Relic Entertainment Now Independent Studio.

...
The new owner is a holding company to be established and the price of acquisition is undisclosed. You will see at the beginning of the Notice that SEGA are allowing for a one-off loss of approx $31 million. At a guess, SEGA may have lost some or most of its original $26 million investment. And the secrecy on some vital details may point to an intended flip.

I agree. This new holding is not interested in making games, they're in for a quick buck. Which means that first, SEGA sees Relic as a bad investment, choosing to secure remaining value at a loss and reinvest that money elsewhere and second, Emona Capital sees Relic as a risk investment.
The most obvious outcomes for me would be:
- Relic gets sold again at high price to a new publisher that sees value in the company/CoH franchise. Will probably lead to more aggressive DLCs and potential downsizing of Relic again, depending on how bad stuff is going. And it doesn't seem to go great given they're being sold in the first place.
- Relic does not get sold or sold for relatively cheap (meaning less than Emona expects). At this point they might actually just close down, because it means that the new publisher also does not see great value in the company. I could imagine that they might only buy for the CoH franchise and other Relic associated naming rights that still exist. At this point, Relic might go down and CoH transferred to another company. Or just shut down all together.

It's sad news overall. The downward spiral of Relic has been painfully clear since CoH3 launched. From a bad launch to a massive layoff wave to now being sold. They're not seen as a solid studio anymore, but as a gambling asset. Trust in the company and financials overall must be pretty dire.

Based on what is publicly known and with the success of AoE4, I think that in future Relic will probably be picking up a lot of outsourced work from publishers, rather than them working on their own IPs in the future.

However, there is a strong chance the company gets "restructured" (lay offs, IPs sold, internal operations outsourced etc.) and then get sold on again.

Based on what is publicly known and with the success of AoE4, I think that in future Relic will probably be picking up a lot of outsourced work from publishers, rather than them working on their own IPs in the future.

However, there is a strong chance the company gets "restructured" (lay offs, IPs sold, internal operations outsourced etc.) and then get sold on again.

Didn't they had layoffs last summer already?

Anyway, games usually end up bad, because of bad leadership decisions and pushing too early releases to satisfy whoever but players.

We've got a proverb here, which roughly translates to "Fish rots from the head first", meaning people responsible for making decisions are the ones who should be changed first.

can always have another round of lay offs

Well, there is only so many people you can fire before you're completely crippled.

Post release obviously not as much graphical asset and story writing staff is needed as in production, but other positions seem needed.

Nice one seems we've covered the situation from both ends now, and we're broadly aligned!

Damn I really need to watch Office Space again haven't seen it in 15 years.

Do you have insider news? I thought Sega was being generous and patient with relic, allowing them to boost head count for coh3, so much they had to layoff later

How many games have relic released since Sega bought them?

About the micro transactions, coh2 was much worse than coh3, and coh2 was under development during dying thq days.

Sega good, relic bad

Now new sketchy investors funding relic, it’s more doomsday than celebration of independence

can always have another round of lay offs

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/relic-entertainment_following-last-weeks-announcement-of-relic-activity-7181700971993993216-V92z/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

fuck sake

Surely none of the people actively working on CoH3 were laid off

Well, doesn't come as a surprise, does it?
Emona probably wants to force Relic to become profitable or at least not as huge of a risk on paper. Preparation for the flip in case Bloodnok was right.

skull emoji

I mean they were not doing a great job...kinda had it coming

I mean they were not doing a great job...kinda had it coming

Self-inflicted as a cat chasing the red dot.
What's the definition of INSANE leadership?

INSANE leadership suicide Quest:


From 2018, official Glassdoor response by Relic GM (the studio boss) told everyone about his vision for this great studio expansion. Remember this Relic expansion happened before Covid and big tech overhiring practices;

Hey,

First, I want to say thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, I really do appreciate it. Many of the points laid out here we’re aware of, but you’ve given me a lot to think about as well.

We’ve been growing a lot as we gear up for our new projects. This is a really great thing for the future of Relic, but with that comes growing pains as well. I totally hear where you’re coming from regarding the dynamic with your leaders and managers. I’m not happy that you (and likely other employees) feel that you’re not being heard. Our games are the product of each and every person in the studio and I don’t believe we can be successful if we aren’t listening.

Given that you’re a current employee, I have a favor to ask of you – keep the feedback coming! Speak up at our AMAs, we can go grab a quick coffee, or you can just send me an email. I always want to hear your thoughts, not only about the good things, but also where we can improve and if I’ve let you down. Especially if I’ve let you down.

I’m proud to work with some of the most talented people in the industry, and it really will take all of us to keep Relic great.

Justin

It's OK to make mistakes.
But it's NOT cool to never learn from those mistakes.

The WILL of the force works in mysterious ways.
That WILL can be observed if you start paying attention.
PHOENIX RISING

We all have something to learn from this reality.
Or (free will)
People can run their lives on autopilot and never awaken to the greater truth such as Team Humanity which is beauty beyond words.

Also connecting some dots, interesting facts about WW2 history that relate to current events:
What role did Danish WW2 diplomats play?

Watch this based on a true WW2 story:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10375972/