The Art Of Struggle.

Apple has been hit with a permanent injunction that will prevent it from prohibiting links to third-party payment options on the App Store as a result of the Epic v. Apple lawsuit.

As reported by The Verge, the injunction was issued by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in a bid to increase competition and transparency, and will seemingly allow developers to more effectively highlight alternative payment methods on the App Store -- and in some cases, in applications themselves.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/epic-v-apple-case-results-in-permanent-injunction-that-could-pry-open-the-app-store

full documents

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21060631/apple-epic-judgement.pdf

Valve has announced that the Steam Deck Dev Kit request form is now open for developers.

Valve dropped the announcement and request form over in the Steamworks forum, informing developers that Dev Kit supplies are limited, and they’ll be reviewing requests on a case-by-case basis.

Developers interested in acquiring a kit and developing software specifically for the platform can link with other developers on the Steam Deck forum.

If you’re working on a game for Steam right now and are trying to determine if you need a Dev Kit—you should definitely remember that Valve has promised most games will work on the platform thanks to Proton, which allows many Windows games to run on the Linux-based Steam OS that powers the Steam Deck.

Valve has said that “most games” tested on the Steam Deck are running fine and at 30 frames per second, but cross-checking websites like ProtonDB does show that some games aren’t properly optimized to run on the OS at this moment.

So if you’re itching for that Dev Kit, you can request one from Valve here.

It was a challenging first half for the fiscal year of 2021 for CD Projekt. But even after enduring a rough launch for Cyberpunk 2077 and the subsequent delisting of the game from the PlayStation digital store, the Polish parent company of CD Projekt Red and GOG.com still turned a profit—albeit a smaller one than the same period in 2020.

Per its financial report for the six month period ending June 30 2021, CD Projekt’s revenue rose from 344 million PLN in the first half of 2020 (about $89 million) to 470.6 million PLN (about $123.6 million) in the same half this year.

CD Projekt leadership also stated that it’s aiming to have versions of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 available for PS5 and the Xbox Series X|S available by year’s end.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/cd-projekt-revenues-rise-profits-slide-in-rough-first-half-of-2021

Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Grand Theft Automaker Rockstar Games, has filed a lawsuit against the modders who reverse engineered Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City.

As spotted by Rockstar Intel, the lawsuit claims the mod team deliberately "sought unlawfully to copy, adapt, and distribute to the public infringing source code for two classicGTA titles."

It adds that both projects, better known as 're3' and 'reVC,' are evidence of copyright infringement as they enable players to install and run GTA III and Vice City on multiple platforms, including those on which they never saw an official release, and feature unofficial enhancements.

Lawsuit

https://github.com/GTAmodding/re3

This change apparently went into effect in 2020 but was noticed yesterday by AskAboutGames editor Andy Robinson while reviewing the rating for inkle’s latest interactive story game Overboard. Overboard is a reverse murder-mystery simulator where the player attempts to get away with murder on a cruise ship.

The game does feature mild violence, suggestively sexual themes, and depictions of alcohol use. But a scene where you can play Blackjack with another character caused the ratings board to apply a PEGI-18 rating to the game.

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/gambling-in-your-game-will-now-automatically-land-it-a-pegi-18-rating

Longtime BioWare general manager Casey Hudson has revealed his next adventure after departing the Mass Effect studio last year. That new project? A new game development studio with a small, agile team and flat organization structure at its center.

Hudson unveiled Humanoid Studios, today, teasing the new company as something "built to unleash the creative freedom of developers - bringing innovation and artistry to players through an all-new IP."

As to what that new IP is, Hudson and Humanoid are keeping that quiet for now. However, while the website is light on information, job listings for a number of vacancies the fledgling studio hopes to fill offer more insight into its goals.

"Humanoid Studiosis a new videogame company founded on the axiom that creative freedom and independence lead to better, more innovative games. We believe in the power of small, agile teams, and a flat organizational structure, where everyone is empowered to make decisions and help drive the project vision," explains one listing.

More on Humanoid, and those vacant positions, can be found here.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384323/Casey_Hudsons_new_Humanoid_Studios_focuses_on_the_charm_of_small_agile_teams.php

Vela Games, the Dublin-based studio established in 2018 by a group of former Riot and EA developers, has raised $17.3 million in Series A funding to build out its debut title.

The funding round was led by Novator with additional investment from Ubisoft and LVP, and will allow Vela to continue working on 'Project-V,' its codenamed debut release that's being pitched as a skill-based co-operative experience in the newly defined 'Multiplayer Online Co-Operative' (MOCO) genre.

Vela had previously raised $6.9 million to build a 25-person development team to refine its design, and the latest funding round comes after the company successfully launched its first public play testing period earlier this year.

The new investment will allow Vela to continue expanding its team, with the company having added talent from Blizzard, Epic, Riot, and Moon Studios in recent months, while also providing financial support ahead of a secondary test phase later this year.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384279/Vela_Games_raises_173_million_to_create_debut_coop_title_codenamed_ProjectV.php

June 30, 2021 | ByChris Kerr

A group of former Riot Games developers have established a new studio called Amihan Entertainment.

Amihan co-founder Naomi McArthur, formerly a senior game designer at Riot, broke the news on social media and explained she'll be leading the design on the nascent studio's debut title.

McArthur established Amihan alongside Kenneth Liu, who'll be serving as company CEO and previously worked as revenue lead at Riot, and Paul Loy, a former Riot technology lead who'll now be working as Amihan's chief technology officer.

According to Amihan's company page on Linkedin, the team will be focused on developing "uplifting, lifelong games" for everyone and will be a fully remote enterprise.

"Started by a trio of ex-Riot co-founders, Amihan is an early, venture-backed game studio that aims to craft uplifting, lifelong games for all humans," it reads. "Our work-from-anywhere team is 100 percent fully remote, and we truly champion the idea that diversity of experience empowers us to build world-class IP."

McArthur has promised to share more details about Amihan soon, but for now posted some early concept art online (shown below).

Room 8 Group has opened a new studio in Canada to provide creative, development, and management services to development partners working on free-to-play mobile titles and console games.

The video game holding company provides external development support to studios worldwide, and has worked on notable projects includingControl, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and World of Tanks.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384394/Room_8_Group_opens_Montreal_studio_to_offer_external_support_to_more_developers.php

June 30, 2021 | By Chris Kerr

A number of developers appear to be speaking out about the quality of support (or lack thereof) from Sony in regards to pricing and placing games on the PlayStation store.

As with all things happening on Twitter you have to pick through a few threads to find the key details, but the gist is this: numerous developers are alleging that Sony offers little support when indie developers want to put their games on sale or meaningfully promote their game in the PlayStation store at launch.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384410/Developers_express_ire_over_PlayStations_promotional_policies.php

Turkish mobile studio Dream Games has raised $155 million in Series B funding to continue supporting its debut title, Royal Match.

The latest funding round was led by Index Ventures and Makers Fund, and means Dream is now valued at $1 billion. The Istanbul-based company was established by a group of former Peak Games employees in 2019 and had already raised $50 million in March this year.

Dream CEO and co-founder Soner Aydemir explained the cash will be used to "grow [Royal Match] everywhere," with the match-3 puzzler having climbed into the top-20 grossing charts in the UK, US, and Germany within three months of launch while also racking up over 6 million monthly active users.

"We are very focused on making great games that appeal to all types of players across the globe," said Aydemir. "We are very proud of the early success of Royal Match and will utilize the investment to grow the game everywhere. We are very excited about our investors’ confidence in the potential for Dream Games."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384428/Mobile_studio_Dream_Games_nets_155_million_in_funding_at_1_billion_valuation.php

Wildlife Studios has opened a new Los Angeles studio called Foxbear Games that will be led by former Marvel Strike Forcegame director Jonathan Durr.

The mobile game company explained that Foxbear will operate independently and work to create RPG titles that bring different audiences to the genre.

The news comes a few months after Wildlife opened two other studios in Never Forget Games and SuperWow Games, meaning the company now has three in-house studios under its umbrella.

Source

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384437/Wildlife_taps_former_Marvel_Strike_Force_director_to_lead_new_studio_Foxbear_Games.php

July 1, 2021 | ByChris Kerr

Drop Fake, a new studio helmed by former EA vice president Katherine de Leon, has raised $9 million to develop multiplayer social games that move people, starting with a cross-platform 4X strategy title for PC and mobile.

As reported by GamesBeat, the studio was established with the remit of championing authenticity and diversity in both its game projects and company culture.

Source:

July 1, 2021 | ByChris Kerr

he makers of VRChat have picked up $80 million in funding in a round of Series D investments led by Anthos Capital, with participation from Makers Fund, GFR Fund, and other investors.

Per a press release, the company said it intends to build on the services currently used by over 40,000 concurrent users.

The $80M will be used to “expedite development of a creator economy,” develop a “social discovery system for more meaningful experiences,” and expand the software to other VR platforms.

VRChat has stood out as a somewhat unexpected success in the VR World—it’s not a game, but a social space where users can goof around and socialize using custom-made, sometimes copyright-skirting avatars.

The platform has risen to mainstream attention on a number of occasions—including after the 2020 election—where a group of users recreated the site of former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s ill-fated election press conference in the parking lot of Four Seasons Landscaping in Philadelphia.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384176/VRChat_scoops_up_80_million_in_funding_with_help_from_Anthos_Capital.php

Mobile developers will soon be able to reach PC audiences with little added effort on their part thanks to a new feature announced for Microsoft's upcoming operating system, Windows 11.

For the first time, Windows will allow its users to download and run Android apps directly to their PC via the official Microsoft store app launching with Windows 11. Interestingly, Android-maker Google doesn't seem to be particularly involved in the process.

Instead, the Microsoft Store will directly host games and apps from the Amazon Appstore, Amazon's partially third-party storefront most commonly seen on Android and Amazon's own Fire devices.

June 24, 2021 | By Alissa McAloon

Microsoft has told The Verge a new policy change that allows Microsoft Store developers to keep 100 percent of revenue from payments made via their own or third-party systems won't apply to video games.

Yesterday we noted that Microsoft would be allowing developers to use their own or third-party commerce platforms within the redesigned Microsoft Store without paying Microsoft any fees -- essentially letting them keep every single drop of revenue if they choose to go that route.

While it's still a notable policy change, the Xbox maker has confirmed that game developers won't be able to take advantage of it when it comes into effect on July 28, although the company didn't offer an explanation as to why.

It's an interesting stance given Microsoft recently outlined plans to offer Microsoft Store game developers an 88 percent revenue share from August 1, 2020,  marking a fairly sizeable increase on the 70 percent split it currently offers.

At the time, Xbox Games Studios head Matt Booty said the upswing was designed to encourage developers to "bring more games to more players, and find commercial success from doing so."

That policy, however, wasn't extended to game developers on Xbox consoles, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggesting that higher platform fees make sense on consoles because the hardware itself is being subsidized by Microsoft.

Source

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384131/Everybody_but_game_devs_can_earn_more_on_the_Microsoft_Store_starting_July_28.php

June 25, 2021 | By Chris Kerr

Two leakers have been told to pay The Pokemon Company a sizable $150,000 each in damages along with attorneys' fees after taking and uploading photographs of an unreleased Pokemon Sword and Shield strategy guide to the internet back in 2019.

As reported by Polygon, The Pokemon Company initially filed the lawsuit because the leaks revealed some unannounced features and information including the Gigantamax forms of certain Pokemon.

The company was unsure who was responsible for the leaks when it filed the suit, but after an investigation has named the culprits as Bryan Garcia Cruz and David Andino Maisonave, the latter of whom worked at the company hired to print copies of the strategy guide, LSC Communications.

"Defendant (David Andino Maisonave) took pictures of The Pokemon Company's unreleased strategy guide on or about November 1, 2019. Defendant shared the illicit pictures of the strategy guide with a friend who also knew defendant Bryan Garcia Cruz," reads a court filing.

"Defendant's friend shared the pictures of the Strategy Guide in a group chat that included Mr. Cruz. Mr. Cruz then posted the pictures taken by Defendant on the Internet."

In its original lawsuit, The Pokemon Company said the leaks -- which spread around the internet despite being met with takedown requests -- had resulted in actual damages, lost profits, and reputational damage.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383988/Pokemon_leakers_told_to_pay_150000_each_in_damages_to_The_Pokemon_Company.php

June 23, 2021 | ByChris Kerr

Microsoft has quietly announced that its special refund provisions for CD Projekt Red's infamous Cyberpunk 2077are coming to a close due to improvements made to the game since its catastrophic December launch.

The Xbox maker, along with PlayStation and CD Projekt itself, rolled out a special refund policy following Cyberpunk 2077's debut in late 2020 when it was rapidly discovered that the console versions of the game weren't functioning nearly as well as advertised.

According to a support page update, Cyberpunk 2077will instead start to use the company's standard refund policy for digital games as of July 6.

"The team at CD Projekt Red continues to work hard to improve the experience of Cyberpunk 2077for Xbox players and has made a number of updates," reads Microsoft's note. "Given these updates, Microsoft will be returning to our standard digital game refund policy for Cyberpunk 2077 on July 6 for both new and existing purchases."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384036/Microsofts_special_Cyberpunk_2077_refund_policy_ends_July_6.php

June 23, 2021 | ByAlissa McAloon

Steam's regional pricing feature allows devs to sell games for different prices depending on where the purchaser is located, a utility that aims to scale each game's price to better match income in different countries throughout the world.

While the system makes buying reasonably priced games a possibility for people in countries where $60 USD is an unreasonable sum, the well-intended feature also makes it possible for Steam users to purchase games way below the going rate for their actual country of residence.

Steam's latest change aims to make regional pricing much harder to abuse by decreasing how many times Steam users can change their account's location.

Changes spotted by the folks at SteamDB note that, moving forward, an account's country can only be changed once every 3 months. This follows other changes over the years meant to cut down on unscrupulous use of regional pricing such as requiring an account's location to match that of its payment method.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/384037/Steams_latest_change_aims_to_prevent_buyers_from_gaming_regional_pricing.php

June 23, 2021 | ByAlissa McAloon

The Walt Disney Corporation’s Games division is apparently signaling that it’s open licensing its characters and settings to a broader group of game developers.

In a conversation with IGN’s Rebekah Valentine, Disney SVP of Walt Disney Games Sean Shoptaw & VP of Disney & Pixar Games Luigi Priore dropped some tantalizing comments both about unannounced upcoming titles, but also what kinds of developers the company is open to partnering with in the coming years.

Their comments seem to indicate the company is actively interested in fielding pitches from indie developers to make games using its characters, alongside larger triple-A licensors like Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.

Sources:

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383614/Disney_is_apparently_interested_in_indie_devs_using_its_IP.php

Article Author

June 16, 2021 | ByBryant Francis

Microsoft will use cloud streaming to prevent the Xbox One from becoming obsolete as games become reliant on next-gen hardware.

Outlining its future-proofing plans on the Xbox Wire blog, Microsoft said it intends to bring upcoming titles like Starfield, Redfall, and more (unveiled during its recent E3 conference) to last-generation consoles by tapping into Xbox Cloud Gaming technology.

The technology is already being used to let Xbox Game Pass subscribers play console titles on mobile devices, tablets, and browsers, so utilizing it to keep older console hardware in play feels like the logical next step.

"You’ll see many games this holiday, including Forza Horizon 5, which will boast DirectX Raytracing on both Xbox Series X and S, and Battlefield 2042, which will run at 60fps while supporting 128 players on Xbox Series X|S. Some games launching next year from our first-party studios and partners, such as Starfield, Redfall, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 require the speed, performance, and technology of Xbox Series X|S," said the company.

Sources

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383528/Microsoft_will_use_cloud_streaming_to_futureproof_the_Xbox_One.php

June 16, 2021 | By Chris Kerr

Next Fest, Steam's latest stab at an online demo event, is officially live on Steam with 500+ game demos now playable for the entirety of the week-long event, which runs June 16 to June 22.

Over 500 demos make for a lot of different games competing for player attention, but Next Fest looks to address those knee-jerk discoverability concerns by offering a bevy of tools designed to help players quickly gravitate toward games that align with their

Sources

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383592/Steams_Next_Fest_offers_up_500_game_demos_for_a_single_week.php

June 16, 2021 | ByAlissa McAloon

Rockstar will shut down Grand Theft Auto Online on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on December 16, 2021.

At this point you'd be forgiven for forgetting that the lucrative online mode actually debuted two console generations ago, having initially launched two weeks after the main game on October 1, 2013.

GTA Online evolved massively as it leaped across the hardware divide, eventually morphing into the revenue-inducing, soon-to-be-standalone experience we're familiar with today.

Sources

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383566/Rockstar_to_shut_down_PS3_and_Xbox_360_versions_of_GTA_Online_in_December.php

June 16, 2021 | ByChris Kerr

CD Projekt quietly announced Cyberpunk 2077's impending return to the PlayStation Store earlier today, but Sony wants to make sure players know the relisting does not mean the game runs flawlessly on PlayStation consoles.

Cyberpunk's absence from the PlayStation Store has been sorely felt over at CD Projekt, but until just recently it was unclear when the infamously buggy game would return to the PlayStation Store after Sony made the unprecedented decision to remove it within a week of its December 2020 launch.

Axios has an interview out with PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan today covering a number of different topics—and it includes one eye-catching quote about Cyberpunk 2077’s lack of presence on the PlayStation digital store.

Source:

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/383188/Delisting_Cyberpunk_was_in_the_interest_of_the_PlayStation_community.php

June 11, 2021 | ByBryant Francis

Over 20 million players have spent time with Respawn Entertainment’s single-player SoulsBourne-inspired Star Wars game.

EA generated $1.6 billion in revenue last year from just Ultimate Team modes

Monster Hunter Rise has shipped 7 million copies in two months

PS4 still expected top be primary revenue driver for PS Store in 2021

CD Projekt has named Gabriel Amatangelo as the new game director for Cyberpunk 2077.

The news comes after Cyberpunk'sformer game director Adam Badowski stepped down to focus on other leadership duties at the Polish company.

As reported by Reuters, Amatangelo joined CD Projekt in January 2020 as a creative director, and will now lead development on the title's upcoming expansion.

May 28, 2021 | By Chris Kerr

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/382373/CD_Projekt_has_appointed_a_new_Cyberpunk_2077_game_director.php

"It wasn’t that we felt we had to do Cuba, we realized it’s a complicated island and our game doesn’t want to make a political statement about what’s happening in Cuba specifically."

- Narrative director Navid Khavari shares a look at whereFar Cry 6 both does and doesn't borrow from reality.

Original Article by

May 28, 2021 | By Alissa McAloon

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/382386/Far_Cry_6_continues_Ubisofts_complicated_relationship_with_political_themes.php

Microsoft CEO: Higher platform fees make sense for game consoles

PlayStation Plus, the PlayStation brand's subscription for online multiplayer and monthly free game give-aways, is nearing 50 million subscribers.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/382189/PlayStation_Plus_gained_over_5_million_subscribers_in_the_last_year.php

Crystal Dynamics, the developers behind Tomb Raider and Marvel’s Avengers, has announced a new branch of the studio based out of Austin, Texas.

According to a post on Twitter, the new studio is headed by industry veteran Dallas Dickinson, and already includes a number of veteran Crystal Dynamics employees among its ranks.

Crystal Dynamics joins a number of high-profile companies making moves toward The Lone Star State, which has been seeing an influx of tech employees alongside broader population growth.

A mix of corporate tax incentives and relatively lower cost of living have encouraged many developers to make the move.

Companies setting up in Texas, including Crystal Dynamics, do face a number of notable long-term challenges operating in the state.

The Texas legislature has taken up several controversial bills in the last year, including an anti-transgender legislation that Gearbox weighed in on, and anti-abortion legislation that could impact the reproductive health of prospective employees.

That’s also not including the state’s half-handed response to a climate crisis-driven blizzard that shut down the state earlier this year.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/382193/Crystal_Dynamics_announces_new_Austinbased_Studio.php

ByBryant Francis

Epic Games has launched an early access version of Unreal Engine 5 to let developers begin testing features and start prototyping upcoming projects.

The early access build contains notable new features including a virtualized micropolgyon system called Nanite that lets users create games with "unprecedented amounts of geometric detail," and a new fully dynamic global illumination solution called Lumen (pictured below).

"Nanite intelligently streams and processes only the detail you can perceive, largely removing poly count and draw call constraints, and eliminating time-consuming tasks such as baking details to normal maps and manually authoring LODs -- freeing you up to concentrate on creativity," said Epic, outlining some of the flagship features.

https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/unreal-engine-5

“It feels like the company is just bleeding and taking punches, and realistically, the only thing that is gonna stop that is shippingDiablo 4orOverwatch 2."

- One anonymous Blizzard dev reflects on how a lull in releases has impacted studio morale.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381895/Burnout_release_drought_have_Blizzard_facing_down_dev_departures.php

Apple CEO Tim Cook finally took the stand during today's block of the Epic Games v. Apple trial, fielding questions about App Store curation, profit, and policies as Epic Games attempts to prove to the court that iOS is anticompetitive to the point that the legal system needs to step in.

Since much of Epic's accusations deal with how Apple conducts business through the App Store, Cook's testimony as Apple's boss is a crucial moment in a weeks-long trial that could have significant ramifications for digital storefronts that sell games and apps.

The ongoing Epic Games v. Apple trial continues to offer interesting and rare looks into how business is conducted for game industry and tech giants alike.

So far we've had behind-the-scenes peeks at things like the finances behind the Epic Games Store's free game giveaways (via Bloomberg), Microsoft's since-abandoned plans to reduce its cut of Xbox game sales, and, as of this week, a look at how much Apple made from Fortnite's time on the iOS App Store.

According to testimony from Apple's Michael Schmid this week, Apple generated somewhere over $100 million in revenue from Fortnite's time on its iOS App Store, though Apple dodged any attempts to specify exactly how much over $100 million it saw thanks to Fortnite.

While Fortnite is free to play, iOS and the App Store are set up so Apple receives a 30 percent cut of all revenue generated by apps on the platform, including revenue generated from in-game purchases of things like Fortnite's V-Bucks currency.

| By Alissa McAloon

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381794/Apple_saw_over_100_million_in_revenue_from_Fortnites_stint_on_the_App_Store.php

Microsoft has formed a 'strategic partnership' with Tencent-owned Honor of Kings developer Timi Studios to create new game content.

Announcing the collaboration in a translated press release, Timi explained it will be working with Microsoft's first-party Xbox Game Studios to "jointly create excellent game content" and bring new experiences to players.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381474/Xbox_partners_with_Tencentowned_Timi_Studios_to_create_new_game_content.php

Krafton, the South Korean holding company that owns PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has acquired mobile studio Dreamotion for an undisclosed fee.

Breaking the news in a press release (via Google Translate), the company said the deal will allow it to expand its mobile development capabilities, and was part of its plan to "further strengthen its global market penetration with independent studios with unique identity."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381460/PUBG_owner_Krafton_has_acquired_mobile_studio_Dreamotion.php

Today online communications platform Discord rolled out a new set of features and company strategy showcasing a new (but familiar) direction after a year of pandemic-adjacent growth.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381358/Discord_shows_off_Stages_discoverability_features_push_for_inclusivity.php

The pandemic-era trend of all-remote studios with triple-A alumni forges onward. Today a band of Epic Games & Blizzard Entertainment alumni announced the formation of Lightforge Games, a new all-remote studio dedicated to “changing how RPGs are played”

In a press release, CEO Matt Schrembi states that Lightforge Games has begun development on a cross-platform social video game where players “have the power to create worlds and tell stories with unprecedented freedom.”

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381349/Epic_Blizzard_alums_gather_to_form_allremote_studio_Lightforge_Games.php

Digital game marketplace and community Itch.io has announced its first Creator Day event for May 14, and will forgo its usual cut of game sales on the platform for the entire day as a celebration of its community.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381428/Itchios_first_Creator_Day_gives_devs_100_of_game_revenue_for_24_hours.php

https://itch.io/blog/252069/announcing-the-first-itchio-creator-day

Turkish mobile studio Ace Games has raised $7 million in seed funding to continue making casual and hyper casual titles.

As reported by TechCrunch, the Mix and Drink and Prison Lifedeveloper currently operates two studios and is currently working on a new casual 'hybrid puzzle' title that's due to launch globally in 2022.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381113/Turkish_mobile_studio_Ace_Games_raises_7_million_to_develop_new_casual_titles.php

 ByChris Kerr

Wolfire Games founder David Rosen claims they had "no choice" but to take legal action against Valve after the Steam creator allegedly began interfering with pricing on other storefronts.

The Overgrowthdeveloper filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve in April after taking issue with the "extraordinarily high cut of revenue" it takes from Steam developers. The lawsuit also called out Valve for allegedly using Steam to create an "unassailable" monopoly on PC game distribution.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381110/Wolfire_Games_founder_I_had_no_choice_but_to_file_Steam_antitrust_lawsuit_against_Valve.php

ByChris Kerr

Wolfire Games founder David Rosen claims they had "no choice" but to take legal action against Valve after the Steam creator allegedly began interfering with pricing on other storefronts.

The Overgrowthdeveloper filed an antitrust lawsuit against Valve in April after taking issue with the "extraordinarily high cut of revenue" it takes from Steam developers. The lawsuit also called out Valve for allegedly using Steam to create an "unassailable" monopoly on PC game distribution.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381110/Wolfire_Games_founder_I_had_no_choice_but_to_file_Steam_antitrust_lawsuit_against_Valve.php

ByChris Kerr

The organizers behind this year's virtual E3 have announced a handful of high-profile game makers that'll be in attendance at E3 2021 this June.

Given that E3 was undertaking an uphill battle to maintain its relevance in the eyes of companies like PlayStation before the COVID-19 pandemic, it's curious to see which studios are interested in using the first all-digital version of the once-landmark yearly event as a platform for their own announcements.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/381052/Square_Enix_Gearbox_Sega_and_more_confirm_E3_2021_presence.php

ByAlissa McAloon

Microsoft debated reducing revenue share on consoles as well as PC

Only weeks after chatting with Microsoft about a potential sale, Discord has forged a partnership with Sony and landed a minor investment from the PlayStation company in the process.

 original story By Alissa McAloon

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380790/Sony_invests_in_Discord_plans_to_integrate_Discord_into_PSN_next_year.php

Minecraft modders peddling wares through the game's official mod marketplace have made a combined $350 million off of their creations since the Mojang-sanctioned portal went live in 2017.

Riot Games has made a change to its Privacy Notice that allows it to record clips from Valorant's in-game voice communication, a change it says was made in order to better handle reports of disruptive behavior over voice channels in the future.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380732/Riot_will_retain_and_review_voice_chat_clips_as_part_of_Valorants_reporting_tools.php

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick reduces salary by 50% to $875K

PC devs will soon be offered an 88 percent revenue share on the Microsoft Store

Epic Games has announced it’s acquired visual art portfolio platform Artstation in yet another major acquisition for the makers of Unreal Engine.

The platform, which is used by game industry professionals as well as artists from other fields, has become well-known both for its wide proliferation of art portfolios as well as a brief but ill-fated flirtation with selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for art on the platform.

In a blog post, Epic Games wrote that “ArtStation will continue to operate as an independently branded platform while collaborating closely with the Unreal Engine team.”

The company also announced that it would be reducing ArtStation marketplace fees “so creators can get even more value from the platform.” Standard fees will drop from 30 percent to 12 percent, while Pro Members will see the fees drop from 20 percent to 8 percent, with 5 percent on self-promoted sales.

ArtStation Learning will also remain free to all users for the rest of 2021.

April 30, 2021 | By Bryant Francis

Outriders dev People Can Fly has acquired Illinois-based Phosphor Games for an undisclosed sum.

The studio broke the news today and added that the new addition is now officially a People Can Fly subsidiary and as such has been rebranded as People Can Fly Chicago. This makes the new Chicago branch the seventh location People Can Fly operates, including its HQ in Warsaw, Poland.

"With the variety of ongoing projects, we need well-seasoned, ambitious professionals to bring our flans to fruition," reads a statement from People Can Fly CEO Sebastian Wojciechowski. "Considering Phosphor's team experience and quality, I'm sure they will be a great addition to the PCF family and will facilitate our growth."

ByAlissa McAloon

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380387/People_Can_Fly_acquires_Phosphor_Games_rebranded_as_PCF_Chicago.php

It Takes Two, the puppet puzzle platformer from A Way Outdev Hazelight Studios, has officially surpassed 1 million sold. The sales milestone falls less than a month out from It Takes Two's debut on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on March 26, 2021.

Studio founder and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sonsgame director Josef Fares commented on the news on Twitter, saying "This shows that there definitely is players that also wants to play co-op-only games! Thank you everyone and I hope we see more game like this."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380372/Coop_puzzle_game_It_Takes_Two_surpasses_1_million_sold.php

GameStop CEO George Sherman announced his departure from the struggling retail giant this week and, according to some number crunching by the team at Reuters, is all set to depart with an extra $179 million in his pockets.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380229/Departing_GameStop_CEO_to_land_179_million_on_exit_thanks_to_recent_stock_saga.php

CD Projekt posted a record year thanks in no small part to its December launch of Cyberpunk 2077 but, as anyone familiar with Cyberpunk's launch will know, revenue and sales numbers don't paint a complete picture of the game's big debut.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380378/CDPR_refunded_30000_copies_of_Cyberpunk_2077_in_22m_refund_campaign.php

Texas-based Gearbox Entertainment has voiced its opposition to Texas House Bill 4042, cautioning lawmakers that discriminatory legislation prevents companies like Gearbox from hiring the best and the brightest, and makes it difficult for the company to guarantee a future in the state.

3-minute video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=medqQgRHBJ8

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/380317/Gearbox_pushes_back_against_discriminatory_Texas_bills.php

https://kotaku.com/gearbox-threatens-to-leave-texas-over-anti-trans-bill-1846741426

Square Enix shoots down acquisition rumors

Hitman and Project 007 developer IO Interactive opens Barcelona studio

Facebook has enabled software subscriptions for Oculus Quest

Krafton, the video game holding company that owns PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has applied for preliminary approval for an initial public offering (IPO) that could deliver a multi-billion dollar valuation.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379988/PUBG_owner_Krafton_applies_for_preliminary_approval_ahead_of_potential_IPO.php

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/pubg-owner-krafton-applies-for-ipo-seen-worth-billions-of-dollars/articleshow/81973460.cms

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/376398/Impending_IPO_values_PUBG_Studio_parent_Krafton_at_as_much_as_27_billion.php

Epic Games is slowly opening up access to its MetaHuman Creator, a browser and cloud-based tool that allows devs to create high-fidelity (and fully rigged!) human models in a matter of minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qut6Nkfgsyg&t=645s

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379950/Devs_can_now_check_out_Epic_Games_MetaHuman_Creator_now_in_early_access.php

Apex Legends has amassed 100 million players worldwide, according to developer Respawn.

https://twitter.com/PlayApex/status/1382378457808699396

https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AnnaPlisovitskaya/20210415/379859/Publishing_a_game_on_Epic_Games_Store_Three_not_so_simple_steps.php

Over 475,000 permanent bans have been handed out in Activision's Call of Duty: Warzonesince it launched.

That number comes straight from developer Raven Software, which said it remains "committed to rooting out cheaters and repeat offenders" across Call of Duty: Warzone, Modern Warfare, and Black Ops.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379794/Over_475000_players_have_been_permanently_banned_from_Call_of_Duty_Warzone.php

“I don’t see an option to shelveCyberpunk 2077. We are convinced that we can bring the game to such a state that we can be proud of it and therefore successfully sell it for years to come.”

- CD Projekt doesn't plan to walk away fromCyberpunk 2077, argues joint CEO Adam Kicinski.

Epic Games has secured $1 billion in funding to support its "long-term vision for the metaverse."

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379763/CD_Projekt_CEO__Cyberpunk_2077_will_successfully_sell_for_years_to_come_once_fixed.php

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379736/Epic_nets_1_billion_in_funding_including_200_million_investment_from_Sony.php

Epic's bid to disrupt the digital distribution status quo with the Epic Games Store (EGS) is costing the company hundreds of million of dollars each year.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379683/The_Epic_Games_Store_is_hemorrhaging_cash_to_deliver_exclusives_and_free_games.php

Sony's focus on blockbuster franchises and its star studios is causing unrest at the PlayStation maker.

Ubisoft has found its new chief people officer in Anika Grant, a once senior director of HR at Uber and global HR director at Dyson with nearly two decades of experience in HR leadership.

Atari has established two divisions with very different focuses and, as a result, now has a new CEO at the helm.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379640/Ubisoft_hires_exUber_HR_director_as_new_chief_people_officer.php

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/379613/Report_Sonys_relentless_pursuit_of_blockbusters_is_stifling_its_developers.php

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-09/sony-s-obsession-with-blockbusters-is-stirring-unrest-within-playstation-empire

For a second year in a row, PlayStation 4 maker Sony has opted to skip E3, but the same won’t be true for Xbox.

Xbox head Phil Spencer tweeted lightly about the company’s plans for the annual trade event, saying that the “team is hard at work on E3” as we speak.

“We look forward to sharing with all who love to play what's ahead for us. Our artform has consistently been propelled by the cross-section of creativity and technical progress,” writes Spencer. “2020 is a milestone year in that journey for Team Xbox.”

Spencer’s tweet came only a handful of hours after news broke that Sony won’t have a presence at E3 2020. This time around Sony explained it would instead focus on consumer events as it no longer believes “the vision of E3 2020 is the right venue for what we are focused on this year."

PlayStation was also absent from E3 2019, a decision then-SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden said was driven by the changing needs of retailers, customers, and journalists.

Sony's decision to skip—and now Xbox’s affirmation that it still plans to attend—comes during a potentially pivotal year for E3. The once industry-exclusive event has leaned more and more toward a consumer audience in recent years as part of a bid to stay relevant, and may be rebranding 2020’s show as more of a “fan, media, and influencer festival” this time around (via GameDaily.biz).

Kansas Game Invest has rebranded as Amplifier Game Invest around six months after being acquired by THQ Nordic.

The Swedish investment company was purchased by THQ last August for around $4.4 million, bringing with it a smorgasbord of minority investments in early-stage development studios including Palindrome Interactive, Fall Damage, Neon Giant, Kavalri, and Framebunker.

THQ (which recently rebranded its own parent company) said the purchase would give it a “great platform for strategic investments in early-stage companies as well as in established teams starting their own development studios.”

According to Amplifier chief exec Per-Arne Lundberg, the name change will help reflect the company’s new ownership while clarifying its core mission focus.

“We wanted the new name to reflect the core of our business [of entering] long-term partnerships with talented game developers across the globe and help them to reach their goals. They are the stars and our job is to amplify their work, team and business,” commented the CEO.

While past years have shown a rise in the number of games hitting Steam, the jump from 2018 to 2019 was significantly less dramatic than years past.

According to data from third-party tracker SteamSpy spotted by Kotaku, 2019 yielded around 8,400 new releases on Steam, only a small increase from 2018’s 8,195 releases. Previous years often saw increases in the thousands--2017, for instance, saw 6,322 releases while 2016 yielded 4,400 new titles--making this latest addition a bit of an anomaly.

That Kotaku writeup on the shift dives a bit deeper into why things look to have leveled out somewhat, and talks with SteamSpy founder (and current Epic Games Store publishing strategy director) Sergey Galyonkin to explore what factors might impact the data pulled from Steam. Though, as an added caveat, Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad points out on Twitter that SteamSpy's data itself has been known to fluctuate as time goes on, which makes an exact read on Steam trends a bit more difficult to gauge.

The folks over at PlayStation have put together a handful of rankings for digital game sales throughout the PlayStation store, breaking down 2019’s top premium, PS VR, and free-to-play games as well as the most-downloaded expansions.

Unfortunately, each list avoids mentioning exactly how many downloads each title received, but even without specifics the list still offers an interesting look at the platform’s top performers for last year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare walked away as the most downloaded digital title of the year followed by Rockstar’s unstoppable 2013 release Grand Theft Auto V. Another mainstay, Minecraft, claimed the number three slot, followed byNBA 2K20 and NBA 2K19 as the foruth and fifth most downloaded PlayStation 4 games of the year.

Beat Saberwas named the most downloaded PlayStation VR game ahead ofSuperhot VRand The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, while Apex Legends beat out both Fortnite and Dauntless as the most downloaded free-to-play game of 2019.

Check out the blog post for the full top 25 or top 10 list for each category, as well as a look at popular favorites in the entirely Fortnite dominated DLC and expansions category.

The Epic Games Store has generated over $680 million in revenue during its first year, most of which went toward exclusives.

The marketplace officially launched with a handful of games back in December 2018, and looked to cement its position as a serious alternative to Steam by offering developers a larger share of revenue than Valve’s popular storefront.

Since then, the Epic Games Store has expanded significantly with new features, dev-friendly policy changes, and high-profile exclusivity agreements with the developers’ behind Control, Shenmue III, and Satisfactory (to name but a few).

Now, just over one year on, Epic has revealed 108 million people have visited the marketplace to ‘purchase’ at lease one PC title -- although that figure does include free-to-play releases.

On the topic of its sales and promotions, Epic says that it's funded $23 milliion in coupons and discounts this year (through promotions like its rocky Epic Mega Sale earlier in 2019). It's rotating free game offering, a program Epic now says will continue into 2020, saw 73 different titled downloaded over 200 million times. An inforgraphic covering that information and more can be found over on the Epic Games site.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356646/Exclusives_helped_the_Epic_Games_Store_earn_680_million_during_2019.php

Riot Games has been on an announcement spree lately, unveiling a number of projects--both internal and otherwise-- almost all at once to accelerate the League of Legends maker into a bona fide​ multi-title studio.

Those efforts have also bled into the tabletop space. Riot announced today that it is setting up a team called Riot Tabletop to focus on the creation of new tabletop games.

That team’s first project is Tellstones: King’s Gambit, a game that’s notably smaller in size than Riot’s first ever board game from a few years back, Mechs vs. Minions. Riot talks a little more about the player experience each of its tabletop game aims to create over on the announcement post, and notes that Tellstones: King’s Gambit is only the one of several games it’s working on internally at the moment.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356603/Riot_Games_sets_up_Riot_Tabletop_to_take_another_stab_at_board_games.php

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has revealed the company is looking at “interesting” ways it can use augmented reality technology.

Speaking to Japanese news outlet Nikkei (via TweakTown), Furukawa said the console maker is “definitely” interested in exploring the world of AR, although it’s unclear if any projects are already in the pipeline.

"Our hardware development teams evaluate all kinds of new technologies available thus far and consult with our software developers. If they determine that technology can be used with a game, then they will utilize it. We will not be changing this fundamental approach moving forward," said the Nintendo boss.

"As for AR, it is definitely one of the many aspects we are interested in. We are currently researching what interesting ways we can utilize it."

It's a tidbit that suggests we might eventually see the company create an AR experience for the Switch or mobile. It wouldn’t be the first time Nintendo has flirted with the technology, either, with the console maker having previously made a set of AR Cards for the 3DS that could be used to view digital statues, play small games, and take 3D pictures.

Nintendo also owns a 32 percent stake in Pokemon Go co-developer The Pokemon Company, which earned a massive $894 million in revenue in 2019 alone. Although Nintendo doesn't make any cash from the popular AR title, it will be acutely aware of the impact AR experiences can have when done right.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356592/Nintendo_looking_at_interesting_ways_it_can_use_AR_technology.php

Xbox is due to kick off the next console generation this winter, but Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty says that launch won’t immediately render the current-gen Xbox One obsolete.

Speaking to MCV, Booty offered a light explanation of Xbox’s first-party games plan during the generational transition and, in short, said those first few years will be filled with cross-generation launches.

“As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices,” Booty tells MCV. “We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and [Series X] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”

Currently announced Xbox Series X projects already reflect that plan; Halo Infinite, for instance, is set to launch alongside Series X in holiday 2020, but will also arrive on Xbox One (and PC) at the same time. Presumably, as Booty says next-gen exclusives won’t be in the cards for a few years still, this could mean fellow launch title (and "Xbox and PC" exclusive) Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga will see a similar launch.

Despite weaving cross-generational plans into the Series X launch window, Booty notes that games like Halo Infinite will still offer enhancements for those that play the game on the latest tech.

“It’s the first time in over 15 years that we’ll have a Halo title launching in sync with a new console,” he tells MCV. “And that team is definitely going to be doing things to take advantage of [Series X].”

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356540/Xbox_wont_kick_off_the_Series_X_generation_with_nextgen_exclusives.php

Owlchemly Labs' tongue-in-cheek VR title Job Simulator has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

The studio announced the news on its blog, and claims the game is only the second 'made for VR' title to reach the milestone -- presumably behind Beat Saber, which topped 1 million sales back in February 2019.

It’s takenJob Simulatoraround four years to amass those sales, with the title having initially launched on Windows PC back in April 2016 before shuffling over to PS4 in October 2016 and eventually the Oculus Quest in May last year.

Commenting on the news, Owlchemy chief exec Devin Reimer said it proves the "consumer VR market is capable of generating huge hits."

“We first developed Job Simulator as something that could only exist in VR. It was built for hardware that wasn’t yet available to consumers and was a very risky product," said Reimer. "Job Simulator going platinum shows that the consumer VR market is capable of generating huge hits. We’re delighted that Job Simulator has found a diverse audience that enjoys our game."

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356527/Comical_career_sim_Job_Simulator_has_crossed_1_million_sales.php

The German city of Hamburg has established a new €2 million ($2.2 million) funding initiative to help support its local games industry.

The cash will initially be made available from 2020 to 2023, with the city planning on dishing out €520,000 ($580,000) per year over that four year period.

That annual funding pool will take the form of non-repayable grants of up to €80,000 ($89,000) that can be used to finance prototype projects. A total of €400,000 ($440,000) per year will be made available to fund those prototypes.

The other €120,000 ($130,000) will be used to establish and run an incubator program designed to prepare developers for the challenges of the games industry. The incubator will support up to five teams over three month period with mentoring, workshops, work stations, and financial assistance.

Local industry group gamecity:Hamburg will be responsible for handling the new funding program, and says the initiative will help support game developers on several levels.

"With the introduction of the new prototype funding in combination with an incubator, we can support game developers on several levels and for this, we will activate the strong network of successful game studios in Hamburg," said Dennis Schoubye, project lead at gamecity:Hamburg.

"The incubator is just one format in our overall strategy to promote the knowledge exchange between companies and young talents in Hamburg. With the incubator, we aim to provide active and tailor-made support to young teams of developers in the development of concepts with high market potential."

You can find out more about the initiative on the gamecity:Hamburg website.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356478/Hamburg_creates_22_million_fund_to_support_local_game_developers.php

Pokemon SwordandShield, the latest duo of mainline Pokemon games to land on a Nintendo system, are introducing new post-launch content through the sale of an expansion pass, a first for the long-running series.

Developer Game Freak left many of Pokemon’s tried and true conventions in the dust with Sword and Shield and, in a way, offering new content through an expansion pass is another step in that direction.

Mainline Pokemon games are released as a duo and often followed shortly after by the release of an entire third game with additional features and post-game content.

With this latest generation, Game Freak instead looks to be offering two sizable expansions, one due out in June and another this coming fall, to bring new content and creatures to both Switch games. The expansion pass itself runs at $29.99, and grants access to both new Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra worlds as they release.

The move itself follows in the footsteps of other flagship Nintendo franchises as well, with recent iterations of games like The Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Brosopting to offer new content through expansion passes as well.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356475/In_a_series_first_Pokemon_Sword_and_Shield_will_offer_an_expansion_pass.php

While past years have shown a rise in the number of games hitting Steam, the jump from 2018 to 2019 was significantly less dramatic than years past.

According to data from third-party tracker SteamSpy spotted by Kotaku, 2019 yielded around 8,400 new releases on Steam, only a small increase from 2018’s 8,195 releases. Previous years often saw increases in the thousands--2017, for instance, saw 6,322 releases while 2016 yielded 4,400 new titles--making this latest addition a bit of an anomaly.

That Kotaku writeup on the shift dives a bit deeper into why things look to have leveled out somewhat, and talks with SteamSpy founder (and current Epic Games Store publishing strategy director) Sergey Galyonkin to explore what factors might impact the data pulled from Steam. Though, as an added caveat, Niko Partners' Daniel Ahmad points out on Twitter that SteamSpy's data itself has been known to fluctuate as time goes on, which makes an exact read on Steam trends a bit more difficult to gauge.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356433/The_number_of_Steam_releases_remained_relatively_flat_from_2018_to_2019.php

Fate/Grand Order was the most talked-about video game on Twitter during 2019, beating out the likes of Fortnite,Minecraft, andPlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

The stat was shared on the official Twitter blog, where the social media company also revealed that there were 1.2 billion tweets about gaming in 2019 -- an increase of nearly 20 percent year-on-year.

As the image below shows, the top 10 most talked-about games were Fate/Grand Order,Fortnite, Final Fantasy, Identity V, Granblue Fantasy, Ensemble Stars, Monster Strike, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Minecraft, and Super Smash Bros.

In terms of where those tweets originated, Japan was the country that tweeted the most about video games, followed by the U.S., South Korea, Thailand, Brazil, France, Great Britain, Indonesia, Spain, and the Philippines.

The list of most talked about video game events also features the usual suspects, with E3 2019, Tokyo Game Show, The Game Awards, Paris Games Week, and FGO Fest heading up the top 10.

Those of you with an eye for social stats can find more, including the most talked-about personalities and esports teams, over on the Twitter blog.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356413/Twitter_reveals_which_games_dominated_the_online_chatter_in_2019.php

https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/events/2019/2019-gaming-on-twitter.html

Ubisoft says the game failed to gain the same level of traction on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. “Despite its strong release, The Division 2 ended up short of our ambitious expectations on consoles,” said Dugue. “We believe this is due for a large part to a more competitive market than expected.”

Supporting Article: Click Link Below

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 Epic Games Store has quietly and suddenly opened up to Chinese users.  Epic started allowing players in China to purchase and play games this week. 

PCGAMERS ARTICLE LINK

 #epicgames #fortnite #ps #gaming #xbox #fortnitebr #fortnitememes #fortnitebattleroyale #fortniteclips #battleroyale #ninja #fortnitecommunity #gamer #fortnitegame #twitch #fortnitememe #fortnitegameplay  

Sensor Tower estimates clock 2019 as Pokemon Go’s best year so far, surpassing even the year of its landmark launch. Last year saw Pokemon Goreap an estimated $894 million in player spending, surpassing the estimated $832 million it generated back in 2016.

Keep in mind that these estimates come from a third party analyst and not developer Niantic itself, but even when taken with a grain of salt the ballpark numbers show 2019 as a strong year for the AR game.

By Sensor Tower’s count, most of last year’s revenue came from the United States (38 percent), followed by Japan (23 percent), and Germany (6 percent). On a platform by platform basis, Google Play players accounted from the lions share of player spending, with $482 million of that $894 million coming from those on Android devices. Sensor Tower offers a closer examination of those estimates over on its site.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356537/Analyst_With_894_million_in_revenue_2019_marked_Pokemon_Gos_best_year_so_far.php

For the second year in a row, PlayStation 4 maker Sony has opted to skip E3, but the same won’t be true for Xbox.

Xbox head Phil Spencer tweeted lightly about the company’s plans for the annual trade event, saying that the “team is hard at work on E3” as we speak.

“We look forward to sharing with all who love to play what's ahead for us. Our artform has consistently been propelled by the cross-section of creativity and technical progress,” writes Spencer. “2020 is a milestone year in that journey for Team Xbox.”

Spencer’s tweet came only a handful of hours after news broke that Sony won’t have a presence at E3 2020. This time around Sony explained it would instead focus on consumer events as it no longer believes “the vision of E3 2020 is the right venue for what we are focused on this year."

PlayStation was also absent from E3 2019, a decision then-SIE Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden said was driven by the changing needs of retailers, customers, and journalists.

Sony's decision to skip—and now Xbox’s affirmation that it still plans to attend—comes during a potentially pivotal year for E3. The once industry-exclusive event has leaned more and more toward a consumer audience in recent years as part of a bid to stay relevant and maybe rebranding 2020’s show as more of a “fan, media, and influencer festival” this time around (via GameDaily.biz).

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356656/Xbox_still_plans_to_attend_E3_2020.php

Welcome back_2020

The Epic Games Store has generated over $680 million in revenue during its first year, most of which went toward exclusives.

The marketplace officially launched with a handful of games back in December 2018, and looked to cement its position as a serious alternative to Steam by offering developers a larger share of revenue than Valve’s popular storefront.

Since then, the Epic Games Store has expanded significantly with new features, dev-friendly policy changes, and high-profile exclusivity agreements with the developers behind Control, Shenmue III, and Satisfactory (to name but a few).

Now, just over one year on, Epic has revealed 108 million people have visited the marketplace to ‘purchase’ at lease one PC title -- although that figure does include free-to-play releases.

On the topic of its sales and promotions, Epic says that it's funded $23 million in coupons and discounts this year (through promotions like its rocky Epic Mega Sale earlier in 2019). It's rotating free game offering, a program Epic now says will continue into 2020, saw 73 different titled downloaded over 200 million times. An infographic covering that information and more can be found over on the Epic Games site.

The folks over at PlayStation have put together a handful of rankings for digital game sales throughout the PlayStation store, breaking down 2019’s top premium, PS VR, and free-to-play games as well as the most-downloaded expansions.

Unfortunately, each list avoids mentioning exactly how many downloads each title received, but even without specifics the list still offers an interesting look at the platform’s top performers for last year.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare walked away as the most downloaded digital title of the year followed by Rockstar’s unstoppable 2013 release Grand Theft Auto V. Another mainstay, Minecraft, claimed the number three slot, followed byNBA 2K20 and NBA 2K19 as the foruth and fifth most downloaded PlayStation 4 games of the year.

Beat Saberwas named the most downloaded PlayStation VR game ahead ofSuperhot VRand The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, while Apex Legends beat out both Fortnite and Dauntless as the most downloaded free-to-play game of 2019.

Check out the blog post for the full top 25 or top 10 list for each category, as well as a look at popular favorites in the entirely Fortnite dominated DLC and expansions category.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356669/Call_of_Duty_Beat_Saber_and_Apex_Legends_led_PlayStation_downloads_in_2019.php

Kansas Game Invest has rebranded as Amplifier Game Invest around six months after being acquired by THQ Nordic.

The Swedish investment company was purchased by THQ last August for around $4.4 million, bringing with it a smorgasbord of minority investments in early-stage development studios including Palindrome Interactive, Fall Damage, Neon Giant, Kavalri, and Framebunker.

THQ (which recently rebranded its own parent company) said the purchase would give it a “great platform for strategic investments in early-stage companies as well as in established teams starting their own development studios.”

According to Amplifier chief exec Per-Arne Lundberg, the name change will help reflect the company’s new ownership while clarifying its core mission focus.

“We wanted the new name to reflect the core of our business [of entering] long-term partnerships with talented game developers across the globe and help them to reach their goals. They are the stars and our job is to amplify their work, team, and business,” commented the CEO.

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356694/Kansas_Game_Invest_rebrands_as_Amplifier_after_THQ_Nordic_acquisition.php

Square Enix is shutting down the global version of Mobius Final Fantasy four years after the episodic mobile RPG launched.

The developer said the decision was made after many "difficult discussions," but wouldn’t offer a concrete reason for the move.

It’s only been a year since Square was celebrating the title reaching 20 million downloads worldwide, but now the studio is preparing to shut down the title for good after the Warrior of Despair story has concluded on June 30, 2020. Sales of Magicite, the in-game currency used in the mobile title, will be halted on May 31.

The Japanese version of the game has already bitten the dust, having been shuttered by Square back in December 2019. The company has thanked the Mobius community for their support over the years.

"We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all our players who have supported us since the service began. It is with a heavy heart that we must now bring you this sad news," wrote the company.

"We will continue to implement updates to in-game events, including the conclusion of the Warrior of Despair story, until the end of service, so it is our fondest hope that you will see our adventurers' fates out to the very last."

Articles:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356695/Square_Enix_is_shutting_down_Mobius_Final_Fantasy_after_four_years.php

Aquatic survival titleSubnautica has sold 5.3 million copies worldwide according to developer Unknown Worlds.

Studio founder Charlie Cleveland broke the news during an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, and explained that figure comprises sales across Xbox One, PS4, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

The game initially debuted through Steam Early Access back in December 2014, and was officially released in January  2018. A follow-up called Subnautica: Below Zero is already in pipeline.

Article:

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356703/Subnautica_has_surpassed_5_million_sales_worldwide.php

GameStop has seen its stock tumble by 16 percent after it notified investors of a 25.7 percent drop in holiday sales.

Although the company said it "expected a challenging sales environment over the holiday season," it conceded its performance was "well below" expectations.

That sales decline was reflected in the retailer’s stock market performance, and GameStop’s stock price is now down 24.5 percent from the start of the year.

The company's showing during the holiday season was so below par that GameStop has revised its fiscal outlook for 2019, and now expects to see an overall sales decline of up to 21 percent -- previously it has anticipated "a decline in the high teens."

Articles

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356705/GameStop_stock_tumbles_by_16_percent_following_poor_holiday_sales.php

https://gamasutra.com/view/news/356604/GameStop_says_its_unexpectedly_low_holiday_sales_follow_an_industrywide_trend.php

Thanks for all the support. 2020 is a new year filled with awesome stories to be told. 

There is nothing impossible to him who will try.- alexander the great

DayZdeveloper Bohemia Interactive has confirmed it plans to modify all versions of the game after it was banned by the Australian Classification Board (ACB).

Last week the ACB refused to issue the planned retail version of the survival shooter with an age rating, and then said it was working to ban the game entirely for apparently incentivizing the use of cannabis by including the drug as a consumable item.

It caused something of a stir given the digital version of DayZ had already been approved for sale on multiple occasions, and now it seems like Bohemia is going to play ball rather than try and take on the ACB.

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Revenues and profits were up at Tencent during the last quarter, thanks in part to the performance of mobile games including Honour of Kings and PUBG Mobile.

According to the company's fiscal report for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019, overall revenues increased by 18 percent year-on-year to $12.9 billion, while profits rose by 35 percent to $3.5 billion over the same period.

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At the close of the second quarter, Paradox Interactive CEO Ebba Ljungerud comments that the key to its business is keeping a balance between generating short-term profitability and investing in future projects, and she says that, so far, the company has been successful in this goal.

Ljungerud notes specifically that Paradox spent "more than ever during the quarter on both game development and marketing and distributed SEK 105.6 million (~$10.96 million) to our sharehol­ders as dividend, the total cash flow was positive and we closed the quarter with a record-high cash position.”

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Unity has officially launched a pair of new classroom tools called Create with Code and Unity Teach to help teach game design and computer science.

Create with Code is a comprehensive course aimed at educators who want to teach computer science using Unity, while Unity Teach is being pitched as a community-focused support network for teachers looking to connect and learn from each other.

Unity claims its Create with Code course includes everything educators will need to teach effective programming, including training modules and quizzes aimed at helping students learn how to build their own Unity projects from scratch in C#.

Bloodborne and Mass Effect 3composer Cris Velasco has founded a new "full-service audio production company" called The Audio Hive.

The fledgling company will specialize in music composition, sound design, audio consultancy, implementation, and voice acting for video games, and has already been hired to work on Gunfire Games upcoming third-person shooterRemnant: From the Ashes.

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Epic has opened a new studio In Cologne, Germany, that'll be led by the founders of Star Wars: Rogue Squadronand Turrican developer Factor 5.

Breaking the news in a short press release, Epic explained former Factor 5 chief exec Achim Moller will take charge of the new opening as studio head.

Moller will be joined by Epic's new director of online technology Julian Eggebrecht, who once upon a time served as president of the Rogue Squadron dev.

As for what exactly Epic Games Cologne will be getting up too, the studio has been charged with helping Epic expand its focus on "emerging forms of interactive media and streaming technologies."

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