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Entire staff of game publisher Annapurna Interactive has reportedly resigned

sonofhans
49 replies
12h26m

“The report, which IGN can confirm based on conversations with our own sources, states that Annapurna Interactive president Nathan Gary had recently been in negotiations with Annapurna founder and billionaire Megan Ellison to spin the gaming segment off as its own company. However, Ellison eventually pulled out of negotiations, at which point Gary resigned. Almost 30 other individuals, including division co-heads Deborah Mars and Nathan Vella, as well as the entire remaining staff of Annapurna Interactive, joined him.”

From IGN — https://www.ign.com/articles/annapurnas-entire-gaming-team-h...

I don’t blame them. I’d rather negotiate my arm out of a shark’s mouth than the cost of a hot dog with Larry Ellison, or his daughter. You don’t get that awful rich by ever believing you’re awful rich enough.

hinkley
27 replies
11h47m

Another lawnmower is born.

robjwells
26 replies
10h12m

For those who don’t get the lawnmower reference, take 5 minutes and have a hearty laugh: https://youtube.com/watch?t=1980&v=-zRN7XLCRhc

(Start at the 33 minute mark if it doesn’t jump you there.)

toyg
15 replies
8h56m

That rant is famous, but I always wonder at the naivety of Cantrill and friends. Ellison was already known for being a shameless shark since the '80s, 20 years before the SUN acquisition. Believing he would leave your little blade of grass untouched was always going to be fanciful - particularly when they were a loss-making part of the company with no-future already.

Macha
7 replies
8h40m

I think there's plenty of people who the internet or gossip circles hate where that hate is unjustified. At the same time, a lot of the worst people are initially quite personally charming and keep that face even as they screw you over. And I think when people come into contact that they've only heard about in gossip in person, there's quite often an attempt to be like "well that's the caricature of Larry Ellison, maybe he's not actually that bad". Face to face contact can weight quite heavily compared to "people on the internet".

Combine the two of them and you get a recipe for people to give Larry Ellison the benefit of the doubt, taking a "well we're adults, let's handle this more maturely than immediately doubting our counter party" stance, even as people who by their own accounts had heard otherwise. Ultimately in this case, Cantrill's experience proved "the internet" right, but I think even that might not prevent someone else repeating the same situation in the future.

dijit
6 replies
8h13m

This is extremely well articulated, and is exactly true in my experience.

People take gossip as "gossip"- an unrealiable approximation and gross-oversimplification of an individual. Thus give people with poor reputations the benefit of the doubt, believing themselves to be open minded. (which is true).

When they are shown just how 1-dimensional some people can actually be, and that the gossip depicts people precisely, it can be jarring. Especially as, like you mention, many people are very personable, charismatic, charming etc;

Aeolun
2 replies
6h40m

It’s why I now doubt the motives of all people that seem too personable :/

markus_zhang
0 replies
2h54m

"Motives are rarely unselfish". That's good enough.

JohnBooty
0 replies
3h58m

From murders to politicians to CEOs, nearly every impactful predator has a lot of positive qualities as well.

You don't rise to the top of the food chain without having some really sociopathic/narcisisstic traits.

But, you also don't rise to the top of the food chain solely by being terrible all of the time. And IMO/IME lot of those "good traits in bad people" honestly are genuine, not just facades.

This is not to excuse the bad people of the world. It's just... honestly, as a middle-aged person myself... it has been the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around as an adult. The rest of the stuff, I was prepared for, on some level.

ChrisMarshallNY
1 replies
6h44m

Idi Amin could be quite charming. Same for another dictator, who will not be mentioned, at the risk of Godwining the conversation.

He could talk to a family, leave them smitten and hopeful, then whisper "Kill them" to the guard, on his way out.

nick3443
0 replies
3h1m

Just think about the exceptionally gifted "10x" engineers we all meet from time to time. There are people equally gifted in charisma and manipulation, they can predict what people are feeling and steer them where they want them with high success rates. This is what I think of whenever I see a politician on video or meet one in person.

hinkley
0 replies
2h46m

I joke that Larry is from that evil Star Trek universe and somewhere in the multiverse a clean-shaven, teddy bear of a man is trapped in a universe full of assholes because he was tricked into swapping with this Larry.

ben7799
2 replies
4h48m

Yah.. it was well known but when it happens to you it's hard to really not try to be open minded. That is why his rant is so famous.

I was rolled up into Oracle through a series of acquisitions a few years before Sun.. it all went down the same way. You know what's going to happen but it's still a shock when a manager you knew before you joined Oracle and wouldn't have behaved the Oracle way instructs you to lie to a customer cause "that's how it's done here and we're going to have to go along with it."

You also don't realize how shocking it's going to be to see the office re-decorated until they come in and rip everything down and put up pictures of Larry's boats and airplanes and other toys.

When we were acquired Larry Ellison got on a big conference call we were all allowed to join and we could raise a virtual hand and ask questions. To his credit he answered everything 100% truthfully and transparently, and the questions were answered exactly the way the Internet expects he would answer.

markus_zhang
1 replies
2h52m

Well at least he has been honest. Honesty is a luxury merchandise you can purchase with a few billion dollars for sure.

hinkley
0 replies
2h43m

To be a billionaire you need colluders.

jerf
1 replies
5h25m

Given the situation that IP was in at the time, I'm not sure it was a "believe" so much as a "hope". There wasn't much of an alternative.

hinkley
0 replies
2h41m

It would have made so much more sense to sell to IBM though, and I don’t even like IBM. I respected their R&D at the time, but their global services division is a blight on society.

I can’t recall, did the feds block that option?

hinkley
1 replies
2h51m

I thought Sun was just a little misguided and naive and then they sold to Ellison and I realized they were a bunch of fucking morons. WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS??

Cantrill and friends just worked there, but the board presumably knew what they were doing.

There was a Wired article that told me everything I needed to know about Larry, the way your blind date being mean to the waiter tells you not to make a second date. It was about the best smart homes. It came out during the DotCom boom, before Sun folded. Larry had one of the smartest homes in America. It had a remote control. One Saturday evening, the article reports, he got furious with the system because it wasn’t working, so he threw the remote and smashed it.

Then he called the company and demanded a new one. Someone had to drive, 45 minutes if memory serves, to his house to deliver a new remote, on their Saturday night, because some petulant man-child had a temper tantrum and couldn’t wait until Monday.

Fuck that guy.

How much of a pain in the ass you have to be in the interview process for a writer to drop that anecdote into the article? You know we are only getting part of that story.

amiga386
0 replies
1h3m

I thought Sun was just a little misguided and naive and then they sold to Ellison and I realized they were a bunch of fucking morons. WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS??

Whatever you think of Oracle and the One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison, IBM as a company are likely worse. Sun had a "west coast wheeler-dealer" vibe, as did Oracle. IBM had an "east coast button-down shirt" vibe. IBM had first dibs and Sun said "no, I may be desperate but I'm not that desperate"

If Sun had to be sold (which it did because it was consistently losing money hand over fist) and there was a choice of IBM, HP and Oracle to sell it to, and only those three, which would you pick?

If you've never experienced the IBM culture, this is a great essay about Don Estridge (father of the IBM PC) which will give you a good flavour of the company: https://every.to/the-crazy-ones/the-misfit-who-built-the-ibm...

pcl
3 replies
9h54m

PSA: it’s a link to Bryan Cantrill ranting about the Sun / Oracle acquisition. I couldn’t make it through 5 minutes of his ranting to get to an accurate summary of the joke though.

stavros
1 replies
9h32m

You need to think of Larry Ellison the way you think of a lawnmower. You don't anthropomorphize your lawnmower, the lawnmower just mows the lawn, you stick your hand in there and it'll chop it off, the end. You don't think 'oh, the lawnmower hates me' -- lawnmower doesn't give a shit about you, lawnmower can't hate you. Don't anthropomorphize the lawnmower. Don't fall into that trap about Oracle.
robjwells
0 replies
8h30m

"Oh they wanted to kill OpenSolaris!" No, the lawnmower doesn't care about OpenSolaris, the lawnmower doesn't think about OpenSolaris, the lawnmower _can't_ care about OpenSolaris. The lawnmower can't have empathy.
bmacho
2 replies
5h39m

Or don't waste 5 minutes on this for that.

Direct links pointing closer, and the transcript are available in this thread. (At the bottom, for some reasons.)

throwanem
0 replies
5h24m

Hardly a waste, unless you hate to be entertained.

spacemadness
0 replies
3h36m

Counterpoint: That was an excellent use of my 5 minutes.

sidewndr46
0 replies
5h34m

Larry Ellison is the only person I can think of that I instantly know what video is being linked when someone shares a link.

lordfrito
0 replies
6h38m

"Don't anthropomorphize Larry Ellison"

Funniest thing I've heard in a while!

hinkley
0 replies
2h31m

You grow up an Ellison, I figure you either end up just like daddy, a social justice warrior with means, or like Mary Trump, a psychologist. Just so you can unpack your fucked up family and help others.

stefan_
19 replies
9h25m

Imagine having to negotiate with Larry Ellisons nepo daughter, how can you even keep a straight face. "It says here you are a film producer?"

rowanG077
9 replies
8h41m

I don't follow? Why is that funny? Why wouldn't she be able to be a film producer?

thoroughburro
8 replies
7h38m

On average, those who enter a field using money are less accomplished than those who enter a field using experience. Obviously.

ethbr1
4 replies
7h2m

I think it has to do more with being honest about ones core competencies.

There are tons of people who enter a field because they're rich, hire great people, connect those great people with money, and do very well.

There are also rich people who believe wealth qualifies them as subject matter experts, which tends to go less well...

ChrisMarshallNY
3 replies
6h38m

Isaacman seems to have his shit together.

dboreham
2 replies
4h12m

Also a nice guy. Perhaps not unrelated.

ChrisMarshallNY
1 replies
3h48m

Branson is supposed to be a really decent chap.

I suspect a lot of it has to do with who you surround yourself with, and how much agency you give them.

One word that rich people almost never hear, is “no.” Even really nice ones don't hear it often.

That means that almost any rectally-sourced, harebrained idea they squeeze out, is treated as genius, by their entourage.

I know a number of fairly wealthy people, and some of them won’t have anything to do with me, because I say the “N” word. Others, actually ask me what I think.

People rapidly learn that asking me for my input means getting an answer that is honest, but not one they might want to hear (and that answer might be "I don't know.").

They don’t always give it much weight, but at least they ask.

Those folks are not always the ones you might consider “nice,” though.

Just anectdata, though, and the community we share has some traits that reward Honesty and seeking counsel from others.

amiga386
0 replies
35m

Branson is supposed to be a really decent chap.

Do yourself a favour and read the Tom Bower biographies of him, e.g. Branson: Behind The Mask

In fact, you can a get a good understanding of him indirectly through the testimony in Tubular Bells: the Mike Oldfield story https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=877&v=UQLDGpcgNTM e.g. John Giddings says of Branson "He was a chancer. He was prepared to gamble and go for it. He was percieved as a visionary, putting it all together, but really he was importing records illegally and flogging them, right? He was a second-hand car salesman."

pylua
1 replies
6h44m

Is this really true? Arguable lance stroll is better than Logan in f1.

_Wintermute
0 replies
6h38m

Arguably Logan was in F1 to draw American audiences and sponsors, also his uncle is a billionaire.

rowanG077
0 replies
5h21m

The comment did not make clear she bought the position. It almost seemed more like it was implying anyone who is family of some rich guy can't accomplish anything themselves.

ZeroGravitas
4 replies
9h4m

I only found out recently that animated film company Laika was created after Nike founder Phil Knight bought his son a new career after he failed at being a rapper.

He bought into Will Vinton studios and then forced Oscar winning animation pioneer Will Vinton out of his own company.

There's a whole documentary, sad and interesting.

mhuffman
3 replies
8h13m

If I recall, it turns out that his "failed rapper" son had some sort of natural talent for this and has got nothing but accolades even from other animators ever since. Although I do get your point.

busterarm
0 replies
4h46m

f me that movie was so great, only to be overshadowed by Coco a year later.

brandall10
0 replies
3h49m

He also directed Bumblebee, perhaps the only great film in the Transformers universe.

dash2
2 replies
6h43m

It says this is the company that produced, among other films, She? Did Megan Ellison have anything to do with it?

rpdillon
0 replies
5h0m

Her

ChrisMarshallNY
0 replies
6h39m

"Producer" == $WALLET

WorldMaker
0 replies
3h52m

It's just as weird that it happens twice in Hollywood today. Another of Larry Ellison's nepo baby heirs runs Skydance, which has had a bit more success in "blockbuster" terms (and has recently been flirting with buying CBS Viacom aka Paramount).

markus_zhang
0 replies
3h1m

This is what people with talents should do if they don't agree with the super riches who don't do anything substantial but inherit a shit ton of money.

loupol
22 replies
12h14m

Article is missing some context imo :

* Annapurna Pictures (the parent company of Interactive) had some financial issues previously at least (see [0] from 2019) while Annapurna Interactive was doing well for itself.

* Annapurna Pictures wanted to integrate the gaming division in-house (possibly to prop up the rest of the company)

* Staff and exec at Annapurna Interactive wanted to be spin off (see [1])

* Negotiations fell through, so most exec and staff at Interactive left

[0] https://variety.com/2019/film/news/annapurna-resolves-more-t...

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-12/annapurna...

threeseed
20 replies
7h23m

There is another way to look at this.

Annapurna Pictures in Dec 2022 produced Nimona for Netflix which debuted at #9 globally and was as high as #3 i.e. it was a massive hit.

So they now have the Stray IP which could be extremely lucrative and are looking at how CD Project Red handled their successful Cyberpunk integration on Netflix as a model. Which is where you cross-promote a game add-on or sequel with the movie.

Which means for the gaming side they really wouldn't have any control over their direction as it would be entirely driven by the movie side. Not exactly compelling for them hence why they want to leave.

With the success of Fallout, The Last of Us, Cyberpunk Edgerunners etc there's definitely big money to be made from video game IP.

chupasaurus
10 replies
5h1m

how CD Project Red handled their successful Cyberpunk integration on Netflix as a model

A reminder that Cyberpunk IP holder is Mike Pondsmith, not CD Project.

MichaelZuo
8 replies
4h54m

How can anyone hold IP over an abstract vibe?

JohnBooty
2 replies
4h9m

It's like how Microsoft owns Windows, but not windows.

mikrl
1 replies
3h13m

If you got a few of those motorized windows and hooked up a laptop running MS’ operating system to control them all, but only during certain times of day, there would be a window where your windows would be Windows windows.

helpfulclippy
0 replies
2h35m

You could set up a sweepstakes to install them with some complicated terms. Then you could explain to the local Vietnamese baker how the rules work — in other words, when does Nguyen Doughs win doze Windows windows?

rhelz
1 replies
3h18m

// How can anyone hold IP over an abstract vibe? //

Same way somebody can hold a patent to a cartoon drawing of a mouse. It's not any individual picture of Mickey Mouse which is (solely) copywrited; even if you draw Mickey Mouse from a different angle, or upside down, or turn it into a plush toy, or a popsicle.....or if you drew Mickey's twin brother, or even his younger brother who bore a family resemblance....

...what do all those things have in common? If its not a "vibe"--a certain essence of Mickey-Mouseness.

amiga386
0 replies
1h25m

You can't hold a patent to a cartoon drawing of a mouse (that you're implying is the character Mickey Mouse)

You can hold a design patent for the look of a tangible object - e.g. the rounded corners of an iPhone. You can also hold a design patent for particularly novel typefaces (fonts), the layout of a screen (e.g. like Norton Commander's twin directory listings on the left and right) and for computer icons, but that only covers them when they're displayed on screen.

So you could get a patent for the stylised depiction of a mouse as an icon, but only in that context.

If you wanted to flex ownership of a fictional character design, you get that by copyright, not patent. And the copyright law on derivative works is what protects that fiction character design from being copied or evolved by others. But it can't stop them parodying your design in order to ridicule it (specifically), so you don't have absolute control over it.

This is why I don't like the use of the term "IP" or "intellecual property", as it completely muddies the waters as to what your actual rights are, and what limitations of "ownership" there are.

alwyn
1 replies
4h44m

Cyberpunk != cyberpunk, unfortunately.

Cyberpunk 2077 is set in the Cyberpunk RPG universe that was created by Mike Pondsmith in 1988.

It was named after the vibe without changing the name...

Also a helpful article: https://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/8/7/20756548/cyberpunk-...

ivmoreau
0 replies
4h43m

In this context is referring as Cyberpunk the role playing game, rather than just the genre. Cyberpunk 2077 has a setting based on the role playing board game (that’s where some characters come from, like Silverhand), and that setting is the original IP.

thrillgore
0 replies
3h21m

I don't think that's true anymore, I believe Mike sold the IP to CD Project and has a stake in the company now, but I need to find a source to confirm this.

InDubioProRubio
4 replies
6h23m

IP, content, blobs - container words - a sure-fire indicator in any conversation that , that the parties involved areunable to accurately value, evaluate, organize and produce, the valuables that should reside inside the container. So here the daily reminder, that logistics is a commodity now, but producing something of value, is not.

jayd16
1 replies
2h33m

IP has pretty clear connotation in games. I don't really think it shows what you say. Characters and worlds are IP and that IP can be used across media types. Gameplay is not IP. A game project can swap or take in IP.

amiga386
0 replies
1h35m

In context of the discussion here - people who are talking about "content" or "IP" mark themselves out as not having a nuanced understanding of what intangible assets they hold.

I think what you mean to say is:

- writing and depictions of characters are copyrighted

- writing and depictions of worlds are copyrighted

- some of the names involved can also be registered trademarks

They are intangible rights that someone can own. The insidious term "intellectual property" is used to reframe the understanding of rights granted by copyright, patent and trademark law by comparing them to real property, which they are not.

When was the last time someone was allowed to live in your house, legally, because they're making a parody of it? When was the last time someone was allowed to take your house apart to find out how to make something compatible with your house's design? Owning a copyright is not like owning property and does not give you carte-blanche control over your intangible asset like real property law more-or-less does.

Some examples:

- I can write a book or game about a boy wizard who goes to a magical school, as long as I didn't base it on Harry Potter. JK Rowling can't stop me.

- I can write about a pirate who acts like an aging rockstar, provided I didn't copy Johnny Depp's depiction of Captain Jack Sparrow. Disney can't stop me.

- I can write about a martial force voyaging through space by analogy to a similar force on the Earth's seas, so I can call them space marines. Games Workshop® can't stop me, provided I don't implicitly or explicitly claim they are Games Workshop® Space Marines®

threeseed
0 replies
41m

I can assure you that the accountants and executives at these studios can absolutely value, evaluate, organise and produce the valuables that should reside inside the "container".

It's what the entire movie and TV industries have been about ever since the idea of sequels e.g. Aliens, Terminator and worlds e.g. Marvel took off.

sameoldtune
0 replies
4h43m

“Content” is an advertising term for whatever fills the space between all the ads

stuckinhell
0 replies
4h48m

Nimona was not a massive hit.

jajko
0 replies
6h38m

It also goes back, when CP2077 TV show premiered, sales and number of players skyrocketed again, same for Fallout.

delusional
0 replies
7h7m

This seems like the same way to look at it. The only disagreement between these two comments is if the potential integration is motivated by a lack of success, or the outlook of even greater success. Those are is, at least economically, identical motivations.

Maken
0 replies
6h9m

That seems to be the goal of their partnership with Remedy Games, whose games are already pretty much interactive movies.

Maken
0 replies
6h8m

They were too successful for their own good?

PoignardAzur
21 replies
11h11m

I hope whatever entity these people reform has the same magic.

Every single game they published had something unique. Outer Wilds, Telling Lies, Twelve Minutes, Edit Finch, Neon White, etc.

They didn't develop these games, but they have an eye for talent.

ashwin-b
6 replies
10h38m

I agree. They are like the A24 for games. They don't make the product themselves but invest and promote some really good games. Outer Wilds being one of my favourites of all time.

SV_BubbleTime
5 replies
4h36m

Outer Wilds is top three all-time for me. And hands-down, the most underrated game and at least one generation.

it’s a good point that the publisher does have an eye for talent.

Qwertious
2 replies
3h9m

PSA: Outer Wilds is not Outer Worlds, which is a completely unrelated game from Obsidian.

jszymborski
0 replies
2h24m

Thanks, I made that mistake.

SV_BubbleTime
0 replies
1h59m

I’m aware. Outer Worlds got all the attention but it was a 1/2 expectation Fallout clone.

Outer Wilds was a masterpiece.

satvikpendem
1 replies
4h14m

Did you play the DLC as well?

Wojtkie
0 replies
3h21m

I didn't enjoy the DLC as much as the base game, but I did appreciate what they did with it. I missed flying to different planets rather than being confined to one of them. The story was really good

simonw
3 replies
7h30m

I adored Donut County, it had everything I could possible want from a game about trash pandas and LA county donut culture.

mintplant
2 replies
5h5m

Donut County is my favorite game to sit someone down and watch them play through in a single sitting.

amiga386
1 replies
1h19m

Everyone has their favourites, but have you not seen Katamari Damacy ?

simonw
0 replies
51m

Doesn’t have the king of the raccoons living in a trash can version of Griffith observatory.

personjerry
1 replies
10h40m

In their nascent years I played two of their early games, both mobile games - Florence and Gorogoa. Both beautiful. I still play Florence once in a while and it really evokes emotions. Gorogoa is a great puzzle game that the HN crowd would love. Highly recommend both if you haven't tried them!

j_maffe
0 replies
6h29m

Both games are incredible but Gorogoa is a masterpiece. It attempted to communicate something about humanity that couldn't have been expressed in any other form.

duxup
1 replies
3h14m

What kind of lift is there in just becoming a publisher from scratch?

I'm trying to imagine what their role is ... if you can just "be a publisher" or if you need a lot of cash up front or what.

facorreia
0 replies
1h34m

I don't know the answer, but I imagine that the execs and staff that left as a block have some plan lined up.

oneepic
0 replies
2h58m

I would add a couple games that moved me (Hindsight, A Memoir Blue). but I also have to mention not all of their titles are smash hits IMO -- I disliked Florence, Last Stop, If Found, and Open Roads.

That said, I agree that their good games have made me a fan, and I hope the original staff keeps going in some form.

misnome
0 replies
7h40m

Absolutely. "Annapurna Interactive" essentially made anything an instant buy for me. Very disappointed to see what sort of undead monster the label will become.

jeffwask
0 replies
57m

They were a top indie publisher who you could rely on releasing interesting and quality game. Sad loss for gaming.

facorreia
0 replies
1h35m

I agree. Seeing the Annapurna logo in a game has become a signal to me that I will really enjoy that game and that it has a unique, fresh perspective to offer.

eleveriven
0 replies
10h22m

I feel the same way! Annapurna Interactive consistently published games with something special

AzzyHN
0 replies
41m

They were one of the few publishing companies that people liked as a _publishing_ company.

darby_nine
19 replies
12h58m

This is hilarious and rather sad. How did Annapurna fumble such famous talent so bad?

flohofwoe
11 replies
12h26m

It sounds like a good decision by the team tbh. Blurring the lines by 'integrating' functioning teams into a bigger entity which does completely unrelated things (TV, film and theater) never goes well. The team will most likely found their independent 'spin-off' company as they had planned already, no talent or knowledge is lost, only risk is financing for new projects.

darby_nine
9 replies
11h39m

It seems like all their other IP is derived from the game IPs, so I'm a little confused how this leaves Annapurna in a better position.

crooked-v
3 replies
11h2m

It doesn't. It's the people who actually did all the work who are benefiting, not the corporate entity. The coordinated mass resignations make it obvious that the former management is ready to immediately start up their own company in the office next door and hire on everyone who just quit Annapurna.

tako
0 replies
10h55m

Dr Dr

schlauerfox
0 replies
3h13m

And that's why you don't sign non-competes and they should be illegal to protect those with no leverage.

darby_nine
0 replies
7h45m

Ah yes you're correct, I misread the above comment.

flohofwoe
2 replies
9h58m

Not the parent company, but the game team that resigned is in a better position. They can continue focus on building games, instead of being 'integrated' with the TV, film and theater people (I bet most of that 'integration' is about 'outsourcing' CGI work to the 3D artists in the game team - e.g. a distraction from making games).

philistine
1 replies
4h53m

You're not quite there. Annapurna does not make games, it publishes them. There's no significant number of 3D artist working there. Even on the movie side, they don't directly make the movies.

wooger
1 replies
10h23m

Clearly not accurate, they've produced quite a few famous and acclaimed films based on original ideas, Philip K Dick novels & real life events.

darby_nine
0 replies
7h44m

Ah, my bad.

bobthepanda
0 replies
1h29m

in particular, media mergers have a long history of going south pretty quickly because company culture is so fundamental to media production.

AOL+Time Warner is up there in the history of worst mergers.

NotGMan
6 replies
12h35m

Probably through "line must always go up" mentality.

Creative business, especially games, should really not be publicly traded or thought of as having major returns on investments.

It might work on start, but sooner or later the "current hit game" will fade out of popularity and then people will get fired and crunch will become the norm etc... in order to satisfy the "line must go up" mentality, but since game dev is a hit driven business that clashes with the "Line must go up" concept at its core since, being a hit driven business, means that it's totaly unpredictable.

thih9
3 replies
12h7m

Do we have any source or other data indicating that this happened here?

darby_nine
2 replies
11h32m

Is this not the legally obligated line of thinking for american companies? You have some leeway to argue with only providing value to shareholders in some specific manner, but not much.

shakiXBT
0 replies
11h20m

Most companies try to operate at a profit and actually increase those profits over time. That said, reasoning that Annapurna failed only because of that requires some impressive mental gymnastics

jfengel
0 replies
7h35m

"Value" is whatever shareholders want it to be.

In the case of a public company that is assumed to be profit, because the shareholders are a vast and ever changing group. Annapurna isn't public, so it serves whatever the private owners want.

Even in a publicly traded stock, the company charter can specify something other than profit. The shareholders know that when they buy stock.

In other words there is more leeway than we commonly give credit. The notion of a fiduciary duty to be greedy is pushed by psychopathic CEOs but isn't really what the law says.

Beretta_Vexee
1 replies
8h36m

The video game business is very similar to the film or literary publishing business. You need to publish ten novels for one to do well enough financially to pay off the others. Nobody really knows why that one worked. It's possible to do a few sequels, but the formula quickly becomes boring.

No one can guarantee the commercial success of a novel, film or video game.

ethbr1
0 replies
5h10m

That's why equity investment in creative endeavors is an entire class of business. Possible to risk-balance adjustment, similar to anything else.

hashtag-til
8 replies
10h42m

Any idea why the previous is flagged?

pvg
7 replies
7h38m

Most company personnel changes are not particularly interesting (in the sense of there's not much 'intellectually curious' conversation to be had about them) and are also extensively covered and discussed elsewhere.

mandmandam
6 replies
6h11m

This story is clearly interesting to the community, or the original wouldn't have gotten 40 points in an hour at night time. There was absolutely nothing toxic going on in the comments either.

Calling it a "personnel change" is also reading as brazenly disingenuous.

pvg
5 replies
6h2m

the original wouldn't have gotten 40 points

Everything is interesting to someone and HN doesn't really work strictly by points, you can find explanations of this in lots of the moderator commentary and in the site faq under 'how are stories ranked'.

Calling it a "personnel change" is also reading as brazenly disingenuous.

That is certainly one exciting reading.

mandmandam
2 replies
5h16m

HN doesn't really work strictly by points

People were interested nonetheless. 216 points on this post with 89 comments is pretty conclusive, strict point system or no.

That is certainly one exciting reading.

Accurate too.

pvg
1 replies
4h43m

216 points on this post with 89 comments is pretty conclusive

Lots of things with piles of points and comments are poor HN submissions. Happens all the time and is not in any way conclusive. That's basically the explanation, for there to be some kind of conclusion you'd have to make an argument that isn't about points and comments of a thing that's on the fp. Everything on the fp gets points and comments.

mandmandam
0 replies
4h17m

I didn't want to "quote the old magic" to you, but this story is squarely within the HN guidelines. It's interesting, stimulating, important, tech related, true, timely etc.

The argument that a games company losing their entire staff to resignations isn't 'suitable' because "most company personnel changes are not particularly interesting" is false equivalence.

This thread is full of comments describing what people are finding interesting about this. Dismissing that with 'every fp story has comments' is a really odd and (dare I say) out-of-character move.

hashtag-til
1 replies
5h2m

I think this is incredibly relevant for HN readers, maybe seen as "subversive" by _bosses_.

pvg
0 replies
4h40m

Yes, for every single thing posted on HN, someone thinks it's "incredibly relevant". It could well be! But that in itself doesn't tell you anything.

maybe seen as "subversive" by _bosses_.

I don't see it on the agenda in any recent or upcoming boss meeting.

eleveriven
9 replies
10h24m

I am a big fan of Stray! The atmosphere was both haunting and beautiful, and the emotional connection you feel as you guide the cat through puzzles, etc. Hearing about the uncertainty at Annapurna Interactive feels personal a little

Torkel
8 replies
10h12m

I have feelings about Stray... What an awesome game it could have been!

I played it with one of my daughers. Lovely father/daughter playing session. Guiding the cat through the maze/puzzles. Cat can't fall, it's just calm and nice.

And then, out of nowhere - blinking screaming wildly stressful and awful rats come chase us.

My daughter dropped the controller, I played it through. But after that the game lost its charm. The second time the rats came, she left. We never played it again.

I checked if there was some "please don't ever give me rats" setting, but nope. I checked with a friend and they said the rats appear throughout the game.

So I'm really sorry, but stray is a 1/10 game for me. Remove the rats and its 9/10.

What is the purpose of the rats? It's an arcade moment in a game that was nice, calm, cute and relaxing. Totally breaks the contract that I felt was established with us as players.

teamonkey
2 replies
9h57m

My kids had a similar experience. They had more luck with Little Kitty Big City, which has a more cartoony vibe but fewer sticking points.

rlonstein
0 replies
5h12m

Little Kitty Big City

+1. This game was adorable and relaxing from beginning to end.

mrgoldenbrown
0 replies
4h28m

How old are your kids? Stray is rated 12+ for violence.

yungporko
0 replies
8h43m

stray has a pretty dark and foreboding atmosphere, the rats fit right in imo. seconding the other commenter who recommended little kitty big city though, i didn't expect to enjoy it as much as i did.

nicolaslem
0 replies
10h5m

It seems you just wanted a different game than what Stray is.

msh
0 replies
8h57m

They are not rats and they are quite essential to the story so they would not be easy to remove.

mafro
0 replies
4h28m

Played through with my 7yo daughter. She loved the game, but would freak out when chased by the "rats". It was a good opportunity to show her how to try to keep playing when you're stressed! She found it exciting after a couple of goes. You didn't mention how old your daughter is, but that is surely the key factor.

I'm still hopeful for a "Stray 2" - or whatever they can do now the devs lost the IP. My daughter cried when at the game's ending (no spoiler)

Sammi
0 replies
9h55m

Totally breaks the contract that I felt was established with us as players.

Lots of people like surprise and excitement. The game is rated: Age 12+ Violence

nubinetwork
8 replies
8h23m

Every time I hear thr name Annapurna, I think about the ARM SoC maker...

umanwizard
5 replies
7h51m

Every time I hear it I think of the restaurant on Capitol Hill in Seattle.

thoroughburro
3 replies
7h36m

Annapurna is a god of food and nourishment in Hinduism; a manifestation of Parvati.

lotsofpulp
1 replies
5h18m

I bet the way people in the US say it is nothing like the (traditional) way it is said in India.

I think it’s supposed to be “un-na-poorna” with a nasally rn sound.

umanwizard
0 replies
2h5m

AFAIK an r sound is always nasalized when followed by an n sound in American English.

umanwizard
0 replies
5h50m

It is also the name of a mountain in the Himalayas which I believe is the most familiar meaning to Americans.

openthc
0 replies
7h35m

Bong shop in Berkeley, CA

mangamadaiyan
0 replies
6h17m

The first eight-thousander that was summitted, as well as the name of the book that Maurice Herzog wrote. Which book is well worth reading.

a1371
5 replies
12h28m

I don't mean to diminish their work and I don't know much about the matter but the company founder is some billionaire's daughter. I fear ever having a boss like that just because of the fundamental difference in perspective and life experiences. I'm sure I won't be able to communicate with them.

jgowdy
1 replies
4h12m

"but the company founder is some billionaire's daughter. I fear ever having a boss like that just because of the fundamental difference in perspective and life experiences. I'm sure I won't be able to communicate with them."

Imagine invalidating a person as a potential colleague and declaring your incompatibility with that person remotely based on a quarter inch deep evaluation of their background. I think this kind of take is in really bad taste.

Chris2048
0 replies
1h26m

It's "boss", not "colleague"; and they're your boss based purely on having a lot of money from their parent, hardly a "quarter inch deep" evaluation.

Aeolun
1 replies
6h35m

Hmm, I think you have more in common than you differ. It’s hard to escape the human condition using money.

xkbarkar
0 replies
5h58m

A bit myopic to disqualify someone from the credibility pool because they had a headstart in life imho.

edm0nd
0 replies
3h26m

For the curious, the daughter of multibillionaire Larry Ellison, the cofounder of Oracle.

aavshr
1 replies
9h53m

Sad to see, Outer Wilds is probably the best game I've ever played. But I'm sure the staff will continue doing great work in whatever they decide to do next.

Maken
0 replies
5h47m

This is the publisher, not the developer, of Outer Wilds imploding. The people who actually made the game are still working at the studio.

Derelicts
1 replies
7h30m

Aren't these the same guys who published Stray?

poikroequ
0 replies
7h24m

It's literally the first game mentioned in the article...

sss111
0 replies
2h1m

aw man these people made Sayonara: Wild Hearts, which is hands down the best iPhone game I have ever played.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF
0 replies
2h51m

Good for them!

There's a lot to be said about certain large publishers but this publisher's list of games includes some very good titles. Just knowing they worked with the developers to release certain titles makes me very interested to see who they'll work with next. They seem like a group who will become a household name with a little luck in their marketing.

I understand why Annapurna would not want to spin off such a successful division but it sounds like the only leverage they had was existing IP, which the employees probably understand as a sunk cost. I'm glad they were all able to realize they could just do what they do under a different name; I get the feeling the developers they've worked with will remember them and they know it.

javier_e06
0 replies
40m

I hope the staff land on their feet...

and move on.

They produced the best games out there and that, remains patent.

What happens next is corporate wrangling less to do with creativity and more to do with profits.

debo_
0 replies
4h43m

I was looking forward to Blade Runner 2033. It's nice to have moody adventure games in this era. I imagine that this will delay it at the very least, but likely worse.

actinium226
0 replies
3h54m

Makes you wonder, did the last person to leave turn off the lights?