RAID IN DANGER OF BEING SOLD! | Raid: Shadow Legends

2 ways this could go if they are getting sold. 1. They get bought company that will take the game to a better direction and less p2w 2. They get bought by a company that will milk it into the grave...

If Raid gets sold maybe the game will improve. Hell, it cant get any worse. I'll cross my fingers

Can I use my Wixwell shield extension to protect my account from another company?

This type of stuff will always make me hate finance with a passion..... In order for your company to be considered a risk, it doesn't have to actually lose money.... it just has to not make money as fast as it used to. A drop in the rate of profit is all it takes for companies to be sold, people to be laid off and lose their livelihoods, and product lines to be discontinued. All because instead of making 20 Billion that year, it only made 16 Billion.

That whole article is just Plarium's For Sale sign. They could have just said "we're taking offers"

yea, a chinese company will most likely buy it, same as it happened to Eve Online . Sad possibility as sales go towards the highest bidder.

I have played Raid for 2 years. I am just grinding it out until Fateless overtakes the market in the future!

Raid is a game owned by a gambling company and its focus has been through their eyes. I'd enjoy seeing this game owned by the people who own GW2 who really care about their game as a game and want it to be a great game, rather than a way to gamble. Dragonheir does this well in the Gacha genre.

This could be very positive - there might be a shift away from egregious greed towards creating a fun user experience.

@Boozor released a video yesterday on this too. Shame he didn't get a shoutout. Presenting a financial report is all about being a number Magician. Verbal/statistical slight of hand is the name of the game. Look at these numbers, while we manipulate, without lying (because that's illegal) the real reason for said figures. The drop-off in their marketing budget, which is a huge slice of expenses will be one reason why the margins look better, but does require the retention of the current player base. Last year they brought out The Call of the Arbiter. This would have cost 10's of millions, minimum, with the desired outcome of boosting player acquisitions and player retention, which doesn't seem to have worked in either case. It was a one off expense that would not have carried over to this year either as it would have been in the 22/23 budget. Player acquisition down, mostly due to less advertising, as well as Raid being a mature game. Most of those who wanted to play the game have already downloaded, played and then either stayed, or left. Multiple accounts per person adds to the values but is a false number of DAP (daily active players) and this figure is down by over a 1.2 million from last year anyway. Revenue is up from those remaining, but this is mainly coming from the 1% at the top end with 2 Saudi Princes rumoured to be spending multiple millions this year alone. What happens when those two get bored and move on to the next fad, game or otherwise? Who else follows to the new fad because you must be with the "it" crowd? Aristocrat bought NeoGaming earlier this year, which is an online gambling gaming company. It is likely that the restructuring of Pixel, as their "core policy" focus shifts, is going to include the moving of Big Fish Games and their other casino/gambling based games/apps over to NeoGaming. This will leave the pure RPG games withing pixel, which can then be either maintained/invested in by cutting those poorly performing games and then either pouring that money into their profitable games, use that money to develop new games, or just as likely, making it more presentable/easier to sell. Pure entertainment games companies would not want the gambling elements attached to Pixel, and no one would buy the other games/companies without the flagship Plarium/Raid. Plarium will not be sold separately by Aristocrat as they would simply have to can everything else. The interview with The Wall Steet Journal where the CEO Trevor Croker stated casual gaming no longer fits into their core policy, but also saying so, all things are being considered has two effects, and meanings. 1. It's a fishing expedition. Indicating that offers will be considered. An invitation to interested parties to make an offer for Pixel, and/or Plarium. 2. If no offers are forthcoming through lack of interest, then they can plan b it and go ahead and restructure Pixel and all the companies under it's umbrella and tell the market that was what the decision the board came to and what ever BS reasons they wish to tell the world and it's shareholders, giving the reasons why keeping Pixel et al is the best choice for the company instead. So, who would be interested, and what would it mean for Raid? The obvious Whale in the room is Microsoft, who like to gobble up gaming companies and either restructure them, or decimate them and the games in development, just ask Blazzard. Amazon are already linked with Raid, and Bazos is itching to get into the GATCHA market. This is his way in big time. Bandai Namco Entertainment have a reputation of buying similar games, making them worse and eventually having to shut them down, but they keep trying anyway. There are others too. Their are dozens of companies big enough to buy Pixel/Plarium but what will it actually mean for the player base? Not much in the short term unless the buying company want to switch off the servers to make room for a game they are developing, or have released but is being suppressed by Raid. Most likely, however, they will want to invest, develop Raid and new games through Plarium. It will mean restructuring, and that usually means layoffs and new management with a new remit and core direction for the company. This doesn't mean it's good, or bad for us the players, that all depends on who bought the company and why they did ofc. In the medium term, first year, this will inevitably mean price hikes, with the excuse that they need to invest heavily into the game, restructure, develop and recover the cost of buying Raid. None of that actually needs to happen, as all of this was factored in before the offer was made in the first place. It's just what they tell you as means to garner support from the community/player base for their raising prices trying to recoup their expenditure and moving into profit quicker. Which leads to happy shareholders/investors and bigger bonuses for themselves ofc without the backlash from the player base. Would it make sense for Aristocrat to sell Pixel/Plarium? With only two more development cycles to come with The Great Void and the last faction, which are probably already in the pipeline, and their obvious lack of desire to develop the game further. The also obvious answer is yes. Can they sell it as it stands? Also yes, if another company see the potential still left within the game, but the door is closing fast, and they must do it within the next 12/18 months imo. Perhaps they can see the writing on the wall too, as new players are dropping off fast, and retention becoming harder to maintain with the top 1% carrying/pushing the profit margins. Add to this, Fateless. If Fateless lives up to it's promise and produces a Raid like game but better and more focused on the community with a monetisation policy to match, and that is a very, very big if, then Raid may be coming to it's end cycle much quicker than expected. Many games have had the promise of being Raid killers, but none have actually managed it, for the very simple reason that no one has cloned Raid, but with all the bad elements removed and not trying to rob your bank account with gross obvious greed, and that is what will be required to kill it. Aristocrat are a gambling company, but they never gamble with their own money, just ours and will do what's best for them. Long term. If the buying company is a pure casual/social gaming company who wish to invest, develop and improve without rinsing the player base, then obviously the outlook is rosy. However, if it is a another gambling consortium, or company like Bandai Namco Entertainment, then there is a good chance that it, or we will be striped of it's assets and/or shut down pretty quickly as people flee the game. The same could be said for a mega company like Microsoft, or Amazon trying to fleece us too, but they are also likely to want to create a spinoff game, a Raid 2.0 also with up to date engines as Raid is very clunky by todays standards. That's my 2 pennies worth anyway.

I hope if it gets sold that the people there know to listen to their customers and not just push them off and say oh they're just crap and we don't care

Moonton Is a far better company in my opinion so i hope a company similar to them buys raid and make it a better game for everyone

Great video Hades…really interesting…I like the behind the scenes vids!..I think maybe a sale would be good!!

Cool analysis, you actually make these presentations engaging and... fun? Well done.

Thank you Simon for this report. I find them interesting. Good luck with Fateless 🎉

It's definetely a safe move. Even though Plarium is still the most profitable game in the market, it's expected it gets to a stale state at some point. Plarium is a "genius" company, and whoever buys it, regardless of what they like, need to trust in their capacity of making even more money. People tend to think that those changes come to the benefit of the ones who do not sponsor the game (people who spends), but any company that will make a huge investment to buy a huge company, does because they see potential to earn that cash back mid term with BIG increases. Lets hope in order to do that, they would invest into more game modes into our favorite game!

The genre of RSL is always popular, Raid has done right in working with other companies to add unique champions. It is surpricing that Raid is still strong. I love unique champions, i love D&D characters and stories. For example i use Vlad and Nethril as my main champion for everything and both my Arbiter and Madame are skined to look vampire like. If plarium use skins properly it my atrack more players or give the game a fun way of set in up teams other than the current meta.

The most likely result I imagine is that another company buying it ends up changing things a lot, but I don't see it actually improving or worsening from how it's been going. No matter who owns the company, they'll want profit because game companies are businesses. With any luck, they'll just be doing more QoL improvements and adding new stuff like they have, with monetization that focuses more on making happy players who will stay around instead of milking the more impulsive ones to death.

I can only imagine Konami a famously well known gaming corporation to buy out RAID... Because they went from developing video games to pachinko casino machines ! ...I also can only imagine if they come up with a crossover game, RAIDOVANIA lol

Addiction focused casino owned. New owner or not the game focuses on keepingnu hooked n fomo.