Rumors are fun things that often are the way we learn about projects long before they’re announced to the general public. Leaking rumors has even become a viable marketing strategy utilized by many companies to not just generate hype and buzz ahead of an announcement, but to gauge public reaction to potentially controversial design decisions before committing to them publicly. Sometimes rumors are well-intentioned but misguided, and that is where the rumor that Techland got bought out by Microsoft originates.
Stemming largely from a December rumor claiming Microsoft was in talks to acquire a major Polish publisher, as reported by sites like ComicBook.com, with Techland’s name mentioned as a potential candidate. It is highly unlikely they would be the company chosen, as Microsoft’s recent purchases have all been small, ailing, or declining companies allowing them to acquire great names at cost-effective rates.
In February 2019 news had broke that Techland was shutting down their publishing wing, laying off 13 people through 2019. Later CEO Pawel Marchewka would clarify this had nothing to do with their worldwide self-publishing ambitions, but rather involved their Polish publishing arm for third party boxed goods.
“After months’ worth of market analysis, we have started the process of shutting down the Polish publishing and distribution department. The process will last until the end of 2019. This only applies to third party boxed goods on the Polish market. For several years physical distribution has not been the core of our strategy, which is to develop the best AAA action open-world games.
These changes have no impact on our global publishing plans and the development of two AAA games we are currently working on, one of them being Dying Light 2. Our company is constantly growing and developing great games. The sales of the original Dying Light are not only not decreasing, but actually continuing to grow year-on-year. Dying Light constantly reaches new audiences and this makes us happy and shows us we have chosen the right direction. It also motivates us to work hard on making Dying Light 2 our best game yet.
I have personally made sure to take care of the affairs and future careers of the members of our Polish distribution department who will be leaving Techland. Severance packages they will receive are both above the industry and the Polish employment legislation standards. I would like to thank the whole team for the many years of great work together.”
Techland’s newly acquired offices combined with the aforementioned triggered these latest rumors.
New Year. New Office. New Challenges! 💪- Techland after the move 🎉🥳🍾🎮#GameDev #DyingLight2 #NewOffice pic.twitter.com/kK6Lyv3oX6
— Techland (@TechlandGames) January 24, 2020
Moving offices is not uncommon in the gaming industry. Companies, in order to save money, will sign multi-year leases and when those leases are running out they begin to reevaluate if their current arrangements are working or if it is time to move to a new location. Other times new locations pose to good a deal to pass up as it aligns with their future plans.
In no way is this indicative of a buyout by Microsoft, but is a normal industry behavior. As for the game being delayed, Dying Light 2 is a complex project with a unique branching world design that will radically change the state of the world after pivotal decisions. This requires a lot of testing and there is no reason to believe its delay was anything other than a decision to give the developers more time.
For the longest time companies kicked games out the door, but even before 2019, this trend was costing companies a lot of short term and even long term sales. 2019 saw numerous projects in desperate need of more time in development releasing as failures. Several of Ubisoft’s products the same year would also go on to underperform for a variety of reasons, but in need of more development was one pushed by Ubisoft’s corporate. Now investors want products working out the door, so companies are shifting back to a “delay until acceptable” model.
Whether or not Techland is purchased by Microsoft is unknowable, but right now there is nothing that indicates such a transaction is even taking place.