Day one of the 2024 Game Developers Conference opened with a session about fostering inclusivity and diversity in game communities, with panellists giving a welcome reminder about why this matters and the obstacles standing in the way.
Hosted by Gamesight head of creator programs Jennifer Zall, the panel featured Capcom's senior brand marketing manager Jaclyn Simmons and senior manager for social media and community Andy Wong, as well as Lilith Games senior brand marketing manager Kayla Mansell (formerly manager of global creator relations and marketing at 2K).
The talk emphasised how fostering inclusivity in your community can only grow your game and be good for your business, with the panellists highlighting how many issues come from the industry relying on some bad habits that die hard.
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Character designer of the Tales of series Mustumi Inomata has died, aged 63.
Her sister announced the news of her passing via Inomata's official social media account. She died on March 10; her cause of death was not disclosed.
]]>Playstack has announced that Balatro has moved one million copies
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GOG has partnered with Amazon Luna to bring its title library to the cloud gaming service.
Users will be able to play games that they own on the digital store via the Luna service.
]]>16.74 million video games were sold across Europe during February, according to the latest GSD data.
This is technically a rise of 21.2% over the previous February, however, February 2024 was a five-week month, whereas it was a four-week month in 2023. If we compare this year's number to the same five-week period in 2023, sales are actually down very, very slightly by 0.1%.
It's still a strong result. Last February saw the release of Hogwarts Legacy, which was a major smash hit. To give you an idea of just how big Hogwarts' launch was, its sales after five weeks was greater than the entire Top Ten for February this year.
]]>HTC has announced a change in its revenue share for developers on its XR gaming and app storefront Viveport.
From April 1st, developers of new titles will keep 90% of all one-time purchase revenue for both PCVR and Vive XR Elite titles as well as apps. This revenue split will be honoured back to March 1 for existing titles, the firm said.
"Developers are the heartbeat of the XR ecosystem – when they thrive, the whole industry thrives," said Joseph Lin, general manager of Viveport.
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Sony Interactive Entertainment has reportedly halted production of its PSVR 2 to clear its current backlog of unsold devices.
As reported by Bloomberg, this is according to sources familiar with the matter.
]]>Players can now buy games via Robot Cache and play them 'almost instantly' as they download.
The PC games retailer is using DACS Laboratories' ROCKITPLAY FastStart Technology on more than 50 games to create 'the fastest game store in the West'.
ROCKITPLAY is effectively a Netflix-like click-to-play solution. It launches gameplay with as little as 1% of the game downloaded. Players can then enjoy the title while the rest of the game is downloaded in the background. Gamers have been conditioned to wait for hours or even days for big game downloads, and Robot Cache is looking to be a pioneering store to end gamers frustration by offering the FastStart option.
]]>Minecraft has announced the Marketplace Pass for $3.99 per month
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With this year's Game Developers Conference kicking off in San Francisco today, it's a good time to take stock of some of the biggest challenges developers face, from rising costs to the ever-changing obstacles between your game and potential players – both of which are harder to reduce than ever.
"Gaming is a mature industry, and while it continues to disrupt, it's also just harder to break in with a new game," Marc Whitten, Unity's chief technology and product officer, tells GamesIndustry.biz.
]]>VOID Interactive's first game Ready or Not was a chart topper, garnering 1.5 million views on Twitch during the first 24 hours after launch. It wasn't a fluke. The small remote team at VOID Interactive had many factors working against them but a successful creator launch campaign propelled their game to become one of the most watched titles in the world last year.
In 2024, Ready Or Not is up there with the top first person shooter games in terms of popularity as the developer continues to roll out upgrades and updates.
VOID Interactive's marketing head, Behrad Sabet, sat down with Lurkit to talk about Ready Or Not's stellar launch and the company's direction in the future. With 12 years of experience in marketing under his belt, Sabet believes Ready Or Not was successful because it's just a great game. According to Sabet, no amount of marketing is enough when you don't have a good product.
]]>A modder has claimed that Aspyr used their work in Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection without credit.
As reported by IGN, players noticed that a mod created by modder 'iamashaymin' was reportedly featured in the game despite its developer clarifying last month that it did "not include any code or content that is taken from uncredited sources."
The mod was developed to bring Xbox exclusive DLC content of characters Kit Fisto and Asajj Ventress to PC in 2021 by reskinning other characters.
]]>Toxicity is a serious issue that players expect studios of online games to address. New legal regulations are also demanding studios do more to protect their players or face hefty fines.
While it’s clear that there is a moral and a growing legal imperative to protect players from toxicity on an online platform, it’s also the right thing for studios to do when it comes to increasing an online game’s revenue.
Modulate CEO and co-founder Mike Pappas told GamesIndustry.biz how the company’s AI-assisted voice moderation tool ToxMod isn’t just the most efficient way to combat toxicity but that “effective content moderation helps to foster a positive and safe gaming environment, which directly improves player experience - and player retention.”
]]>A new AAA studio has launched, composed of industry veterans from EA, Sony, Blizzard, Disney, Apple, and Google.
Founded in October 2023, Muddy Robot Games is led by former International Game Developers Association president Chris Hood.
Hood has over three decades of experience in the entertainment and gaming industries, having co-founded Blind Squirrel Games in 2009 and worked as head of digital strategy and innovation at Google from 2018 to March 2023.
]]>Turtle Beach, the accessories giant best known for its gaming headsets, has acquired PDP for the value of $118 million.
That includes $79.9 million in cash and the remainder in shares. Both companies compete in the third-party headset and controller categories, yet where Turtle Beach is leading the market in headsets, PDP is best known for a range of licensed controllers (including character-based ones for Nintendo Switch).
The firm expects the acquisition to result in $390 - $410 million in revenues over the next 12 months, and that there will be between $10 and $12 million in synergies once the two businesses combine.
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VR game studio Thirdverse has announced that it has secured $3.3 million in a funding round.
The investment was via a third-party allotment of shares underwritten by Nissei Capital and VeriServe.
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Reef Creative Group has purchased a 70% stake in UK game studio Bitmap Bureau.
Bitmap Bureau was established in 2016, based in Southhampton, and overseen by Matthew Cope and Mike Tucker.
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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.
After six years of purchasing a variety of developers and publishers, Embracer Group this week confirmed its first sale. The company divested Saber Interactive, plus a number of the studios within that part of the group, to Beacon Interactive, a company formed by Saber co-founder Matthew Karch.
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Federal agencies are working to weed out extremism in gaming spaces.
As reported by The Intercept, this is per a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that interviewed Roblox, Discord, and Reddit, as well as an anonymous social media firm and game publisher.
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CCP Games, developer of Eve Online, has announced that its Carbon Development Platform will be made open source.
The platform consists of the Carbon game engine, which Eve Online uses, and component parts such as blockchain technology.
]]>Singularity 6's cosy MMO Palia has reached over 3 million players in six months ahead of its launch on Steam on March 25.
The studio's debut title — a fantasy mix of life simulation and MMORPG — launched last August with a PC open beta via its own website and launcher, followed by a release on the Epic Games Store in October. The game then launched on Nintendo Switch in December.
As for how Palia achieved this feat, Singularity 6 director of business strategy Yu Sian Tan tells GamesIndustry.biz it was a combination of captivating players and the game's release on Nintendo Switch.
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It's almost twenty years since Steam evolved from being an automatic patching system for Valve's games into being a digital storefront for third parties, heralding the true arrival of the digital distribution era that had been forecast for years prior. We're now all living in the future that Steam ushered in, for better or worse.
Digital distribution is now essentially the default for games on all platforms; it's the only way to get games on smartphones and tablets, and some PC and console titles never get physical releases at all. There are even digital-only editions of consoles in this generation, flagging a potential future in which physical media will be dropped from game hardware entirely.
]]>Virtuos has acquired the Los Angeles-based VFX studio Beyond-FX for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2015, Beyond-FX is a co-development studio that provides VFX for AAA games, having worked on titles such as Mortal Kombat 1, Valorant, and God of War.
Virtuos aims to expand its portfolio by integrating Beyond-FX's real-time VFX skillset and to support the growth of the company as a whole.
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Behaviour Interactive has acquired multimedia production firm Fly Studio.
The studio, established in 1996 in Montreal, has created mixed media projects for firms such as Ubisoft, Cirque du Soleil, and Toyota.
]]>Scopely's Monopoly Go has amassed $2 billion in revenue
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Tech firm Gamestream has secured an investment of €4.5 million.
Gamestream is based in France and was established in 2019. It has launched its platform on PC, TV, and mobile.
]]>Game development is no longer just a one-man show – or even a one-studio spectacle. The seismic size of games these days means that the crafting of fantastical, virtual realms is easily a multi-team endeavour.
Fortunately, developers can turn to partners, such as external developers, to realise their most ambitious projects. One rapidly growing model is external development, which sees a studio turn to one or more companies to assist with game creation. In particular, a specific flavour of external development is end-to-end development, which sees an external company oversee an entire segment of a project.
“End-to-end is, in a nutshell, when an external developer takes on a large portion, or the whole pipeline, of the game development process,” says Mike Sherak, Virtuos’ assistant director of co-development success. “This can include concept, model, rigging, animation, VFX, lighting, character animation delivered in-engine, and more.”
]]>This June, we are running a special editorial event around making games cheaper, faster and better. And we've called it GI Sprint.
Reacting to the industry challenge of spiralling development costs, GI Sprint will feature a series of podcasts, videos and articles covering all sorts of subjects around the goal of making games in a financially sustainable way. Our first expert guests will be announced in the coming weeks.
From the latest advancements in cloud technology, the opportunity and risks of AI, getting things right at the concept stage, efficient ways of working remotely and a whole lot more, GI Sprint will feature leading experts in the field of game development. Want to contribute a session? Contact Chris.Dring@Gamesindustry.biz.
]]>Grom Social Enterprises has announced the acquisition of studio Arctic7.
The terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed but the announcement clarified that Arctic7 will operate as a division within Grom.
The studio will continue following its current strategy, both acting as a co-development firm and developing its own IP, with the two companies saying they'll reveal more about future opportunities coming from the acquisition in the "coming weeks and months."
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Haiyan Zhang, Xbox's general manager of gaming AI, kicked off her DICE fireside chat with the ESA's Stanley Pierre-Louis by reminding attendees the technology has been around for decades.
"In the 1950s, early AI research used games like chess to figure out what intelligence actually means. [It was used] to devise our rules that would mimic behavior and reason like humans in order to play complex games," said Zhang.
]]>Tencent has reportedly taken over two ByteDance games teams, and has consolidated them into a new company.
As reported by Retuers, the studios that have allegedly been required are a Shenzhen-based firm working on an action game, and another in East China working on an anime title.
These teams have reportedly been merged into a studio called Salusoi, which is wholly-owned by a Tencent investor.
]]>Embracer has sold Saber Interactive for $247 million.
As announced by the firm in a statement published today, it has agreed to divest selected assets from Saber to Beacon Interactive, a new company founded by Saber's co-founder Matthew Karch.
Saber will retain a number of studios as part of the sale, including: Nimble Giant, 3D Realms, Sandbox Strategies, New World Interactive, Slipgate, Mad Head Games, Fractured Byte, and DIGIC.
]]>Game jams both big and small have been a stimulating bucket of creativity for developers everywhere, encouraging creatives to push themselves out of their comfort zone and create a full game in a limited time frame, anything from a day to just a week.
You have independent and charity-focused jams where you create for a good cause, while many companies have seen the benefit of this restrictive challenge to hold internal jams. Titles like Celeste, Superhot, and Goat Simulator can also pinpoint their origins to a particularly inventive game jam idea its developers chose to push into full development.
These events spark creativity, offer a break from longer term projects, provide a chance for newer developers to meet fellow creatives and put together their first title, and potentially set people down the game development path for themselves. They harbor the hobbyist spirit that has existed since the beginning of the industry, and remain crucial in nurturing and encouraging a new generation of developers to enter the industry.
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Epic Games is calling for Apple to be held in contempt of court for violating the judge's order that followed the 2021 legal dispute between the two.
Bloomberg reported that the Fortnite firm filed a request to a federal judge on Wednesday, arguing that Apple has failed to comply with the original order about allowing developers to direct users to alternative payment systems. Apple was ordered to enable links to transactions that do not involve iOS' processing process, which entitles Apple to a 30% commission.
]]>The date for Summer Game Fest 2024 has been confirmed, with the gaming showcase taking place on Friday, June 7.
As reported by Polygon, the two-hour event will be hosted by Geoff Keighley and broadcast live from the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT / 10pm BST.
The show will be available to stream on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Steam, and other platforms.
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According to StreamElements and Rainmaker.gg's monthly State of the Stream report, Twitch's viewership fell by 8% during February as it reached 1.7 billion hours watched.
The streaming platform hit 1.6 billion hours throughout the month last year.
]]>Take This and Safe In Our World have announced new event safety guidelines to provide organisers with the necessary tools and steps to help make events safe and inclusive.
The Event Safety Standards Guide is split up into four key sections: planning, policy, training, and tools.
The planning segment focuses on the purpose of the event, who will be attending, and what needs are to be met.
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Roar Games has received an investment of $1.5 million from The Games Fund.
As reported by VentureBeat, the studio was established in 2023 by the founders of the production firm Zheeshee.
]]>When GamesIndustry.biz reports on Circana, it's usually the tracking firm's reports on US consumer spending in the past month. But when we speak with Circana analyst Mat Piscatella, our first question is about what he sees happening in the months to come.
"Right now my most optimistic outlook is down about 2%," Piscatella says. "If you start looking a little bit on the more pessimistic side, you're looking at down about 10%. If things really go sideways, you're looking at a little bit more.
"There's so much uncertainty when you look at the sales data or look to project this year. There's uncertainty around the hardware. There's uncertainty about the content. Who the hell's making the games?"
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It's been well established by now that things are tough in the games industry at the moment. Rather than future growth, many business leaders are focused on ensuring their business simply survives through 2024, with the ongoing wave of mass layoffs and closures a sign of how many are struggling.
For developers, that survival often relies on securing funding but, as investors have already told us, the bar for success when pitching has been raised much higher. Studios around the world are having trouble landing the capital they need to continue their current projects – and for some, including Deliver Us The Moon developer Keoken Interactive, time is running out.
]]>Gaming software firm Balancy has raised $700,000 in a funding round led by mobile industry veterans.
As reported by Pocket Gamer, the funds raised will be used to grow Balancy's software as service platform, and its ability to aid small and mid-size studios to run and monetise live service games.
The company received investment from SplitMetrics CEO Max Kamenkov, Zariba Group and Casualino founder Radostin Petrov, Venison and Braavo Capital CEO Sergei Kovalenko, and former vice president of development at World of Warcraft Seth Sivak.
]]>Epic Games has announced new pricing for its Unreal Engine for developers outside the gaming industry.
As detailed in a blog post, when Unreal 5.4 engine is launched in late April, Epic will introduce a new "seat-based" subscription for industries outside game development.
The annual cost of this subscription is $1,850 per user, providing access to Epic's Unreal Engine, its real-time visualisation tool Twinmotion, and photogrammetry software RealityCapture.
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In 2023, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 64% of consumer spending on mobile games.
That's according to a new report from data analyst firm Global Data, which says that the sector generated $124 billion.
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Keywords Studios, Active Fence, Take This, and Modulate have formed the Gaming Safety Coalition.
The alliance intends to make online gaming safer and foster more mental well-being practices.
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In February, the Nintendo Switch moved 191,000 units across its three models in Japan.
Famitsu's monthly retail sales data from January 29 to February 25 shows that by comparison, Sony's PlayStation 5 console reached 147,000 systems sold during the month.
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Apple has made further changes to its business terms in the European Union, now allowing developers to distribute their iOS apps via their own websites in addition to the App Store.
The updated rules, spotted by MobileGamer.biz, will apply to any developers who sign up to the new business terms introduced in response to the EU's Digital Markets Act, which, among other things, aims to open up closed ecosystems such as iOS.
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Former Naughty Dog, Id Software, and Activision developers have established Empty Vessel.
Based in Texas, Empty Vessel will be overseen by CEO and game director Emanuel Palalic. Alongside him, COO and general manager Garrett Young will lead the studio.
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Experienced veterans from EA's Respawn studio have formed a new AAA team called Giant Skull.
The developer is led by Stig Asmussen, who is best known as the game director for 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Giant Skull has an office in LA, although employs people from around the world.
]]>Goblin Stone, the debut title from Orc Chop Games, has two stories behind it. The narrative of the game itself is of innocent goblins turning the tables on the adventurers that so frequently invade their home, inverting a typical fantasy trope.
The story behind the game, meanwhile, is one of a married couple forming a new studio on the success of their mobile zombie game and moving from the US to the Philippines.
Co-founders Vince and Susan McDonnell first hit was Zombie Farm, a mobile title they self-published under former studio The Playforge. The revenue it generated enabled Vince to pursue a long dreamed-of career in console games development, forming a new studio with Susan to make a different type of game.
]]>Stellar Blade developer Shift Up has filed to go public on the Korea Stock Exchange.
As reported by Game World Observer, Shift Up filed an application on March 5, with more than 58 million shares due to be issued. 7.25 million shares will be up for sale during the initial public offering, valued at ?200 ($0.15) per share.
The application (as translated by Google Translate) showed sales reaching ?66 billion ($50 million) for the Korean developer, but net profit in the negative – while it's unclear which period this covers, the company reported loss of ?7.13 billion ($5.4 million).
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Starbreeze is undergoing a change of leadership, with CEO Tobias Sjögren stepping down and board member Juergen Goeldner named as his interim replacement.
The Payday developer announced today that Goeldner has taken leadership of the company with immediate effect, and the search for a new permanent CEO has begun.
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New research from Take This says that 54% of minors from ages 13 to 17 say it's essential to feel safe from harassment in gaming spaces.
The data compiled by Nielsen comes from a survey of 2,408 people who play games.
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Warner Bros. Games will be officially launching MultiVersus on May 28.
Developed by Player First Games, the free-to-play platform fighter stars characters such as Garnet from Steven Universe, Harley Quinn, and Lebron James.
]]>The latest GamesIndustry.biz Microcast is now live, with Chris Dring and James Batchelor offering a quick dive into the biggest stories from across the business of video games.
This week, we discuss Apple's short-lived ban on Epic Games' developer account, which would have prevented both the return of Fortnite to iOS and the launch of Epic's app store. Far from being another chapter in the ongoing Epic vs Apple saga, this is part of the iOS firm's ongoing efforts to resist the European Union and its new regulations, such as the Digital Markets Act.
We also discuss the $2.4 million settlement between Nintendo and the makers of Switch emulator Yuzu, and Warner Bros' comments about the volatility of the console space and how live service games more than "one-and-done" titles like Hogwarts Legacy may be the answer.
]]>The former director of Loaded's games team has launched Beck Interactive Partners, a developer representation firm.
Alex Beck founded the company to connect developers and influencers, with a focus on emerging studios and games in the early stages of development to generate interest up to launch.
"A rapidly growing number of today's creators [...] want to be advocates and partners, curating relationships with studios where they aren't simply contracted to play and stream a studio's game for short term gain, but invest personally in its long-term success," said Beck.
]]>Fan demakes are a popular genre on platforms like itch.io. They distil the essence of a beloved IP and marry it to the limitations of older platforms to create something entirely new.
Given that can only be done by someone with deep knowledge of both the IP and older consoles these demakes are love letters from fans or the official developers of the original title.
But some love letters are unwanted by their recipients. In late January 2024, Lilith Walther, the developer behind a Bloodborne PSX demake, announced the Bloodborne name was to be scrubbed from the team's follow-up following "contact" from IP owner Sony. It was a reminder that, even when demakes are meant as a tribute, the rights to the title remain with their original holders.
]]>Nintendo has announced a new Mario animated film set to release on April 3, 2026 in the US.
A sequel to the 2023 hit, it will be led by the exact same team: produced by Illumination's CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo's representative director Shigeru Miyamoto, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, and written by Matthew Fogel, the announcement said.
The Super Mario Bros Movie released in April last year, breaking box office records on its opening weekend by generating $204.6 million in the US and $377 million globally.
]]>New AAA game developer Deviation Games is closing, the studio announced.
It was formed in 2020 by Jason Blundell and Dave Anthony, two development veterans best known for the Call of Duty: Black Ops franchise. By 2021 it had over 100 employees, and the studio signed a deal with PlayStation to create an original AAA IP for the company. But the project hit challenges. Blundell left the developer in 2022, and then in May last year the company went through a significant round of lay-offs.
"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games," chief HR and operations officer Kriste Stull announced on LinkedIn. "I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of you.
]]>Another swath of Activision QA workers has unionized, as the Communication Workers of America announced today that Microsoft has voluntarily recognized a union for workers at Activision Central Quality Assurance.
Approximately 600 employees in California, Texas, and Minnesota will be represented by the union, which the CWA says makes it the largest group of union-represented workers at any US gaming company.
CWA now represents more than 1,000 Microsoft employees between this union and previous organized workers at Zenimax QA, Blizzard Albany, and Raven Software.
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Warner Bros. Discovery is removing titles from its Adult Swim Games label on digital stores.
As reported by Polygon, developers are being informed that their games are being retired, such as Michael Molinari, developer of Soundodger+.
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Apple has promised the European Commission it will reinstate Epic Games' developer account, removing the block against the Fortnite firm's upcoming iOS app store.
That's according to an update from Epic Games, which amended its original post regarding the ban, noting that plans for the new Epic Games Store and the return of Fortnite are moving forward.
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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.
Warner Bros Discovery's gaming division had a pretty great year in 2023, thanks in large part to the success of Hogwarts Legacy, which was the first non-Call of Duty, non-Rockstar-developed game to finish the year atop the Circana/NPD Group's best-sellers list since Rock Band did it in 2008.
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Akira Toriyama, the manga artist behind the franchise Dragon Ball, has died aged 68.
The news was announced by Bird Studio, his production studio, which said that he passed away from acute subdural hematoma on March 1.
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Looked at from the perspective of the games industry, it’s easy to imagine that this week’s new twists and turns in Apple’s legal saga are all about its endless feud with Epic – a corporate slapfight which is now reaching levels of acidic pettiness that give the most melodramatic Eighties-era TV serials a run for their money. (If you’d like to go into the weekend with the mental image of the Tims, Cook and Sweeney alike, dressed to kill in Dynasty-style shoulderpads and gloriously permed wigs and shooting daggers at one another across a cocktail party; well, you’re welcome. Or, sorry? Or perhaps both.)
On the eve of the European Union’s new rules forcing Apple to open up the iOS software ecosystem coming into force, the company announced that Epic’s developer account was being shut down, as it had proven itself to be untrustworthy in the past and thus allowing it to run a third-party app store would be an unacceptable risk. Oh, the shade of it all! That’s the kind of killer line that lets you end an episode on a lingering shot of Cook’s smirk, confident that the audience will tune in next week to see how Sweeney will get his own back. Seriously though – fetch them their wigs and gowns, because forcing the two billionaires into a Dynasty re-enactment would be both more entertaining and more impactful than the actual tiresome feud we’ve been enduring for the past couple of years.
]]>The UKIE Video Game Awards 2024 took place last night, with Sad Owl Studios' Viewfinder taking home UK Game of the Year alongside best console game.
Sports Interactive's Football Manager 24 won best PC game, while Ustwo Games' Desta: The Memories Between received the award for best mobile game followed by FuturLab's PowerWash Simulator VR for best mixed reality game.
Sumo Digital won the accolade for best developer and Secret Mode took home the award for best publisher. Bonsai Games was named Rising Star, an award sponsored by GamesIndustry.biz.
]]>Brain Jar Games has raised $6.7 million in a seed funding round, which the studio plans to put towards its debut project Dead as Disco.
As reported by Games Beat, the funding round was led by Transcend Fund and Menlo Ventures in addition to 1UP Ventures.
Brain Jar Games also received funds from other advisors and angel investors, including former Harmonix COO Chris Rigopulos, Oculus co-founder Nate Mitchell, Pragma CEO Eden Chen, and Xsolla president David Stelzer.
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
Every single studio we talked to at Africa Games Week mentioned it at some point, and shared their own story of how the studio helped them, worked with them, or simply encouraged them: Free Lives is not only the poster child for the South African industry, but also undoubtedly a powerhouse in supporting all of those that have followed in its footsteps.
Finally meeting Free Lives managing director Dominique Gawlowski, we mention this status and what led the studio to be in this trailblazer position.
]]>2.77 million video games were sold in the UK during February, a drop of 5.5% over the year before.
This is based on data from GSD, which tracks digital game sales from most major publishers, and all physical sales. The notable absent game from the charts is Palworld, because the game's developer isn’t included in the GSD system.
The 5.5% drop last month is actually an impressive result, because last year saw the blockbuster launch of Hogwarts Legacy, which was one of the biggest game releases of the year.
]]>Industry veterans Tina Merry and Carina Kom have formed a new studio, Simply Sweet Games.
Headquartered in British Columbia, Canada, Simply Sweet Games is a fully remote studio that is currently developing its inaugural mobile title – the roguelike word puzzle Criss Cross Castles.
Merry and Kom have over thirty years of experience in AAA, mobile, and indie game development. Merry worked at Electronic Arts for nearly 15 years as a development director, having overseen development and shipping of titles such as FIFA, Need for Speed, and Battlefield.
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Unknown 9 is not the first video games IP to launch with a transmedia strategy, nor will it be the last. But it is perhaps the most ambitious the industry has seen in some considerable time.
The series is the brainchild of Montreal-based developer Reflector Entertainment, which Bandai Namco acquired in October 2020. While Reflector had already released an Unknown 9 comic, a dramatised podcast, and a novel before it was purchased, the story will truly kick off with the launch of action-adventure game Unknown 9: Awakening, which launches on consoles and PC this summer.
]]>The best time to remake a video game is when it's between 11 and 20 years old, according to data from IDG Consulting and Strategic Game Consulting.
The data comes from a White Paper discussing the opportunities and challenges associated with remasters and remakes, and it looked at over 200 remakes and remasters released since 2012 and how well they sold. In terms of remakes, games released between 11 and 15 years after their original performed best, followed shortly by games released between 16 and 20 years ago.
Out of the remakes released between 11 and 15 years ago after their initial release, 70% of them have gone on to sell over two million copies, while that number rises to 80% for games based on 16 to 20-year-old titles. By contrast, just 32% of remakes from games 21 to 25 years old have reached two million units.
]]>It’s no secret that game development has seen a massive expansion in scope in recent years.
What would have once taken a development team three or four years to make now requires much more people, and four to six years to ship. This is not only due to the size of the games, but also the complexity and expertise involved in making cutting-edge titles.
External development has become increasingly popular in recent years, with companies outsourcing parts of development to third parties. At the same time, distributed development is another model that sees a variety of teams working collectively on the same project worldwide. By unifying development and project management, studios can tap into global teams with diverse skill sets and talents beyond geographical boundaries – saving studios precious time, money and resources.
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
A pillar of the South African video games industry, Sea Monster Entertainment occupies a different space compared to some of its counterparts, as a work-for-hire studio specialising in games for marketing and 'serious gaming'.
CEO Glenn Gillis describes the studio as an "impact gaming company."
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
Limpho Moeti has been in the South African games industry for almost eight years, starting out at Free Lives and working her way up as she fell in love with the industry and with production, she tells GamesIndustry.biz.
She helped create and run Cape Town-based games event Playtopia as deputy festival director for almost five years, then moved on to Semblance developer Nyamakop (whom we talked to earlier this week) to do production and business development for over three years, as the studio grew from three people to roughly 25.
]]>Original Story, Wednesday March 6, 2024: Apple has blocked Epic's bid to launch Epic Games Store and Fortnite on iOS devices because it doesn't trust the games giant.
Epic had its 'Epic Games Sweden AB' developer account approved by Apple last month, which paved the way for Epic Games Store and Fortnite hit the platform. The move followed the introduction of the Digital Markets Act in Europe which, amongst other things, requires Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS.
Epic says the move "is a serious violation of the DMA and shows Apple has no intention of allowing true competition on iOS devices."
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Game developer Rocket Science has unveiled a new co-development firm, Atomic Theory.
It will provide studios with in-game development and UI/UX engineering services.
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Eggnut Games has announced that it has shut down on social media.
In the announcement, the studio attributed the decision to complications in funding.
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A cohort of industry professionals has unveiled a new game publisher, Rock It Games.
The company aims to work with independent game makers and IP holders to provide consumers with indie and retro titles.
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Mattel, the toy firm behind Barbie, has announced that it will self-publish mobile titles.
In an interview with GamesBeat, global head of digital gaming, Mike DeLaet, said that announcements for the company's self-published games will begin later in 2024.
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Today's Xbox Partner Preview featured reveals, launches, and a showcase of games planned for 2024.
Among the newer third party games shown was Inverge Studios' Creatures of Ava. The non-violent title will have players take on the role of a creature saver on a distant planet. Its planned release window is 2024.
]]>Warner Bros. Discovery is shutting down its Rooster Teeth division, according to a Variety report.
The closure of the gaming and entertainment brand will result in layoffs for 150 full-time employees, with additional contractors and content creators losing a source of income as well.
The outlet obtained a memo sent to staff earlier today by Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin, who attributed the closure to "challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage."
]]>A new chart from the Entertainment and Retail Association has revealed the digital and physical sales splits for the 20 best-selling games in the UK.
The data is based on GSD and GfK figures, and shows that there is still a substantial number of games sold via physical stores.
EA Sports FC 24, which was the best-selling game in the UK last year, sold 2.395 million units in 2023. 67.2% of the sales (1.61 million) came via PlayStation Network, Steam, Xbox Live and Nintendo eShop, while 786,000 (32.8%) came via physical outlets, including Amazon, GAME and Tesco.
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Glow Up Games is one of the first all-women-of-color companies to have raised over $1.5 million in funding.
This was revealed by co-founder Dr. Mitu Khandaker on stage at DICE 2024 during the studio's keynote, where she explained that the five years since the studio's establishment has been a multifaceted learning lesson for development and creative intention.
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Capcom has announced it is increasing all employees' salaries in the coming financial year.
The Japanese publisher said that it plans to raise pay by an average of over 5% in fiscal year 2024 (twelve months ending March 31, 2025).
]]>Australian studio Torus has laid off its team and will be on a hiatus for the foreseeable future.
The news was initially reported by journalist Jack Ryan on social media, with founder Bill McIntosh then telling GamesIndustry.biz that the company "is not winding up yet" and that a decision will be made about whether or not it'll shut down definitely later this year depending on 2024 "plays out."
"All employees were given a month’s notice after returning to work early January," McIntosh told us. "The hope was that, during the notice period, we could have gotten at least one of the projects in discussion greenlit. That never happened and half the team went at the end of January.
]]>Spearhead Games is ending production of Unforetold: Witchstone, which launched on January 4, and is laying off the majority of its staff.
In a statement shared on LinkedIn, the Montreal-based developer said production on the game will end indefinitely on March 8, as will its Discord server.
"The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialise have put us in a difficult position," it said.
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Thunderful's SteamWorld series continues to leap from genre to genre with each release, and the company's Brjánn Sigurgeirsson said this stems from a fear of reiterating the same game following the team's experience as a work-for-hire studio.
Speaking at Hamburg Games Conference yesterday, Sigurgeirsson took attendees through the history of the acclaimed SteamWorld series, as well as the company that makes it, and offered advice on how to build a lasting and adaptable franchise.
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
So far during this South Africa Games Week special, we've highlighted some established studios – Nyamakop, 24 Bit Games, as well as Sea Monster Entertainment and Free Lives to be published later this week – and a more recent studio founded by South African industry veterans (Six Peaks Games).
Studio Bolland on the other hand, represents the new wave. The animation studio, founded in 2014 in Cape Town and currently employing ten people, made its first foray into game development in 2023 and hasn't shipped a commercial game yet.
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
After seven years in business, Annapurna Interactive made its very first acquisition last year: South African studio 24 Bit Games. While seeing Annapurna jump onto the M&A bandwagon might seem surprising, this specific acquisition makes a lot of sense considering the very close relationship between the two companies.
"Annapurna and 24 Bit have been working together since 2019," says 24 Bit COO Pieter Koornhof. "We initially started doing a bit of light porting work for some of their clients – Fulbright Interactive would have been the first one, with Gone Home. And then, when you work with a studio that has a publishing unit, you invariably work with the publisher. And we saw a good cultural fit from the start. We started [porting] a lot of their more popular games, and just over time, the relationship grew. Then there were hints dropped about forging a stronger commercial relationship, and we played coy.
]]>The gaming business of Warner Bros. Discovery has been historically focused on AAA console games, but the company's CEO and president of global streaming and games JB Perrette wants to change that.
As reported by GameSpot, Perrette shared a bit about his vision for the gaming business yesterday at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference, starting with a nod toward mixed reality headsets and the metaverse.
"We see the world and whether it be VR devices, the Vision Pro, the virtual world, who knows exactly how it evolves, but certainly those types of platforms are only going to increase in scale and adoption," Perrette said. "And having 11 owned studios where we're not just a publisher of games but actually a developer of games, we think is a differentiative asset for us."
]]>Atlus' Persona series has sold over 22.6 million copies
]]>Before we begin, big thanks to Crepuscular Fluffle designer Merlijn Eskens for answering the last column's call for a sheep picture so I had an excuse to use this column's headline. It is very much appreciated.
Unfortunately, I have to admit this headline is pure clickbait. As it stands right now, the threat of continued bleatings is an empty one. It has no teeth. No fangs, beaks, tails, or claws, dew or otherwise. Not even those cute little toe beans.
What I'm trying to say is that we have gone through our backlog of pet pictures, and I am once again asking for your zoological support.
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On this week's GI Microcast, Remedy's Thomas Puha said finding the best launch window for your game is harder than ever, as there's no telling what else will launch alongside you and which of those titles will steal the most attention.
His comments came as part of a conversation looking at our interview with Ascendent Studios' Bret Robbins, who observed that the company's debut title Immortals of Aveum may have launched at the wrong time due to its proximity to Baldur's Gate 3, which became a smash hit last August.
]]>Outward developer Nine Dots Studio has announced its plan to publish third-party games, with the launch of Nine Dots Publishing.
Speaking to GamesBeat, Nine Dots CEO Guillaume Boucher-Vidal said the studio will continue developing and publishing its own games, but will partner with other studios to publish their titles.
The Quebec-based studio said it planned to invest $1 million to $2.5 million in publishing projects, with a focus on console and PC titles.
]]>Temtem developer Crema has announced it will be dropping microtransactions from the game this June.
In an open letter shared on Steam, the Spanish developer acknowledged player feedback and addressed issues including microtransactions and monetisation.
"We understand the monetisation system on Temtem was deemed out of place for a lot of players, with our game not following the traditional rules of a live-service game," it wrote.
]]>NetEase released its financials results for 2023, with the Chinese gaming firm experiencing growth across the board – particularly in its games division.
The firm's overall revenue rose to RMB 103.5 billion ($14.6 billion) from RMB 96.5 billion ($13.4 billion), which represented a growth of 7.2% increase year-over-year.
Profit rose 19.5% to RMB 63.1 billion ($8.9 billion) in 2023, compared to RMB 52.8 billion ($7.3 billion) the previous year.
]]>You can read all our South Africa Games Week articles on this page.
Nyamakop, arguably one of the most well known studios within South Africa, was founded in 2016, initially as a business endeavour to turn a university project into a commercial game, which became 2018's Semblance.
"We co-founded the studio with [Naughty Dog veteran] Judd Simantov, who's South African," CEO and creative director of Nyamakop, Ben Myres, tells GamesIndustry.biz. "He saw our final year project and was like, 'You should make this into a commercial project'. [Semblance] was the first African-developed IP on any Nintendo console ever. Since then, we've been working on our unannounced next project, which is very large and very tiring," he smiles.
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