Tencent has Invested in Grinding Gear Games

ouch, no matter how you spin it this is not good for your reputation. GGG used to be a company I feel I could support and trust, now I'm not so sure.

1) I'm happy you guys made a lot of money but I doubt I will be supporting this game monetarily any longer. Why should I give Tencent money when I support GGG, not them. That's coming from someone who has spent probably over $2,000 including having a div card made.

2) This feels like a gigantic slap in the face right now. I hope nothing changes but I could see 12-18 months from now this game going into the trash bin and Chris Wilson and other higher ups in GGG retiring high on the hog.

3) Customer service will INEVITABLY get worse which is a shame because it has been tremendous so far in the 5 years I've been playing. Tencent will not want to sink money into customer service so wait times for service issues will drastically increase not to mention the opportunity to even interface with a customer service rep will become non-existent. This happened to Blizzard when they got bought out. At one time you could make a friendly phone call to Blizzard to resolve major issues with your account or any of their games. All of a sudden that went away and it became automated bullshit that can take days to resolve and even then it's mostly canned replies.

4) Is the dev team running out of ideas so they decided to sell and get other creative input? I mean I love the loot pinata leagues like Abyss, Breach, etc. but Bestiary was awful. I applaud their attempt at making something new and fresh but it was just not polished and ready for release. Using nets to capture beasts and a very cumbersome crafting system really drove me away from the league.

5) The biggest questions for me are: What is all this money from the buyout going to be used for? Why did GGG feel they had to do this sale? Was it to line their pocketbooks or was it because they were struggling and had some great ideas they needed a bit more cash to achieve?

I am very nervous as a long time supporter of this game but I suppose if the game turns to crap there will be something else to fill the void. I always loved that an independent company made this great game.

Hm. Yikes. Feels like GGG got vaaled.

Hope?

wolf

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LucasBacker wrote:

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deMoxE wrote:

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LucasBacker wrote:

But that's not how it works, Tencent now owns 80% of GGG, they can do whatever they want with it because even if all the other shareholders vote against them, Tencent still possess enough of the company to outvote them.

You still can't sink the boat even if you wanted too, it's law you can't damage other shareholders piece of the pie. You guys don't get this and imagine some conspiracy theories :)

Except they absolutely can do bad decisions, and if the results of those bad decisions end with the rest of the shareholders less profit, there's nothing unlawful about it. Quote me exactly which law you are referring to.

First of in order to do any bad shit or make decisions at all, they had to remove and replace current management first.

Second of why do you assume bad faith already ? This would implicate management isn't any good at all and never was since ultimately they decided to bring devil on board. This doesn't make any sense, it's video game company not an oil drilling machine. You invest into something that works the last thing you want to do is change management and company direction. Unless it is pure acquisition which this isn't.

What laws, well maybe start with logic first just because you own 80% of a boat, doesn't mean you can sink it. You can't damage the 20% that you don't own. As far as I know it's illegal and most likely criminal in pretty much any state.

Of course I have total faith in politicians who claim that lobbyists money does not impact at all in terms of access and policy direction too.

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deMoxE wrote:

What laws, well maybe start with logic first just because you own 80% of a boat, doesn't mean you can sink it. You can't damage the 20% that you don't own. As far as I know it's illegal and most likely criminal in pretty much any state.

This is not how the real life investment world works... at all...

Tencent will not set out to sink "the boat (TM)."

Their initial rounds of meddling will cause a small dip in returns. This will justify more changes dictated by them, (which they will consider a prudent step in protecting PoE's value as an IP). Each instance of this "fiddling" escalates the negative preference cascade, which will, in Tencent's eyes, necessitate an even more hands-on approach to PoE's development.

This will simply exacerbate the flight of investment further. At some point down the road, it becomes "not worth the costs" and Path of Exile will be mercilessly shutdown without a second thought.

Tencent will blame all of this on GGG's management, not their own interference. It will ALL be done in the name of securing a RoI and I assure you, every bit of it is 100% legal.

I have seen this too many times to count properly, and it makes me wince every time a developer thinks they can maintain their sovereignty once they are bought out. Chris Wilson is not intentionally lying to us.

He's lying to himself.

eww. Not gonna be good however it's spun. Money speaks louder than words, though.

Step 1: optimize your game for console
Step 2: hire the most infamous RMT'er for your anti-cheat department
Step 3: sell out to China

gg ggg



maybe if the lead devs quit and form a new company and make a new game I'll check it out

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LachdananU235 wrote:

maybe if the lead devs quit and form a new company and make a new game I'll check it out

Would you really fall for the same con twice?