No. They fucked GRINHoly revisionism, Batman. GRIN took on a ton of projects, pumped out a bunch of cookie-cutter shooters that were bare-bones even by today's standards that performed incredibly poorly. They did some concepts for FF before Square pulled out from a clearly troubled company.
Fucking fax lolRelations between the two groups became so poor that Square Enix apparently demanded Grin send the Fortress code over to Japan – through a fax machine.
"It is as silly as it sounds," Bo Andersson said.
"It is an impossible requirement, you can not send ascii or binary codes on the fax. It is backward. It was almost a criminal activity."
Double Fine owns the Psychonauts IP themselves. Haven't seen anything in the news regarding the publishing agreement that DF were going to give it up to Starbreeze, and it would have been a very strange move if they had.
lol this so much. I think people are overreactingNot saying they are doing great, but this thread title and OP is some real bonkers pseudo financial analysis being passed off as a near sure thing. If you search "starbreeze bankrupt", this is literally the second item on that search, lol. There are seemingly strong companies with good stock prices that go bankrupt every day and suprisingly mediocre performers that slink along for years.
Yeah. There are a couple studios still using it. Autodesk has pulled it as a product though, so you can't actively license it anymore.Isn't stingray still being used? Quite sure Vermintide uses it.
Welp.
https://www.starbreeze.com/2018/11/starbreeze-is-reviewing-costs-and-focusing-on-core-business/
Not quite bankruptcy but reads like downsizing is imminent.
That might have been true before Underworld Ascendent released to abyssmal reviews and fan reaction but is probably a much harder sell now. Someone may buy the IP, but will it be Spector's new studio developing it? Will it be the same game?
Edit: OP ended up being right, surprisingly. But they are quite a ways away from shutting down just because they are cleaning house. it's not a Telltale situation.Not saying they are doing great, but this thread title and OP is some real bonkers pseudo financial analysis being passed off as a near sure thing. If you search "starbreeze bankrupt", this is literally the second item on that search, lol. There are seemingly strong companies with good stock prices that go bankrupt every day and suprisingly mediocre performers that slink along for years.
(Edited for accuracy: Calculated from 3.145SEK*53551881 (A-Shares) + 2.9SEK*271743673 (B-Shares) = 956477317 SEK)
Updated after today's closing: 2.23*53551881 + 2.12*271743673 = 695517281SEK ~= $75.6M
From $105M on Friday.
"STOCKHOLM (3 December 2018) – The board of directors and Bo Andersson have today agreed that Andersson will step down as CEO of Starbreeze. The board of directors has appointed the Deputy CEO Mikael Nermark as Acting CEO. Bo Andersson and Kristofer Arwin have further resigned from Starbreeze Board of Directors effective immediately."
"STOCKHOLM (3 December 2018) – Starbreeze AB (publ) ("Starbreeze" or the "Company") announces that the board of Starbreeze AB (publ) and the boards of the Company's Swedish subsidiaries Starbreeze Publishing, Starbreeze Production, Starbreeze Studios, Enterspace and Enterspace International, have today filed for reconstruction with the Stockholm District Court. The decision is based on a shortage of liquidity and deemed to be a necessary step to give the Company the time needed to negotiate a long-term financial solution and implement changes in the organization and operations. The financial targets for Q4 2018 and 2020 no longer applies."
I don't really know anything about them but some posts here are saying they own The Darkness so MS should buy that IPI don't think this is the type studio MS would buy. Obviously people will think MS would buy since they have been acquiring studios lately.
I don't really know anything about them but some posts here are saying they own The Darkness so MS should buy that IP
2K were the publishers for 1 and 2. I'm pretty sure they own it.I don't really know anything about them but some posts here are saying they own The Darkness so MS should buy that IP
Rare released some of their most successful games under Microsoft, with Sea of Thieves just another addition to their output of reaching many, many gamers. Whether or not you like their output is a different question and very subjective, but Rare today is bigger and more healthy than they ever were in terms of raw manpower and the success of both their Kinect games as well as Sea of Thieves is nothing but a story of success.People seem to think, for some reason, that every studio acquisition will end up like Nintendo and Platinum Games (while ignoring that it was Nier Automata that saved the company) and not like Microsoft and Lionhead, Microsoft and Rare, Microsoft and Skype...
2K were the publishers for 1 and 2. I'm pretty sure they own it.
Ah okaythey will always be the darkness/riddick people to me. and everything they made since those games just fell flat. even the riddick sequel felt sub-par compared to the main game and felt incredibly dated by the time it released. payday 2 was a joke on consoles and the less said about the walking dead the better. i can't say i'd be sad to see them go if they do indeed fold, but hopefully the staff land on their feet.
they made the first game, but i don't think they own the rights. the sequel wasn't even made by them.
I'm normally pretty up to date with latest releases and even this one slipped me by. Didn't think Overkill's Walking dead was out until next year sometime. That went SUPER under the radar.
The Darkness is a comic book series by Top Cow/Image. Same universe as Witchblade. MS isn't gonna buy something like thatI don't really know anything about them but some posts here are saying they own The Darkness so MS should buy that IP
they've taken too long making it tbh, especially considering what it is. and because its taken so long they ended up releasing at a terrible time in the year (right near red dead redemption 2) it's going to release in february on consoles surrounded by a bunch of high profile games, least of which being resident evil 2, a higher profile, much more hyped zombie game...and then on top of that, the walking dead's viewing figures are the lowest they've been in years.
needed to come out 2 years ago in the summer or something.
The Darkness is a comic book series by Top Cow/Image. Same universe as Witchblade. MS isn't gonna buy something like that
Competitors may want some of the IP, such as Payday, but the best-case scenario for them is to wait for the bankrupcy auction.
In this case, the company was run by the same guy who put GRIN into the ground (Bo Andersson Klint), so while the VR helmet hurt them, their problems were way deeper than that.
Like, for example, their CEO wanted to use their old engine on The Walking Dead because they built it at GRIN and he was very proud of it, then realized it wasn't going to be sufficient, then bought a random company for their engine for a bunch of money, and realized it also wasn't going to work, and then moved to Unreal Engine 4 and had to make The Walking Dead game they'd been working on for 3+ years in like 12 months, and it came out horribly, to no one's surprise.
This was on top of publishing a ton of different games, buying a mobile studio, making a VR headset with VR arcades, and buying huge Indian firms that worked on VFX for films and the like because he just wanted this stuff seemingly without good reason.
This is the same guy who hosed himself with the stock deal in the OP.
Yea that is looking grim and like you said the studio is worthless with only a handful of worthwhile IPs. Still I'm curious to see which publisher picks up Payday from the rotting corps that will be this company in 2019.For everyone who doesn't get how severe the situation currently is for the company, this is from Starbreeze's Q3 shareholder presentation:
Source
They burned through SEK 120M in Q3 2018 and only had SEK 147.5M "on the bank" at the end of the period. With no major release scheduled, they will burn through all of their cash within a couple of quarters, even if they only spend on operating costs, which are currently at SEK 57.2M. That's why they're taking such drastic measures such as firing people, cancelling projects, etc. Divide those numbers by ~10 to get USD equivalents. That's the impact of the failure of Overkill's The Walking Dead. If that game sold the projected number of copies (regardless of the exact number), it would've been a huge boost for their financials.
I don't think the console versions will save OTWD (nor the company), and the other games won't be finished in time, so mass layoffs are the only option for the company. Management can be happy if the company is still active by the end of 2019.
Personally, I think there is not a single company who wants to acquire Starbreeze. The company itself is worthless. Competitors may want some of the IP, such as Payday, but the best-case scenario for them is to wait for the bankrupcy auction.
I'm not sure what your sources are but so far no one has been fired, the core development teams are 100% intact. No inhouse game project is cancelled.For everyone who doesn't get how severe the situation currently is for the company, this is from Starbreeze's Q3 shareholder presentation:
Source
They burned through SEK 120M in Q3 2018 and only had SEK 147.5M "on the bank" at the end of the period. With no major release scheduled, they will burn through all of their cash within a couple of quarters, even if they only spend on operating costs, which are currently at SEK 57.2M. That's why they're taking such drastic measures such as firing people, cancelling projects, etc. Divide those numbers by ~10 to get USD equivalents. That's the impact of the failure of Overkill's The Walking Dead. If that game sold the projected number of copies (regardless of the exact number), it would've been a huge boost for their financials.
I don't think the console versions will save OTWD (nor the company), and the other games won't be finished in time, so mass layoffs are the only option for the company. Management can be happy if the company is still active by the end of 2019.
Personally, I think there is not a single company who wants to acquire Starbreeze. The company itself is worthless. Competitors may want some of the IP, such as Payday, but the best-case scenario for them is to wait for the bankrupcy auction.
That's indeed incorrect by me. Those are my personal expectations of what will happen in their 'reconstruction' process.I'm not sure what your sources are but so far no one has been fired, the core development teams are 100% intact. No inhouse game project is cancelled.
You might be right, I hope not though. I'm leaning in that direction too, but it'd be nice if it turned out differently.That's indeed incorrect by me. Those are my personal expectations of what will happen in their 'reconstruction' process.
As part of the reconstruction process for Starbreeze AB (publ) and related subsidiaries, the administrator Lars Söderqvist has sent the company's creditors a circular letter in accordance with Chapter 2. Section 13 (1996: 764) on Corporate Reconstruction.
This letter does include attachments with non-reconciled, non-reviewed balance sheets for the respective reconstruction companies, as well as a preliminary overview of assets and liabilities in the same companies. These are presented as part of the regulated process of reconstruction.
Their whole Walking Dead situation is bizarre. They spent a lot on that game and told no one it was coming out.