The Business: A Tale Of Two Announcements

CD Projekt Red released this on the CP2077 Twitter account today.

Twitter being Twitter, commence the whining from the usual suspects.

There is nothing to freak out about. It's a game. It's not ready. They're being responsible about this, letting you--the customer--know that it's been delayed for this reason so that you aren't wondering where the game's at when the now-void date for release comes and you have nothing to show for it.

Calm thy tits, folks. They want to release a good game. You'll forgive all of this when it releases and it's truly a quality piece of work with great replayability that lasts for years. That's why I'm shrugging this off.

As with many announcements, this isn't anything to freak out about.

Now folks in the firearms world have had about a month--this was released on September 30th--to process the following, but this is something that is a big deal: Ruger bought Marlin.

September 30, 2020

Sturm, Ruger and Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) announced today that its offer to purchase substantially all of the Marlin Firearms assets was accepted by Remington Outdoor Company, Inc. and approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The Company will pay the $30 million purchase price from cash on hand at the time of closing, which is expected to occur in October.

"The value of Marlin and its 150-year legacy was too great of an opportunity for us to pass up," said Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy. "The brand aligns perfectly with ours and the Marlin product portfolio will help us widen our already diverse product offerings."

The transaction is exclusively for the Marlin Firearms assets. Remington firearms, ammunition, other Remington Outdoor brands, and all facilities and real estate are excluded from the Ruger purchase. Once the purchase is completed, the Company will begin the process of relocating the Marlin Firearms assets to existing Ruger manufacturing facilities.

"The important thing for consumers, retailers and distributors to know at this point in time," continued Killoy, "is that the Marlin brand and its great products will live on. Long Live the Lever Gun."

This is something to freak out about. Why? Because this is the announcement of one major brand in a market buying up another, assimilated the latter into the former's corporate structure somehow. Devolver Digital buying Croteam, EA buying up Bioware, and Disney buying Marvel and Lucasfilm are apples-to-apples comparisons here.

It's also the case, again regardless of market segment, that such an acquisition is not a guarantee of quality improvement; Marlin's previous acquisition by Remington resulted in trash being put on the shelves for years, such that "Remlin" became a byword for "overpriced shit" and gave competitors such as Rossi, Henry, and Mossberg the opportunity to devour Marlin's marketshare- and they did, handedly.

The difference is plain, but for those wanting the TL/DR, here: the former is nothing more than telling you that a thing you want will available on Date B instead of Date A; the latter tells you that a competitor in a market is gone, and it is now a skinsuit for what assimilated it, changing the market and likely to result in undesirable changes both to you in terms of stuff to buy as well as to your shooting interests more generally due to overall monopolistic centralization effects. Minor vs. Major.

You can freak out when CD Projekt Red announces that it either buys or gets bought by another company, not when a release date gets moved.