December 2022

Primitive is a new Stone Age survival shooter just announced for PC, and it aims to take full advantage of Unreal Engine 5 to deliver a photorealistic representation of what the world was like tens of thousands of years ago.

Developer Games Box is the studio behind Primitive, and though it doesn't have a release date (or even a release window), the game is currently able to be wishlisted on Steam. The game's description states that players will need to climb the hierarchy of a group of hunters, learn to communicate, and craft various items that will aid in survival such as new weapons, shelter, methods of cooking, and clothing. Players will battle not only against rival Neanderthals and early Homo sapiens but massive wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers.

In a quote to IGN, Games Box CEO Tomasz Supel said the project is still early in development, but that other games like Ubisoft's Far Cry Primal will give players a good idea of what to expect.

Blizzard Albany's QA team has voted in favor of unionizing.

The QA team's votes were tallied today, with 14 developers voting in favor of unionization and none against.

There were four more votes cast, one of which was disqualified, with the other three challenged by Activision Blizzard.

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As we head into the final month of the year, there's a bit of gloom around the industry, as evidenced by two ongoing negative narratives around the business of games this year.

First, sales are down. Second, any hope of changing that has dimmed as the release schedule has been decimated by delays.

Now this runs counter to almost every fiber of my being, but let's try and put a happy face on this.

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For the latest episode of the Playable Futures Podcast, Will Freeman is joined by representatives from three of the many independent and mid-size studios that are currently making waves in the games industry.

Playtonic Games business development manager Stephanie Darrah, nDreams CEO Patrick O'Luanaigh, and Nosebleed Interactive managing director Andreas Firnigl discuss how much the game space has changed in the past decade and what it means to be an indie in a world where their titles are vying for audiences’ attention alongside AAA behemoths.

With the landscape ever changing, many developers are becoming publishers themselves, taking their experiences of working with external parties to inform their own ventures into the space.

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Electronic Arts has added six patents to its accessibility patent pledge, aiming to improve access to games for disabled players.

EA initially unveiled its accessibility patent pledge in August 2021, sharing five patents for its previously protected technology and making them freely available to all developers and publishers.

The six patents now being added to the pledge include:

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Nintendo has seemingly confirmed what many already assumed: it considers its mobile games to be more like marketing tools than revenue generators.

The platform holder has had an erratic track record with mobile games since it first launched Super Mario Run in 2016, shutting down half of the titles it has published after just a few years.

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The Blizzard Albany QA team will have their votes on unionization counted after all, as the National Labor Relations Board yesterday rejected an Activision Blizzard appeal to have the entire studio vote, rather than just the employees making up the QA team.

The publisher's initial argument was denied in October, but last month it filed an appeal alongside an attempt to prevent the QA team's votes from being tallied.

"The testers have a separate department and separate supervision; perform a distinct function, utilizing distinct skills; and have notably lower wages than the excluded employees," the NLRB explained in its decision.

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Gameloft has long been a big name in mobile publishing, but the company's latest hit, Disney Dreamlight Valley, is exclusive to consoles and PCs. Shortly after its September 6 release, it was revealed that the game built up a player base of one million, and parent company Vivendi attributed the game with driving a 48% year-over-year jump in Gameloft revenues.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Gameloft general manager and CFO Alexandre de Rochefort explains that the expansion to consoles and PC is driven by a desire to turn the long-time mobile specialist into a major cross-platform publisher.

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Tencent has always been looking beyond the borders of its home market in China when it comes to growing its games empire, but the last two years have seen those plans advance significantly.

While the company continues to generate the bulk of its games revenues from domestic titles, it has been pouring more and more investment into overseas operations and partners – even opening a handful of TiMi Group studios in the West – in the hope that it can become a truly global player.

"We think a good publishing strategy is to look at the whole market and do the global version [of any game] first, not to go separately step-by-step – I don't think that's a good approach," Tencent's global games CEO Michelle Liu tells GamesIndustry.biz.

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There's a tree in Marvel's Midnight Suns with an engraving on it. It simply reads: Luke Was Here.

The Luke in question is UK video game fan Luke Wiltshire. He was diagnosed with neuroblastoma -- a rare and brutal cancer -- when he was just 14. Over the nine years of treatment, and the immobility it brought, Luke had found solace in video games and Marvel. He could do things in a game he simply couldn't manage in the real world.

Last year, Luke was told the devastating news that there were no curative options remaining. He wasn’t going to get better and would now receive end-of-life care. He relayed to his family a few final wishes, a bucket list, that consisted of three things: He wanted a puppy for his mum to look after once he’d gone, he wanted to have a hog roast... and he wanted to play Marvel's Midnight Suns.

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Nintendo has apologised for the "inconvenience" created by ongoing performance issues with Pokémon Scarlet and Violet.

In a post on its website, introducing the latest update for the recently released Pokémon titles and how to update the games, the company released a statement saying:

"We are aware that players may encounter issues that affect the games' performance. Our goal is always to give players a positive experience with our games, and we apologise for the inconvenience. We take the feedback from players seriously and are working on improvements to the games."

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Google has unveiled its top apps and games for the year, with Apex Legends: Mobile voted Best Game by both Google Play's editorial team and users.

The Google Play’s Best of 2022 awards also rewarded Terry Cavanagh's Dicey Dungeons in the indie games category, with honourable mentions going to Dungeons of Dreadrock, Knotwords, One Hand Clapping, and Phobies.

Best Multiplayer went to Farlight's Dislyte, and Best Pick Up & Play went to Rovio's Angry Birds Journey.

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Nintendo Switch was the best-selling games console over Black Friday in the UK, GfK Entertainment reveals.

The hybrid machine accounted for 42% of all console's sold during the week. This is due to the return of last year's Black Friday Switch bundle, which included a Switch Neon machine, Mario Kart 8: Deluxe and three months of Nintendo Switch Online.

However, it's actually a far weaker performance than last Black Friday for Nintendo. The company faced strong competition this year, led by an aggressive offer by Xbox. Microsoft reduced its Xbox Series S machine to under £200 during Black Friday, and the platform accounted for 40% of all consoles sold during the week. PS5, which did receive some small discounts of its digital-only edition, accounted for 18% of sales.

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It's been an interesting stretch for mergers and acquisitions in the games industry, as Agnitio Capital founder Shum Singh explained to start off a Megamigs panel he moderated last month.

The consolidation roller coaster kicked off in 2020 as the pandemic made gaming one of the few remaining growth industries, and activity ramped up to record levels in 2021. The early days of 2022 suggested that trajectory could continue, but as Singh explained, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a tanking economy, rising inflation, and other headwinds have cooled off the sector a bit.

"That's not to say buyers aren't still interested in doing M&A," Singh said. "In fact, I probably get just as many calls from large buyers, investors, etc, asking which studios I'm advising or which companies I'm working with… There's still lots of capital out there and a lot of interest, but a lot of buyers want to conduct those deals at much lower valuations since they know the market has come down significantly, the share prices of most publicly listed game companies have gone down from their highs anywhere from 50% to 85%."

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Original story, November 30, 2022: The organisers of the Smash World Tour, a grassroots Super Smash Bros esports competition, says that Nintendo has shut down its next two events.

It also alleges Panda Global, Nintendo's chosen partner for the first official Super Smash Bros tournament, had a hand in the closure.

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Earlier this month, members of the European Parliament approved a resolution calling to bolster investment in the Union's games industry.

As contextualised by the Interactive Software Federation of Europe, this is a pretty big deal. Beyond the recognition of the sector as an economic force, the resolution also calls to recognise the value of European IP, further support small studios economically, facilitate access to digital skills and talent retention, and recognise esports as its own field distinct from traditional sports, with its own specific needs.

But this resolution is only just the beginning. Resolutions do not mean new legislation will automatically be voted on; they are non-legally binding texts that typically call for action and further investigation on an issue that matters at an EU level. And now that this one has been approved, there's a long road ahead, working to shape what might become a unified legislative framework for games industry support across the European Union.

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The Super Mario Bros Movie will be releasing in several territories at the end of March 2023, ahead of a second wave of releases in the first week of April.

As reported by VGC, Universal Pictures confirmed yesterday that the upcoming Nintendo and Illumination movie will be releasing as early as March 22, 2023, in Belgium.

On March 23, it will release in Switzerland, before Austria and Sweden on March 24, and France on March 29.

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The release of Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has resulted in an earnings spike for CD Projekt Red during its third quarter.

The Polish games firm released its financial results for the three months of July 1, 2022 to September 30, 2022. Here’s what you need to know:

Net profit: 98.7 million PLN ($22 million), up 504% year-on-year

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Apple has unveiled the winners of the annual App Store awards, naming EA's Apex Legends as its iPhone Game of the Year.

While the awards cover an array of apps and resources, they also include several gaming categories, including best game per platform.

Puzzle title Moncage from X.D Network was named iPad Game of the Year, while Daniel Mullins' Inscryption took home Mac Game of the Year.

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Mobile studio Wildlife has laid off a proportion of its workforce in Brazil and Argentina, as part of a plan to stop all "initiatives outside the mobile space."

Mobilegamer.biz reports that staff at the developer described the layoffs as "massive," and documents viewed by the outlet imply that up to 300 people could have been affected by the move.

Wildlife confirmed that it has "reduced its team size" in a statement to the site, and said: "We have stopped our initiatives outside the mobile game space to increase our focus on what has made the company successful, game development."

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Following the success of Elden Ring, a series of negative reviews of From Software surfaced on Twitter, claiming that staff at the studio often faced excessive overtime and a chronic dissatisfaction with pay.

The reviews were originally published on the Glassdoor-like jobs board Career Connection between 2012 and 2019. With its increasing prominence in the West, many latched onto the mention of crunch in the reviews of From Software. It prompted Twitter users to fall into tired stereotypes of Japan as a country of overwhelming overtime and exploitative work practices.

GamesIndustry.biz spoke to a number of From Software employees, past and present, to gain a better understanding of how the issues raised affect those working at the Elden Ring developer. The studio does not permit employees to give interviews, whether they still work at From Software or not. As such, all sources wished to remain anonymous.

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International in-app purchases have been halted in Pakistan, including those sold through video games.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (via Bloomberg), telecom service providers in the country were violating regulations by letting customers make purchases in entertainment apps, including video games, via direct carrier billing.

SBP's current guidelines specify certain IT services can be paid for via a telecommunications company, and firms that wish to do this need the one-time approval of a bank that payments can be processed through. Customers can then pay for services via their phone bill.

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Game developer Maze Theory and Web3 tech company Pluto Digital have officially combined to establish Emergent Entertainment PLC.

The projected valuation of the company is said to be over $65 million and it is currently preparing for a future IPO event.

Founded in 2018 and based out of London, Maze Theory has released VR titles such as Doctor Who: The Edge of Time and Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins.

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Microsoft is preparing to offer EU antitrust regulators some concessions in its Activision-Blizzard acquisition to ensure the deal goes through, Reuters reported today.

A Reuters source said the primary remedy offered would be a 10-year licensing deal with Sony.

The PlayStation maker has previously objected to the acquisition going through, saying the threat of Call of Duty being made exclusive to Microsoft's Xbox platform would negatively impact its console business and consumer choice.

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Australian MP Andrew Wilkie today introduced his long-awaited loot box legislation.

The bill seeks to amend the Australian Classification Board rules to require that the Board give any game with loot boxes an R18+ classification (or to refuse classification entirely) in order to keep children from purchasing and playing games with loot boxes.

Additionally, it would require games with loot boxes to carry a warning for parents and guardians.

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James Gunn has confirmed that DC games in the future will be part of the DC Universe.

As reported by Eurogamer, the news comes after he was named as co-chairman and co-CEO of DC Studios with Peter Safran.

In a Twitter exchange, Gunn officially confirmed that there are plans for games to be connected to the DC Universe.

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Cozy games are nothing new, but their recent flourishing – and the increased desire of developers to broaden the genre – invites questions. What exactly is a cozy game? And is this subgenre a cul-de-sac, or a highway?

Some developers view these games as offshoots of the life-sim genre, which goes back to at least 1985's Little Computer People, before an explosion via The Sims (2000). But cozy games are generally regarded as featuring cute characters, often anthropomorphic animals or child-like humans, who engage in player activities such as farming, gathering, growing and nurturing, with a vague goal of creative personalization and in-game socialization.

But coziness is broader than farming and village-planning. The essential nature of cozy gaming is that of helping other people through non-violent means, often by nurture and generosity. Self-expression is core to the games' progression goals, which tend to be open-ended.

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A court date set for Tuesday will see Tencent face allegations of copyright infringement in China, filed by Shanghai-based studio Moonton Technology.

As reported by South China Morning Post, Tencent is accused of infringing on the rights of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, one of the biggest mobile titles in Southeast Asia. The alleged violations include rights to authorship, reproduction and communications regarding the game.

It's the latest in a string of lawsuits involving Moonton, Tencent, and its subsidiary Riot Games, several of which followed ByteDance's $4 billion acquisition of Moonton in 2021.

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Sales of physical video games during the Black Friday week were down 15% compared to the same period the year before, GfK data reveals.

Software sales over Black Friday have been on the wane in recent years. Last year, Black Friday sales were down 10% over the year before.

Please note that this data does not include the digital sales that happened over Black Friday week. It also doesn't include console sales data. Both digital and hardware sales figures will be made available later.

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The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast is back, as the team once again gathers around their mics to discuss the biggest stories of the week.

We start with the highs and lows of the latest Pokémon launch. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are smashing series records in key territories and are the most ambitious entries to date – but it turns out that ambition comes at a price.

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New information regarding a legal battle between partners at Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM has surfaced, this time surrounding ownership of the IP and misuse of company funds.

The dispute is between two parties; one side consists of Disco Elysium creatives Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov - who were allegedly forced out of ZA/UM late last year – and Kaur Kender, executive producer on the game, who left in August.

The other half is current ZA/UM CEO Ilmar Kompus and former executive producer Tõnis Haavel, also an ex-banker convicted of investment fraud in 2015. Kompus is the largest shareholder in Studio ZA/UM, and Kurvitz, Rostov and Kender remain partners, despite their departures.

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Earlier this year, Sony announced it has sold 670,000 PlayStation 5 units in mainland China – but the actual install base is almost certainly much higher.

Like individual video games, consoles must be approved for release in China. For decades, home consoles were banned in the region but since 2015, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have been able to release versions of their devices to one of the world's biggest games markets, albeit often with restrictions on features and content.

The 670,000 sales announced by Sony – originally announced during an investors briefing in May, and reiterated around the news that Sony is expanding its incubator for Chinese developers – will only encompass the officially released model.

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For almost a year now, the industry has been operating under one major assumption about how the competitive landscape is going to look in the coming years – namely that by some point in 2023, Activision Blizzard would become a subsidiary of Microsoft, with the $68 billion acquisition seeing the giant publisher slotted in alongside Xbox Game Studios in Microsoft’s newly minted Gaming division.

The deal, initially announced back in January, would arguably be the most significant reordering of the games business since 2001, when Microsoft first entered the console market just months after Sega bowed out of the hardware business, and would make Microsoft’s games business into the third largest in the world by turnover, after Tencent and Sony.

After months of preparing for that eventuality and wrapping our heads around its implications, though, there are questions starting to be asked about the extent to which this deal is actually a fait accompli.

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Amongst prominent video game developers, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro stands out for the particular nature of his games, but also thanks to his affable personality. But his career started long before becoming famous for his crazy ideas and bringing his plush monkey with him around the world.

"When I was at SNK in the mid-Nineties", he tells us when we meet at Reboot Develop Blue in Dubrovnik. "I was just an employee. I could just try what I thought was a good idea without really much responsibility.

"Today, my ideas haven't particularly changed, but all the rest has. I have to commit to what I say from conception to actual implementation. And everything that comes after that requires much more responsibility. But that also means I now have the power to follow up with my ideas all the way."

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The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering filing an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Politico reports that a potential suit could be underway as soon as next month and may seek to block the record-breaking deal, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Sources reportedly told Politico that the FTC's four commissioners are yet to vote on a complaint or meet with lawyers, but the bulk of the investigation has been completed.

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