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[Bwesh]

since it's paradox, I'm guessing they cut out the good content to sell as future DLCs. As usual

 

[Nikodemos]

Harebrained Schemes should've made a new Shadowrun or Battletech instead...

Those are external IPs, so Paradox would've had to shell out moola for the licenses. And, as Jim/Stephanie Sterling remarked some years ago, "why make some of the money, when you can make all of the money?"
Of course, what Paradox failed to realize, is that it's better to continuously make a bit of money by milking a niche audience who actually wants to be milked, than risk losing a ton of money by having an unproven new IP go bomba.

since it's paradox, I'm guessing they cut out the good content to sell as future DLCs. As usual

Game had day 1 character DLC, so yea.

 

[Heisenberg007]

since it's paradox, I'm guessing they cut out the good content to sell as future DLCs. As usual

In that case, it'd have been better to expand your audience by releasing it on the #1 and #2 platforms first.

DLCs won't sell if there isn't a substantial userbase.

 

[Roberts]

It seems that the studio might have ben shut down, or at least lost almost all its staff. There's a glassdoor review that says that the person enjoyed working there, but the negative was that the studio has been shut down.

80% were let go in July, long before the game was released. No wonder the performance is bad and there were no day one fixes.

Anyway, game's failure has nothing to do with GP. At least now some people are actually playing it.

 

[StueyDuck]

The biggest issue for this game was for most people that they didn't even know it existed.

I'd heard the name a couple of times and knew MS were pushing it in their slew of exclusives but I didn't have any idea when it released or what the game even was other than its adventure aesthetic, tactics game against the likes of BG3 and releasing along side starfield, spiderman 2, forza etc.

Despite the quality of the game which I cannot comment on, I haven't played it, their marketing division really screwed the pooch on this one, as others have said, they bet on gamepass doing the heavy lifting and it seems it did not do much lifting at all

 

[Thief1987]

I kind of had a suspicion that HBS was the team that took over for the VtM:Bloodlines 2 game, that still could be a possibility.

The Chinese Room is working on that. Missed the announcement?

 

[Dane]

It seems the development cost about $30m and they made back about $7m? Middling reviews, skipped Switch, PS4, PS5

They know that the vast majority of the profits come from PC rather than consoles in games like this, I can't remember any big strategy game coming out simultenously on all platforms, even X-COM 2 had the developers releasing it first for PC in contrast with the previous game. If they're writing off after 7 million it means that even the help of Switch and PS for them wasn't enough, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of the money they got was from GP and the exclusive deal.

That what's happens when you spent 30m to release a bad game.
I really liked the Shadowrun Trilogy and was hoping for another Shadowrun game or at least a game with similar mechanics.
If the rumors about big layoffs a few months before the game was released are true
then.... RIP Harebrained Schemes

I've seen a user at ResetEra said that they were laid off alongside 80% of the HS staff in July. I didn't know there were rumors reporting it back then, that means the shit had hit the fan quite a while before the game's release.

 

[Hudo]

"why make some of the money, when you can make all of the money?"

Because now they've made "none of the money", it seems.

 

[Nikodemos]

Because now they've made "none of the money", it seems.

Hence why I noted that the more prudent route for Paradox would've been to accept the license fee as the cost of doing bizness and get HBS to churn out more Battletech content for the paypigs. Just like Paradox themselves are doing with their map painting spreadsheet simulators.

 

[Faust]

I really enjoyed my time with the game - it is a shame it didn't sell that well, but what would you expect when you release a niche genre solely on PC and Xbox?

 

[Thief1987]

Paradox Interactive "parts ways" with Harebrained Schemes after The Lamplighters League

Paradox Interactive and Harebrained Schemes have announced that the two companies will be parting ways following The Lamplighters League

www.destructoid.com

 

[nikolino840]

For me boring after 3 missions

 

[StereoVsn]

Harebrained Schemes should've made a new Shadowrun or Battletech instead...

Man, Shadowrun Dragonfall and HK were so good. It’s a damn shame we won’t see new games in their world. Meh.

Helll, Battletech while not being quite like Shadowrun, was still very good.

Edit: Oh damn, Paradox dumped them. Hopefully the company won’t go under, i really liked their past games.

 

[StereoVsn]

80% were let go in July, long before the game was released. No wonder the performance is bad and there were no day one fixes.

Anyway, game's failure has nothing to do with GP. At least now some people are actually playing it.

I didn’t realize this. God damn, that’s one case where I wish Phil would swoop in since MS owns Shadowrun license anyways.

BG3 style isometric Shadowrun would be amazing. I guess we will always have Dragonfall and HK.

 

[IDKFA]

Paradox, if you want to recoup the costs port over some more games to consoles. HoI and Vic would be great. I have them already on PC, but would double dip to play on my console.

Oh, and while you're at it, get the 40K license.

 

[Bry0]

Was battletech not profitable? Was this all on paradox? Pirhana seems to have had a ton of growth recently catering to the mechwarrior/battletech fan base. HBS making a battletech 2 would’ve locked me in on day 1 + any dlc. Lamplighters did not look appealing to me at all really.

 

[StereoVsn]

Was battletech not profitable? Was this all on paradox? Pirhana seems to have had a ton of growth recently catering to the mechwarrior/battletech fan base. HBS making a battletech 2 would’ve locked me in on day + any dlc. Lamplighters did not look appealing to me at all really.

Same. Loved Shadowrun, liked Battletech, Lamplighters just looked mediocre.

 

[Nikodemos]

Was battletech not profitable? Was this all on paradox? Pirhana seems to have had a ton of growth recently catering to the mechwarrior/battletech fan base. HBS making a battletech 2 would’ve locked me in on day 1 + any dlc. Lamplighters did not look appealing to me at all really.

That's the messed-up thing. Battletech had a solid reception. I think it's the best-selling and highest scoring game from that universe in something like the past 5 years (which admittedly isn't saying much, since there aren't a lot of Battletech universe games out there in the first place).
Problem is, it didn't make the amount of money Paradox wanted, due to the whole licensed IP thing. So, instead of continuing to get some daily bread by churning out BT content, they tried to shoot for the foie gras of a new IP.
It's pretty obvious by now that they should've gone with the daily bread.

 

[Hudo]

Edit: Oh damn, Paradox dumped them. Hopefully the company won’t go under, i really liked their past games.

I genuinely think Harebrained are far better off without Paradox. Paradox are only interested in DLC platforms and Harebrained clearly aren't interested in that. I am actually astonished that Paradox just let them go instead of shutting them down.

 

[newtypepilot]

all thanks to Paradox's greed.

Battletech actually did well but Paradox is too cheap to pay licensing fees. They only want original IPs so it's more profitable to milk DLCs.

 

[StereoVsn]

I genuinely think Harebrained are far better off without Paradox. Paradox are only interested in DLC platforms and Harebrained clearly aren't interested in that. I am actually astonished that Paradox just let them go instead of shutting them down.

Apparently 80%+ of devs are gone. It’s dead.

 

[Hudo]

Apparently 80%+ of devs are gone. It’s dead.

Well..... fuck.

 

[Negotiator101]

I wonder how much MS paid them to put it on Game Pass?

Edit: I've noticed in places such as Reddit, people are once again spouting the old "It's good enough for Game Pass" narrative. Jesus.

All we know is Xbox pays up front for the game so they get that money regardless of its popularity. How much that would be for a game like this is anyone's guess but it's obviously not enough.

 

[xrnzaaas]

The studio isn't likely to survive this after losing most of their workforce on top of losing a publisher. Probably too late to speculate now, but if MS picked them up sooner they could've made another Shadowrun game. I really enjoyed the previous ones.

 

[Hudo]

The studio isn't likely to survive this after losing most of their workforce on top of losing a publisher. Probably too late to speculate now, but if MS picked them up sooner they could've made another Shadowrun game. I really enjoyed the previous ones.

Do Harebrained Schemes own the Shadowrun and Battletech (video game) licenses? I know that with Battletech specifically, it's a bit of a clusterfuck with the licensing.

 

[Thief1987]

Do Harebrained Schemes own the Shadowrun and Battletech (video game) licenses? I know that with Battletech specifically, it's a bit of a clusterfuck with the licensing.

Shadowrun is owned by MS afaik

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Those are external IPs, so Paradox would've had to shell out moola for the licenses. And, as Jim/Stephanie Sterling remarked some years ago, "why make some of the money, when you can make all of the money?"
Of course, what Paradox failed to realize, is that it's better to continuously make a bit of money by milking a niche audience who actually wants to be milked, than risk losing a ton of money by having an unproven new IP go bomba.


Game had day 1 character DLC, so yea.

Jim Sterling made one tiny mistake: making your own IP that can rival with an existing one is hard.

Can your own creation rival the brand power of Shadowrun or Battletech? Why did CDPro license Cyberpunk 2020?