The future of JA3 with Haemimont Games and Embracer Group/THQ Nordic

[Briggadoon]

I know the developer of JA3 is Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic is 'just' the publisher but THQ Nordic is also the owner of the Jagged Alliance franchise and i really wonder which repercussions will follow after the latest news about Embracer Group (which THQ Nordic is a subsidiary of).

For everyone missing the news Embracer Group and (therefore also) all its Subsidiaries miscalculated their annual revenue after they counted with money of a partnership deal that wasnt even finalized... (https://in.ign.com/dead-island-2-1/184788/news/embracer-group-sees-major-partnership-deal-fall-through-last-minute) and because of that they will cancel upcoming projects and start a "Restructuring Program" (fire everyone they can) (https://gameranx.com/updates/id/468767/article/embracer-undergoes-severe-restructuring-program-unannounced-games-cancelled-and-staff-to-be-fired/) they will try to lower their future investments and also want to reduce their financial deficits (reduce debts)...

So what does that mean for the JA-franchise (and therefore for the future of JA3) which belongs to THQ Nordic (Embracer Group)? Will Haemimont Games be affected by any of this? Is the future of JA3 (DLCs) and the franchise (JA4+?) in danger? Did THQ Nordic/Haemimont Games gave any statement about the future (teasing DLCs)? I have so many questions and i am afraid to see the JA-franchise disappear again for the next 20ish years. I am also quite a noob when it comes to corpo-stuff and maybe i am overthinking this (and maybe someone with more knowledge can enlighten me about this whole situation) but my quess is that after the release the game will be dropped immediatelly to reduce costs because JA is uber-niche and even THQ Nordic thinks JA3 wont be a big hit because they give a -20% game price reduction BEFORE the release of the game which is in my regard unheared of......

What information do we have so far about the future of JA3 and JA in general? I would like to hear your thoughts on this and maybe, just maybe there are some devs/officials here that could give some insights.

Cant wait to play JA3!

Cheers,

Briggadoon

[Lunokhod]

12 minutes ago, Briggadoon said:

What information do we have so far about the future of JA3 and JA in general?

Nothing good. Problem of THQ - no money. Problem of Haemimont - no skill.

It will be not bad game at all, much better than 3/4 games in Steam this days, but its not enough for JA3. I expected much more.

Cheers,

Clown and Troll

[Briggadoon]

2 minutes ago, Lunokhod said:

Nothing good. Problem of THQ - no money. Problem of Haemimont - no skill.

It will be not bad game at all, much better than 3/4 games in Steam this days, but its not enough for JA3. I expected much more.

Cheers,

Clown and Troll

Well this was not helpful at all and a waste of a post. Thanks...

[D13]

Nobody can really tell what is going to happen over the next few months, with the problems at Embracer and the global economic downturn that is affecting many tech companies.

I would not read too much into the 20% discount though. Maybe that was the launch plan all along, and the regular price was artificially inflated so they could give a nice 20% "discount" without losing money? We don't know. I don't think it's necessarily a bad sign. I would be more concerned if the price had suddenly gone up by 20% 😄

[Solaris_Wave]

The problem with this is, when situations like this happen, you get the sad, truthful outcome and then the official announcement and marketing speak that fools absolutely no one. People get laid off, companies fold or merge and the official words are things like, "moving forward", "looking forward", "pleased to announce the joint venture of…", "we are delighted…" and "excited to see…". It is clearly false positivity that acts like the ship has not only stayed afloat but is now more streamlined and sails better. The reality is that, so much money goes into a game and unless it blows everyone away and sells like crazy, talent can break up and go separate ways.

For JA3, I sincerely hope that failure of financial success elsewhere doesn't touch Haemimont. The thing is, even smaller releases that sell well can still not be enough to stop future company development and cause fragmentation, all because the other big game; the one that was supposed to create sales upon sales, didn't turn out as hoped.

[Briggadoon]

14 minutes ago, D13 said:

Nobody can really tell what is going to happen over the next few months, with the problems at Embracer and the global economic downturn that is affecting many tech companies.

I would not read too much into the 20% discount though. Maybe that was the launch plan all along, and the regular price was artificially inflated so they could give a nice 20% "discount" without losing money? We don't know. I don't think it's necessarily a bad sign. I would be more concerned if the price had suddenly gone up by 20% 😄

Actually i would disagree on that point. THQ Nordic is a veteran at publishing and they should know that a -20% prerelease discount would produce negative reactions and distrust (-10% would be alright but at -20% peoples cynicism kicks in). A +20% increase in price would have actually the opposite effect. It would project confidence of the Devs/Publisher of their product and onto their customers and the customers would assume that the product ended up to be bigger (and therefore better) and they would be more curious.... customers psychology is quite weird sometimes. 

But let us please not concentrate on this topic in this thread (there are enough others out there about this issue). Lets stay focused on the main question: What is the future of JA3 in a failing-Embracer-Group-time?

Edited June 18, 2023 by Briggadoon

[moqueur]

55 minutes ago, Briggadoon said:

But let us please not concentrate on this topic in this thread (there are enough others out there about this issue). Lets stay focused on the main question: What is the future of JA3 in a failing-Embracer-Group-time?

Well it will be released on July 14 😁 And according to the devs at least for now they do plan to add post-launch content. Some updates are gonna be free, some not. The statement was made in their recent interview to a Russian magazine. It was published on June 14 and both Haemimont and THQN representatives took part in it.

It was also revealed that they do not care about Metacritic as they understand JA3 is a niche game. Financial goals don't look too ambitious either: simply compensating the expenses seems to be fine.

[Briggadoon]

4 minutes ago, moqueur said:

Well it will be released on July 14 😁 And according to the devs at least for now they do plan to add post-launch content. Some updates are gonna be free, some not. The statement was made in their recent interview to a Russian magazine. It was published on June 14 and both Haemimont and THQN representatives took part in it.

It was also revealed that they do not care about Metacritic as they understand JA3 is a niche game. Financial goals don't look too ambitious either: simply compensating the expenses seems to be fine.

Well that sounds great and hope is returning into my withered heart. Many thanks to you kind sir for the information! Do you have the link to that interview by any chance?

Haemimont Games always had DLCs for their games (Omerta, Tropica, etc.) and if the higher-up of THQ Nordic is not denying it then i am quite hopeful there will be more content post release (even more when the people creating this game understand that it is quite niche and still say there will be more).

[moqueur]

9 minutes ago, Briggadoon said:

Well that sounds great and hope is returning into my withered heart. Many thanks to you kind sir for the information! Do you have the link to that interview by any chance?

Sure, here it is. I believe Google Translate will do the job but just in case — here is the translation of the very paragraph you are interested in (can be found right under the last picture):

"Indeed we do plan free updates and paid DLCs. But sorry, it's not the right time to elaborate. First we need to finish development and to make sure the game is awesome". 

[Briggadoon]

10 minutes ago, moqueur said:

Sure, here it is. I believe Google Translate will do the job but just in case — here is the translation of the very paragraph you are interested in (can be found right under the last picture):

"Indeed we do plan free updates and paid DLCs. But sorry, it's not the right time to elaborate. First we need to finish development and to make sure the game is awesome". 

Thank you very much my man. And to honour your effort i will change my profile pic ;D

[moqueur]

2 minutes ago, Briggadoon said:

Thank you very much my man. And to honour your effort i will change my profile pic ;D

You're welcome 🙂 As for the profile pic — not sure if it is critical for the forum but definitely not critical for me 😉 Nice to see yet another Lynx fan here (turned out there are plenty of us)

[ShadowMagic]

Now you know why the game is already 20% discounted in pre-order (not just because of gaining a kick-start) and, again, possibly the reason why game seems to be rushed into release (hence, little attention to character portraying, hence borrowing parts of the game from existing projects). 😉 

Already came up with this theory before. And don't blindy believe anything that is being promised on forehand ("just trying to break even with costs and sales income", "free DLC will come after") because those with at least basic knowledge of marketing, know how things roll 😉 

In any case, let's just see how Tropico Alliance will land. Pre-order if you like (it doesn't break a leg) or wait for a sale later on.

Edited June 19, 2023 by ShadowMagic

[Solaris_Wave]

Waiting for a sale is obviously beneficial to the customer and can, in fact be profitable for the publishers. However, it seems that despite any profits that get made through sales, they don't seem to get considered when it comes down to whether a company avoids restructuring or disbanding. It often seems to be initial sales that decide that factor.