewhere in this forum since FX was released. Maybe they really only expect people to buy a couple of their favorite tables in FX.
Also... if you're pledging to never buy FX versions of old tables or anything else, then what are they losing where you're concerned? If they upgraded all your FX3 tables for free, they'd take in zero income from you. If you don't buy any tables, they still take in zero income from you.
If you're just venting your frustration, that's fine. I get that. I wasn't happy about it myself.
But if you're not just venting, I don't understand why you think you can blackmail them into giving you free stuff by threatening not to otherwise be a customer. You're already not a customer. And if they haven't already given in to the other people w ho have posted about this, why would you be the first? Are you making some new argument that I missed?
Doesn't make a lot of sense.