GamesIndustry

EA is dropping Project CARS, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal.

The Slightly Mad Studios-developed series was launched in 2015, with EA confirming today that it has made the decision to "stop further development and investment" in the franchise.

The announcement was made internally and it's unclear at this stage to which extent staff could be affected. EA said that employees working on Project CARS will be moved into "suitable" roles "wherever [they] can."

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At a glance

Nintendo and DeNA are working together on the formation of a new joint venture company that will aim to "strengthen the digitisation" of Nintendo's business.

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Activision Blizzard released its earnings report for the three months ended September 30 today, and the launch of mobile title Diablo Immortal in China appears to have gone some way to cushion Activision Blizzard's downward turn, though revenue, bookings and net income are all down year-on-year.

Activision is once again showing signs of decline, with the company reporting $480 million in revenue, a 25% decrease from last year's $641 million.

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Take-Two Interactive reported its earnings for the three months ended September 30 today, and much like its first quarter, the Zynga acquisition and an unfavorable economy were pointed to for significant top-line growth but a negative GAAP bottom line.

In addition to those numbers, Take-Two also downgraded its outlook for the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, citing shifts in the product pipeline, foreign currency exchange rates, and the impacts of the greater economy, especially on the mobile business.

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Last month saw the return of Melbourne International Games Week, an event that sees the industry descend upon the Australian city to showcase games, studios, and everything the bustling games scene in the country has to offer.

While 2021's MIGW was all about getting back on track in the wake of a global pandemic, this year's focus was on building on that return, and making the trip to Melbourne a worthwhile block in every games professional's calendar.

"The main goal was to see crowds come back in person – and they did with the proverbial bells on," Fran Kerlin, senior manager at MIGW organiser Creative Victoria, tells GamesIndustry.biz. "After two years of struggling with virtual formats, organisers were keen to offer a veritable smorgasbord of programming that would excite the local games community, whether they were studios or players."

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It's no exaggeration to say God of War: Ragnarok is one of the most hotly-anticipated games of 2022.

The series' 2018 revival stunned critics and brought on board a new audience for whom the previous games had seemed too juvenile, weaving a tale of fathers, sons and grief into a gaming masterpiece. The bar for the sequel was raised absurdly high.

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Remedy has released its financial results for the three months ended September 30, 2022, reporting an increase in revenue, but sizable declines in operating profit.

The numbers:

The highlights

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The merger of Unity and IronSource is complete.

Confirmation came via a blog post by Unity CEO John Riccitiello, who shared more about the company's ambitions now that IronSource's various products, which centre around monetising and advertising mobile apps, will be integrated into the Unity platform.

The deal was announced back in July, follows a string of expansions for Unity after the acquisitions of Ziva Dynamics, Pixyz Software, SpeedTree, Parsec, SyncSketch and famed visual effects outfit Weta Digital.

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At a glance:

A new report has shone light on how the Japanese PC games market is growing, with both revenues and player count nearly doubling over the course of just a few years.

Kantan Games analyst Dr Serkan Toto shared the results of a report by Japanese think tank Kadokawa Ascii Research Laboratories, which wrote a report for Famitsu showing that PC gaming in Japan was worth ¥131.3 billion in 2021.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 remained strong at the top of the UK physical charts for its second week on shelves.

Sales for Activision's titles were only down 42% week-on-week, which is an excellent performance for a second week. This year's Call of Duty saw its physical launch sales in the UK up over 40% compared to 2021's Vanguard.

EA's FIFA 23 also continued to perform really well, securing No.2 for the second week running with a slight 12% dip in sales.

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Twitter Gaming's social lead Shiraz Siddiqui was among those let go during mass layoffs at the social network, according to a Twitter post of his early this morning.

"To all the creators, influencers, athletes, actors, streamers, and gamers I've had the pleasure of speaking to on behalf of Twitter, it's been an honor no matter what happens," he posted several hours before confirming his termination.

It was reported earlier this week that Musk had been planning to layoff half the company's employees today.

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Freedom Games landed $10 million in funding to accelerate hiring and expand its developer platform wiki.gg, the company has announced.

The investment is being led by Play Ventures, with additional participation from Nashville Capital Network and GFR Fund.

"We couldn't be more proud to work together," said Freedom CEO and co-founder Donovan Duncan.

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Sony has finally announced the release details for the PlayStation VR 2 headset, and that $550 asking price is probably what drew the most attention from people.

But this week's column is going to talk about another detail in Sony's announcement.

No, not the fact that Sony chose to release its new VR headset on February 22, the same day that it picked to launch the notorious flop that was the PlayStation Vita. (Although that is entertainingly foreboding.)

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"In eight years' time, I'd like to see the video games industry being the greenest industry in the world and that the players that play games are coming to it, not just to escape, but to give back as well" - Sam Barratt, United Nations

The wider creative industries are increasingly looking to games for inspiration. After all, it’s probably fair to say that gaming is now bigger than the Beatles – so why wouldn’t the world of music and film be looking to video games for a steer on how to engage their audiences?

In the first episode of the Playable Futures Podcast, games journalist Will Freeman – a regular GamesIndustry.biz contributor – speaks to the UN Environment's chief of education for youth and advocacy Sam Barratt about the United Nations’ Playing for the Planet Alliance, and why the UN sees games as part of its mission’s future.

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New York City introduced a new pay transparency law this week, that asks companies with over four employees to disclose salary ranges for any public job openings.

This has given an insight into pay standards at several games studios operating in the area, which Axios has compiled.

The outlet shared five roles listed at Rockstar Games NYC; the highest paid was a product lead with a salary range of $163,000 to $184,000, and the lowest was an associate dialogue designer falling between $50,000 and $57,000.

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A video game company doing something that upsets or annoys some subset of its consumers is hardly a rare occurrence – you can't please all of the people all of the time, after all, and while some companies balance things a little better than others, you could still make a decent-sized list in any given week of Things Companies Have Done That People Are Mad About.

On occasion, this becomes a pattern of behaviour, which can be indicative of some poor decision-making at a high level – often related to taking an existing audience for granted while trying to pivot too aggressively to a new strategy or business model. But generally speaking you can't read too much into the occasional moment of upset. Every company has its turn in the barrel.

Every now and then, though, a company's direction and strategy becomes so questionable, its penchant for annoying large swathes of consumers at every turn so consistent, that you start to wonder if you're watching an implosion, or an executive team playing through some kind of perverse Brewster's Millions scenario.

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Global Top Round has launched a new branch focused on mergers and acquisitions.

The company, best known for its work as an accelerator for startup games studios, will concentrate on fundraising – either equity, debt or a mix of both – and advising on acquisitions.

GTR will also assist companies who are looking to sell 100% of their studio.

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A new report from Digital Development Management (DDM) reveals that video game investments during Q3 2022 reached $2.2 billion.

The video games agency notes that the figure represents a decline of 55% year-over-year at a volume of 156 deals.

Blockchain gaming investments totaled 63% of Q3 2022's value at $1.4 billion.

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Video games marketing firm ÜberStrategist announced that it's acquired VirTasktic.

The marketing services provider was founded in 2011 by CEO Carolyn Crummey and is based in Raleigh, North Carolina.

With the acquisition VirTasktic will be folded into ÜberStrategist and expand its business operations.

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VR specialist studio Survios expanded its catalog last year to include non-VR games, but the developer behind Creed: Rise to Glory and the upcoming multiplatform Aliens title is still bullish on the future of VR.

In a featured session at Megamigs in Montreal last month, Survios chief product officer TQ Jefferson was pretty stoked about its present as well.

Jefferson delivered a talk titled, "Is VR Still Five Minutes Away?" The name came from a 2020 Polygon article in which it was stated that the VR revolution has been "five minutes away" for the past eight years.

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NetEase has secured a minority stake in Swedish indie developer Liquid Swords, GamesIndustry.biz can confirm.

The Chinese firm has made an investment in the Stockholm-based studio, though the exact figure was not undisclosed.

Liquid Swords was founded in 2020 by Christofer Sundberg, best known as the founder of Avalanche Studios and director of the first Just Cause game. The studio is currently working on its debut project, an unannounced AAA open-world title.

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Google has brought its Google Play for PC service to seven more countries this week.

The rollout sees the program, which allows users to play games listed on the Google Play store via a desktop computer, is now in open beta in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

Google launched Google Play for PC at the start of the year as a limited test in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia. In August, the Google Play for PC beta opened up to all players in those regions.

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When speaking about the mobile game and app market, we immediately think of Google Play and Apple Store as its essential parts, but the market is much bigger than that. And when dealing with alternative app stores, some issues may arise because we don’t usually know how to work with them.

Amazon Appstore is the store that comes pre-installed on all Amazon Kindle Fire devices. This category of tablets is based on the Fire OS, which, at a closer look, turns out to be a modified Android system. The share of Amazon tablets on the world market is about 10% or from one to 1.5 million tablets sold per month:

It’s worth mentioning that Amazon Kindle Fire tablets are limited to the Amazon Appstore by default, which means there won’t be any competition with other stores.

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At a glance:

The Chinese video games market is expected to shrink for the first time in two decades, due to a combination of mobile spending decline, increasingly restrictive regulations and more.

That's according to analysis and research firm Niko Partners, which revised its April 2022 forecast for the market. Previously projecting "very low growth," the company now estimates China's domestic gaming revenues will drop 2.5% year-on-year to $45.44 billion.

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During Q2 EA's earnings call yesterday, executive vice president and chief operating officer Christopher Suh revealed trailing a 12-month period, live service titles account for 73% of the firm's gaming business.

He added that digital title sales made up 66% of full game units sold, an increase of 5% year-over-year.

Suh also noted the performance of the firm's latest sports titles and their own live service components.

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Microsoft’s latest financials, and Phil Spencer’s subsequent comments during the Wall Street Journal Live event, felt like a shift in tone.

The big takeaway for some is how Microsoft, for the second quarter running, failed to hit its targets around Game Pass subscription growth.

I am reluctant to draw conclusions from results posted during the last six months. Not only has there been a significant lack of major titles, but it also covers the first full post-lockdown summer, when people actually went on holiday. It was inevitable video game targets were going to get missed, and Microsoft isn’t the only one to experience that.

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Blizzard Albany's QA team is scheduled to have its votes on unionization tallied on November 18, but Activision Blizzard has asked the National Labor Relations Board to postpone that tabulation.

The publisher yesterday filed a motion to impound ballots with the NLRB, saying the count should be postponed until its appeal of a previous NLRB decision in the case can be heard.

Activision Blizzard filed its appeal alongside the motion to impound ballots.

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Sony's PlayStation VR 2 will be launching on February 22, 2023, the company announced.

The PSVR 2 will be launching at a recommended retail price of $549.99 / €599.99 / £529.99, Sony said in a blog post.

For that price, the box will include the PSVR 2 headset, two Sense controllers, and headphones. A charging station for the controllers will be sold separately for $49.99 / €49.99 / £39.99 and launch on the same day.

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Our special podcast series The Five Games Of returns with Tim Schafer, founder, CEO and president of Double Fine Productions. And the episode is available to download now.

For those who may have missed past episodes, this is a series of interviews in which we explore five games from our guest's careers – their first, their latest, and three of their choice – as well as how the industry changed in the years between.

In this episode, Schafer shares how he came to work at LucasFilm Games, the evolution of the adventure genre that the studio was best known for, the transition to early 3D graphics, the complexities of music licensing, and the changing attitudes towards comedy in games.

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Is there space for an independent studio to create a big-budget title that can fight for its place in a market increasingly dominated by ever-consolidating global publishers? When even mega-publishers like Activision Blizzard are no longer immune to a corporate takeover and budgets continue to spiral, can a studio from outside this sphere of influence even hope to have their voice heard?

This is exactly the proposition that Austin-based games studio Certain Affinity is betting itself on, as the company continues to work towards its goal of self-producing and releasing its own AAA-quality titles.

The studio, founded in 2007 by Max Hoberman, has grown over the years into one of the largest and most experienced outsourcing development teams in North America, with hundreds of developers assisting with work on franchises like Call of Duty and Halo. It was in early 2012, however, that the studio first committed itself to developing its own projects, something that ramped up in earnest in 2019 with the opening of a studio in Toronto as its debut, unannounced project was finally coming together.

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Developer and publisher Frontier has acquired Canadian studio Complex Games for an undisclosed amount.

Complex Games is the developer behind Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, launched via third-party label Frontier Foundry in May.

The deal marks the debut acquisition for the UK-based firm, and Fronter has said that it will "continue to explore opportunities to grow Frontier's resources."

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A new studio has been formed by ex-Niantic staff with the aim of creating "narrative games and short-form indie experiences."

Bodeville was founded in October by Alexia 'Flex' Mandeville and Bo Boghosian, who previously worked together at Niantic on its upcoming location-based pet game Peridot.

Mandeville led the design of Peridot, before which she worked on a variety of virtual reality projects, including Meta's Horizon Worlds.

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Build A Rocket Boy will be opening a new studio in Montpellier, France, in 2023.

The announcement didn't specify whether the new office will be focusing on a particular area, only that it's opening to "accommodate the expanding needs of the global development team."

It's also unclear at this stage who will be heading the new location, with the press release only mentioning an "industry veteran line up" without giving names.

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Game audio services provider SIDE announced that its newest studio, SIDE Paris will open in early 2023.

Founded in 1997, the firm has offered services such as casting, studio recordings, and performance direction.

SIDE has worked on titles such as Returnal, It Takes Two, and Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

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Electronic Arts reported its earnings for the second quarter (the three months ended September 30) today, showing the company has continued to grow revenue and net profits, even if the pace of that growth has slowed.

EA has already touted FIFA 23 as the most successful launch in the franchise's history, but it was only enough to drive the publisher to single-digit sales and profit growth for the second quarter.

"Q2 was a solid quarter," said EA CFO Chris Suh in remarks accompanying the earnings release.

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CDE Entertainment, the Embracer-owned business group comprised of assets acquired from Square Enix earlier this year, today announced it is shutting down its publishing QA team and Onoma, the mobile developer that rebranded itself last month from Square Enix Montreal.

The closures will impact roughly 200 people, though CDE has said it will look to match some of them with open positions within PC and console projects at the remainder of the company.

"With the opportunity to form the 12th operative group within Embracer we have massive ambitions across Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal," CDE director Phil Rogers said.

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Splitgate maker 1047 Games announced today that it's purchased anti-cheat software creator EQU8.

EQU8 was founded in 2019 by Andreas Hansson, Pierre Lindblad and Sander Brauwers and its technology has been used in Splitgate since 2020.

With the acquisition the games company will be folded into 1047 Games and its tech will become exclusive to the studio.

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Wildlife Studios has unveiled its latest collaboration with established developers, the new studio 9-Bit Bandits.

Based in Stockholm, Sweden, 8-Bit Bandits was co-founded by Crash Bandicoot: On the Run creative lead Stephen Jarrett and senior producer Robert Woodburn.

Earlier in his career, Jarrett worked as a designer on Bullfrog games like Syndicate Wars and Theme Hospital before working on a wealth of licensed titles for brands like Harry Potter, The Incredibles, Power Rangers, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

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The video games industry is often described as recession proof. However, 2022 has already proven to be a turbulent year and that resilience is no longer assured.

During GI Live London’s investment and publishing panel, experts weighed in on how funding game companies is changing during times of economic uncertainties.

London Venture Partners principal analyst Harry Hamer highlighted that this time is different now there are free-to-play and premium gaming business models. He adds gaming only had competition with film and TV in the past.

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Last weekend, a man in San Francisco went into the home of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a hammer and attacked her husband Paul Pelosi while shouting, "Where's Nancy?"

According to The Independent, the suspect in the attack, David DePape, had been active on social media, sharing conspiracy theories about COVID-19, alleging the 2020 US presidential election had been stolen, and subscribing to QAnon beliefs and Holocaust denialism.

A post DePape made in August explained what radicalized him and started him down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

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