Profile of SturmtigerCobra

Sorry, long post..

Fansite censorship vs Relic accountability
I see "new Relic" fanboyism trying to play the victim card (I'm an "old-school" Relic fanboy) that this thread should be shut down to prevent further damage to Relic.


This is a fansite, not your commercial plaything or Relic biased "echo chamber". If we as fans don't hold Relic's feet to the fire then who else will.
I love the CoH franchise and would not have these long info posts here if that was not the case.
Besides this review has already gone viral on the internet so more censorship on this fansite would not damage control this. Rather to the contrary, trying to silence dissent can easily have the opposite effect.
Personally, I view this "leadership review" as open dev letter to MS/Sega that could result in more Relic oversight. Serving preemptive as; "all hands on deck" before the whole house starts burning.

Read between the lines including Relic GM reply. I don't think this is just one disgruntled dev and it clearly says "we" as representing one or more Relic teams. If the review is legit this is newsworthy and MS/Sega might increase on Relic oversight and leadership accountability.
Try to see the forest here (the big picture), not just the trees.

Conflict of interest?
It's interesting to watch how some people that are close to Relic are ignoring uncomfortable "fan criticism". Trying to subtle spin the story to fit a positive "Relic narrative" and belittle fan criticism. This might work with new fans, but this is playing with fire. Soon or later the chickens come home to roost.

For more balanced view of possible pros/cons on AoE4, I have posted much positive related news/info here;
https://www.coh2.org/topic/62922/relic-working-on-age-of-empires-4/page/4#post_id649118
https://www.coh2.org/topic/62930/could-aoe4-be-modern
I did not want this "internal leadership review" to be true but it looks legit. That's just my opinion. With all the leaders failing and leaving with DoW3 it's crazy if/why Relic has not taken big steps to prevent another flop.
Actually, I'm going to defend MS/Sega on this one. I think they are willing to help fix this mess.

Dow3 backslash & Abandon ship
The dow3 backslash is a good example where fans feel they were ignored or belittle fan criticism since the first screenshots were released. Obvious the art style was not aligned with what they saw in the Dawn of War III – Announcement Trailer made by Axis Animation which was well received by fans.

http://www.axisanimation.com/

The dow3 executive producer (Stephen MacDonald, as seen in vid) + brand manager (Danielle Robinson, involved since 2014) abandons ship well before launch and are not even in the end credits;

From LinkedIn;

Spear-headed the development of the global strategy and franchise roadmap for Dawn of War, revitalized branding efforts and created overall marketing materials. Responsible for increasing brand awareness, analysing market and consumer trends and defining positioning and messaging to reassert AAA position after 5yr hiatus.

The two game directors involved abandons ship post-launch.
From Relic website 2016;
https://web.archive.org/web/20160517010602/http://www.relic.com:80/#meet-team


After abruptly "leaving" Relic, Stephen MacDonald goes to make mobile game studio "Heartsy Studios" which also fail miserably. It took a year to find a replacement so DoW3 launch without the new production leader which are David Littman.
Spotlight on Heartsy Studios
https://www.novascotiabusiness.com/articles/spotlight-heartsy-studios

Although Relic offered him excellent opportunities, the game Stephen was working on was based on war, and he didn’t feel it was a good fit for him and his family. Instead, he wanted to create high-quality games for kids and parents. “We want to be the Pixar of games,” he says. “Pixar makes movies that everyone can enjoy – they’re targeted at kids, but you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy the film. That’s what Heartsy is all about. It’s going to be targeting that audience, with that kind of appeal.”

Linkedin;

The founder and CEO for Heartsy Studios. Heartsy was started to make the best kids games in the world with a focus on quality, fun (obviously) and heart! No murder simulators for us!

4.409 views on youtube.

I could go on, but we are beating a dead horse here.

The Golden Goose vs sustainable growth rate

As for CoH2 marketing failures, I highlighted EA for a reason. It's the story of how the golden goose died and "New Relic" predatory business practices.
Premium pvp commanders were just the first stage, rest assured they were planning to sell loot crates (with rare commanders) in the in-game store. Fortunately, this system never got to the second stage (selling loot crates). I'm not saying loot crates with cosmetics are bad, but trying to place "rare pvp commanders" into loot crates was greed, plain and simple. Some fans also will see this as bait-and-switch marketing.

Before WFA War spoils, we already had a decent progression system for those that remember the system (I do). It just needed more polish. Instead, "New Relic" decides to focus on the "Golden Goose" and give achievement hunters the middle finger. That group should have been their primary source of income from a cosmetic ranking/progression system. Prestige ranks and bulletins still useless to achievement hunters because of this.
It takes a lot of arrogance and greed (chasing the golden goose) even trying to implement this predatory system on top of a retail game in 2014. For almost 2 years there is little focus on making money from cosmetics which are sustainable growth that doesn't significantly devalue brand/alienate fans.

Relic First CM - Buggo
CoH1 had Buggo (Allie Henze) as the first CM from Relicnews. Now with Microsoft with Gears of Wars.
https://www.zoominfo.com/p/Allie-Henze/1053557097

Buggo's Video Interview Sean Dunn, Creative Director CoH1

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/company-of-heroes/credits
There is also a bunch of ex-Relic from Spacemarine/CoH that has worked on Gears of War. Such as the current AoE4 narrative/game designer (Bonnie Jean M) which recently joined Relic.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bonnie-jean-m-b091409/
One of the lead programmers from CoH1 is also involved in Gears of War;
Cei Gladstone
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,68858/

My question is what happens if AOE4 fails commercially? Can Sega justify operating Relic after two failures in the row?

MS have a lot of money (over 100 billion) which they could potentially invest in future games/tech.
The higher-ups in MS have not taken PC games seriously until recently where Phil Spencer got a big promotion. They got the money and market data to become bigger than EA.
But do they have the right leadership to make these big investments?
Will Phil Spencer do the same mistakes as EA and "chase the golden goose" or instead look for sustainable growth rate?

Microsoft Xbox boss Phil Spencer just got a big promotion and will now report directly to CEO Satya Nadella
http://nordic.businessinsider.com/microsoft-xbox-phil-spencer-gets-promoted-to-executive-vice-president-2017-9?r=US&IR=T

I highly doubt Sega will allow Relic to fail with AoE4, that's why I suggested we could see some kind of studio merger happen in 2018-2019 before Relic move to a new office (two studios sharing same building). If so, CA/Sega buy a new studio in Vancouver. If Relic keeps failing, they become CA Vancouver which continues AoE4 development under CA studio leadership.

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/relic-entertainment-vancouver-mount-pleasant-headquarters-285-west-5th-avenue
Relic is set to occupy 47,000 sq. ft., about 66% of the building’s space, allowing the company to almost double its workforce from its current 180 employees to up to 350.

That's a lot of office space for ONE studio.
The second studio could be http://www.smokingguninc.com/ (run by former CoH1 devs).

FYI; Tric suggested/speculated in my other thread (link below) we might see CA move some of their management to Vancouver.

New Relic General Manager?

https://www.coh2.org/topic/67621/new-relic-general-manager

Former Relic GMs/Studio Directors; 1997-Present
Alex Garden, Founder & CEO 1997-2004
https://www.linkedin.com/in/agarden/
Ron Moravek, 2004-2006 (former COO, before Alex Garden left)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-moravek-a776b05/?authType=name&authToken=hOkW&trk=prof-sb-browse_map-photo
Tarrnie Williams, 2006-2009
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarrnie-williams-927586/?ppe=1
Jonathan Dowdeswell, 2009-2011
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathandowdeswell/?ppe=1
Alex Peters, 2011-2013
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexpeters99/
Tim Heaton, 2013 ( interim general manager, Current Creative Assembly Studio director & Sega EVP Studios)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/timheaton1/
Responsibility across SEGA Studios in the West - Creative Assembly (Horsham and Sofia), Sports Interactive (London), Amplitude (Paris) and Relic (Vancouver)
Justin Dowdeswell, 2013-2018
https://www.linkedin.com/in/justindowdeswell/

Sega Buying Smoking Gun Interactive? (CoH1 devs)
Also possible related here is Smoking Gun Interactive. Last month they got a new seasoned GM (David Elton) and they already have a CEO which is now redundant (joining Relic?). Sega buying them? and share office space with Relic in 2019.
New Smoking Gun Interactive GM;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jdavidelton/

Ron Moravek (former Relic GM) and Ed Fries also help Smoking Gun as Business Development Advisors.
https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=49443931
I would not be surprised Smoking Gun Interactive has been hired to make the pitch for CoH3 on behalf of Relic/Sega.
Q&A: John Johnson Talks Smoking Gun (after leaving Relic & future goals)
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/106407/QA_John_Johnson_Talks_Smoking_Gun.php

Moravek had a corporation (Sitemasher) with current Relic finance director (Curtis Terry) from 2007-2010.
Curtis Terry, Cofounder of Relic as Chief Financial Officer (1998-2004) and THQ director of finance 2004-2006. Smoking Gun COO 2009-2012.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtisterry/

First off the bat, it is untrue that If that sentence were true, this community would not have had to crowd fund Operation Charlie Fox in September 2015.

I loved OCF/fan art and was very sad to hear what "New Relic" leaders did (or lack of).
Bad community interactions like that would not happen during the Relicnews era when Alex Garden was running the studio, without any CMs btw.
"Old Relic leadership" that was behind CoH1/HW had an excellent relationship with its fan base but perhaps, more importantly, they had visionary leaders.
Some of these old Relic leaders are now running their own studio
I was connected to Relic's oldest fan base (not this name) from Homeworld, some of which was helping to run Relicnews/forums (as fans). It was only later Relic got their own forum and their first CM, buggo which was great.

Some quotes from old threads/Relicnews era;

As one of the oldest studios in Vancouver, Relic has a rich history with many talented devs that today have created their own independent studios. Most noticeable (Vancouver), Blackbird Interactive (former HW devs), Klei Entertainment (former DoW devs), Smoking Gun Interactive (former COH1 devs) and Hinterland (former Spacemarine/console devs).

The Unstoppable ÜberJumper (Relicnews Admins)
Relic News Admins (Uberjumper, one of the biggest HW fan) was pretty close to the founders of Relic, had this to say; This will also be an interesting read into the history of the Essence Engine (improved version used for DoW3).

https://www.reddit.com/r/homeworld/comments/2wxhuv/homeworld_2_e3_2001_trailer_full_version/

I'm a guy that happened to live in Vancouver and liked video games. I saw the Homeworld trailer on the HL disk IIRC... thinking "That's dumb, who'd want to play Starcraft in 3d..."
Penny-arcade was raving about it, so when I saw news the demo was out in August of 1999 I downloaded it on a whim (a whole 65 MB or so).
I fell in love almost immediately. It felt like Battlestar Galactica, Starwars, Starblazers... all rolled into one. I was hooked.
I had trouble alt-tabbing out of the game... so I was trying to troubleshoot it. Went looking for forums... found Relic's website... they were in Vancouver! Hey I know that guy!
Couldn't find a post about my problem, so figured out the issue and posted it. Then stuck around to help other Homeworlders, then Impossible creature players, then HW2, dawn of war, company of heroes... 50 or 60 thousand posts later I was one of the most well known members of the "Relic Community". I also helped run relicnews.com, which for a few years was the unofficial official forums (Bart Mazus, another local guy owned Relicnews.com and was doing website work for Relic). Went to a couple of E3's, wrote a few articles and a few hundred news posts, etc etc.
So yeah, they had me as their number one fan for a while, I worked on HW2 as a contractor (I tell that story in another post), and in 2010, Rob Cunningham invited me over to show me the pitch video for what was Hardware (now Homeworldhipbreakers) so I helped out at Blackbird Interactive, but sadly haven't been bringing them donuts for more than a few months after my day job in Healthcare IT got exciting.
So yeah, some lucky guy that got to watch and help an awesome game community grow and made some awesome friends along the way.

The Moderator Interviews: The Unstoppable ÜberJumper (relic news admins)
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?132532-The-Moderator-Interviews-The-Unstoppable-%C3%9CberJumper

Obtuse: I noticed the note in your yearbook entry, "Contract @ Relic Summer ‘03", how did that come about and what did you do there?

ÜberJumper: Well... I don't know how much you know about the History of Relic and Sierra, so I'll go back a bit. Homeworld was a successful product, didn't cost Sierra much to make, but Relic had to offer up their next 3 titles to Sierra before anyone else could bid on them. Relic started work on Impossible Creatures (which Sierra passed on, and Microsoft published), and there was another title that Sierra passed on as well (I think) then finally Homeworld 2. Relic had been working on Homeworld 2 since almost the end of Homeworld. I was there for a visit in July of 2000 IIRC with a couple of community folks (RipperT and Carradine). We sat in on a dev meeting, saw the game in action, played with it a bit, had lunch with them, it was all good. The Next E3 rolls around, and before that started, Sierra launched the now infamous Homeworld2.com site which had a timer on it counting down to the game's launch, so, I book a flight to LA for E3.

Meanwhile, Relic and Sierra are having some issues over money (which is what a lot of developers go through I hear), and the E3 display of Homeworld 2, and the launch of the website are cancelled. Anyway, while I was there, I got a chance to see Homeworld 2 (in it's then current form) and I was gob-smacked. Flash forward a couple of months to August and news breaks that Sierra had cancelled Homeworld 2. So the game, at that point, is Dead. I hang out for a while longer in the community, and when I think it's clear that Homeworld's not going anywhere, I "left" the community. Alex Garden heard that, and called me up and offered to take me to lunch. He convinced me to stay with the community, that it wasn't dead yet, so I hung out for a while longer. May of 2002 rolls around, and Relic's started work up again on Homeworld 2. They're hiring folks to fill positions that they'd had to let go as HW2 had been stopped (this is when Mecha, long time community member, moved over from England to work on HW2) so anyway, they're working away and basically starting from scratch, but Sierra's not the same Sierra that helped Relic birth Homeworld. They didn't put as much effort into it as they could have. Turn-around time on bug tracking and what not was essentially not happening, so they needed to bring people in to test.

Pike and I were both contracted to do "first pass QA" (credited as additional design support in the credits) on the game. I was working a full time job, getting to Relic at 4pm, working till 10-11pm, then heading home. That was for all of July. The game went gold first week of August and it still needed way more QA on it but it ended Relic's contractual obligations to Sierra and let THQ buy them up. I actually had a chance to see some of the DoW stuff while I was working there, was pretty cool, the early DoW stuff that is.

This - "Old Relic";

Alex Garden heard that, and called me up and offered to take me to lunch. He convinced me to stay with the community, that it wasn't dead yet, so I hung out for a while longer.

This - "New Relic";
Relic wanted feedback for CoH1 vs CoH2
https://www.coh2.org/post/create/thread_id/62130/quote/619124

It's called wisdom, Hooli. Most of the questions asked in the OP were answered specifically and in great detail back during the COH2 beta in these very forums. Marcus and I personally gathered and organized a group of top COH1 players and community contributors to provide feedback before the launch of COH2. Our private feedback forums are still there to see as a log of this interaction, and Relic can still access them.

Those of us that love the beauty of the core Company of Heroes design achievement saw time and time again how our feedback was ignored, how a flawed business model was prioritized over make-or-break gameplay issues. The COH2 commander system is a perfect example.

We've seen the incredible enthusiasm of these community members crushed as their interactions with Relic inevitably go south. We've seen Relic churn through "beta feedback groups" like chopped liver, opting to discard the current group if they don't like what they hear, only to be surprised that the next group has the exact same complaints.

Imagine if all CoH2.org staff similar to Relicnews staff was thinking about leaving, you think AmiPolizeiFunk/Marcus would get an email from the Relic GM with cheerleading words and support? When is the last time these studio leaders have done AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit? or CoH2.org?. Oh right, let's do some more scripted interviews so we look good.
IMHO, "New Relic" have never managed to build much goodwill within its communities and I don't think they have been honest about this either to its publishers.
Yes, Kyle did try and he should be commended for that.

For me problem is that posts on this forum can scare off anyone who is not utterly insane. One who knows that some of those patients can influence changes and drag game down to their level would abstain from playing.

Well, we can agree to disagree.
Open minded readers and/or viewers more than ever are fed up with the lack of authentic writers/journalists. All the censorship/language police while masquerading as gamers voice of conscience (while not being real gamers themselves ofc).

15 Things Highly Authentic People Don't Do
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/15-things-highly-authentic-people-dont.html
Americans' Trust in Mass Media Sinks to New Low
http://news.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
The mainstream/gaming press have lost readers/viewers by the millions and a dying dinosaur compared to consumer trusted "internet stars" like Pewdiepie (nr.4 most subscribed with 60,496,236).
https://socialblade.com/youtube/top/100/mostsubscribed

Pewdiepie making fun of the language police/PC Culture (pro-censorship)

Pewdiepie playing SOUTH PARK THE FRACTURED BUT WHOLE

Forced politeness is destroying authenticity. This video is a great example;
Aziz Ansari’s recent SNL sketch on ratings pressure

https://www.coh2.org/topic/67481/coh-franchise-art-director-ian-guise-left-relic

After grabbing a cup of coffee together he voluntarily decided he would fit somewhere else better

Yes pretty comical, but unfortunately not too far from the truth. Admiral Ackbar knows best;

According to some independent researchers and whistleblowers (such as Ramin Shokrizade), if any dev try to openly criticize a studio-wide P2W business model and/or predatory business practices they usually won't last long within that studio (not a good fit/not "yes men"). MS might say no to AoE4 microtransactions but it will definitely return to CoH3 but hopefully pro-consumer this time.

Don't get me wrong CoH2 is still a great game. But the game reputation/brand value was ruined by bad business practices and messed up priorities (Relic roadmap adventures/roller coaster).
What made this even worse, was Relic did not have any decent CM until Kyle.
So Relic leaders (intentional or not) pretty much nuked a potential thriving CoH2+CoH1 community and committed hara-kiri. A great shame really and it's really a miracle the community is not dead yet when you consider the CM mismanagement from Relic's side. I'll get to that in another post (CMs and oldschool Relic).

EA Makes Worst Company In America History, Wins Title For Second Year In A Row!
https://consumerist.com/2013/04/09/ea-makes-worst-company-in-america-history-wins-title-for-second-year-in-a-row/

The Future of F2P: The Force Wars - 2017

by former top Wargaming/Microsoft pro-consumer FTP expert, Ramin Shokrizade
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raminshokrizade/
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20171204/310918/The_Future_of_F2P_The_Force_Wars.php

*SNIP*We live in a very exciting time here in the gaming industry. Big changes are happening that will very much change how we do business, what products we produce, and our relationship with our consumers. I have been chronicling the history of F2P since 2001
*SNIP*
There are quite a lot of developers in these companies that would like to take their companies in different directions, but they currently live in fear in the work place. To “pass” as being a good fit to the current company culture, they have to keep their mouths shut. How do I know this?
Because they tell me.
As the top consumer advocate in the gaming industry since 2001 I actually have a lot of followers in these companies. They share their experiences with me and encourage me to keep writing. Without their support it would be difficult for me to do so. Thus I have become a sort of Glassdoor with legs.

Once Darksiders are in position in a company, they move quickly to secure power. They are remarkably efficient at this. Those that resist are purged rapidly from the organization and the rest fall in line nicely. I recently had a director at one of these companies (not EA) tell me that he would love to have me come give a presentation to his company on the Light Side Technologies available to them, and how they might improve company performance. But, he added, “that would be my last day working here”.

The primary two criteria used to evaluate new hires is (1) technical proficiency and (2) cultural fit. I've already discussed how the cultural fit criteria is scientifically shown to reduce diversity and increase workplace conflict. If you have Darksiders in place then any potential Light Side hire will fail the cultural fit criteria. If you hire both at the same time (this has happened to me twice) then a Force War will be initiated.

The Top F2P Monetization Tricks
by Ramin Shokrizade
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130626/194933/The_Top_F2P_Monetization_Tricks.php

Consumer Friendly F2P
by Ramin Shokrizade
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20171207/311179/Consumer_Friendly_F2P.php

Why players hate microtransactions - article by the owner of steamspy;
Why are paid games adding micro payments

https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6
*SNIP*
But players hate microtransactions!
No, they don’t.

Players hate bait and switch. Players hate when they’re lied to, when they’re deceived, when the product they’ve paid for is gone and is replaced with something else.


That’s why free-to-play originally got a lot of hate — because the term itself is deceiving. Free-to-play games aren’t 100% free as in a beer, they’re only free to some extent. We just got used to it by now.

BTW, in Russia free-to-play games are not usually called “free”, they’re called “contingently free”/”free with a catch” (“условно бесплатные”).

It’s even worse with “pay-to-pay” conversions, though. Unless it is clearly communicated to the user before he paid for a game, switching the business model on the fly might be viewed as bait and switch tactics.

And just because Valve managed to get away with adding microtransactions to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after the release, doesn’t mean you will be able too.

I'm sure Relic loot boxes lovers had big plans to take this CoH2/DoW3 progression system to the next level of BS. Loot boxes should be cosmetics only.

The only public guy in Relic that has subtle trying to apologize for this "loot box mess" and a broken progression system is Kyle (partial fix in 2016, War Spoils update). Very few, if any leaders in Relic has spoken publicly against P2W sentiments. Silence is also complicity.

If Relic wants an older audience, then don't treat your consumers like 14 years old teenagers that don't know anything about predatory business practices. Respect goes both ways.
It's not about the money, not for the older audience anyway that can actually afford to invest.
It's about branding and showing respect + trust. It's about knowing your audience.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

Quote from former Sega Europe boss, Jurgen Post;

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-05-24-jurgen-post-the-sega-brand-will-come-back-and-start-to-flourish-again
"The games is where the love of the community starts, then secondly for the studio, and thirdly there is the publisher. So at some point, the success of the studios will start to reflect on Sega."

So if Relic doesn't walk the talk. Is Sega either lying or is it Relic? You guys need to figure this out internally and get more consistent.

Personally, when/if CoH3 are announced I expect a public apology from at least one top Relic executive that they made some mistakes with DoW3 and CoH2. And that this time you'll really listen to fans and don't BS them.
The alternative, Relic can start firing more leaders and maybe fans will give you the benefit of the doubt.
I do get the impression some in Relic/Sega are trying, but they are not there yet. This is why I keep highlighting Amplitude as the "joker card" in this "internal conflict" as they hate these predatory business practices. Also, don't forget Atlus leaders which I highlighted in previous posts/videos going back to 2015;


I was the first on this forum in 2015 to highlight the importance of this new direction (sega listening to Atlus leadership).

Amplitude production leader working/visit the Relic studio;

Hey @Amplitude! Thanks for letting us borrow @jbuiss0n. Don't let the poutine fool you -- he's been hard at work, we promise!
10. nov. 2017
https://twitter.com/relicgames/status/928992404702744578

Insiders joke, exploiting "biggest spenders" that drives FTP revenue are called;
"Whale Hunting"


As the community backslash against predatory business practices will likely continue to escalate, shareholders along with pro-consumer regulators demand more transparency from the Publisher.

This is now taking place with EA.
Quote from former top Wargaming/Microsoft pro-consumer FTP expert, Ramin Shokrizade

When EA was forced to turn off microtransactions in SW BF2, they told shareholders that “This change is not expected to have a material impact”. It certainly had a virtual and financial impact. In addition to the massive loss in retail sales, EA stock has bled off over $3B in value in two weeks. If there was any chance of a clean recovery from the situation, there might be some chance of a rebound, but that's just not the reality on the ground.

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20171204/310918/The_Future_of_F2P_The_Force_Wars.php

EA's day of reckoning is here after 'Star Wars' game uproar, $3 billion in stock value wiped out
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/28/eas-day-of-reckoning-is-here-after-star-wars-game-uproar.html

EA damage control teams moving in;
EA tells investors turning off Battlefront 2's microtransactions will not affect earnings
http://www.pcgamer.com/ea-tells-investors-turning-off-battlefront-2s-microtransactions-will-not-affect-earnings/

EA South Park - Get The Fuck Out Of My Building


I really can't emphasize enough how important this is for the future of CoH3 if they don't figure out to make pro-consumer microtransactions profitable enough for Sega. AoE4 might be free of this and rely on big DLC expansions, but this is going to return in CoH3 for sure (if current Relic leaders make it that far).
The Belgium government is taking the lead for EU pro-consumer regulators to investigate EA/Blizzard predatory businesses practices.

Battlefront & Overwatch's Loot Boxes Under Investigation In Belgium - 11/15/17
https://kotaku.com/battlefront-overwatchs-loot-boxes-under-investigation-1820486239

And for interesting RTS story from 2014 we have;
EU to ban free-to-play unless games are actually free
Dungeon Keeper – the EU thinks free-to-play is the work of the devil (Dungeon Keeper "was" a beloved RTS IP that was nuked by EA microtransactions)
http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/28/eu-to-ban-free-to-play-unless-games-are-actually-free-4341156/

Shareholders know from history these type of community backslash can cost a lot of money.
Currently, Sega's Director of Business Analysis (Jean Yves Lapasset) have obviously been assigned to watch this closely. You can follow his newsfeed to the "higher ups" in Sega on;
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jylapasset/

Relic recently gave up on their DoW3 progression system and it’s likely the system was initially designed to make money from DoW3 elites etc..
If so, Relic has predatory business practices that start to fall apart in late 2015/early 2016 (along with CoH2) even before DoW3 launch in 2017. The chicken comes home to roost.
Consider the timings, when Relic/Sega stop making more CoH2 premium commanders late 2015 because Sega is afraid of community P2W backslash (and potential DoW3).

GO4 COH2 ESL TOURNAMENT SERIES - Announced Dec 17, 2015
http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2015/12/17/go4-coh2-esl-tournament-series

According to LinkedIn profiles, 2015 was the year Relic started working with MS partnership/making AoE4 pitch and CA partnership with Wargaming (FTP TW Arena). So Relic likely forced to clean up their act a bit with CoH2/DoW3 P2W sentiments and then you also get War spoils partial fix.
I was very involved in the War Spoils closed alpha and carefully analyzed all the good community feedback.
I have a lot of experience with progression and MMO trading from EvE online (one of the most complex MMOs).
For any experience MMO trader/progression researcher, it was obvious the higher ups in Relic was using this for just "good PR/positive press". Relic has had plenty of market opportunities to gather good community feedback from players and independent researcher to make good progression systems + virtual economy for CoH/DoW. But Relic just continues to fail on this except maybe money from UGC. Lessons learned? Don't do this half-assed or the chicken will come home to roost. Either do this right or forget it.

CLOSED ALPHA - CHANGES TO THE WAR SPOILS SYSTEM
http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2016/02/18/closed-alpha-changes-to-the-war-spoils-system

This new system is designed to address the following major community concerns:
Duplicates cluttering inventories and having no value
Randomness with the system and lack of transparency on how it works
Frustrations with trying to earn a specific item
Pay-to-Win sentiments

Who knows, maybe some higher-ups in Sega finally had a moment of clarity in 2015/2016;
"Wow, those DoW3 elites/CoH2 commanders are really powerful. I don't think we'll get away with this being premium content (on top of retail price)"

I think as a consumer, some of this microtransactions controversy is a need to know info. It's easy to exploit human vulnerability if the Publisher/studio know what they doing and why. But the publishers can't fool consumers a second time as the current Nexon CEO put it;

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-10-06-nexon-we-need-to-focus-on-heart-first-and-money-second
"I had a lot of conversations with executives in the industry who really had only been to Korea or China once, literally, and they said to me things like 'oh yeah I know what free-to-play is, that's that thing where you trick people into playing your game and then you trick them into buying a lot more than they would have spent before.'

"And so what they had was these rocketing up user numbers and then these user numbers crashed to the ground, in individual games and then of course overall in the company. The reason why they crashed to the ground is because the customers aren't stupid after all. You can trick them once but you can't trick them a second time. And fundamentally in a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned."

Something similar can be said about social media, where former Facebook president openly admits they "exploit Human ‘Vulnerability’".

Former Facebook Executive Says Social Media Exploits Human ‘Vulnerability’
“God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains,” said Sean Parker, the company’s founding president.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/facebook-sean-parker-human_us_5a0468d8e4b0f76b05c3d65a
"Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American who cofounded the file-sharing computer service Napster and served as the first president of the social networking website Facebook."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Parker

The total sales is not a good number to judge the financial performance. There are 3 reasons why we cannot calculate the potential revenue:

• Games had $30-$40 copies for pre-order on cdkeys/g2a/kinguin.
• Game had multiple sales, including 50% offs.
• Game was in the monthly bundle, where developers of 6 games get share no more than $9 among per bundle. It is very likely that the revenue from those copies was no more than $3 for Sega.

The game bombed. It took 5 years to build, in my previous post I explain how it is reasonable to assume that Relic's operating costs are no less than $10m/year. There is an additional cost for marketing and promotion for Sega. Also, Games Workshop either charges a massive flat fee or some kind of royalties per copy sold.

Even if you give the insanely generous and unrealistic $30 revenue per copy (it is unlikely more than $18 in my estimate), Relic has made less than $17m from the Dawn of War 3 so far. Relic has no additional tools to monetize DoW3. The community has abandoned the game, the game is kind of mediocre, the sequel to DoW3 is financially suicidal.

In conclusion, Sega lost a lot of money funding Relic to build DoW3, because DoW3 was a bomb both financially and killed the franchise.

+1
"There is an additional cost for marketing and promotion for Sega."


Yes, user acquisition are important to keep in mind but I think Sega wanted to put a lot of this on the shoulders of Relic as they have done with CA that has internal marketing/branding teams.
In old COH2.ORG interview game director talked about this;
https://www.coh2.org/news/4977/quinn-duffy-post-launch-interview

Quinn Duffy: I do really like the way Sega approaches their development. They want Relic to be a craft-led studio, managing our own creative process and having more ownership of the game from beginning to end, including areas typically outside traditional development, like PR or marketing.

This means that Relic has to grow – we don’t have these positions internally. We’ve been building up the studio slowly hiring metrics analysts and our new GM who will lead a lot of the future efforts. But the independence is very interesting and challenging – Relic needs to make money, and we need to find the ways to do that while building our games, building relationships with the community, and making our games better all the time.

As one of the longest-standing and largest UK studios, Creative Assembly’s craft-led approach to games development has been the studio’s key foundation, and the driving-force behind our culture.

https://www.creative-assembly.com/blog/uks-leading-games-development-studio

From a fan perspective, I think Fantomasas analysis is pretty spot on. I hope more informed fans like you will stick around to provide community feedback. I have a bad feeling, Relic will need all the help they can get if CoH3 are to succeed financially. I sincerely hope Relic learn something from it's sister studio Amplitude and provide early CoH3 access so we can help hold their feet to the fire. No more Relic secret service.

From 2016/2015 roadmap (delayed almost a year, I lost count how many times Kyle had to apologize for this);

http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2016/12/09/coh2-the-road-ahead
Moving forward, we would like to be as transparent as possible when it comes to what you can expect regarding COH2’s ongoing support and future updates.

Even Quinn Duffy own kids don't like all the Relic secrecy.

CoH fans waiting for Relic transparency;

It's obvious the CMs don't have sufficiently high priority/ranking within Relic and are not allowed to talk about much or kept in the loop at all. This unintentionally make them look either stupid and/or not caring.
CoH has now been without any official CM for at least 4+ months. No announcements from Relic.
So what's going on at Relic? Why the radio silence?


In comparison, the community leader (Craig) from CA Total War get promoted/hired as SEGA brand manager.
This is CA transparency;
What The Teams Are Working On 07-06-17
https://www.totalwar.com/blog/what-the-teams-are-working-on-07-06-17

What it’s like to manage a gaming community on fire
http://www.pcgamer.com/what-its-like-to-manage-a-gaming-community-on-fire/.

Sanya Weathers was hired off an EverQuest rant site to serve as the CM for an upstart MMO called Dark Age of Camelot. She was paid very, very little money, but dived into the gig headfirst. “I am not sure if I’m the first in the games industry to treat this job like relationship building, but I was at least in the first wave,” she says.

“I learned very quickly that my biggest weakness and my biggest strength was missing the forest for the trees. That is the main thing that causes anger and frustration for players,” continues Weathers. “What sounds like constant moaning is actually a hundred different complaints when you zoom in closer, and almost all of the issues can be handled by giving more information, by including people in the bigger picture. So I don't get numb to it, because I'm right there in the trees with my players. I can then take that feeling and use my privileged access to get the whole story and share it.”

Community Management - The Unsung Heroes of the Game Industry


Fortunately for CoH fans, Sega today is a stronger publisher than they were when CoH2 was released. Games like Persona 5 which is owned by Sega/Sammy right now is a flagship for Atlus/Sega of America. Right now, Persona 5 has more twitch viewers than popular online games like WoT and Heroes of the Storm. This is important because the leaders behind Atlus played a key role to inspire Sega top leaders to take the fan community more seriously. This eventual "inspired" Sega CEO to give an open apology for "betraying fans" in 2015;

In an interview with Famitsu translated by Siliconera, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi conceded some of the company’s releases over the past decade have eroded trust with longtime fans.

GamesBeat: And then Sega also owns role-playing game master studio Atlus. Persona 5 is a big success story this year. Has Atlus exceeded expectations for Sega?

Clark: Whether we can say it’s overperforming or performing to expectations, we’re really delighted with Persona 5. Everyone across the Sega organization is proud to be able to say that we were part of that, however big or small a part each individual played. Persona 5 is a flagship brand for Sega coming from Atlus now. It’s very strong. We appreciate that. We talked before about the connection with the community, identifying the uniqueness of the community. That’s embodied in the Atlus titles, particularly Persona.
https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/14/how-sega-found-its-third-party-identity-with-pc-gaming-atlus-and-its-classics/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-clark-8b060614/

Update;
Make War Not Love - 2018 Trailer

http://store.steampowered.com/app/801990/MAKE_WAR_NOT_LOVE_5/

Make War Not Love 5 returns;
http://www.makewarnotlove.com/

What is Make War Not Love?
Make War Not Love is an annual celebration of our great strategy games and studios; it's an opportunity to have some fun and a chance to foster a bit of friendly rivalry/comradery amongst ourselves and our great communities!
Time and Place?
MWNL Sale – runs from 6pm GMT on the 12th Feb – 6pm GMT on the 19th Feb
MWNL Event – runs from 9am GMT on the 14th Feb – 9am GMT on the 19th Feb
How do I get involved?
All you need to do is SIGN UP (and get two free SEGA Mega drive titles from the outset!) and then play any one (or more) of the MWNL feature titles. Your play hours throughout the MWNL event will then be added to the combined communities total play hours. If the communities combined efforts achieve the daily hour target**, a free prize bundle will be unlocked for everyone!
For more details about entering the promotion, please ensure you read our terms and conditions.
*Sign ups need to be over 18 and provide a valid Steam ID and email address to register
**Daily hourly targets will be measured through a 24-hour period from 9am GMT - 9am GMT
What are the prizes?
For each day that the combined hourly target is met, we will release a bundle of content*, direct to your Steam library, that will contain a mixture of a free SEGA game, DLC and/or great discount coupons on select SEGA releases.
*Content will be delivered within 24 hours of each day’s target being met
Great promotions and discounts
As part of MWNL we like to try and make our whole strategy catalogue as easy for anyone to jump in and try as possible. All the titles involved, and a wide selection of their associated franchises, are offered at great discounts over on Steam, so there's never been a better time to try them all out!
I need help!
If you have any issues with the sign up, prize redemption or anything else please contact our support team via http://support.sega.co.uk

Will John “JoRoSaR” Sargent be the pro-caster/event manager like last year?



http://coderedesports.com/on_screen_talent/john-jorosar-sargent/

John “JoRoSaR” Sargent is a host and commentator for esports and gaming events, beginning his career commentating on StarCraft II in 2011. After being discovered for his energetic play-by-play commentating, he travelled to work with many of the world’s premier gaming events including MLG, Blizzard’s WCS Finals, IGN ProLeague, DreamHack and the Intel Extreme Masters.

He also covers a variety of other games including Overwatch, commentating at the world’s first LAN event and then going on to cast the FACEIT / ELEAGUE Overwatch Open. As a former Formula One engineer for a championship winning team, he has a particular passion for SIM racing games and is a regular streamer away from the stage as well.

John also covers multi-game competitive and community events as a host, such as for Multiplay Insomnia’s Esports Stage and SEGA’s Make War Not Love events.

https://www.youtube.com/user/jorosar
https://twitter.com/jorosar?lang=da

Sega teases upcoming 'Make War Not Love 5'
https://dotesports.com/the-op/news/sega-make-war-not-love-5-20325

Valentine's Day is coming up, and that means Sega's yearly anti-Valentine's celebration is about to begin. Make War Not Love 5 was teased today after the competition's official website asked visitors to sign up their email address for information on "how to participate in MWNL5" and "redeem daily prizes."
The page, which remains relatively sparse, also features logos for Relic Entertainment, Creative Assembly, and Amplitude. Little other information is given, even after verifying an email address to follow the event. But between the ad's "coming soon" message and previous Make War Not Love competitions, it's safe to say this year's celebration will be a big one.

Here's how Make War Not Love has worked recently. Players hop online and join a faction based around their favorite community. Last year, that was Dawn of War II, Total War: Warhammer, Endless Legend, and Company of Heroes II. From there, gamers compete with each other in events ranging from duels and streams to time spent in online matches. At the end, the winning team receives a free DLC pack for their game.
Alongside the event's festivities, there's also discounts on each franchise and series focused on during the discount, with cuts previously available for everything from Endless Legend to Company of Heroes. For now, it's unclear what those discounts will look like for 2018. But seeing how Amplitude, Relic Entertainment, and Creative Assembly are all involved–and each company released a new game in the past year, including Endless Space 2, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, respectively–then some post-holiday discounts may be on the way.

MWNL4 - Challenge 3: COH2 Livestream
COH2's exciting casters Stormless and A_E cast top players HelpingHans & Luvnest as they go head-to-head live from the MWNL streaming booth at the PC Gamer Weekender event in London.

Relic Breaking News:
"One bad game away from the studio shutting down"

This was posted Jan 3, 2018 on glassdoor studio reviews by a current Relic dev/employee + official response by Relic GM (the studio boss/director);

"One bad game away from the studio shutting down"
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Relic-Entertainment-Reviews-E533032.htm
I have been working at Relic Entertainment full-time
Doesn't Recommend - Negative Outlook - Disapproves of CEO

Pros

- Relic has a talented and hardworking engineering team that is the backbone for keeping Relic up and running.
- Reasonable annual bonuses have been provided even though the studio hasn't been profitable.
-Overtime isn't crazy for the most part outside of the necessary crunches before a milestone or game launch.
- Solid history of successful and well-known games in the back catalog.
- Good effort at promoting social events from the big events like Summer BBQ and Xmas Party and small ones like movie and gaming nights.
- Nice central location in Yaletown close to transit hubs and restaurants, but the office itself isn't great as there's always funky smells from the restaurants below and a lack of office perks like ping-pong, massage chairs and casual spaces.
Show Less

Cons

- There's a lack of career growth opportunities with no structure or guidance in place to help people advance their careers.
- Annual compensation increases for cost of living and inflation are very poor (around 1% or less each year)
- There's no great office perks or benefits to take advantage of aside from the gym membership discount.
- There's some serious cultural and people issues that need to be addressed (see advice below).
Show Less

Advice to Management

The Game Side
The RTS and Strategy genre is pretty much dead and unprofitable outside of a few titles like Total War and Starcraft. As a studio we need to evolve or die and unfortunately we haven't chosen to really evolve and make games that people want to play in this current market. We should take a very serious look at what the landscape for RTS and Strategy games are and assess if we have the right people and technology to create hit games.
The People Side
I think the biggest issue with our current leadership team is that we may have the wrong people in key decision making roles when it comes to the game's direction. We don't understand what gamers want and end-up over-analyzing what we think they want. There's no culture or support for speaking-up as a couple of people on a team will make decisions that everyone has to follow. This has led to a culture of distrust and apathy.
Advice
- Don't do these post-mortems and bring in experts if there's never going to be a proper follow-up or attempt to change and improve things. It frustrates the team when we do this big show around self-review and wanting to change and then never doing anything afterward. It's good to see that we're aware that there are problems that need fixing, but it's a real downer to see that we don't follow through at all with improving things.
- We need to look at a different system of developing games where the balance of power and decision making isn't placed on a couple of people who ignore team feedback and lead us down the wrong path. It caused a critical failure with Dawn of War 3 and it's now causing our next big game to be an epic failure as well because the team's opinions simply don't matter. It's insane that a couple of team members decide the entire direction of the game without any real effort to get input and buy-in from the team. This approach could work if we had the right visionary type people, but we don't - instead we have design leadership who are invisible, out-of-touch or who are extremely difficult to work with due to their arrogance and bully-like approach.

The Bottom Line
A lot of us love working at Relic and working with each other. But we're all honestly saddened by the direction the studio has taken over the past few years. It's clear we lack an identity, a positive culture and the right leadership to inspire and guide us forward. There is a heavy feeling in the studio that if and when our next big game releases and is a flop then it's game over for Relic. We're not going to get a 2nd or 3rd chance especially after the Dawn of War 3 fiasco. Talk to your people and really dig-in to what worries them and keeps them up at night. There will be a common concern that we simply aren't equipped with the right leadership to lead us to success.

Response by Relic General Manager/Studio Director;

Relic Entertainment Response Jan 15, 2018 – General Manager
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

Former Creative Assembly employee and full time youTube/twitch producer DarrenTotalWar talk about AoE4 and Relic in recent youtube videos (see below). Darren predicts Relic will close down if they mess up with AoE4.

33:47 - Excited for Age of Empires 4?
1:08:49 - Will AOE4 be good?
Darren Disclaimer;
I rely on steam spy stats to discern that DOW3 was a failure commercially. I don't know how SEGA view it internally. I don't know the budget for the game. I worked as a video editor on a marketing team within the Total War team, in a different continent.

This is just speculation. I predict industry news for many studios, based on articles, steam spy information and playerbases etc. I do not, nor have I received insider information about anything going on at Relic. So I have not "confirmed" anything. I just also share the feeling that after a few bad games, a studio may close down.

DARREN JOINS CA!
https://forums.totalwar.com/discussion/146771/darren-joins-ca
https://twitter.com/darrenrop?lang=da

Darren has previously made CoH2 beginner guides that were posted on official CoH website.


Longer explanation what might happen (worst case scenario prediction) I posted here;
https://www.coh2.org/topic/62922/relic-working-on-age-of-empires-4/post/649118

On a personal note;
I applaud the current/former devs that so far have spoken about Relic internal troubles.
Community and customer trust is earned by being honest/consistent, so plz no more smooth talking leaders.
Remember transparency is a double edged sword so it's time to clean house.