Microsoft Acquires Obsidian Entertainment and inXile Entertainment

powbam · November 11, 2018, 9:50am

So far I think we are ‘safe’, at least where Crate is concerned.

Mysterious uptick in sales since Nov 2nd...

To answer your other question about us become a bloated mega-corp - probably not anytime soon haha. The other benefit of being a single-owner company is that I’m pretty happy with how things are and I don’t feel like I need anymore money, beyond us just continuing to make profits like we are.
So there isn’t much attraction to “blowing up big” for me. I feel like the detraction of having to manage a larger company would greatly outweigh any benefit of moar money at this point.

We’ve gotten inquiries by potential investors looking to dump some money on us for some bigger project but that just seems like a headache to me, dealing with investors and suddenly having to schedule milestones and report what we’re doing, convince outside people to let us do this or that… no thanks!

That said, I wouldn’t mind growing a bit more, as I do have an interest in working on different games and it’s fun to see things progressing and taking shape - ideally at a somewhat faster rate than often is the case with us haha. Currently we have just enough people to work on our “new game” plus a GD expansion. I think we’ll be stretched thin if we start another totally new project. We’re actually in a weird spot currently where it would be great to hire another artist to wrap up FG but after that is finished, there would then be a lull before we get the next thing rolling, where we might not have enough work to go around… so it’s better to just try to grind through with the team we have for now, then hire later, once future things are in production.

Plus, I think (at this time) MS is only interested in game devs of a certain ‘size’. and so far Crate is nowhere near that size.

Corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios Matt Booty said in a statement: “The 13 distinct and diverse game development teams that form Microsoft Studios are focused on implementing new Microsoft technologies, delivering content for new platforms and services like Xbox Game Pass, and creating exclusive games that turn players into loyal Xbox fans. We are committed to expanding the Microsoft Studios franchises players already love, and investing in new, exclusive content for every type of gamer.”

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz in August, Booty said: ""I don’t want to seem like we’re going out to fill a quota. It’s not about filling a spreadsheet by any means. We will, however, have an interest in studios right now that fit this criteria of 50 to 100 people, who are making games on a two to three year cadence, and have content that we think will be of interest to our Game Pass subscribers. That means content that is a little different to what our big AAA franchises can deliver.