From EHG’s post on Reddit, talking about selling the company to Krafton:
Our options were limited. We needed funding and our options were looking like A: pivot to working on someone else’s IP, B: taking funding elsewhere where we liked the company less and would stifle our vision for the product, or C: join Krafton, D: go bankrupt and actually cease to exist. I know everyone will call doom and gloom but I still strongly believe long term this will allow us to compete in the space in a much bigger way.
In other words, Last Epoch was not successful enough for Eleven Hours Game to continue to exist without external help. By itself, the game would have led them to closing down.
Now, I’m not questioning whether the game is good or bad (asking that here would be pointless, and it’s extremely subjective, anyway). But, considering how Last Epoch could not sustain itself, I can’t help but think that the game has failed.
Especially since they went in with expectation beyond any reason and where someone could only think they’re… yeah, not writing that here, you get the meaning at least.
They’re known for some very ‘interesting’ things.
Like intentionally comitting fraud (PubG skins were delivered with a very different drop-rate from their packs then advertised, and even direct questioning was wrongfully answered, if that’s not fraud I don’t know what is… but the proof there is iffy as always). Also they’ve taken up the makers from Subnautica and then went ahead to fire the lead team after getting close to achieving the targeted goal for a massive several hundred million dollar high bonus, extending demands and changing everything so it couldn’t be delivered anymore, then pulling back all allegations in court and shifting to something entirely different which even baffled the judge it was so out of left-center.
And the last thing they did is telling the world they’ll focus as much on AI as any company potentially can, getting people worried before doubling down on that decision again.
So you can make your own picture there
It’s on a prime course to do so though plainly spoken!
Sorta death-throes. Question is if they’re the rare pray which can pry itself away from the predator named ‘live service game sector’ and even if… will they succumb to an infection after or make it through? And if they make it through… will they ever be fit as a fiddle or permanently crippled?
Many ‘ifs’ there in a row to make it through decently.
People need to chill and give EHG a chance already. They have not done anything to earn all this negative feedback, and for those who don’t want to wait, go play POE 1/II, you are free to do so.
Krafton did not spend that kind of money to fail and EHG and Last Epoch are doing just fine as far as I can see. AI is here to stay and it’s not a joke, it will make things much more efficient and yes, some people will lose their jobs in ALL industries because of it.
I 100% support EHG and this game and if it’s 4 or more months between seasons, so be it. Their future expansion pack, whatever the cost, will be half as much as I just paid for a Pizza, so let’s put things into perspective here.
Do your thing EHG, and do not listen to the Internet haters. I look forward to Season 4, 5, 6, etc. and I will be buying your expansion pack and all of your supporter packs because I love this game and I want it to succeed.
Sure, the moment EHG provides results the people will chill.
What else do you expect though? Actions, not words.
They showed action which was very negative, not they gotta get their gears up and show action which is positive.
All there is to it. If you support or don’t support doesn’t matter. People leave if they act crappy and people come and excuse nigh anything if they do good.
If you’re Steam you can do nigh everything and people will wave it off, because they’re a goddamn great company.
And if you’re Disney you gotta get 20 times as much positive stuff out to even get an inkling of respect.
It’s really not rocket-science on how reputation works.
Its not a bad game, this is evident by the fact they can easily get 50k+ players, its not some meta breaking game or anything, but its no slouch on its update launches.
The problem lies with EHG, and whatever spending issues they have or lack of design they have mtx wise. They didnt make any money despite during updates popping up to one of the most popular games on steam? Does anyone realize how insane that is? You are one of the most played games during your updates on the most powerful gaming platform in the space, and you cant turn a profit? this speaks to the lack of the business side.
At this point the krafton acquisition whether it improves the business side or not sorta does not matter, as its bad optics. And now they need to basically rebrand from the ground up as krafton, as only dumb white knight consumers who would throw money at anything will trust old built up faith.
Financially yes it has thus far, everything else is subjective. That said, unless the company closes down there’s always a chance things can be turned around if they make the right decisions and if they put the effort in.
But yes, Judd admitted that it’d failed (or was failing) financially & that’s why they had to sell to Krafton.
I don’t think it failed entirely. What failed was the ability to grow at scale. In order to create content at a fast enough pace required extra funding. If they only did yearly updates the strategy could have succeeded.
I agree with the MTX part, they really need to make those better for people to spend the extra money that would probably make the difference. Season 2 was awesome, Season 3 was decent and Chapter 10 was excellent so I’m just looking forward to more of that stuff.
So much potential left in this game, would love to see it realized.
Their major issue was going into being a live-service game without providing anything a live-service game is supposed to do.
The group-play mechanics are miniscule.
There are no guilds.
There is no player to player interaction at all online besides seeing sometimes someone walking around in town (which you’re most of the time not in anyway).
Most expensive system with the least effect chosen. Was always a failure by that alone.
Then they failed to properly provide value for their MTX. Reskins which you barely can see many times costing 10+€, very few effects, pets having several recolors simply as the store would be half-empty otherwise there even.
Neither quality nor quantity were be brought out for the MTX, so obviously nobody buys it, just barely any reason to buy em comparatively to other games, especially since you can’t even show em off properly as you never see other people
We as the community gave them basically everything and more then what they could expect… and in return we got a half-assed unfinished game which has half a decade long unresolved bugs that never got addressed or at times even acknowledged. Not to speak of the disaster that MG is and how that is still not even remotely handled.
Season 2 was awesome yes, but Season 3 was rather mediocre if not outright bad. Judging by player retention, it probably brought them into the red even more than any season before. The season couldn’t even keep most players interested for a full week. Sure PoE2 update played a big role, but it’s also the disappointing Rift Beast mechanic.
They’ve been transparent, one of the most engaged dev teams I’ve ever experienced and if down the road at some point they decide they can’t continue forward I will have no regrets thanking them profusely for the journey.
But until that day comes, I’m going to continue to let them cook to see what they do. Been a helluva ride and I don’t expect that to stop until they say they’re stopping.
I’d agree with that prior to 0.9/1.0, but some time around there something changed & they became a lot less communicative. Possibly the death threats & shit they got for MP not being flawless.
They get a ton of players every season and have added a lot more to their game every season in comparison with Diablo 4.
As of yet they haven’t had to change their design philosophy since being bought out
They will be releasing on console.
So no they didn’t fail but they were bailed out of a bad situation. So they could have failed for sure.
Their monetization and rate of retention have completely failed though. There’s no doubt about it. People most likely either didn’t like the MTX offered or they felt the game didn’t keep them long enough to reward them with more money(after purchase).
From the outside it sure seems like they are not great when it comes to managing the resources they have. It feels like they should be able to produce a lot more content each season given the size of their team. They should also focus on shorter seasons, not longer ones if they want to sell more supporter packs and MTX.
I think they probably have a decent sized leash for now, but that could change quickly if console and/or expansion sales flounder.
We basically just exchanged ‘They’re in EA so they can take their time, better to do it right then to rush it’ which led to postponing the planned release by years.
Then it was rushed anyway and exchanged with ‘They’re just freshly released, so it’s only natural they take their time and fix up the game, they’ll learn from it’.
And now it’s ‘They just got bailed out, so they got a new lease on it, I’m sure this way it’ll make them work towards the things which haven’t been properly handled before.’
You see the pattern?
They’ve failed and only success despite it can prove the difference.
