San Francisco Frontiers - Indie studio bets on new game after buying freedom from Sega

With the games industry enduring weak growth in recent years, it's rare and risky for smaller operators to separate from a larger entity.

"When you're independent, you have to be crystal clear that every game could be the last," said Romain de Waubert de Genlis, the head of the Paris-based outfit.

His team of 50-odd developers are days away from releasing an early-access version of "Endless Legend 2" for PC, ahead of the polished final product sometime next year.

Founded by former workers at French games juggernaut Ubisoft, Amplitude made a name for itself with different games bearing the "Endless" label, from space-faring empire builder "Endless Space" in 2012, to the original fantasy strategy title "Endless Legend" in 2014.

Sega bought up the studio in 2016 in an effort to take on the strategy genre's unstoppable force, the "Civilization" series, and Amplitude's 2021 effort "Humankind" was generally well received.

But an industry-wide slowdown after the pandemic lockdowns pushed Sega into trimming its more than 8,000 employees worldwide, slashing hundreds of jobs in Europe and selling off Canadian studio Relic Entertainment.

- Crisis into opportunity -

Scenting opportunity, Amplitude negotiated its own separation, securing the rights to its intellectual property and keeping on around 170 staff.

"We would never have been able to leave Sega" without the crisis, boss de Waubert de Genlis said of the management buyout that was also backed by around 30 employees and some outside investors.

The split took almost 18 months before becoming official in November 2024, leaving Amplitude with around "one year of runway" to achieve independent cruising speed, the 50-year-old chief added.

This May, Amplitude scored a 12 million-euro ($14 million) capital raise, including from French public investment bank Bpifrance and American specialist investment fund Griffin Gaming Partners.

"What was at stake was continuing to make the type of game that we're good at," de Waubert de Ganlis said.

The team had feared that staying with Sega would leave them forced into working on projects far outside their expertise, or expose them to the rolling layoffs.

- 'Standing over an abyss' -

The terms of the separation allowed Amplitude to hang on to its "Games2Gether" platform, a messaging service with more than two million users offering the developers feedback on issues like game balance and new features.

"It's this community-based development that really sets us apart from other studios," said creative director Jean-Max Moris.

In its lifetime, Amplitude says it has sold 12 million copies of its six games, with each costing between 10 and 25 million euros to develop.

More than 300,000 gamers have already added "Endless Legend 2" to their wishlist on the Steam PC gaming platform, which the team has taken as encouragement for their leap in the dark.

Going independent has really created a sense of "standing over the abyss", Moris said.

"When you belong to a publisher, if a game tanks there's still a safety net."

Amplitude are still working on another as-yet-unannounced title and an animated series set in the "Endless" universe, developed with British production company Passion Pictures -- hoping that spreading its bets can safely lift it into independent flight.

J.Martinez--SFF