XCOM 2 and Firaxis Games, a game and a developer doing it right.

If only Sega were like this...

Long story short, back in 2012 Firaxis Games released a reboot of an old game called XCOM on the PC. The game received highly positive reviews which led an extensive mod community for the game. One of the mod named "Long War" which essentially gave XCOM an complete overhaul received high praises from the community. Long War was downloaded over 500,000 times by users and caught noticed by Firaxis Games. Firaxis openly praised the Long War modders for their work. and invited them to work with them on future projects. With the up coming release of XCOM 2, Firaxis specifically altered the game engine to allow easier and extensive mods and hopes XCOM 2 could serve as a platform for future community creative projects. Furthermore Firaxis worked with Long War Modder (now known as Long War Studios) to release DAY 1 mods with the release of XCOM 2. This is an interview they did which show their perspectives on the gaming community, gaming intellectual property, and game longevity:



This is what gaming company should be doing in 2016, not money hogging, slapping copyright claims, or milking your fans like SEGA's been doing for decades. Remember DOTA was a WC3 mod, and it spawned an genre of MOBAs... Sega, you fucked it up good. Just die already.

 

This is because Firaxis is a game company composed of game people and being run as such despite being wholy owned by Take 2, not a stock company ran by shareholders and businessmen who look at profit margins and numbers.

 

Your logic while plausible on the surface is flawed. The relationship between Firaxis and Take 2 is very similar to that of Dice and EA, and Am(x) and Sega. They are all wholly owned by their parent companies, which are all public traded, they are all profit driven and report to shareholders. AND.. they are all "game company composed of game people", to even argue Firaxis is made of of gaming people and Dice/EA, Am2/Sega aren't not is nonsense.

The real problem is what these companies perceive as value for the shareholders, and how much influence they have on their developers. Firaxis/ Take 2 opens up their IP, supports their community because they see it as a way for profit in the long term, where are Dice / EA is all about milking their customers year after year with the same bullshit. They rather spend money on advertising than releasing bug free game. Because they see advertising as better return on investment. And Sega... sega is barely kicking to staying alive, they've been lost since the Arcade died. Quite frankly, if you are still a Sega fan, you are either naive or stupid, or a combination of the two and I feel sorry for you.