October 2022

If you're reading this article, it's highly likely you know what a soft launch is and why we need it. So instead of focusing on things you might already know, we'll concentrate on mistakes developers and publishers commonly make when they launch their mobile games.

We'll take Love & Flowers, one of the games from our portfolio that was eventually cancelled, as an example, going through its problems and some ways to solve them.

Soft launch is the release of a game to a restricted audience in advance of a worldwide launch in order to improve the product based on the received feedback.

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Dmitri Johnson, co-producer of the successful Sonic the Hedgehog movie series, has partnered up with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad to launch Story Kitchen, a new media firm.

Johnson is the founder of dj2 Entertainment, which is best known for bringing video game adaptations to the big screen and beyond. The studio's other upcoming projects include a Tomb Raider TV series, and an It Takes Two movie based on Hazelight's hit game.

Kolstad is best known for his work on the John Wick movie series, but is also currently working on a Splinter Cell anime with Netflix.

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Activision Blizzard has appointed Lulu Cheng Meservey as executive vice president for corporate affairs and chief communications officer.

In this newly created role, Meservey is due to "shape the company’s strategic direction" and "lead its communications efforts" as part of the leadership team, the announcement said.

Meservey had been serving on Activision Blizzard's board since April; she stepped down from the board to take on her new role. She also was part of the company's workplace responsibility committee that was created in 2021 after the lawsuit for harassment and discrimination against women filed against the company in July 2021.

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A new desktop app set to replace EA's Origin is now available to download.

Simply dubbed the EA app, the "new, enhanced PC platform" will see Origin, which launched in 2011, slowly phased out.

Access to games and content, plus progress, achievements, cloud saves and friends lists and other data pertaining to Origin accounts should transfer seamlessly over to the EA app.

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Five months after being acquired by Embracer, Square Enix Montreal has now been renamed Onoma.

In a post on its new website going into detail about the rebrand, the company explained that Onoma is Greek for "name," adding that a "Rebrand Squad" was created soon after the studio was acquired, in May 2022.

The post said that a total of 165 names were considered before settling on Onoma, with one of the main criteria being for it to "be easy to pronounce in both French and English."

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Advertising service provider Fourth Floor has acquired video production company Explosive Alan.

Founded in 2017, it has collaborated with gaming firms such as Ubisoft, Square Enix, and NetEase.

The company said that with the acquisition it aims to grow its audience via marketing, animation and social media sales.

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In-game advertising and video game monetization platform Bidstack announced that it's acquired $11 million in a new funding round.

Founded in 2015, the company has gone on to work with game publishers such as Codemasters and Take-Two.

The latest funding round included a $6 million investment from software giant and Denuvo owner Irdeto.

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Valve has announced that the Steam Deck is now readily available for purchase, this news comes a year after the handheld system was announced back in July 2021.

Months prior the platform holder said that pre-order wait times became shorter.

Last year, parts shortages and COVID-related factory closures prompted delays both to the system itself and accessories like the docking station.

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Games publisher Gamuzumi said its upcoming titles Hot Tentacles Shoot and Elves Christmas Hentai Puzzle were rejected by Nintendo for featuring nudity.

The company said on Twitter that Nintendo was concerned that obscene content could damage its brand.

Previous Gamuzumi releases with ESRB descriptors for nudity included Elves Fantasy Hentai Puzzle and Inside Her (Bedroom), which remain available as of this writing.

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CD Projekt announced a lot of games this week. Perhaps too many.

The company released its group strategy update on Tuesday, a presentation primarily for investors but shared publicly where the studio's ravenous fans could start lapping up what few details were given.

The long and the short of it was, in addition to the bits and pieces the company's development teams are already working on (such as the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077 and the next-gen update for The Witcher 3 they're supposed to be working on), the company now has seven new projects in the works:

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Media firm Vice has let go of several employees this week, across its games vertical Waypoint and technology arm Motherboard.

Among the staff let go are former Motherboard staff writers Gita Jackson and Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, and former audience development manager Rachel Pick.

Both Franceschi-Bicchierai and Pick had been working across Waypoint and Motherboard for seven years, while Jackson joined Motherboard in 2020.

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Preparing any sort of pitch can be nerve-wracking enough, whether it's for funding or a publishing deal. That's why the GamesIndustry.biz Academy has an entire family of guides dedicated to pitching.

But when you're pitching for the chance to develop a game around an established intellectual property – especially one that's already popular around the world – there can be an added level of intensity.

Fortunately, one studio that has been through this process multiple times has shared its secrets.

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After being predicted so widely and for so long, the end, when it finally came, was anti-climactic. Google lost patience with Stadia, just as most people had expected it to from the outset.

Establishing a foothold in the games business takes far more money, perseverance, and time than anyone ever expects – just ask Microsoft – and Google may have plenty of the former, but it’s rarely credited with being good at maintaining focus long-term in the face of adversity.

Stadia wasn’t an instant hit; Google’s attention drifted, and eventually, with one swift pivot, Stadia just wasn’t on the roadmap any more at all.

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The European Union's antitrust regulators are preparing for their investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, including issuing surveys to developers to gauge their concerns over the deal.

Reuters reports the EU is due to make a preliminary decision on whether to approve the acquisition by November 8. Survey respondents have until October 10 to reply.

It's expected that the European Commission will begin a four-month long investigation into the deal, in line with reports from last month.

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Ubisoft has created a new global creative office, which it says will elevate creativity and ensure that it delivers high quality games.

The organization will be made of poles, which Ubisoft said "will leverage [their] expertise to dive into the specificities of [their] audiences, game design and tech."

The company added that moving anyway from being a centralized firm can better support the key segments of the company.

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Sensor Tower reports that to date, consumers worldwide have spent $1 billion on Harry Potter mobile games.

When the global revenue was broken down by digital storefronts, the App Store made up the majority at 66% of player earnings, having generated $683 million.

The Google Play marketplace pulled in 33% of earnings at $342.5 million.

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Newzoo released a new report which says that the cloud gaming market is set to generate $2.4 billion this year.

The 2022 Global Cloud Gaming Report's forecasted figure represents an increase of 74% year-over-year.

In terms of cloud gaming consumer spending by region, Asia-Pacific was number one, making up 36.5% of revenue. Europe followed having generated 30% of the earnings and North America was third at 27%.

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EA Motive continues to make headlines.

Based in Montreal, the developer is best known for making the critically acclaimed Star Wars Squadrons, and has already built a reputation for working with fan favorite IPs. It’s currently working on the remake of Dead Space, which is due out in January.

And with Dead Space coming to the end of its development, the team has its eyes on another major project. Just two weeks ago, it announced that it is teaming up with Marvel to create a brand new Iron Man video game.

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Pete Hines, former senior VP of global marketing and communications at Bethesda Softworks, has been promoted to head of global publishing at the studio, GamesIndustry.biz can confirm.

Additionally, Erin Losi, vice president of global marketing and communications, will now lead all of Bethesda's global marketing and communication efforts.

Hines joined Bethesda Softworks in 1999 as a member of the marketing team, primarily working in a PR capacity on the studio's Fallout projects.

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When Activision Blizzard released the hero shooter Overwatch in 2016, it was met with positive critical and consumer reception.

Over the years, the game went on to see multiple additions and updates. It also inspired a number of games similar to itself: a colorful cast of characters with various roles, and an assortment of abilities. October 4 marked the release of its sequel, Overwatch 2 (OW2) across multiple platforms.

While Overwatch 2 is technically an overhaul of the previous game and not a separate new release with new heroes, and multiple changes, critics judged it as though it is a proper sequel to the original.

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There's a quote from games exec Reggie Fils-Aime that I really like.

"When you’re doing well, don’t be excited about that high-flying performance. When you’re doing poorly, don’t be sad. Always have an even keel and always focus on the next big adventure."

It’s a lesson from his time at Nintendo, which is a company that has a long history of jumping between success and failure. But it’s advice that can apply to anyone to working in video games. And certainly to a few of us right now, who might be feeling a little anxious looking at the recent market data.

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FunPlus announced that it has a new game development studio in Barcelona with the intention to further grow in the country.

The expansion joins publishing division FunPlus Barcelona, which was established in 2019.

Enri Cabestany, vice president of publishing for Europe and LATAM, will oversee the new studio. He brings with him a career history of over 15 years of publishing games and managing personnel.

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Regulators in Brazil are the latest to approve Microsoft's proposed mammoth acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

The Administrative Council for Economic Defence (CADE), announced yesterday that it had agreed to the merger "with no restrictions."

"Considering the huge popularity of Call of Duty, it is reasonable to infer that if Activision Blizzard games were no longer available on Sony consoles, PlayStation users could decide to migrate to Xbox, or even a PC, to continue having access to franchise games," CADE said in a document detailing the decision.

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Content warning, this article contains references to suicide, sexual and financial exploitation, and substance abuse

A lawsuit lodged in San Francisco this week has alleged that Roblox enabled the financial and sexual exploitation of a young girl, according to Reuters.

The girl, who is currently around 13 years old according to the outlet, started playing Roblox when she was "nine or ten years old." The case states that the individual met adult men via the platform.

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"The next generation is not in a box."

A full year before PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S were announced, Google presented its own vision for gaming's future: Stadia, a cloud gaming service that enabled you to play across any device.

The service was teased in the days before its unveiling via an outdoor exhibition near San Francisco's Moscone Center, on the corner of 4th Street and Howard Street, intriguing GDC 2019 attendees with historical gaming pieces such as the Nintendo Power Glove, the Dreamcast and a copy of ET: The Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600. An empty case at the end of the timeline would later be home to a Stadia controller.

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Starbreeze is returning to third-party publishing, launching a dedicated publishing arm after dropping this part of its business following its restructuring in 2019.

To kickstart its publishing efforts, the Stockholm-based company signed a deal with The Tribe Must Survive developer Walking Tree Games to publish the game in Early Access from 2023, with a full launch expected in 2024.

The announcement did note that the publishing agreement between Starbreeze and Walking Tree Games is "pending that the developer gets funding from the German federal games industry-funding programme."

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Bandai Namco Europe has increased its investment in German developer Limbic Entertainment, taking a majority stake.

The company had acquired a minority stake in the studio in February 2021, and since then had announced the Limbic team was working on sim title Park Beyond.

This investment follows Bandai Namco Europe's strategy to "accelerate Western development capabilities," the announcement said.

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The annual Australian Game Developer Awards took place last night, a celebration of exceptional talent hailing from the region.

Massive Monster's Cult of the Lamb was the big winner of the evening, picking up four awards including Game of the Year.

Wylde Flowers, from developer Studio Drydock won twice, taking home Excellence in Narrative and Excellence in Mobile Games.

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Why I Love is a series of guest editorials on GamesIndustry.biz intended to showcase the ways in which game developers appreciate each other's work. This entry was contributed by Alain Puget, creative director of Alkemi, which recently launched the card game narrative journey Foretales on PC and Switch.

When I launched Into the Breach for the first time, I was not prepared for what hit me.

You see, when I tried FTL, the real-time strategy roguelike debut title from Subset Games, I very quickly bounced off of it, hard. It felt very random and unfair to me, and it took a whole afternoon of discussion with friends, who were very hardcore fans of FTL, to convince me to try it again. The second time around with a few basic tips from them, I finally got why the game was indeed an absolute gem.

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FIFA 23 debuted at the top of the UK physical charts, beating FIFA 22 launch sales.

Sales for this year's instalment have gone up 1.6% compared to 2021, which may sound like a small increase but is significant as it follows two years of serious decline at retail for the FIFA franchise. And the series was already steadily decreasing before that.

Sony's consoles dominated FIFA 23's sales, with 41% of the copies shifted going to the PS5, now the biggest retail platform for the football series, and 30% going to PS4.

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Media network Gamurs has raised $12 million in a series A round.

The round was co-led by LA Dodgers Ownership Group's investment branch, Elysian Park Ventures, and sports-focused capital fund Cerro Capital.

VC funds Powerhouse Capital, Aura Ventures, and Artesian also contributed to the round.

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The Australian games circuit has a rich history of turning out great indie titles, such as the BAFTA-winning Hollow Knight, Unpacking and The Artful Escape, to name a few recent entries.

That streak is carried by Cult of the Lamb, a recently-released roguelike from developer Massive Monster that invites players to build a cult as a cartoon lamb. The game combines cute building and light social mechanics with some much sinister themes.

Since its August release, the game has become a critically acclaimed hit, award-winning hit, picking up four wins at the Australian Game Developer Awards (AGDAs) including Game of the Year.

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Mobile game company Sandsoft has announced the opening of a new development studio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The new developer will be led by head of studio Yahsir Qureshi, previously executive producer at the company. Prior to joining Sandsoft, Qureshi spent almost five years at EA as senior lead product manager on FIFA Ultimate Team, and also worked at Natural Motion on Dawn of Titans.

Sandsoft Riyadh will be the company's new headquarters, with the team "committed to nurturing local talent," the announcement said, also unveiling a paid internship programme called Press Start.

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Blizzard has confirmed Overwatch 2 has been targeted by at least two DDoS attacks, and is continuing to work on restoring the game.

Overwatch 2 launched globally yesterday and replaces the original hero-based arena shooter, which went offline on Monday. Among other changes and additions, Overwatch 2 shifts the game to a free-to-play model.

However, players reported a variety of server errors and expressed frustration at being unable to join Overwatch 2 matches. Eurogamer reports some users claimed to be in queues of up to 40,000 people.

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SpecialEffect's flagship fundraiser, One Special Day, is due to take place this Friday, October 7.

During that day, revenue from partner studios will be donated to the charity, with the participating games available via the One Special Day Steam Promotion or, for mobile titles, directly on the event's website.

Over 90 studios are due to participate, via the sale or other initiatives, including EA, King, PlayStation London, Sumo Group, Xbox, and more.

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Gruby Entertainment announced that conglomerate Tencent is now a minority shareholder of its studio.

The exact amount of the investment wasn't disclosed in the announcement.

However the game developer said that Tencent aims to expand the growth of the Poland-based games company.

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The National Labor Relations Board has found merit to at least one part of a complaint lodged against Activision Blizzard by the union representing Raven Software QA testers, according to The Washington Post.

The board has determined that the publisher's April decision to raise the minimum hourly pay for all QA testers except those at Raven was evidence of retaliation against employees for protected union activity.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson disagreed with that finding, telling The Post, "Due to legal obligations under the [National Labor Relations Act] requiring employers not to grant wage increases while an election was pending, we could not institute new pay initiatives at Raven because they would be brand new kinds of compensation changes, which had not been planned beforehand. This rule that employers should not grant these kinds of wage increases has been the law for many years."

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Finnish studio Supercell is winding down development on Everdale, just over a year after its launch.

"It is with a very heavy heart that we inform you that the team has decided to end the development of Everdale," the developer wrote in a blog post. "At Supercell, we set our standards extremely high for our games: our goal is to make games which will be played for years and remembered forever."

"Although we gave it our all, it became clear to us that Everdale does not meet our ambitions for a Supercell game."

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Outsourcing firm Keywords Studios has further expanded its presence in Australia, as it launched two new studios in the country.

Tantalus South, is located in Adelaide and Tantalus North, is based in Brisbane.

They will join the likes of Keywords' Tantalus Melbourne, one of the company's Australian subsidiaries.

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CD Projekt joint CEO Marcin Iwiński today announced that he is stepping down from that role by the end of the year as he submits his candidacy to be the chairman of the company's supervisory board.

Iwiński would succeed Katarzyna Szwarc, the current chair of the supervisory board.

"Our hugely ambitious strategy has such an inspiring and strong team at the helm," Iwiński said, "and I deeply believe in our plan to take CD Projekt to new heights. As such, I intend to remain a major shareholder, and in my new non-executive role I will remain active and engaged dedicating my focus on supporting the entire management board."

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