Après avoir fait l’acquisition de Relic Entertainment (Company of Heroes, Dawn of War), de Creative Assembly (Total War) ou encore de Sports Interactive (Football Manager), voici que Sega vient de racheter un studio bien connu des joueurs de 4X, Amplitude.
L’ancien géant japonais des jeux sur consoles continue donc de se développer sur PC, ce particulièrement dans le domaine des jeux de stratégie, mais sans toutefois abandonner pour autant le monde des consoles comme on l’entend parfois, et comme le rappelait d’ailleurs l’éditeur dans un interview il y a quelques mois sur MCV. Ce qui tombe bien pour Amplitude Studios, qui avec son original Rogue-like Dungeon of the Endless avait tenté en 2014 de premiers pas sur la dernière console de Microsoft (voir ci-après l’ancien reportage de jeuxvideo.com à ce propos) et pourrait peut-être ainsi mieux retenter l’expérience à l’avenir.
Le studio parisien Amplitude perd probablement une partie de son indépendance mais semble-t-il pas son âme, et surtout devrait y gagner beaucoup en termes de moyens (a priori une quinzaine d’embauche par an devant avoir lieu ces 3/4/5 prochaines années, cf. Le Monde Pixels), pour, comme il l’évoque dans cette annonce, se concentrer sur l’essentiel, la réalisation de ses futurs jeux.
Le premier à venir étant Endless Space 2, dévoilé brièvement il y a environ un an et qui devrait arriver en phase Early access vers l’automne prochain (pour sortir vraisemblablement début ou courant 2017). Le marché des 4X spatiaux étant moins infini que les univers qu’il permet d’explorer librement, voilà qui augure que le second volet d’Endless Space pourrait bien tenir tête à des titres comme par exemple le désormais fameux Stellaris (voir notre test) et le prometteur remake du non moins fameux Master of Orion.
Pour quelques informations supplémentaires sur le futur Endless Space 2, voyez le site officiel ainsi que ce wiki et cette page sur Steam.
Communiqué
July 5, 2016
SEGA Holdings Co., Ltd.
SEGA Games Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President, Representative Director, and Chief Executive Officer: Haruki Satomi, “SEGA Games” ), a subsidiary of SEGA Holdings Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Tokyo, President, Representative Director, and Chief Operating Officer: Hideki Okamura) acquired all shares of Amplitude Studios SAS (Headquarters: Paris, France, “Amplitude Studios”) on July 1, 2016 in order to further strengthen its PC game portfolio and development capabilities in the U.S. and European regions.
Amplitude Studios has released three titles within the “Endless” series; “Endless Space (2012)”, “Endless Legend (2014)” and “Dungeon of the Endless (2014)”, with a fourth, “Endless Space 2”, currently in development.
Amplitude Studios is an independent game studio established in 2011 by Mathieu Girard and Romain de Waubert de Genlis. Amplitude Studios are highly regarded for their turn-based strategy titles (*1), specialising in 4X PC games (*2) for US and European market. The “Endless” series has garnered acclaim and popularity thanks to its compelling strategic features and high quality graphics which have resulted in more than 2.4 million copies sold worldwide, across its three titles.
“To have the opportunity to add a studio with the growing reputation of Amplitude’s, to the SEGA family, is an exciting one and reinforces SEGA Europe’s position as a market leader in publishing high quality PC games” said Jurgen Post, President/COO for SEGA Europe Ltd. “Culturally, Amplitude are a fantastic fit for the business as they not only produce great games, but also have a proven track record in listening to their fans and directly involving them in the ongoing development of their games through their GAMES2GETHER system.”
SEGA Games already owns a number of prolific development studios including; “Creative Assembly Ltd.”, “Sports Interactive Ltd.”, “Relic Entertainment, Inc.” and is responsible for hugely successful IPs such as “Total War™”, “Football Manager™”, “Company of Heroes™” and “Warhammer 40,000®: Dawn of War™” in the PC game field, a large and ever-growing market in Western countries and Asia.
With this acquisition, SEGA Games will increase its presence in the global games market. Amplitude Studios’ top-quality content and accumulated development know-how will allow the SEGA Group to continue to bring high-quality entertainment experiences to their customers.
*1 Strategy games: A popular video game genre which focus on strategy and tactics.
*2 4X games: A sub-genre of strategy videogames where players focus on the 4 ‘X’s’: “explore”, “expand”, “exploit” and “exterminate.”
Company names and product names mentioned above are registered trademarks or trademarks of the respective companies.
About Creative Assembly Ltd.
Founded in 1987 and based in Horsham, West Sussex, Creative Assembly is one of the UK’s most successful and established game studios. Creator of the multi award-winning Total War strategy series, the studio has received numerous press, industry and consumer accolades, including BAFTA and the Develop Industry Excellence awards. With over 400 highly talented developers and counting, the studio is still expanding with new triple-A console, PC and mobile projects. Creative Assembly’s website is located at www.creative-assembly.com
About Relic Entertainment, Inc.
Relic Entertainment is the award-winning development studio behind critically-acclaimed franchises including Warhammer 40:000: Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, and more. Since its inception in 1997, Relic has produced a rich catalogue of genre-defining real-time strategy titles and continues to innovate today as a SEGA-owned studio. Relic is located in Vancouver, Canada. Learn more at www.relic.com .
About Sports Interactive Ltd.
Sports Interactive (SI) is the world’s leading developer of football management simulations through its Football Manager series. Founded in 1994 and based in the Old Street area of London, SI has a full-time staff of more than 100 and employs the services of roughly 1,300 part-time researchers across the globe (alongside more than 200 offsite Beta testers). SI has ongoing relationships with some of the biggest names in professional football, including Prozone, the League Managers Association, The Football League, La Liga and many other leagues and national associations. SI became a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEGA in 2006. Further information on the company and its games is available at www.sigames.com .
