“I was asking for quite a lot.”
In September 2023, theycancelled Creative Assemblys looter shooter Hyenasand announced plans to cut costs across Sega Europe.
Last January, theylaid off 61 workersat Sega of America in California.
Then, theychopped another 240 jobsacross Creative Assembly, Hardlight, and other Sega operations in Europe.
Grim times, but there have been brighter moments.
He himself started thinking about going indie over two years ago.
“And for the first time, I started looking at other offers.”
For a while, de Waubert de Genlis considered proposals to start a new studio himself.
Eventually, he decided to approach the higher-ups at Sega about a management buyout.
Nonetheless, “it was not an obvious yes or no.
It was, oh, interesting that you bring it up.”
“I was asking for quite a lot,” he concedes.
Why, then, did he want to leave so badly?
“Because your focus was really on managing the expectations and the processes.”
“When you look at Civilization, it’s huge,” he goes on.
“When you look at Humankind, it’s very big.
It’s not how our games work.
They tend to be long tail games, but with a small bump at the beginning.
The announcement release for Amplitudes MBO describes it as being “led by senior leaders and employees.”
“By the time we finished the process more than a year later, they were all gone.”
Fortunately, Amplitude were able to find other backers.
A portion of the funding eventually came from some of those very same devs.
De Waubert de Genlis certainly thinks theyre a natural fit.
“I was, I think maybe six months before going indie,” he says.
And I was really puzzled.
I mean, these guys are making games for me.”
“It was the fastest deal in my life, basically,” de Waubert de Genlis says.
“In two weeks it was done.
As with Endless Legend 2’s flooded worlds, there are doubtless many secrets beneath the surface.
