IDK, Thomas saidseveral times that he don't want to sell, and it seems different, no a professional but a personal statement, he explicitely said that he refused a lot of money
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I'm the Creative Director at Moon, I'm involved with everything apart from writing code myself. We had Leads in every department now that manage the work on a per-department basis, but yes, I'm always extremely hands-on with every project we're making, especially in terms of design :)
We do own the IP rights to the ARPG we're making. Again, because I'm getting a ton of messages about this, at the end of the day, it just doesn't even make any business sense to 'sell-out' at this point. The ARPG will be our first AAA game, so if at all ever, we'd entertain the idea after that one ships. Truth to be told though, I'm already very happy with my position at Moon. I get to make the games I really want to make, I get to work with the most talented people in this industry, I can already fulfill my development dreams with the setup we have - So why risk that by doing something that would just make us a bit of money? I just don't care enough about money, we just want to make the best games in the world and right now things are great, so there's no reason to change the way we work. If we hit it big and we make a bunch of money, great, but I want to see that as a side-product of us making something that made a ton of people happy. Not being a slave to money and actually being in a position to flat out say 'No.' has done us a lot of good. We don't accept shit deals from publishers, we don't have to play to anyone's fiddle, we have creative freedom... we're honestly really happy with where we're at. Would it be nice to have a bunch of money on my account? Sure, but chances are my day-to-day life would change more to the negative than to the positive.
Hope that made sense and finally clears up why we're not interested in getting acquired :)
What? Just because we're distributed? We don't own an office, sure, but saying that we're not a real studio sounds a bit harsh :D I'd say we embraced modern ways of developing games - So far we still don't see the downside of working in a distributed fashion, but the upsides are huge, since we hire talent away from places like Blizzard, Retro, Ubisoft, Riot, etc. - And they all get to work together. The goal is to build the most talented team of developers in the industry and doing that would just not be possible any other way.
I'm looking forward to your ARPG. Do you mind if I ask if we are going to see or hear more about it officially this year?
How much do you think moon will expand since it's you're first AAA game, or do you plan to stay smaller with heavy outsourcing?
Thank you I really hope Ori Will of the wisp is going to be cult and stay in the memories for a very, very long time.
With the Game Pass I expect your game to be played by +7-8M even +10M players, which is huge for a 2D Metroidvania. In any case I am sure that you will break the records.
I know you will say nothing about your RPG project, but if you have to make your top 3 Action RPG which games will you choose? And their high quality ^^ ?
as long as i can play all of you coming games on XBOX or Steam it's more then happy...
Hope for the best for you guys
Probably not, but I don't know, maybe? It's already looking and feeling excellent though :D I've been working on this thing since 2015, we're building a pretty huge universe around it and needed that time to build something that's truly unique - That doesn't mean that you'll see it any time soon though, since it's been a side project for a while, then we built a smaller team for pre-Production and only after WotW the entire team is going to jump over to enter full production.
I feel really good about the team size we have right now. Again, we're always trying to hire the most talented people in the industry - We have some folks that have 3x the output a 'normal' person would have on a daily basis... cause they're insanely passionate and talented. The goal with Moon is to stay fairly small, but everyone at Moon has to be a master at what they're doing.
Thank you! :) At the end of the day, it all depends on whether we delivered a high quality game or not. I'm pretty confident in what we built, I love playing it - but press and you guys will decide at the end of the day if we did our jobs well. It's all very simple, we just try to make products that make you folks happy, we try to give you folks an experience that really stands out from the masses. We're constantly improving as a studio, so with every game we're learning and can do cooler things. Right now my mind is completely focused on shipping Will of the Wisps and I hope you all will have an amazing time playing the game, that's all :)
I think what they are doing could be the future.
Looking at America half or more of development studios are in California, Washington, and Texas. Forcing devs to live at these select few places ultimately hurts the potential of the industry.
thomasmahler Thanks for contributing to this thread,I literally can't wait for Ori next month! You guys made something really special here with this IP,I hope to see more of it,maybe even in other mediums (:
I'll echo this sentiment.
Love Ori and hope to see more of Moon's output on Xbox/PC. They make great games though so who knows what their future holds.
Phil and Matt know what they have with Ori/Moon Studios. Even if Moon doesn't want to be acquired, they'll be given first party treatment/resources to keep their future games exclusive to the Xbox platform (also feel this way about StudioMDHR). Very much looking forward to WotW.
Their future after Will of the Wisps appears to be multiplatform.
Did you not read thomasmahler posts? That's not happening.
I personally love this and the fact that you've shown success can hopefully set a standard for the industry. While remote work isn't for everyone, it opens up exponential possibilities for people to work together who wouldn't have been able to otherwise. It allows talent in regions with no studio presence to work without uprooting their families...something that isn't an option for a lot of people. It allows hard workers a chance to win back a little work life balance not wasting 2 hours a day to get ready and then commute. It creates flexibility and options for the industry. Keep setting the standard! Hope it catches on!
I read through it, though I may have missed something that explicitly said they're going multiplatform.
Well yeah, as long as they can talk to each others without problem, having devs around the world should be one of the way for developing games in future.
Ok, it wasn't explicitly stated but it's been suggested in past posts. However I never know, their next game could very well be a partnership with MS with the exception that Moon Studios own the IP. I highly doubt it, but it is a possibility no matter how remote I think it is.
I don't have the heart to say this on Twitter... But with her name... I'd treat her like a dog creeper too...
Hmm you do not consider WotW to be a AAA game? May I ask why that is?
I know, but in the long run who knows what happens. Ninja theory made an Xbox exclusive before their run with hell blade and heavenly sword. Just saying I won't prognosticate years away.
Sunset Overdrive and Ryse show that Microsoft are flexible in terms of IP ownership. I trust Moon either way in delivering a quality experience.
I'm not sure why anyone would object to Moon's next game being multiplatform. It's not as if they'll suddenly start skipping Xbox. Is the thought that it would be a loss for Microsoft? Because, if Moon isn't in the market to sell their independence right now, it's not as if going multiplatform will somehow make them less in the market.
All I can think is that maybe the thought is they'll be really successful on other consoles and be able to stay independent, and will be less likely to join Xbox in the future then they might be if their entire audience was in the Xbox ecosystem ...which is kind of fucked up.
Or maybe they'll find they like working with Sony more than working with Xbox and when they change their mind to sell their independence they'll go with Sony... which is also kind of fucked up.
Multiplatform is fine, multiplatform is good, if there were rumors that their next game was gonna be Playstation exclusive I'd get the fervor, but like, it's still gonna come to Xbox.
All I can think is that maybe the thought is they'll be really successful on other consoles and be able to stay independent, and will be less likely to join Xbox in the future then they might be if their entire audience was in the Xbox ecosystem ...which is kind of fucked up.
Or maybe they'll find they like working with Sony more than working with Xbox and when they change their mind to sell their independence they'll go with Sony... which is also kind of fucked up.
Multiplatform is fine, multiplatform is good, if there were rumors that their next game was gonna be Playstation exclusive I'd get the fervor, but like, it's still gonna come to Xbox.
Just a budget thing. We're still managing our budgets very, very efficiently - Ori and the Blind Forest was made for a tiny budget relative to the project it was. Will of the Wisps already cost quite a lot more than that since way more people have worked on it, but it's obviously not anywhere near as expensive as what publishers are currently paying for AAA games. Our ARPG is the most ambitious thing we ever made. We're trying to be super careful with how we scale so that the company culture doesn't get screwed up and so that we know that we can actually tackle the thing we set out to make.
Fun fact, we could've made the ARPG instead of Will of the Wisps (a prototype already existed by the time we signed the Will of the Wisps contract), but at the time it just didn't feel like we were ready yet as a studio to tackle something this ambitious. Not that Will of the Wisps isn't ambitious, but it was again planned as a bit of a smaller thing than what it became - Now it's this massive 2d game that has production values that are pretty nuts. I doubt anyone is going to match that in the 2d space any time soon, since most studios that aren't set up like we are, it probably wouldn't make any business sense to do it.
But yeah, we're taking the long, carefully planned road here. Moon Studios has existed for 10 years now and it took quite a bit of time to develop the company and make the games we made in order to now be able to make the ARPG confidently. People always only see a studios output, but it actually matters a lot how you build a studio, letting people learn on the job to then do greater things, developing the tools and pipelines necessary to match the next project you want to make, etc. - It's all a LOT of work. The long view here is that Moon hopefully becomes a studio that you can just trust as a gamer, which is why I'm also always taking the time to be approachable and explain in all honesty what we're doing (as far as NDA's let me, that is :D) - I enjoy our culture of no bullshitting, no shallow PR blabla, I want gamers to know that if we release something, it's going to be something special, because we honestly pour our hearts and souls into what we're making. We're shipping our second project soon, I sure hope we'll live up to the high standards we set for ourselves :)
thank you, Thomas!
your hard work will pay off, 100% confident.
can't wait to play your new masterpiece!
Agreed. And history has shown EVERY time MS didn't make the move on the company someone else did. I know we all remember the BioWare situation as an example.
Great post here my man. I honestly already see you guys as a studio I trust to deliver greatness. Ori and TBF is a masterpiece to me and I fully expect WotW to be as well. I'm excited for you guys ARPG too.
I'm grateful you actually care enough to take the time to grace our OT with your words.
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According to Shane Kim, the former VP of Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft tried to acquire Bioware.
Microsoft Rumblings - IGN
1Up has an interview with Microsoft's Shane Kim who reveals the company tried without success to buy Bioware, gives out a few release dates (Forza 2 in June, Halo 3 in September) and looks forward to some future, unannounced, titles.
I believe Microsoft made an offer, but Elevation was only willing to sell if they bought both Bioware and Pandemic Studios (Battlefront, Destroy All Humans, Mercenaries).
Microsoft only wanted Bioware.
EA was willing to buy both, and the rest is history.
(This is all from memory btw, so maybe I missed something)
The level of transparency that you post with is incredibly refreshing. Very much appreciated. All the best to you and your team.
I think you're largely correct. I believe there was more that happened besides this that made it worse as well but I don't know the details.
thomasmahler, thank you for taking the time to post those long and detailed replies. It's a rare thing for fans to have such direct contact with a developer, let alone creative director.
I'm glad to see that the culture of Moon Studios is so important to you. I think that bodes well for your future projects. I imagine it helps with employee retention and even productivity. Can't wait to see what you all have put together with Ori (and whatever this ARPG game turns out to be)!
I'm glad to see that the culture of Moon Studios is so important to you. I think that bodes well for your future projects. I imagine it helps with employee retention and even productivity. Can't wait to see what you all have put together with Ori (and whatever this ARPG game turns out to be)!
Certainly not objecting, but in a Xbox centric thread I would assume we'd want Moon to produce exclusives.
I own all three, but if every console maker is firing on all cylinders in terms of exclusives then we're all good.
Yes, that's what I remember as well. Also John Riccitiello was CEO of EA at the time, but was an Elevation cofounding partner, before purchasing BIoware and Pandemic from Elevation for $860 million dollars.
I agree. There's nothing wrong at all with wanting them to be a first party studio.
But the reality is they're not going to be one anytime soon. So there's no point wishing or hoping for it.
I disagree in general as I like talk of hypotheticals but seeing as we have the esteemed thomasmahler here saying it likely wouldn't happen (at least until after they got their ARPG out 😉) you're not wrong.
Yes, looking forward to their games either way.
A long road to e3/console media briefings
LOL
Hopefully Xbox and Moon Studios maintain a good relationship so they might partner up in the future of a different IP.
Could someone spare a crumb of game announcements/studio acquisitions
I really miss both these studios, Bioware is not the same anymore and Pandemic is gone :(
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