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Splash Damage (Brink) has 100 new job postings, tons of new games (inc Transformers?)

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
When Brink was made free, someone in the thread suggested that Brink 2 could be in development. I went to Splash Damage's career page to see if that was plausible, and while I don't think they are, I did notice that they seem to be growing at an insane rate.

Afterwards, I looked for some other information, and saw the following.

Highlights:
  • They seem to have at least five projects based on their jobs listings and statements:
  • There's Dirty Bomb, which now has a 60+ person development team and is getting lots of new content after their acquisition by a Chinese chicken company. It's also self published these days.
  • They're still working on Gears of War.
  • There are at least two games with Wargaming.net (World of Tanks), with one of them being a tactical shooter.
  • There's also an unannounced project in an existing IP for a mysterious publisher. They're hiring a narrative writer for the project who is expected to extend the IP's storyline. This is either a first or third person shooter. Please note that all their games are multiplayer oriented, so think about an IP that either already is (or would plausibly transition to) being online centric if you want to start guessing. [Update: It's likely Transformers based on Leyou's licensing deal.]
This seems like quite the turnaround for the studio.

For reference, the job page: http://www.splashdamage.com/careers

Edit:

Per the post below, Leyou (Splash Damage's new owner) got a license for Transformers. I don't think Leyou has any other studios, though I could be wrong.

Edit 2:

Leyou also owns Digital Extremes (Warframe), so it's possible that Transformers is for them, but they already have a second game coming out on top of a huge overhaul of Warframe. Sorry for the mistake. Didn't realize that Sumpo Foods had renamed itself.
 
O

Oregano

Member
Nirolak said:
,
Highlights:
  • There's Dirty Bomb, which now has a 60+ person development team and is getting lots of new content after their acquisition by a Chinese chicken company. It's also self published these days.
Click to expand...

This bit is still hilariously weird.
 
S

Steverulez

Member
We sure the game in an existing ip isn't Gears? They were hiring for story/narrative people on that at one point

Also Gears 5 development will have started
 
B

BoosterDuck

Banned
Dirty Bomb is a good game and SD has been going full speed ahead with new content ever since they left Nexon

I wonder if they're ramping up development for final release next year
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
AHA-Lambda said:
The hell??
Click to expand...

So due to how state capitalism works, Chinese companies generally make eighty zillion dollars a year, and then invest it in large overseas to try and grow into new businesses.

A Chinese mining company bought Jagex (Runescape) for $300 million.

A Chinese chemical company bought Outfit 7 (Talking Tom) for €1 billion.

Tencent (a Chinese internet company) bought Riot Games (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans/Clash Royale), and nearly half of Epic Games (Unreal Engine).

Warframe was also bought by a Chinese company that worked in like... broccoli farming or something. Edit: Oh, right, this is actually the same company that bought Splash Damage. I didn't realize they renamed themselves.
 
D

derFeef

Member
Nirolak said:
My mistake. It's actually the same chicken company that bought Splash Damage (Leyou). They just used to be called Sumpo Foods, so I thought they were separate.
Click to expand...

Hah, thanks for letting me know - I need to think first where my money goes ;-)
 
M

Moobabe

Member
JigglesBunny said:
One day you launch Brink as F2P, the next you're a bustling studio swimming in projects.

Never underestimate the power of Brink.
Click to expand...

Despite being super proud of our work on Brink, we were not involved in its free release on Steam.

We are swimming in projects though ;)
 
B

BoosterDuck

Banned
Moobabe said:
Despite being super proud of our work on Brink, we were not involved in its free release on Steam.

We are swimming in projects though ;)
Click to expand...
can you give Javelin and Stoker a FAMAS plz

and make a Merc that dual wields SMG's ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

and give Vassil a butterfly knife
and make a rubber ducky trinket
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Onlinehero said:
Wait, chinese chicken bought all of Splash Damage? As in they're not independent anymore?
Click to expand...

Correct, for $150 million to Paul Wedgeword.

Games have been a good investment for them: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...r-leyou-buys-uk-games-developer-splash-damage

Until 2015, Leyou Technologies Holdings was called Sumpo Food Holdings. So why did a chicken meat supplier decide to get into the gaming business? In July 2015, it invested in Canadian developer Digital extremes, buying 58% of the company. By the end of that year, Leyou says, 70% of the gross profit of the group came from games, even though 80% of its revenues still came from the poultry business.
Click to expand...
 
C

ClivePwned

Member
Nirolak said:
So due to how state capitalism works, Chinese companies generally make eighty zillion dollars a year, and then invest it in large overseas to try and grow into new businesses.

A Chinese mining company bought Jagex (Runescape) for $300 million.

A Chinese chemical company bought Outfit 7 (Talking Tom) for €1 billion.

Tencent (a Chinese internet company) bought Riot Games (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans/Clash Royale), and nearly half of Epic Games (Unreal Engine).

Warframe was also bought by a Chinese company that worked in like... broccoli farming or something. Edit: Oh, right, this is actually the same company that bought Splash Damage. I didn't realize they renamed themselves.
Click to expand...

Tencent also bought a small stake in Frontier recently
 
O

Onlinehero

Member
Nirolak said:
Correct, for $150 million to Paul Wedgeword.
Click to expand...
Wow, good for him! Amazing what Team Fortress modding can do to a man.

Though I was hoping I could keep enjoying games without supporting the poultry industry. And I'm sure people are worried about the tapirs!
 
wvnative

wvnative

Member
I am playing fall of cybertron right now and thinking to myself "DAMN we need a true next gen transformers title like this"
 
A

amardilo

Member
Nirolak said:
There's also an unannounced project in an existing IP for a mysterious publisher. They're hiring a narrative writer for the project who is expected to extend the IP's storyline. This is either a first or third person shooter. Please note that all their games are multiplayer oriented, so think about an IP that either already is (or would plausibly transition to) being online centric if you want to start guessing. [Update: It's likely Transformers based on Leyou's licensing deal.]
Click to expand...

I think Simon Furman is in the UK and he wrote a lot of Transformers comics (mainly for the UK). Maybe (or I hope) if Splash Damage are making a Transformers game they can get him to work on the story.
 
G

grandwizard

Member
After like a year of not a lot of activity they wrestled back ownership of Dirty Bomb from Nexon and have started updating it again. Just recently they added a whole new map and two new characters. It's maintained a pretty decent playerbase over the years and might grow from here. I've been thinking about getting back into it and will probably jump in again soon.
 
N

NIN90

Member
grandwizard said:
After like a year of not a lot of activity they wrestled back ownership of Dirty Bomb from Nexon and have started updating it again. Just recently they added a whole new map and two new characters. It's maintained a pretty decent playerbase over the years and might grow from here. I've been thinking about getting back into it and will probably jump in again soon.
Click to expand...

Go for it man!
Just finished a session after not playing for like over a year? It's still so good. There's still just nothing quite like that SD brand of game and it's decently healthy right now with 4k+ players.
 
T

TacticalHotdog

Member
The Wargaming tactical shooter project sounds like it might be Caliber.
developers-ekshena-caliber-told-about-the-engine-and-the-system-requirements.jpg
Click to expand...
https://caliber.ru/
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
"It's a contiguous open world landmass game now with towns, mounts, outposts, regular quests, a day/night cycle, and everything else now. Well, there are a few planets, but you get the idea."

It's not an overhaul. It's a new zone they're adding with all of those features, but it's not replacing any of the other content in the game. The mounts are also already in the game (and have been for a few years)
 
M

Mechazawa

Member
That Dirty Bomb news is interesting. Feels like I was hearing not too long ago that support for the game was pretty languid.
 
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