7 ms·
Video game company acquisitions can be brutal. I hope everything goes well for the team now and several years in the future.
by xigency 9y ago
Video game company acquisitions can be brutal. I hope everything goes well for the team now and several years in the future.
- mysterydip 9y agoAgreed. The number of times I've read "don't worry, this doesn't change anything" in the press release of an acquisition is too many to count, and the number of times it's been true has been close to zero.
- TylerE 9y agoIn this case it's probably a good thing. Really, the thing to do is buy it for the name, and then start from scratch in an actually good game engine (i.e. not Unity)
- cr0sh 9y ago> in an actually good game engine (i.e. not Unity) ...and drop Linux support, of course. /smh
- jsmthrowaway 9y agohttps://wiki.unrealengine.com/Linux_Support https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Linux_Support http://www.pcworld.com/article/2940175/cryteks-powerful-cryengine-is-the-latest-gaming-engine-to-embrace-linux.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/2940175/cryteks-powerful-crye... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)#OS_X.2C_Linux.2C_and_Android_support https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_(game_engine)#OS_X.2C... UE4 even runs in a browser out of the box. Unity is not the Magic Linux Engine, it's just a bit more convenient because of .NET, particularly when it comes to modding.
- omg_ketchup 9y agoUnity's actually great... the problem is anyone can use it.
- TylerE 9y agoUnity's great for small indie games. Complex simulations don't mix well with mandatory GC. Microstutters suck.
- jimmaswell 9y agoIt's not that hard to work with the GC in Unity to make the game smooth, especially if you do so from the beginning. https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/performance-optimization/optimizing-garbage-collection-unity-games https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/topics/performance-optim...
- TylerE 9y agoHow come no ones seem to do it then, or not do it well enough? Cities:Skylines has the same GC stutters.
- bananaboy 9y agoIt's easy to fall into the trap of doing things the simple way or the unity way. To avoid it you have to go out of your way a bit and apply the same rigour as if you were writing your own engine.
- jimmaswell 9y agoNot making heap allocations in loops/Update and favoring object reuse really isn't comparable to writing your own engine.
- bananaboy 9y agoI didn't say it was. I'm just saying that you can't allocate and instantiate all over the shop just because it's a GC language.
- jimmaswell 9y ago
- pawadu 9y agoGive a man a game engine and he will write a game. Give a man no game engine and he will write a game engine for the rest of his life. - unknown GDC speaker
- gozur88 9y agoYes, but it wasn't EA who did the purchase.
- ciaranm 9y agoSeems like a chunk of the team left already (and were subsequently hired by Valve[1]) [1] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-05-22-valve-hired-the-kerbal-space-program-developers http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-05-22-valve-hired-the...
- BOBOTWINSTON 9y agoI saw somewhere that Riot had also picked up a few of them. Not that it really makes what happened much better, but at least these guys got a reward of sorts.
- sevensor 9y ago> these guys got a reward of sorts. Of sorts. The games industry is not exactly known for its humane working conditions.
- chickenfries 9y agoMust be better than being owned by a marketing firm, no? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squad_(company)
- babuskov 9y ago> I hope everything goes well for the team IIRC there was a lot of controversy regarding the working conditions and wages. If those stories were true, things could only get better.
- Declanomous 9y agoI think most of the team actually left after 1.0 was finished. They got sick of working for Squad. I think Squad was never a particularly good place to be a game developer, and they realized they should probably cash out now.
- Svekax 9y agoThe ones that were weren't fired and replaced with Mexican "interns" working full time for $200 per month. https://www.destructoid.com/former-kerbal-space-program-developers-slam-studio-for-poor-pay-and-crunch-time-359507.phtml https://www.destructoid.com/former-kerbal-space-program-deve... I wonder if Take-Two Interactive considered the morality of acquiring a company that paid slave wages. Maybe they should change their name to Take-Two Thousand Annually.
- MrZongle2 9y agoTake-Two appears to have purchased the KSP property, not Squad, the original owning company.
- Svekax 9y agoWhat is your point?
- mcphage 9y agoWell, you asked: > I wonder if Take-Two Interactive considered the morality of acquiring a company that paid slave wages. But they didn't acquire the company.
- ionised 9y agoYou said acquiring the company, which they didn't.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoAre you suggesting that KSP is eternally tainted by Squad's actions? Should we burn the code, and start from scratch?
- baq 9y agothis time it can't be much worse, there was a lot of drama about a year ago when everybody from the old guard left.