Humankind and Endless Dungeon developer Amplitude Studios has announced that it's split from Sega and gone independent, with the studio describing the move as a return to its "roots".
In a post on Steam (which can be seen across all of Amplitude's games on the platform), Amplitude says its journey with Sega "has been amazing", but that ownership of the studio has returned "to some of our original founders and members of the team".
According to Amplitude, its parting with Sega happened on "good terms", and the studio remains committed to "working closely with our players", which it says is still very much at the "heart of our philosophy".
In the aforementioned Steam post, Amplitude founder Romain de Waubert de Genlis says the studio currently has two projects in development, describing them as "exciting", although he doesn't elaborate on what they might be.
He also says Amplitude is "backed by strong and meaningful franchises", and that the decision to go independent allows the studio to "be more agile in our approach".
Amplitude Studios was first founded back in 2011, with ex-Ubisoft staffers de Waubert de Genlis and Mathieu Girard setting up the company. The first game released by Amplitude was 2012's Endless Space, which kicked off the Endless series of strategy-focused games.
Said series continued with 2014's turn-based 4X game Endless Legend and tower defense roguelike Dungeon of the Endless, which was released in the same year. Following these releases, Sega snapped up Amplitude in 2016.
Amplitude's first game under Sega's wing was 2017's Endless Space 2, a followup to the developer's debut game, and that was followed up by an experimental visual novel, Love Thyself - A Horatio Story, which is again set in the Endless universe.
It wouldn't take long for Amplitude to return to strategy development, though, with 2021's Humankind (not to be confused with Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey) attempting to rival Civilization in terms of scope and system complexity.
The studio's most recent project is Endless Dungeon, a successor to-come-reimagining of Dungeon of the Endless that features a new 3D art style and plenty of additional mechanics to wrap your brain around.
