Tencent has Invested in Grinding Gear Games

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vacii wrote:

Actually, you are what is wrong with the world. YOU DID NOT PAY TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK OUT. EVERYONE HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT REGARDLESS OF HOW MUCH THEY SPENT.

Why do i feel that you think you have bought influence with your 80$ a month? Would it be OK if the context was not a video game but politics, would it be OK to feel entitled to influencing decisions just because you paid for it?

Let's play the "What if?" game, what if GGG went full public corp ... would you buy shares without expecting a quarterly check? Get out of your bubble enter the real world please.

If you think I'm what's wrong with the world, then what do you intend to do about me? Oh. You can't do anything about me. Simmer in your impotence, I will continue to voice my opinion and "wreck the world" right up until the point I don't care anymore. then I'll move on. Until them, buckle up cupcake.

Personally I'am a little scared that this will make game pay to win (Spatial backpack which doubles your inventory space), or worse shitty MTX gambling machine (Only this week buy this special Oreo mystery box for a 0,01% chance to get Oreo summon raging spirit, 0,01% chance to get Oreo portal effect and 99,98% chance to get Oreo brick hideout decoration). A quick google search on Tencent reveals some shady things, but I guess that is each on their own to decide. On the other side I glad that GGG now has money to make some really cool stuff (like celestial trap effect, that works like Gloom herald. Wink* wink* DO IT GGG make my memes come true) and hopefully make MTX more affordable, or just making some skills usable (looking at you magma orb). I really looking forward to future leagues and mostly 4.0 release. Time will tell if this decision was good.

That's the saddest thing i ever read.

GGG core assumption was that it's a small company founded by the community. When you change the above everything may collapse, although they say now that nothing will change, everything will change in some time.
1. It starts with people founding less since the GGG is in hands of the biggest players right now (it's no longer a small company)
2. Lower founds for GGG means that someone has to found that
3. Later on the f2p model that we have will no loger function like it does currently
4. When you don't have the majority in the company, you need to align to the owners vision if no then you will be fired

Hope that i'm wrong, but in some time you'd probably notice that you can't do as much updates to the game as planned because the corporation battles will take much more that the time needed for the game.

To be honest i was expecting that at some time the game will be sold, but rather thought that this will happen rather when Wilson will go for retirement...

I don;t know your finances but really don't understand why you did it?

1. You need money for some kind of big investment? Even if so why would you sell the majority? This shows that you want to leave the game and the community
2. Do you plan to reinvest the gained money in the game that will no longer be yours? i wouldn't recommend this approach because in the end it will appear that the POE was bought with it's own money...r
3. You need a bigge player know how? Man i thought that's the thing you are fighting with to show that actually you respect the community you have. That's why everyone her is. (like me even if i cannot play at the current time i come back after 2 years, because i remember you guys, and if i ever have again time for playing i will come back to POE only)

So many thoughts... but feel so down...

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We have been approached by many potential acquirers over the last five years, but always felt that they didn't understand Path of Exile, or that they had other agendas (like signing users up to their services).

And Tencent sure understand Path of Exile, they do not care about making money and they are just a philanthropist lending you a hand, keeping you in charge with the 20% of voting rights. It will look like a schoolchild raising their hand to ask the teacher if they can go to the toilet..

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Sabranic_SilverDeth wrote:

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Miffy23 wrote:

Once any kind of evidence of actual negative changes to the development of GGG emerge, some of you will have a point. Before that point, all you are doing is creating negative buzz for a developer you claim to love so much you want to throw money at them all year.

Actually, alongside evidence and a perfectly valid point I have something else - it's a little thing called "pattern recognition."

My position is quite sensible and justified - there is concern that this game will follow in the footsteps of every single other studio that has been "acquired" by a mega corp. This degradation may lead to me no longer being interested in playing. Now that this is a legitimate concern, I can't justify spending time or money on the game.

This is a basic principle of investment - weather it's stocks, bonds, mutual funds, municipalities or a video game. My money is valuable - my time is MORE valuable. If I even THINK PoE is heading in the direction of Blizzard/Bioware/Black Isle/Runic/Flagship/Bullfrog/Pandemonium/Condor/etc/etc, then I am out.

Stability is golden. The lack of it is worse than even stagnation.

This decision makes me question my investments in time and money. Both will be on hold until I am very assured that GGG manages to defy the fate of every single one of it's predecessors.

Two points where you're very wrong:

a) you "invested" money into gametime you enjoyed. Compare it to any "TripleA" or BuytoPlay game. Did you regret your purchase because you didn't enjoy yourself? No? Then stop acting like your money is a share of the company. Because it isn't. You had the choice to purchase those, though.

b) @ "pattern recognition". Problems with your analysis start arising when it is, in fact, not "every single other studio acquired by a mega corp" that has displayed issues. You are basing your pattern on exceptions to the rule - not the rule.

Oh and don't get me wrong - i'm not defending big corporate takeovers here, I don't like the system either. But that's the world we live in, for one, and for another, it doesn't all turn to ash like you're insinuating.

Just do us all a favour and go look up all the companies Tencent has stakes in, especially majority ones, and compare how many of them have "changed" negatively.

I'm not saying it isn't possible for such a thing to happen with GGG (hence why I said scepticism and concern are good), it's simply anything but a certainty.

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grimlock9999 wrote:

I have a lot of thoughts around this announcement, so wanted to write them down to organise them:

1) 11 years of awesomeness deserves thanks. Thank you so much, you GGG champions.

2) Path of exile is currently the best game in existence. We know it, why wouldn't investors know it?

3) If GGG makes a lot of money, they have set the blueprint for dozens of similar games to follow suit. As a fan, I like this possibility. If you believe in market forces, you might see this as insurance that the game stays good, where currently there is not much competition.

3) 20 million sign ups and 2 million active users is a drop in the bucket of where digital entertainment is headed. The trend is that gaming and digital goods have outperformed movie and T.V studios (in gross value of the global market) for many years. Games are getting better, so people are choosing to spend more time on them. Almost all projections show the job market shrinking and leisure time, plus lifespan increasing. A game like path of exile could become the equivalent of an English Premier League (the soccer/football franchise supported across the world).

When I think of a future like this, I don't think about the money or the parent company. I think about a grandparent playing this game with their grandkids. Of schools using this game to to make learning fun, as happens regularly with minecraft. Of funny youtubers who currently have 15K viewers having 1.5 million viewers and becoming stars. Of POE tournaments held in stadiums, like League of legends currently is. Or Virtual Reality technology combining with games like this in a new form of exercise. I guess a 520 billion U.S.D. company is necessary for scenarios like this to be viable.

Very well said :)

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Norihplus wrote:

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Łyżwa wrote:

majority stake is like 99% of the company right?

Maybe 51%... or could just be the largest stake? aka they have 30% and everyone else has less

Tencent owns 80%.

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Viperz212 wrote:

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grimlock9999 wrote:

I have a lot of thoughts around this announcement, so wanted to write them down to organise them:

1) 11 years of awesomeness deserves thanks. Thank you so much, you GGG champions.

2) Path of exile is currently the best game in existence. We know it, why wouldn't investors know it?

3) If GGG makes a lot of money, they have set the blueprint for dozens of similar games to follow suit. As a fan, I like this possibility. If you believe in market forces, you might see this as insurance that the game stays good, where currently there is not much competition.

3) 20 million sign ups and 2 million active users is a drop in the bucket of where digital entertainment is headed. The trend is that gaming and digital goods have outperformed movie and T.V studios (in gross value of the global market) for many years. Games are getting better, so people are choosing to spend more time on them. Almost all projections show the job market shrinking and leisure time, plus lifespan increasing. A game like path of exile could become the equivalent of an English Premier League (the soccer/football franchise supported across the world).

When I think of a future like this, I don't think about the money or the parent company. I think about a grandparent playing this game with their grandkids. Of schools using this game to to make learning fun, as happens regularly with minecraft. Of funny youtubers who currently have 15K viewers having 1.5 million viewers and becoming stars. Of POE tournaments held in stadiums, like League of legends currently is. Or Virtual Reality technology combining with games like this in a new form of exercise. I guess a 520 billion U.S.D. company is necessary for scenarios like this to be viable.

1) 11 years - and still terrific game engine
2) Path of Exile how an game not better d2.
3) 2mil online? proff it plz.

Dude are you for real? IT's AN 11 year old engine... do you have any idea how ENGINES are developed and implemented, you cant just replace it with a better one, you need to build an entirely new one from the ground up, including the systems around it, that costs "new game money". GGG are not a software company that develops game engines, it's a company that develop's games using a proprietary engine. You want newer shiny engine? 80$ a month wont cut it, it costs at least 100K$ per month. GGG spends at least 0.5 mil just for salaries [Removed by Support].

When will we see a new support package with a panda suit ?


RIP

Conflicted