Tencent has Invested in Grinding Gear Games

GGG's revenue model heavily depends on people willingly supporting an indie company. Obviously that isn't going to work any more. If the revenue declines significantly who wants to bet against TenCent making it pay to win like most other free games out there ?

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111derivi wrote:

Hopefully Chris abandons ship and makes a new ARPG similar to PoE back in 2012-2013. Maybe he was fed up with the direction of the game. (Just listen to his comments on about wanting a separate league that is like old PoE.)

Realistically though, he abandoned ship to make a Magic the Gathering clone or something.

Chris will leave in a couple of years like all founders do in similar situations. They stay aboard long enough to transfer their know-how about running the company and then move on to something else either willingly or not.

Alright... ALRIGHT!
I got it! HERE IT COMES GGG >>>

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Reichugo232323 wrote:

Its amazing to me that so many people think that coming up with an idea, building the product/service, assuming the financial risk to launch it, working hard through the iteration process and building a loyal following is noble but selling it to get a return on your MASSIVE risk and investment is somehow Greedy.

I dont think its greedy, but GGG had and has income from mtx. Tencent invests money and I am very sure they wanna see it back plus some roi. GGG gave up their independency even formaly they still retain it. But if the numbers speak up and GGG falls behind tencent expectations, things will change.

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I can understand all of the concerns, but how can you be mad at GGG? Why is taking 50$ from you to show support noble but taking what I expect is in excess of $50 million (and could be way way more) some how selling out?

Change isnt innately bad

I am not mad at GGG, but I am concerned. Tencent has a lot of experience taking over companies, GGG has none. And yet the monetization model of GGG is quite unique, so I see there quite some potential for troubles. I repeat myself: I really hope, GGG will never regret this decision. And I will keep buying supporter packs, for POE being a great game.

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Travesty9090 wrote:

The predictable scenario here is that Tencent and GGG have underestimated the fact that people's willingness to buy supporter packs/MTXs is to support an independent company. Now, that willingness declines, Tencent gets pissed their ROI isn't what they wanted, and they make changes. Then it's RIP.

I suggest that your viewpoint is a bit naieve....TenCent likely has projected a worst case scenario that contemplates changes and strategies nobody here can even guess at. I doubt they innocently bought it thinking that everyone who has contributed will continue with no new revenue sources.

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Our Chinese publisher, Tencent, has acquired a majority stake in Grinding Gear Games. We will remain an

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independent

company

o'rly? i'm not born yesterday.

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The predictable scenario here is that Tencent and GGG have underestimated the fact that people's willingness to buy supporter packs/MTXs is to support an independent company. Now, that willingness declines, Tencent gets pissed their ROI isn't what they wanted, and they make changes. Then it's RIP.

If people want the game's business model to stay the way it is, they don't have a choice but to keep supporting GGG.

Tencent bought GGG expecting a return on their investment in the form of increased profit.

Should people stop buying supporter packs now, thus reducing GGG's profits, Tencent will be much more inclined to make changes to PoE's business model to increase profits than they are at the moment.

Right now, after the buyout, but before any changes have happened, is the best time to buy stuff from GGG, because once the game starts changing to a more p2w business model (IF that is going to happen) tencent will simply assume that any further increase in profits is due to those changes rather than the community trying to support GGG and stop the changes. This would lead to Tencent implementing even more p2w mechanics. By that point it would be too late to change the direction the game will be going.

If, however, GGG can significantly increase profits before any p2w mechanics are implemented, Tencent might at least refrain from implementing p2w mechanics for a while, or not implement them at all. I know it's a gamble, but it's realistically the only thing we CAN do.

I am also very skeptical about the buyout, but stopping to support GGG right now, when the game has not actually changed yet, only because of this, may just as well cause the downfall which none of us want to see happening.

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Denneval wrote:

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The predictable scenario here is that Tencent and GGG have underestimated the fact that people's willingness to buy supporter packs/MTXs is to support an independent company. Now, that willingness declines, Tencent gets pissed their ROI isn't what they wanted, and they make changes. Then it's RIP.

If people want the game's business model to stay the way it is, they don't have a choice but to keep supporting GGG.

Tencent bought GGG expecting a return on their investment in the form of increased profit.

Should people stop buying supporter packs now, thus reducing GGG's profits, Tencent will be much more inclined to make changes to PoE's business model to increase profits than they are at the moment.

Right now, after the buyout, but before any changes have happened, is the best time to buy stuff from GGG, because once the game starts changing to a more p2w business model (IF that is going to happen) tencent will simply assume that any further increase in profits is due to those changes rather than the community trying to support GGG and stop the changes. This would lead to Tencent implementing even more p2w mechanics. By that point it would be too late to change the direction the game will be going.

If, however, GGG can significantly increase profits before any p2w mechanics are implemented, Tencent might at least refrain from implementing p2w mechanics for a while, or not implement them at all. I know it's a gamble, but it's realistically the only thing we CAN do.

I am also very skeptical about the buyout, but stopping to support GGG right now, when the game has not actually changed yet, only because of this, may just as well cause the downfall which none of us want to see happening.

Good luck expecting to see the xbox chicken littles get any encouragement out of that. If the sky is falling, then it's falling, and no amount of sense will get to them BabyRage /s

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Denneval wrote:

If people want the game's business model to stay the way it is, they don't have a choice but to keep supporting GGG.

Tencent bought GGG expecting a return on their investment in the form of increased profit.

Should people stop buying supporter packs now, thus reducing GGG's profits, Tencent will be much more inclined to make changes to PoE's business model to increase profits than they are at the moment.

So I should keep supporting GGG out of fear of Tencent 'ruining' the game? That's on Chris; he's the one who sold off the majority of his company. It's not our financial responsibility to safeguard this game from that f**k up.

If revenue dips, how about Chris bails out the game from his own pocket.

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muzein wrote:

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Denneval wrote:

If people want the game's business model to stay the way it is, they don't have a choice but to keep supporting GGG.

Tencent bought GGG expecting a return on their investment in the form of increased profit.

Should people stop buying supporter packs now, thus reducing GGG's profits, Tencent will be much more inclined to make changes to PoE's business model to increase profits than they are at the moment.

So I should keep supporting GGG out of fear of Tencent 'ruining' the game? That's on Chris; he's the one who sold off the majority of his company. It's not our financial responsibility to safeguard this game from that f**k up.

If revenue dips, how about Chris bails out the game from his own pocket.

Here's the thing: Tencent investing in GGG never meant from the beginning that they were going to foot the whole bill, or take all of the money you were spending to support them (GGG) from the start. If you can't see that coming, or refuse to believe that might actually be the best case scenario, that's not on Chris fucking up, it's on the community for going full on BabyRage mode because they don't understand a thing. Is it honestly that hard to not wait and see what actually will happen before making claims about the end of the world? or to drag in some hypocritical nonsense that's not related to the game Path of Exile in any way at all? While business 101 means that you have to field, to some extent, even the most baseless concerns of a community, it doesn't give the game developer much obligation to try and smooth out tinfoil hat pizzagate tier conspiracy theories.

Respect is a two-way street: the supporters of a company will have the thanks and good wishes from the game devs they supported for the funds they poured in, but those funds don't suddenly give you the right to decide what's best for GGG the company as a whole for its continued longevity. You are buying a product, it does not mean that buying that product makes GGG beholden to you, the community, for all their decisions. At that point, we're back to Twitch plays the stock market, and see how well for yourself that worked out.

Chris Wilson never fucked this community over till date, and I don't think he'll start now in terms of personal ethics, because over the years, I've never seen any sign of such a thing from any interactions he's had with members of this community since the closed beta was a thing.

Vote with your wallet if the game sucks, but don't yell about the apocalypse coming until it actually arrives. I'm sure nobody wants to become the boy who cried wolf.

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muzein wrote:

If revenue dips, how about Chris bails out the game from his own pocket.

as far as i know him, he probably would.

edit: small correction: "as long as it's not forcing him to sell his MtG card sets again ;)"