Hooded Horse is now the primary publisher of Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era.Ubisoft still clings to the IP and sticks around in the project, but looks like their straits are getting dire enough to need co-publishers. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3105440/view/532102384016426733
where the fuck did hooded horse come from anyways? they seemed to explode onto the scene out of nowhere in the last year or two
>>2083050About 6 years. The guy was interviewed somewhere and it just seemed like he just wanted to help out indie games he thought were cool.Kind of nuts that in 6 years it went from a nobody publisher to a pretty common household name to the point that ubishit is willing to pass heroes off to them.
>>2083050they made fuckton of money on Manor Lords unexpected success.
>>2083050>they seemed to explode onto the scene out of nowhereThey just made smart publishing choices by targeting promising looking strategy games and throwing money at them to increase their scale and marketing them. They also seem to have hired a bunch of youtubers that make videos about strategy games to work specifically on tracking down good games to publish. Honestly just really smart decisions working with the community to work out what they want. They started off pretty sketchy as well. I remember loads of people here thought they were a scam company.
>>2083108>mandaloregaming is part of the company csuiteMan REALLY fucking hated creative assembly for the Warhammer 3 launch huh
>>2083108Also CEO was a warband modder
>>2083182How so? I'm super out of the loop when it comes to Manda and CA.
What's the point of this shit thread apart from shilling?
who cares its a dead game, art is pure koreanwowmmoslop with oversized and overdesigned everything and it looks god fucking awfulits created by the devs of iratus which took dd1 and fucked it even harder than dd2 to the point where theres no strategy involved other than to kill fasterits doa
>>2083050I think it's a married couple who likes videogames that made it. The company is still in the phase where it's new and the owners still care about the product so they are publishing some good games. Could change in the future but for now it seems like they are doing well.
>>2083050It's just a rich guy (lawyer and a business management consultant) picking up game publishing as his rich guy hobby.
HH seem to have a nose for good games, so this is certainly better than sticking with just ubi
>>2083108>They started off pretty sketchy as well. I remember loads of people here thought they were a scam company.If I'm honest I'm still not 100% sure of the whole thing.Like remember when Embracer Group just appeared out of nowhere and became one the big AAA publishers in a year or two?They were using borrowed money that was contingent on a multi-billion dollar deal with Saudis, which fell through at the last moment. Then they started shutting down studios and selling assets that they owned for less than 2 years.Getting the same vibes from HH. Plus nothing that full of ecelebs is going to be trustworthy.
>>2083307Based richfag,.Games are shit? Fund and promote games he likes.>>2083108Yeah, I remember when people were suspicious of them at the beginning. Involvement with manor lords before that finally fucking came out probably didn't help. I still think that getting youtubers involved is a conflict of interest way beyond normal sponsored streams and shit though. They are just marketers for a company now (and also it takes away time from doing normal content that some of them already had horrible release schedule).It seems to be working and be their strength if anything I guess, jewtubers find games their audience would like and promote them while it gets the support to polish them.It's not all bangers but for now it seems a positive development for "indie"-style-but-not-really-because-they-have-a-publisher games for now.
>>2083327I mean you might have a point if HH was publishing major studios and not minor little indie outfits. And what are the most successful titles they published initially? Against the storm, old world, nebulous. They haven't picked up bigger named projects until recently with endless legend 2.
>>2083327They feel more like a Devolver Digital than an Embracer. I don't get that sort of vibe at all. It's just a niche publisher that's doing well because that's exactly what people want.
>>2083307He also made mod for mb viking conquest before that
>>2083331From what I've learned since reading up in the announcement it looks like most of the celebs aren't that involved in marketing. It explains why I didn't know about some Total War youtubers working there (DarrenPlays on manor lords top) since they're doing more internal jobs.They seem way better for making a homm game than ubishit has, maybe they can fix this.
Speaking of Hoax Horse "games," the emotional scam known as Espiocracy (espeepeepoopoocracy) has released another "dev diary," the dev pushed it to the last minute on his publish date to just show some more cluttered screenshots with AI generated images, placeholder numbers, and word salad that doesn't explain anything going on in the screenshots.Its been in development for however many years and still no inkling of a delivery date. The boomer at hoax horse being swindled by polacks once again.
All i can say about Hooded Horse is that they've picked up almost every damn game i'm ever interested in, and that what they pick up turn out mediocre or stuck in development hell.
>>2085474Its because he just bankrolls these devs without demanding any deliverables, so all these scamming polacks exploit him and take themselves on holiday.
It's going to be 2025+10 and "people" will still be seething over manorlords success.
>>2085497Wladyslaw please go and stay go
>>2082948Well at least this one MAY launch soon. Like 80% of the stuff Hooded Horse are publishing never sees the light of day and are in indefinite "When it's ready!" COPE mode. When I see Hooded Horse I can only see failed Early Access games.
>>2085477Nebulous fleet command was the one that pissed me off the most. Mazer hypes up the conquest mode for nearly 2 fucking years and just pulls the plug on it so he can instead make homeworld with empire at war travel and NONE of the interesting logistics mechanics conquest had
>>2085572Pretty sure the only 1.0 hoax horse game is workers and resources which got to 1.0 before hoax horse picked it up. Hoax horse picked up Gilded Destiny which means its now in development hell for all eternity.Hoodwink Horse is a shit publisher, even if theyre just giving devs money hand over fist they need to actually hold devs accountable for something deliverable.
>>2083188Which mod?
>>2085609>Noble Man>Has Unnoble intentionsLike pottery
>>2085605Old world and against the storm.
>>2085696Trash and trashier. Werent they also released before being picked up by Hooded Holobunga?
>>2083050The founder was a mount and blade modder btw
>>2085719Against the Storm is a great retard. I don't know who published it first but you clearly just talk out your ass because you hate the company.
>>2085748Isnt AGTS the furry game?
>>2085609https://www.moddb.com/mods/vc-balance-mod
>>2085762It's a city builder/resource management game.
>>2085471>>2085477>>2085605Praise freakin’ kek mein bruder! Someone put this heckin epic post on r/politicalcompassmemes
>>2083050It's a shit-tier company with top-tier marketing department, that is capable of investing pocket change and rake-in millions back.>Pick up promising indie>Make a deal with the guy/small team behind it>Do astoturfed marketing via youtubers and places like /vst/ or reddit larger forums>Do minimal budget traditional marketing>1 million later, you have a game that makes you back as publisher 15-30 milTheir model is very simple, and very effective, because even if they fuck up with 9 games, the 10th is going to earn back all the money they invested in those 10 titles. And as mentioned, they made a killing with Manor Lords, since the Pole behind it already did the same shit on his own, making it a double bubble of marketing and hype, so they've pocketed As long as they keep this model as it is, rather than trying to become a traditional publisher, they will be making easy money on what's effectively a (fully legal) graft.
>>2083327>Like remember when Embracer Group just appeared out of nowhereThey were around since early 00s. You just didn't notice them, because they always handled things via subsidiaries. And the only reason you heard about them is because they did a bunch of BAD investments in early covid, so they were in a free-fall for almost two years as a result.Hooded Horse is meanwhile a small fry that's doing a bunch of surgical investments, since their entire company value, not to mention budget, is peanuts when it comes to vidya publisher standards
>>2092622A heartily kek to my fellow lads who see this is keksaster for what it is: a keksaster!Let us chuckle at these silly nincompoops in the thread who had their hopes up.Kekkity kek.
>>2092622this commie is real fucking mad that mutually beneficial business relationships exist
>hey i made a game i think it's pretty good, how do i find people interested in buying it?>>well you don't or >>2092622 will get extremely butthurt
>>2086568Yeah but its all furries. Only paedophiles are into that sick shit
>>2094315>>2094317... but then again, you had to double-tap on samefagging, so go fucking figure
>>2083108I hate to say they were lucky, but they were extremely lucky. They broke out onto the scene with Terra Invicta, you can see a lot of their published games are in similar scenarios. Genuinely they seem like the luckiest company on the planet because they put loads of money onto a solo style autism project by turboautism devs, but multiple times now, before even the games were done they've had a massive return on investment because these games flare up in popularity, even if, like in Terra Invicta's case, the game seems like it'll patch out all the other playstyles before finishing I think they've already seen a return.It's like a Benevolent Dictator lucking their way to riches while slightly accidentally saving us from Paradox's monopoly.
I'd rather Hooded Horse take over than paracucks. It's just good business.The rise of Gilded Destiny...
>it's just luck, there's no way someone actually has good sense for business
>>2095135The problem is that games like Terra Invicta, W&R, were already in an advanced state of development or EA by the time they were acquired by HH. Lately, most games picked up by HH are very, very early in development or have no playable alpha etc., these games then turn into vaporware or they go into development hell like Nebulous. In the case of something like TI, the game actively gets worse with each patch.>>2095490>good sense of business>games never released
>>2096307For what they pay to acquire early development indie titles they make back in spades when one actually releases. Terra invicta getting worse with each patch only matters if you're banking on continuous purchases which wasn't going to happen between how niche it is and the glacial state of development. And of all the titles they acquired they probably made the least on W&R because most people bought into EA before they signed, but it was important for legitimacy.
>>2096307i was about to btfo you with a quarterly but they're fully private so lol
>>2096408Yeah my dad sent me the nintendo quarterly.
>hooded horse owner indicted on noncery>>hooded horse owner indicted on noncery>hooded horse owner indicted on noncery>>hooded horse owner indicted on noncery
>>2100188source?
Please tell me this will be playable without the fucking ubi launcher
>>2095135thats not luck, thats simply noticing good talent and good gamesmost publishers probably have most of the decision makers not playing games and not liking themjust picking games you personally like and that seem good seems to work, who could have thoughtmaybe they won't reach the absolute mass market with this strategy but seems to have reached a pretty big nichealso increases the amount of good indie games out there so you can personally as the ceo play them as well
>>2092622how the fuck is that graft?you should not be allowed to vote
>>2106386voting doesn't actually matterYou should've said something relevant, like own a business
I doubt the IP is really worth anything to Ubisoft, considering their problems, so they may as well sell it off to HH , and they would immediately take the deal, since it'd be their crown jewel. One man's trash and so on...Anyhow, I kind of doubt HH is making such huge monnies as anons here describe, the only two *really* succesful games in their portfolio (by industry's standard, not by strategy games niche's one) are Manor Lords and Against The Storm.Considering that 12%-30% of the sales alone go to the pocket of the storefronts, and that publishing is capital intensive business.I don't really care about their games either way, most sit somewhere around "meh" or are astroturfed, but I want to use this opportunity to say that I think Heart of the Machine SUCKS!
>>2106386commies think that mutually beneficial deals are exploitative, that economy is a zero-sum game.>>2106472there's little risk of a commie owning a business for any significant period of time
>>2106482Against the storm is a furry tranny game
>>2108882Yes, and? Furries spend money.
>>2092622How is that shit tier? They seem to be doing their job well enough from your description.
>>2108882lol
I can't believe HoMM:OE will become insanely popular thanks to an early and high quality recommendation (review) from world famous and renowned youtuber and comedian (in his free time) MandaloreGaming who works with the esteemed and reprized startup Hooded Horse!
So does OE look in any way shape or form better than 3, 4 or 5?3 I played 10000 times but I want something new4 is broken, bad AI and too many bad decisions holding it back5 has AI so slow I can legitimately play several matches of HoMM3 per one HoMM5 match
>>2109873they added him to the game (Old Lord Mandal) as one of the Haven heroes
Ok Im looking for a new game to fuck around with, and I need some opinions.>I could wait for the new HoMM, >I could buy Songs of Silence>Or I could wait for this chinese possible-scam-malware called Crown and adventure. I am looking for some comfy game in which I can experiment with magic systems and army composition and theorycraft strategy in forums from time to time.
>>2111336Songs of Conquest seems cool and is on sale on Steam at the moment. I haven't tried it myself yet so I can't tell you if it's good or not but it's unapologetically HoMM inspired and looks great.
>>2111336You should graduate to Dominions like everyone else did.
Mandalore sounds fat
>>2082948dare i saybuy an ad
>>2111566I really like dominions; I wish their other game was fleshed out a bit more though (Conquest of Elysium 4)
>>2111336You could play the new HoMM right now. There is a leaked version of the beta test, it is missing a lot of feature but the main gameplay is there. I'm enjoying it quite a bit
>>2110837I didn't even connect the two until now.What makes this truly a mindfuck is OId Lord Mandal has been in the build since near the beginning of the year when I was allowed in testing and long before this publishing deal apparently happened.
>>2110722It honestly by far the worst looking HoMM game with the blandest visual direction, thing looks like a 5 year old generic fantasy mobile game. As for the gameplay it looks like it closest to HoMM5. Idk I don't expect much, these guys are a tiny team and the only game they've shipped before was a mediocre darkest dungeons clone
>>2110722>5 has AI so slow Use 5.5. Anybody still playing regular is a psycho masochist.
>>2109873He was actually on a podcast talking about working there and he seemed very self-conscious about the conflict of interest. I don't think he'd do a video with any sort of crossover with his job whether that be on a game hooded horse publishes or a competitor.
>>2085762It goes out of it's way to not be furry, just look at the fox people.
>>2100188What the fuck are you talking about?
>>2120956its slow even with 5.5, about 10 times slower than 3
>>2121405>about 10 times slower than 3not sure that's enough desu
>>2111336>Crown and adventure.As someone whose actually played it. It's less HoMM and more Mount and Blade.
>>2111336Maybehttps://store.steampowered.com/app/2147380/Heroes_of_Science_and_Fiction/
>>2083050One of the founders (or the founder idk) did the Viking Conquest rebalance mod for Mount and Blade.I tried the mod a year ago and was surprised to see that the linked discord was the hooded horse discord lol
>>2108950The main thing I personally dislike about them is that they don't seem to creat deadlines for devs. I have wishlisted Espiocracy for 3 years now and it doesn't seem like it will be released this year.For reference, the original release date was 2023.But as a company you can't deny that they are successfull
>>2123542Eh, I'd rather a publisher that's maybe a bit extra generous with deadlines than some crunch nightmare every other company is doing. I can play other games in the meantime, I'm in no rush.
>>2108882You see this a lot in Boardgames too. The real reason they do this is to dodge diversity quotas. You can’t complain about needing fat blacks in wheelchairs when it’s all fox people. >yet
>>2110837Is there a Sseth equivalent?
https://youtu.be/VnpVr7fq49EIf you love Heroes 5 and Ashan so much, why didn't you make a game in that universe. Fuck, it's like getting spat on the face.
>>2124342the music was decided upon by Paul Romero who certainly doesn't know the lore, and HoMM5 (19 years ago) was only 7 years after HoMM3
>>2124477then maybe hire someone who understands what "Ancient universe" is to wrangle his autistic ass>HoMM5 (19 years ago) was only 7 years after HoMM3what does that have to do with anything? It's a main leitmotif for a game in a completely different continuity. Making it an opening track for a game called "Olden Era" is a colossal incompetence.
>i HATE marketing companies
>>2124342Doesn't beat this iconic music>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIYMAuPEiE8
>Surprise faction is tentacle monster cthulhu shit
Manor lords is straight vaporware. The same knuckled dragging mouth breathers that thought banished was good are buying this trash.
>>2124312furries don't need outside motivation or justification to make furry games. They just like furry shit so they make it.
>game exists>game keeps getting updates>i-it's vaporwareThe manorlords seethe will never not be funny.
>polish a turd>looks it's shiny!
I thought the delay on this games release was only going to be a short one, they're still saying 25 at least
https://youtu.be/0eTu32uSO-0kek
>>2128566Kek, what a butthurt assburger you are. Ubishit posts a vid about a franchise, a guy involved in investing(?) into the developer(?) posts UNDER HIS REAL NAME that he's excited about the target of his investments releasing their product within said franchise, and this is somehow some fucking conspiracy by Ubishit regarding a game that's fortunately not even made by them?/vst/ really is full of retarded zoomer faggots who bought a metric shitton of Ubishit garbage before and now want to grant themselves an atonement for being underage ubishit paypig faggots for the most of their lives by shitting on a Russian Heroes game that looks like it's the best thing that's going to happen to Heroes since the release of HoMM V, after 20 years of stale Ubinigger dogshit.I wanna watch this shithole seethe when it releases and every non-zoomer non-Ubishit paypig Heroes fan loves it.
>>2124493ROFL, yeah, right, who the fuck this Romero dude thinks he is! Stop the presses, a triggered assburger zoomer faggot from 4chan is mad about HoMMV music.
>>2128829Olden Era looks like a mobile game.
>>2128829>Russianain't it Serbian?
>>2124493Well, to Paul it's the Olden Era, while 6 and 7 seem modern I assume
>>2123275I was surprised when they've randomly changed the title to "Heroes of Might and Magic" variant, but original was kind of wack considering what was presented of it.
>>2111336Age of Wonders, duh.
>>2111336King's Bounty: The Legend, first game was pretty fun and cheeky
>>2083253From what I remember: Tons of bugs, bad physics, janky gameplay, blood DLC, bad UI changes. It's what always happens when CA launches a new Total War game.
