The entire studio just gets gobbled up and summarily executed instead.
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Trying to think of the last great IP that changed hands in that sense and went on to success.
GoT and Hades are my choices as we’ll and I feel like I went through quite a few games this year with COVID and permanent working from home. Got paid to play a lot this year.
I'm not saying the studio sells ITSELF. I'm saying the studio sells its product to the AAA studio.
Big studios go the other way all the time. Like, Nintendo farming out Metroid to Rare, got Metroid Prime. Theres countless of examples of sequels, etc being farmed out to other studios. Sometimes in full, sometimes in partial. Sometimes its within the publisher, sometimes not.
like, Bioshock =2k marin, and Irrational games, published by 2k games. Bioshock 2 was 2k Marin, published by 2k games.
Obsidian is of course known for making games for other people.
From the publisher side, it appears yes, they have decided its easier to just buy the entire studio in nearly every case.
The only examples of the otherway way around I can think of, is more from dead studios. Fallout, Vampire:the masquerade, might and magic:x legacy, etc. publishers buying the rights to long dead IPs.