Dovetail Games Bought By Focus Entertainment

Whatever was at the head of DTG leadership has turned TSW into a DLC conveyer belt, will focus improve that or make it worse? No one can say for sure.

The biggest thing that comes from this will be Focus’ experience with console markets, DTG have always fell behind when it came to that area. Also, Focus studios have experience with Unreal, again something which DTG haven’t had the best grasp of. I like to think that comes down to Focus’ direction in staff training & expertise for their development houses.

DTG has long been ran with a very obvious ‘EA’ strategy, so I’ll gladly watch what direction Focus will lead DTG in.

 

RE: The free French DLC thing from the article - does this mean

A: It's free to play just for the week, (like a free rental)
or
B: It's free to claim it for that week and keep forever?

The article really wasn't clear in that regard. DTG has done both of those ways in the past.

 

Too bad for those who have already bought the TGV route.

 

We're lucky that the Buyer is not Sony or Microsoft, as that would likely mean exclusivity for their Consoles.

 

To clear up a misconception noted in this thread, just because the DTG leadership remains the same, doesn't mean Focus will be almost a bystander raking the money in. The publisher is always in charge, and always involved.

Whether this is a good or bad thing for the franchise, time will tell. But it certainly can be a good thing, if Focus have better ideas, the drive to push DTG, invest in better skillset, etc.

 

What a surprise. I think it can be a good sign if other companies are interested in your own. But it's just as important that you can continue to act independently. In any case, a merger always provides a larger financial basis and the creative exchange among each other allows everyone involved to benefit. I looked it up on wikipedia, besides DTG, Focus Entertainment has 6 other studios on board, but none of them do railway simulations. So everything should remain the same as far as the planning and implementation of new routes and trains is concerned. But maybe there will be more french content in the future.

 

Well I bought the TSW French route a while back, but the TSC ones I don't own so will be a welcome acquisition.

 

Focus has a top product with Snowrunner, with a great engine (not Unreal) and fair DLC policies.
We'll see what happens next with DTG. That it will be exactly the same as before - what DTG claims - I don't think is credible. If you now have someone above you who also gets the problems on the table, then they will not look at it idly.

And that's my hope, too, that they'll clean up the mess, and actually it would be an opportunity, maybe even for a reboot of the series.

 

I would do all but speculate here if that is the case:

DTG needed to wrap up financial year strong, cue all the dlc being released. This will either have been because of sales dropping and them being affordable for focus, which I suspect would be more likely than the two ceos meeting up to discuss their passion for sims. An acquisition happens because someones offloading a risk right?

You're then in a position whereby you have two companies having skills analysis for future success.

Cue restructing (which again I suspect) is why DTG traffic here has been less and we've jumped allover skyhook for being a beacon of light and owning MML issues. You don't announce takeovers until other plans are on place so again I'd suspect many consultations, tupes are, or will be happening.

Managers will be busy, HR will be very busy aligning term, consultations etc etc.

Hopefully not too many people are impacted but I guess there's going to be itchiness. Sam at his level either knew state of play and left before he needed too but then he'd potentially of sacrificed settlement which again I suspect he may have been an intitial top down saving following purchase voluntarily or not, which is why someone so vocal left so discreetly.

OldVern tsw4 coming to havok engine, all your talk of snowrunner scenery might have started this mate lol. Imagine the uproar.

I just think we need to be very sensitive what we say as if the restructing hasn't started it will imminently and could impact people. Let's just take out DTG lens off for a moment and put out people could be affected lens on.

 

Are you challenging DTG?

 

Well, Microsoft would continue Windows. But might cut off Steam and Epic.

 

Moot point but MSFS is sold on PC and Steam.

 

Not necessarily. Just ask any of the many studios merged with EA-- or perhaps "assimilated" is a better word.

 

Agreed, remember, before quality of product comes cash flow people

 

Saber's not an internal Focus studio of course, they're owned by Embracer, but the DLC policies on other Focus-published games are a good thing to look at.

 

We know, we’re all customers of DTG.

I agree with sentiment of what EA have done in their mergers, I’m still salty about Pandemic.

Focus luckily, haven’t displayed such behaviour. Yet.

 

makes you wonder why so much content was released in one month and broken!
I hope focus realises the more that content is released broken the less people will buy on day one. Having the game and content in good shape and achievements / trophies unlocking properly is good for everyone.
I cant help but wonder if DTG were in a financial mess, less people buying on day one of content releases waiting for sales and TSW3 is not as popular as TSW2 as far as I am aware. I will keep an open mind but I hope things start to improve.

 

As long as we don't get an Alien or Warhammer 40k cross over route, I think we can be quietly optimistic for the future of TSW3 and DTG

 

Everything I type here seems to read in a cynical way so I’ll just acknowledge the sale of DTG and sit back and see what develops.

Is this why Sam left?

See, I knew I couldn’t post it without saying something cynical.

 

I don't think so. MS has been porting many games to Steam (ie MSFS2020, Sea of Thieves, Age of Empires IV).

 

MS puts all its new games on steam

 

Hopefully the price will return to what it was before….

 

It wouldn't make a lot of sense to move to a new engine. That would be far too costly. There's nothing wrong with the engine they have, only the way they use it.

 

To be honest, they could go one step better and go cheaper. I don't think any DLC should cost the same as a full game, personally.

 

I’ll bet Skyhook are thinking ‘thank **** for Focus!’

 

No, they'll probably dump France and the French market, perhaps some franchises fell through or sales of these DLC have been disappointing throughout?

The marketing blurb read 'key North American market' which has been under served in quality by DTG and where serious money can be made when served properly. This is the nation where some individuals possess million dollar model railroad layouts

So we'll have to wait and see whether the EA business model will be continued or the focus will shift to quality over quantity and the pursuit of customer satisfaction over cheap and sloppy cash grab DLC's.

 

To be honest, I think this will be a very good thing. Focus are definitely interested in quality. They publish the Plague Tale games. Hugely successful games, those (and developed by the dev team behind MS Flight Simulator, incidentally).

I can't imagine Focus will let these inconsistent, messy releases continue.

 

Can we expect something like this?

 

That's Giant (Giants?) software and they are just as bad for the cashcow communities

 

As I said in my post above, DTG's management remaining the same has nothing to do with the outcome of the product now. Focus will be running the show from now on. That's how the game industry works.

 

...after all, it's not Ubisoft. France has always had a good nose for the video game industry and is with it one of the global players alongside industry giants such as EA. Of course, Focus Entertainment as the new owner and investor, always has a decisive say. But you should also approach the matter with an open mind, that was certainly not an overnight decision and was well thought out.

 

Unlikely.

Laughs in Snowrunner dlcs, where useless but branded trucks are expensive as heck

 

TGV Voyages Train Simulator Add-on - has already been cut from the free give aways, I have to admit I dont see the logic in giving away a DLC which has been removed from sale previously due to quality.

 

Free stuff is free, I won't complain

 

It is fair to sum TSW up in one simple two word phrase, ‘untapped potential’. I suspect they see that and want to see where they can go with it.

I bet it won’t be long before you start to see changes in personnel, it’s never immediate. I would be blown apart if they bought DTG and wished for the status quo to continue.

 

By the money men. What they consider important and what the gaming consumer thinks important are not necessarily the same.

And while there is a line of argument that says "you can't continue to make money with a sub-par product"- well, just look at McDonald's and Budweiser.

 

Oh, I'm fully aware this point is likely a delusion lol

 

Our aim is that everything remains business-as-usual, and that we will surprise and delight you with the high-quality experiences we develop and publish.

So the usual missing catenary, dry Rhein, at least two Journey services that cannot be completed... I see.

 

No idea if this is good or bad news, time will tell. It now makes sense, though, that so much DLC were pushed through the system in March…

Out of interest has anyone ever checked this page:
https://dovetailgames.com/our-people

Have people like Matt or Lukas always been absent on here? I am missing other names as well, however, don’t want to read to much into it, as I don’t know who was on here before…

 

Yes, I was looking for words like " economies of scale " and " symbiosis ".

In a buyout, upper management are often the most vulnerable. You can't have two of everything.

And It's not unusual for some high performers to move on.

 

Neither Matt nor Lucas ever had a profile page there.

 

Interesting ( and encouraging ) that specific mention was made of " the North American market ". Somewhat neglected in TSW recently. Hope that means a change for the better.

 

FTFY

 

Actually, an Amtrak anniversary pack in TSC was free at release for a week.

 

Offrailing with trains. Get it? Lol

 

Or one that perhaps many of us already own.

 

Too early to tell what this will mean for TSW.

Probably not too much in the short-term, but "new monetization opportunities" doesn't sound promising. I fear incoming season passes and microtransactions down the line.

At least we know now why all that DLC was dumped out by the end of March when it clearly wasn't ready (NY-Trenton, especially).

Kind of an awful thing to do to your customers just so the shareholders can get a few more bucks when the sale closed. Makes me hope Focus cleans house a bit on the management-side, but with the current CEO staying in place it doesn't look likely.

Feel bad for the remaining staff who will have to face the flak for all of the animosity generated over the past couple months.

 

A shame the Strasbourg to Karlsruhe route isn't included, yes its cross-border but its one of the best.

Am going to wait and see what happens with the takeover, but it certainly answers a fair few questions. I suspect we will be seeing some significant differences, but slowly over time rather than all at once.

 

i have a feeling they’ll talk more about what this means for us in the roadmap in a couple weeks time