May 2023

Meta is reportedly having engagement issues with its Meta Quest devices.

In a Washington Post article detailing morale issues across the organization, the paper's sources told it Meta has a problem with new Quest owners only using the headsets for a few weeks.

Additionally, consumers who use the devices also migrated to third-party virtual reality apps instead of Horizon Worlds, the tech firm's own VR app.

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Phoenix Labs had a round of layoffs last week, the Dauntless developer confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz today.

"We recently evaluated all ongoing development projects within Phoenix Labs to determine our strongest path in terms of success and sustainability," a representative said. "As a result of that evaluation, we felt the best way forward for the company was to focus on fewer development projects. This renewed focus offers the best opportunity for the success of Fae Farm and Dauntless, as well as the remaining unannounced titles in our portfolio.

"As part of the transition out of those projects, we worked diligently to find new assignments for as many employees as possible. While we succeeded in reassigning many people, there were cases where we had to part ways with some talented people. In total, about 9% of our total employees have been affected.

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Developing and maintaining an MMO of any size is no easy task for any studio. The feat gets more challenging when it's multiplatform. Doing all of that when it's also a virtual reality game -- as is the case with Ramen VR's Zenith: The Last City -- is a constant juggling act, technically and logistically.

The studio's chief technical officer and co-founder, Lauren Frazier, sits down with GamesIndustry.biz to explain how the Final Fantasy XIV-inspired RPG found a home on different headsets and became a PlayStation VR 2 launch title.

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is this week's UK boxed No.1, and the second biggest game launch of the year.

The EA game sits behind Hogwarts Legacy but well ahead of Resident Evil 4 in this year's list of fastest-selling boxed games in the UK. It is also the eighth biggest Star Wars boxed release from the last 30 years.

However, the game's opening week's sales are 35% lower than what its predecessor, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, managed. This chart is only boxed sales, and although Fallen Order was only released in 2019, digital accelerated quite a bit during the pandemic. Therefore, the comparison may not be quite so negative when the full data is in later in the week.

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In under 18 months, PlayStation has announced three studio acquisitions all dedicated to live-service games.

It started with a big one in January last year – Destiny developer Bungie. It followed that with Haven Studios in March. And just last week it revealed it would be picking up Firewalk Studios.

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Ukraine joins the list of countries that have approved Microsoft's proposal to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.

The country's Antimonopoly Committee announced yesterday, per Google Translate, that it authorized the deal, noting that it had few concerns regarding cloud gaming competition.

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Cygames is setting up shop in the West, as the Japanese developer of Shadowverse and Granblue Fantasy: Versus today announced the formation of Cygames America and Cygames Europe.

Cygames America is based in Los Angeles while Cygames Europe has been established in London.

"Cygames America and Cygames Europe are the latest additions to Cygames' ongoing push to promote and market their titles in North America and Europe, which together account for roughly half of the world's video game marketplace," the company said.

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Astragon Entertainment, a division of Team 17, announced that it has acquired games studio Independent Arts Software.

Founded in 1990 and based in Germany, Independent Arts has co-developed titles such as Fox n Forests, Horse Farm, and Rail World. The firm brings with it years of experience in porting titles as well.

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The UK CMA shocked everyone this week, announcing that it was blocking Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard in the interest of protecting competition in the burgeoning cloud-gaming market.

Well, maybe not everyone. I was shocked, however, as my assessment of the deal hasn't really changed since the CMA released its first provisional ruling in February. Given that cloud gaming as a market barely exists at this point and Sony could choose to compete more aggressively there if it felt like it, I'm suprised the CMA found that to be the sticking point.

But I don't really want to talk about what this means for the deal or what happens now. You can certainly find better informed takes on that, perhaps on this very site.

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The red-headed Jedi Cal Kestis returns in Respawn Entertainment's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor today.

Set five years after the events of 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, the title focuses on the Galactic Empire, still on the hunt to wipe out the remaining Jedi, and Cal's efforts to outlast them.

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Sony plans to sell 25 million units of PlayStation 5 into retail in the current fiscal year.

The company's chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki revealed the target during an earnings call (transcribed by Seeking Alpha) following its solid results published this morning, saying it would be "the highest ever for any PS console in history."

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Microsoft has signed yet another ten-year deal with a cloud gaming provider, this time European platform Nware.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, announced the partnership via Twitter, saying that the deal will bring PC games build by Xbox to Nware's streaming service "as well as Activision Blizzard titles after the acquisition closes."

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In the end, it wasn't really about Call of Duty. It wasn't even really about PlayStation, no matter how much some people want to try to spin this as a console war narrative.

The biggest setback to Microsoft's bid to buy Activision Blizzard – a setback that could quite possibly sink the deal entirely – came largely from an interpretation of Microsoft's own beliefs and logic.

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PlayStation 5 shipped 19 million units in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 – ahead of Sony's original target of 18 million.

The sales achieved were partly thanks to resolved pandemic-induced supply issues which have hampered the PS5 during the early years of its life.

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Vice is shutting down its games publication Waypoint.

The news came via Twitter from senior writer Patrick Klepek.

"The team, myself included, have been terminated by Vice, and our final day running the website, the podcasts, and streams, will come to an end on June 2nd," he wrote.

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"The deal that will change the industry forever."

That's how analysts described Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard to GamesIndustry.biz shortly after it was announced last year.

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Last year, Bossa Studios sold a catalog of its internally created IP to TinyBuild, including Surgeon Simulator, I am Bread, and I am Fish, saying at the time that it would be focused on co-op PvE games going forward.

GamesIndustry.biz caught up with Bossa CEO Henrique Olifiers at the Game Developers Conference last month to get a more detailed explanation of how the change in strategy came about.

Olifiers says the studio decided to pivot about two years ago, inspired in part by the way it had been making games previously. To that point, all of Bossa's titles had arisen from open-ended internal game jams, and while that unfettered creativity allowed for a diverse array of titles, that diversity had some drawbacks.

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Microsoft President Brad Smith has heavily criticised the UK regulator and says that the decision to block its Activision Blizzard acquisition will discourage innovation and investment in the country.

Speaking during the BBC's Wake Up To Money, Smith stopped short of saying Microsoft would cut investment in the UK, but admitted that the company's confidence is shaken. Microsoft is a major business that operates in the UK, and in terms of video games, it operates a number of UK studios, including Rare, Playground Games and Ninja Theory.

"I think it's bad for Britain," Smith said. "The business community, the investment community and the technology sector around the world have been following this case. And the strong message that the CMA has sent, is not just to surprise everyone who fully expected this acquisition to be approved, but to send a message that will discourage innovation and investment in the United Kingdom. And I think in that sense the impact of this decision is far broader than on Microsoft or this acquisition alone."

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Was I the only one hoping that the UK would approve Microsoft's bid to acquire Activision Blizzard?

Not because I had any particular desire – one way or the other – for the deal to complete. But just so this entire ordeal would be over. There is more to come from the EU and FTC, of course, but the CMA was always the regulator most likely to block the acquisition. If they said it was ok, the biggest obstacle would have been overcome.

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Reboot Develop Blue will return to Croatia in April 2024.

During last night's closing ceremony, organiser Damir Durovic confirmed the conference would return to Dubrovnik from April 22 to 24, and announced the initial line-up of speakers.

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Activision Blizzard suffered a setback today with the UK blocking its sale to Microsoft, but the publisher can take some solace in its freshly reported first quarter financial results, which showed growth across every division and major franchise.

The company had originally told investors it would announce the results April 27 after the close of trading. A representative told GamesIndustry.biz, "We moved up earnings to answer questions that are already answered in the earnings materials we planned to release tomorrow."

"First quarter growth was broad-based, with net bookings increasing year-over-year in each of our five largest intellectual properties: Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo," the company said.

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Games firm Koei Tecmo saw its net sales reach $588.5 million throughout the fiscal year of 2022.

Here's what you need to know for the financial earnings from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023:

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The games industry moves pretty fast, and there's a tendency for all involved to look constantly to what's next without so much worrying about what came before. That said, even an industry so entrenched in the now can learn from its past. So to refresh our collective memory and perhaps offer some perspective on our field's history, GamesIndustry.biz runs this monthly feature highlighting happenings in gaming from exactly a decade ago.

Last month we revisited the always-offline launch debacle of Electronic Arts' always-online SimCity.

It went about as poorly as an always-online game launch could go, but EA refused to budge on it being a colossal mistake, publicly insisting it was not just a matter of a widely loathed company – EA was about to win Consumerist's Worst Company in America poll for the second year in a row – forcing unnecessary DRM into a traditionally single-player franchise.

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NetEase has announced the launch of a new internal studio, called Anchor Point Studios.

The new developer will be headed by veteran Paul Ehreth, previously director at Smilegate Barcelona and lead designer at Remedy working on Alan Wake 2 and Control, among others.

Anchor Point Studios will be based in Barcelona (Spain) with an additional office in Seattle (US), and specialise in action-adventure titles for both console and PC. The studio, which will operate with a mix of in-office and remote working, aims to hire up to 100 people across Europe and North America.

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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has announced it's "preventing" Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard "over concerns the deal would alter the future of the fast-growing cloud gaming market."

In its statement, the CMA said that Microsoft "failed to effectively address the concerns in the cloud gaming sector."

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Microsoft just released its earnings for the three months ended March 31, 2023 (Q3 FY23), showing a steep decline in hardware sales and a slight dip in total gaming revenues.

Here's what you need to know:

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Each company cares a lot about its funding. Whether it's to develop a new game, grow a studio, or transform a gaming passion into a successful business, none of this would be possible without resources.

Even a supposedly hit idea requires a compelling pitch, a high-quality presentation, and a relevant offer to secure funding from investors.

This guide will explain in detail ways and reasons to prepare a good investor pitch and is based on the conference lecture I gave at the WN Dev Day Canada 2022.

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Mobile games startup Cosmic Lounge has raised €4 million ($4.4 million) in a seed funding round.

Tomi Huttula, Tommi Kiviniemi, and Peter Tokoi founded the company. The founding members of Cosmic Lounge include Simo Rajamäki, Mika Karkinen, and Johannes Päivinen.

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Games recruitment firm Skillsearch has published its annual Salary & Satisfaction Survey, pointing to an increasing desire for flexible ways of working.

The report showed that 80% of respondents would be interested in a four-day work week in the future, with 82% of them saying they have "positive feelings" towards the idea. In addition, 79% of the people who answered the survey said they would "actively seek out" a studio with a four-day work week in the future.

It's worth noting that only 7% of the people who answered the Skillsearch survey currently do work for a company offering a four-day week.

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Ghost Ship Games' decision to open a publishing label happened two ways; gradually and then suddenly.

Having had success with co-op shooter Deep Rock Galactic, the company has been playing a supporting role within the Danish industry for some time and investing in developers. Over time, the question was asked whether the firm should start publishing other studios' games.

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The winners of the third annual Gayming Awards were revealed last night, with Cult of the Lamb winning Game of the Year.

The ceremony, which took place in New York yesterday, crowned Ashly Burch as this year's Gayming Icon, which is an award given to an individual "in recognition of their contribution to the LGBTQ community within gaming by giving voice to so many LGBTQ characters," Gayming Magazine explained.

The Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award 2023 went to Blue Twelve Studio's Stray, while the Best LGBTQ+ Indie Game Award was awarded to Studio Drydock's Wylde Flowers.

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Apple has won an appeal in an antitrust claim from Epic Games' following years of legal battles.

As reported by Bloomberg, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision supports the 2021 ruling, which rejected nine out of ten claims from Epic.

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A unit of 144 staffers at Sega of America has filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

As reported by The Verge, the cohort known as the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) consists of employees from departments that include live service, marketing, and product development. The unit is partnered with the Communications Workers of America (CWA).

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The upcoming release of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor will by the 119th Star Wars video game released since 1993 (when LucasArts published X-Wing).

That’s an average of almost four Star Wars games a year over the last three decades.

That’s according to Dorian Bloch, the games lead at GfK. It means that there are more games based on Star Wars than any other IP, including Mario and The Sims (with all its various expansion packs).

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As the name implies, the newly established studio Moon Rover Games is looking to map out uncharted territory.

With a founding team of developers who worked on franchises like Far Cry, Battlefield, and Crusader Kings, Moon Rover wants to build on their experience with emergent gameplay and use it to do something new in a type of game defined by its ability to turn out novel results.

"There's something around emergent game experiences, a slight loss of control around the way the game works that I just really love," Moon Rover creative director Jamie Keen tells GamesIndustry.biz.

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