Amplitude Studios has announced on their forums that Denuvo will be removed for HUMANKIND on launch.

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your feedback on this, we have been following along and having internal discussions before getting back to you. Based on data from our trial during the Closed Beta, we have decided not to include Denuvo in Humankind at launch.

 First, let me explain the reasoning behind our initial decision including Denuvo – We work really hard and pour our hearts into these games we make, and pirating really does affect our ability to keep creating games with you guys. 

We’ve been working on this game for more than 4 years now and personally it’s been my dream project for 25 years. We’ve been one of the most wishlisted games on Steam this year, so we know we’re going to be targeted by pirates, more so than any of our previous games. If Denuvo can hold off a cracked version, even just for a few days, that can already really help us to protect our launch.

That being said, our priority is always the best possible experience for the players who buy our games and support us. Denuvo should never impact player performance, and we don’t want to sacrifice quality for you guys. 

We believe that it’s possible with the right integration, which is what we wanted to test during the Closed Beta. However, we found that the way it was currently integrated was not good enough, and it’s not something we can fix before release. So, we are taking it out. 

I hope this answers your questions. Thank you as always for your support, and we can’t wait to see you all at launch (and beyond!)

 - Romain, CCO & Studio Head

@RockPaperShotgun A new expansion for Endless Space 2 has been released called Awakening.

Amplitude Studios may be working on a new Civ-ish 4X strategy game retelling human history, the recently-announced Humankind, but they’re not out of wild and fanciful sci-fi histories either. Today they released a new Endless Space 2 expansion adding an interesting new faction named the Nakalim. They’re a once-great empire who went dormant after their gods were killed and are now trying to secure their galactic position in anticipation of their gods returning. I do appreciate how Amplitude create factions who are more than your usual “they’re Klingons – but bugs!” or “they’re Borg – but less 90s!” Come meet the Nakalim.

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Thanks Farflame!

RockPaperShotgun reports that Endless Space 2 & Endless Legend will have new expansions on January 24th called Penumbra and Symbiosis respectively.

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Endless Space 2 – Penumbra introduces the long-awaited hacking feature, invisibility and the community-created faction: the Umbral Choir.

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Endless Legend – Symbiosis brings forth new colossal beasts called Urkans as well as a brand-new faction: The Mykara.

Thanks Farflame!

Amplitude Studios have announced that the Endless Space 2 expansion Supremacy will be releasing August 2nd.

ABOUT THIS CONTENT

Endless Space 2: Supremacy introduces the Hissho Major Faction to the game, as well as a new massive galactic platform available to all Factions: the Behemoth Ship.

HISSHO FACTION

The Hissho are a military and expansion-oriented faction whose main gameplay feature is Keii. This new resource can only be replenished through combats is used to power special abilities. It also drives their empire Obedience which replaces happiness. Crushingly strong in offence, the Hissho will only fall if you cannot sustain your war economy and let your Honor wither away.

FOUR NEW HEROES

As a faction well versed in the art of combat, the heroes are focused on warfare and space battle. They are best suited for admiral positions thanks to strong damage and fleet upkeep bonuses but if push comes to shove, they make decent governors... as long as your goal is to make your system a manpower and spaceship factory.

NEW FLEET

Powerful and versatile, Hissho fleets can easily switch between straightforward and devious loadouts thanks to numerous polyvalent slot modules capable of hosting both support and defense or attack modules.

ILLO MINOR FACTION

The Illo are reasoning machines whose credo is Survival of the Fittest. Their goal is to reach this Sanctified Equilibrium as quickly as possible by eliminating those species unlikely to survive in the long term.

BEHEMOTHS

Those gigantic ships are remnants from the mysterious Endless era. While extremely deadly and versatile in their original state, their ultimate purpose is to evolve and become specialized.

Endless Legend devs Amplitude have been acquired by Sega.

Sega have acquired Amplitude, creators of the Endless series of strategy games. Endless Legend was our game of the year in 2014 and its predecessor Endless Space is set to receive a direct sequel that will enter Early Access later this year. Sega will now publish that game, as well as assuming responsibility for the back catalogue of Endless games, which includes Dungeon of the Endless, a fantastic tower-defense/roguelike hybrid.

Amplitude are one of the smartest young strategy studios around and they join Creative Assembly, Relic and Sports Interactive (Football Manager is a strategy game) in Sega’s stable of PC developers. That’s a mighty strong line-up for a company that old men like me still associate with ancient consoles and platform games rather than PC publishing.

President/COO for Sega Europe Jurgen Post had this to say:

“To have the opportunity to add a studio with the growing reputation of Amplitude’s, to the SEGA family, is an exciting one and reinforces SEGA Europe’s position as a market leader in publishing high quality PC games. Culturally, Amplitude are a fantastic fit for the business as they not only produce great games, but also have a proven track record in listening to their fans and directly involving them in the ongoing development of their games through their GAMES2GETHER system.”

That GAMES2GETHER system creates a space for players to give early feedback and perhaps explains why Endless Legend’s time in Early Access was so pleasant. Truth be told, I’d all but forgotten it was ever in Early Access, despite playing it for tens of hours before release.

On the Amplitude side, co-founder Mathieu Girard made these comments:

“Joining the SEGA family represents the culmination of five years of hard work from myself and Romain and everyone here at Amplitude Studios. For the Endless series to be alongside PC franchises with such heritage as Total War and Dawn of War in the SEGA Europe stable puts our games where we feel they deserve to be. We look forward to leveraging SEGA Europe’s expertise in the PC market to take the Endless series to the next level.”

For further information, and to direct any questions about the acquisition in Amplitude’s direction, head to this page, where you can already find an initial answer to one burning question:

Of course you could wonder, “Why Sega?” If you were to ask just Mathieu and I, we could easily answer with the words “Creative Assembly and Relic!” because we are HUGE fans of their games. The opportunity to join them is incredible for us, a real dream come true.

But the bigger reason why we wanted to join SEGA was how they treat their internal studios. Often, studios are controlled by a central department that dictates what games they should do, and how and when. But SEGA is a company that offers its support to the creators, positioning itself as a service provider, helping studios to reach their goals with only one objective in mind: Quality!

Only time will tell if Amplitude and Sega will be a good fit, but as someone who is very much looking forward to Endless Space 2, I see no reason to despair or to cheer. If the plan is to allow Amplitude to follow their existing practices, as suggested by the continuation of GAMES2GETHER and an Early Access release, then the acquisition might not have a great deal of impact on current development at all. And it seems unlikely that Sega would want to make this move for one upcoming game and a small but impressive back catalogue, so hopefully it’ll ensure stability for future Endless titles, or whatever else Amplitude decide to turn their talents toward.