GamesIndustry

During its Digital Showcase 2022 last week, THQ Nordic announced an Alone in the Dark reboot.

Developed by Swedish studio Pieces Interactive, the title will be a "reimagination" rather than a traditional reboot, THQ said, with an original story drawing elements from the first three Alone in the Dark titles.

Mikael Hedberg will be leading development on the title as creative director. Hedberg is known for his writing credits on horror titles such as Somo and Amnesia: The Dark Descent.

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Today, The Pokémon Company International announced that it intends to donate $25 million across the next five years to non-profits that support children and work to create equitable communities.

The firm said that the monetary support will be given to a predetermined group of organizations.

It said that the selection was based upon work on global, regional, and local levels.

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As Disney continues to expand its games operations, the firm will hold its own showcase at the D23 Expo next month.

The Disney and Marvel Games Showcase will take place on Friday, September 9th and will feature 'reveals, announcements and trailers' for upcoming games.

Disney has been signing significant licensing deals in recent years for its properties, with major AAA games coming out based on Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel and Avatar. It currently has licensing deals with Bethesda, EA, Ubisoft, PlayStation, Warner Bros and Take-Two.

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Legal paperwork to Brazilian regulators reveals that Sony's PlayStation 4 sold twice as many units than Microsoft's Xbox One system during the last console generation.

As reported by GameLuster, and translated by Google, the details were a part of Microsoft's defense for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard to the Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE).

The comment was a part of the firm's reasons rejecting Sony's concerns about the Call of Duty series becoming an Xbox exclusive.

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Two Point Campus debuts at No.2 in the UK physical charts.

This is just for boxed sales. Two Point Campus, as a strategy game, will likely have performed strongly as a digital download on PC. Download data will be available later in the week.

64% of the game's boxed sales came on Nintendo Switch, 19% on PS5, 12% on PS4 and 5% on the Xbox Series platforms. Two Point Campus is also included in the Xbox Game Pass subscription service (as was its predecessor, Two Point Hospital).

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Weta Workshop is developing a new game based on Middle-Earth and the literary works of J. R. R. Tolkien, with Take-Two label Private Division handling publishing duties.

Weta is best known for its special effects work on films such as Dune and Avatar, as well as the acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 2014, it created a games development division and is now working on its first major title.

No details have been given, other than that the title will be set in the Middle-Earth universe and that the licensor responsible for handling rights around Tolkien's literary works has granted Weta "the broadest creative licence to interpret the underling lore of the books."

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Last week, Iron Galaxy launched Rumbleverse, its first new product in three years.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Iron Galaxy co-CEO Adam Boyes traces the game's origins back to spitballing ideas with co-CEO Chelsea Blasko, who suggested, "We should do a 'rasslin' game!"

"From that moment on, having the visualization of choke-slamming someone off a 40-story building and being able to make something we thought could stand out, that was biggest thing," Boyes says.

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Unity today announced that it will not be accepting AppLovin's unsolicited offer of a merger in order to go ahead with a previously announced deal with IronSource.

Unity's board of directors decided unanimously that AppLovin's proposal "is not in the best interests of Unity shareholders."

It added that AppLovin's offer would not have fulfilled an exit clause in the deal with IronSource because it did meet the criteria to be considered a "superior proposal."

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At a glance:

• Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak DLC pushes 2021 title over 200,000 copies sold
• Second biggest month for PS5 sales with 89,000 units sold in July
• Mario Party Superstars and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics reach one million copies sold

According to data provided by Famitsu, the Capcom title sold approximately 217,000 copies last month.

It vastly outperformed the next best-selling title, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which sold around 112,000 copies. However, it’s worth noting that the RPG launched July 29, giving it just three days on the market before this data was collated.

Nintendo Switch Sports continued to sell well in third place for the second month running, shifting 111,000 copies during the month.

While Monster Hunter Rise is a re-entry at No.1, other new entries include Live A Live at No.4, which released July 22. The Square Enix RPG sold approximately 85,000 copies.

Another new entry is Gran Turismo 7, the only PlayStation 5 game to appear in the top 30 best-selling titles. The Sony-published racing game is in No.9 after selling 30,000 copies in July, with 12,000 sold in the last week of the month.

Two releases also hit milestones of one million copies sold, Mario Party Superstars and Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, which launched June 2020 and October 2021, respectively.

Nintendo once again held its title as the best-selling publisher in Japan with 36.1% of all physical games sold, but Capcom soared from No.7 to No.2 in July, with 15.1% of all boxed games shifted by the firm.

Microsoft’s proposed $70bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard is currently being scrutinised by regulators around the world.

The process is starting to make headlines after the Brazilian regulator (CADE) made public the responses it has received from the games industry about the deal and its potential impact.

The regulation process is complicated, and involves various different bodies from different countries that must look at the deal before it can go ahead.

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Influencers can receive hundreds of emails weekly depending on the size of their following, so to be one of the lucky companies to catch their eye, you need to come with a plan.

Here are ten important things to consider when reaching out to an influencer:

The email subject is an instant "yes" or "no" when it comes to an influencer deciding whether to even look at your email. It can be one of the key aspects to whether you will be able to succeed in acquiring your potential new client.

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The PC release of Marvel’s Spider-Man is the second biggest PC launch for a PlayStation title so far.

As spotted by games analyst Benji-Sales, the Insomniac title hit 66,436 peak concurrent players over the weekend, coming second to God of War’s 73,529 peak players during its launch back in January.

Horizon Zero Dawn came in third, hitting 56,557 concurrent users during its August 2020 launch, and Bend Studio’s Days Gone followed with 27,450 players during its release period in May 2021.

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At a glance:

Activision Blizzard insisted to the National Labor Relations Board that the Blizzard Albany unionisation vote should not be limited to QA employees.

The Washington Post reports lawyers representing both the Call of Duty publisher and the employees campaigning to form new union Game Workers Alliance: Albany spoke to the labour board during a virtual hearing last week.

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Today, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) announced that Hogwarts Legacy will release on February 10, 2023.

Last year, the Harry Potter inspired RPG was slated to release in 2022 but previously had a 2021 launch window when it was orginally revealed.

"The team is excited for you to play, but we need a little more time to deliver the best possible game experience," WBIE said on Twitter.

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Call me old fashioned, but I generally believe that a successful business should make money.

That's why it sometimes surprises me to read about incredible buzz and valuations around companies like Roblox and Unity, both of which posted their earnings this week and neither of which actually make money.

STAT | $17.5 billion - The value of AppLovin's proposed non-binding deal to merge with engine-maker Unity in an all-stock deal that would give AppLovin shareholders 51% voting control over the combined company. It would also require Unity to back out of its own planned acquisition of IronSource.

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Singapore-based studio Virtuos has opened a new office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The new space will serve as a development hub, and aims to offer new opportunities in the region via various roles and talent training.

Virtuos Kuala Lumpur soft launched in 2021, and is led by general manager Mufizal Mokhtar. It currently employs over 90 staff.

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Cheat seller AimJunkies has moved on its legal battle against Bungie, issuing several subpoenas in an effort to take action against the developer.

Phoenix Digital Group, the company behind the software, believes that an unknown employee or contractor at Bungie violated the software’s terms of service by purchasing and giving it to their employer, according to TorrentFreak.

In a statement, the firm said it intends to "prosecute individuals or companies who violated our copyrights and terms of service to the fullest extent of the law," and called the move "the first step down that path."

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At the end of this month, Blizzard will shut down sales of loot boxes for Overwatch – a stepping stone towards the launch of Overwatch 2, and consequent overhaul of the whole business model for the Overwatch franchise, in early October.

This isn’t an unprecedented move; the original Overwatch will be fully replaced by its sequel, rather than running alongside it, and it’s fairly common for developers to phase out various monetisation aspects of their live service games some time before the game itself shuts down.

The reasoning for that is clear: selling virtual items for a game that won’t exist in a few months is just asking for a consumer backlash and some serious side-eye from consumer watchdogs and regulators. In the case of Overwatch, though, loot box items will actually continue to be usable in Overwatch 2, so this logic doesn’t really apply.

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Over 25 investors and publishers are looking to meet indie developers at GI Live: London next month.

The first day of the event is Tuesday, September 20th and is an online-only meeting day.

The second and third days of the event (Wednesday, September 21st - Thursday, September 22nd) will take place in person, and includes a number of live talks, face-to-face meetings and roundtables. Plus, attendees can visit EGX, the consumer show that takes place at the same venue (London Excel).

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Hiroyuki Kobayashi has left Capcom after 27 years to join NetEase Games.

In an announcement shared on Twitter, Kobayashi said he departed the Resident Evil firm on March 31, 2022 and is joining NetEase as producer.

"I will strive to continuously create more enjoyable entertainment experiences for everyone at this new company, in this new era," he wrote.

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Unity has signed a new deal with tech firm CACI – which provides tools and expertise to branches of the US government that includes homeland security, intelligence, and defense.

As reported by Game Developer, CACI is a $6 billion company, and this new deal is described as a three-year multi-million-dollar contract.

The engine maker listed it among its recent business highlights within its Q2 2022 financials report.

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Microsoft has said that following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive "would simply not be profitable" for the company.

In a Google translation of a letter sent to Brazil's Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), Microsoft addressed concerns that it would limit the series to its own systems if the acquisition were to go through.

Microsoft said an exclusive Call of Duty would need to bring in enough players to the Xbox ecosystem that it could compensate from the losses of not releasing the games on rival consoles, adding that exclusivity introduces new costs specific to each title. (The nature of those costs was redacted from the document.)

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Ever since the release of Stardew Valley in 2016, a wave of life simulators and other self-professed wholesome games has washed over the games industry.

The most insecure fringe of the games community has seen this as a threat to what they consider the only valid way to enjoy games. But some of us are living our best life under a cosy blanket with a cup of tea, finally spoilt for choice in our genre of predilection.

Whitethorn Games is part of the latter group. The Pennsylvania-based publisher launched in 2017 and is behind indie hits such as Calico, Wytchwood, Lake, and the recently-released beekeeping sim Apico.

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In a market where the rising price of games is often scrutinised, it’s easy to undervalue yourself as an independent developer, especially if you don’t have the resources of a bigger, respected publisher.

At Develop:Brighton 2022, Game If You Are founder Lewis Denby hosted a talk for developers that are unsure about how to price their games, and how to figure it out, as well as advice on researching competitors and estimating how much revenue a game will make.

In the AAA space, there’s somewhat of a status quo, Denby explained. He said that those larger publishers will mostly adhere to an established process, in which the price of a game is decided.

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Publisher Soedesco has acquired 100% of the shares in Spanish studio Superlumen for an undisclosed sum.

Superlumen was founded in 2015 and specialises in virtual reality development. It's also the maker of point and click title Desolatium, set to release later this year.

The acquisition is part of Soedesco’s strategy to expand following the opening of its first Spanish office. For Superlumen, the deal will enable the studio to focus more on developing its own IPs and projects.

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Video game sales plunged in July across European markets, as console stock shortages and a lack of major releases continue.

Physical and digital game sales fell 38% year-on-year to 8.62 million units sold. It’s worth noting that July 2022 encompasses just four weeks, while July 2021 was five weeks, yet it was still a poor month for game sales.

This was mostly due to the lack of new releases. This year, the best-selling game of July was F1 22, which was actually released in June. The highest charting new release was Xenoblade Chronicles 3, which made No.7.

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A second labor complaint was filed against Nintendo of America which alleges that a staffer faced retaliation for activity protected by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

As reported by Axios, the case comes months after the platform holder and hiring company Aston Carter received a similar complaint.

The NLRA labor law states, "The NLRA protects workplace democracy by providing employees at private-sector workplaces the fundamental right to seek better working conditions and designation of representation without fear of retaliation."

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Microsoft has claimed that Sony has been paying developers to keep their work off subscription services like its own Game Pass, according to VGC.

The outlet says the accusation was made in a document sent to Brazilian regulators assessing the Xbox maker's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

"Microsoft's ability to continue expanding Game Pass has been obstructed by Sony's desire to inhibit such growth," the company said.

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Niko Partners' new 2022 China Youth Gamers report reveals that after 2021's gaming restrictions were implemented, 54% of China’s youth play games within the regulated hours.

The rule specifies that minors can play during Friday through Sunday (and public holidays) one hour a day between 8 pm and 9 pm.

Niko Partners found that 77% of minors are playing fewer hours per week, even if only 54% limit themselves to approved hours.

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Unity this week reported its earnings for the three months ended June 30, with strong growth from its engine business largely offset by continuing problems in its app monetization division.

Revenue: $297 million, up 9% year-over-year Net loss: $204 million, compared to a $148 million loss in the same quarter last year Create Solutions (game engine) revenue: $121 million, up 66% year-over-year Operate Solutions (in-app ads and monetization) revenue: $158.5 million, down 13% year-over-year

"The second quarter of 2022 was consistent with our guidance with strong performance in Create Solutions," Unity president and CEO John Riccitiello said of the results. "We are encouraged by the progress we are making to get Operate Solutions back on stable footing."

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Children's entertainment firm Spin Master announced that it's purchased Sweden-based game developer Nørdlight.

Founded in 2019, the startup game studio released tower defense game Jotunheim: 1965 and is currently working on a mobile title based on the Rubik's cube brand.

Spin Master's addition of the game developer comes a year after it made a minority investment in the company.

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Overwatch players will no longer be able to buy loot boxes after August 30, Blizzard has confirmed.

While paid loot boxes will be going away August 30, players will still be able to earn them through gameplay until Overwatch 2 releases, currently set for October 4.

The company has said loot boxes will not be used in Overwatch 2 and the original game will no longer be playable after the sequel launches.

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New data has revealed that just 5% of games industry jobs advertised in 2022 have been entry level positions.

Jobs platform Hitmarker analysed 19,458 paid jobs and internships advertised between January and June, and found that the lowest percentage asked for zero to one year experience.

Junior roles asking for one to two years experience made up 8.6% of the job listings analysed.

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Yesterday, we published the first part of this two-part special on writing for games, in which five successful writers talked us through a brief history of storytelling in video games.

Today, we continue the discussion by finding out some of the lessons they've learned during their careers – starting with the need to understand collaborative games writing is even more collaborative than other forms.

Writers are team players

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EA may not have exclusivity on NFL video games any longer, but it has kept the rights to one aspect of the license, today announcing a multi-year exclusive esports deal renewal with the league.

"As a trusted partner for more than 30 years, EA's commitment to football authenticity with Madden NFL is exemplary," said NFL VP of video gaming Ed Kiang.

"Extending our partnership with EA is another avenue for the League to grow fandom off the field and enhance the EA Sports Madden NFL Championship Series by aligning Madden competitive gaming with NFL moments. Our joint efforts will drive the type of excitement that NFL fans expect while also highlighting the best Madden players in the world."

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Sony is worried about Call of Duty.

Regulators around the world are looking into this monster acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, and are asking competitors about it. And Sony has made its view clear. The PlayStation firm views Call of Duty’s importance as ‘indescribable’, and that it is so entrenched “that even if a competitor had the budget to develop a similar product, it would not be able to rival it.” In other words, Call of Duty is a game that “influences user’s choice of console”.

Is it slightly hyperbolic? Call of Duty is one of the world’s biggest game franchises, but it doesn’t stand alone. Games like FIFA and Fortnite are just as big, if not bigger. And there are plenty of major games markets, including Japan, where it’s a relatively small player.

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Several games studios banded together to raise £400,000 for Make-A-Wish UK, the non-profit that arranges life-changing experiences for critically ill children.

The charity’s ‘Wish 200 week’ took place July 18 - 22, and saw developers including Miniclip, Huuuge Games, Hutch and others assist with the fundraising efforts.

Multiple streamers also hosted broadcasts throughout the week to raise money for the cause.

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Battalion 1944 developer Bulkhead Interactive has split with its publisher, Square Enix Collective.

In a message shared on Steam, the studio said it has "formally ended" its relationship with Square Enix and that it was "deeply disappointed that Battalion 1944 never made it to console."

Kickstarter backers will be refunded and Battalion: Legacy, a "revisited and final version of Battalion 1944" will be released for free on Steam on August 16.

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Change is afoot at Thunderful as the publishing group announced several changes to leadership alongside its latest financial results.

CEO Brjann Sigurgeirsson, who has held the position since the group first formed in 2019, is stepping down to take on a new role within the company's games segment. Former CFO Anders Maiqvist has taken over acting CEO while a permanent replacement is found.

The announcement comes as Thunderful posted a net loss of SEK 21.8 million ($2.1 million) for the second quarter of 2022, and a net loss of SEK 20.7 million ($2 million) for the first half of the year.

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Console sales dropped slightly in July compared with June, with a fall in sales for all three major platforms.

Nearly 104,000 games machines were sold across the UK last month (GfK UK panel units), a drop of 16% month-on-month. Overall, this year-to-date, games console sales are down 38%. Note: July has four weeks in it, while June had five.

PS5 sales dropped the least during July (down 14%), and as a result it’s now the UK’s second most popular console of 2022, just behind Nintendo Switch. PS5 and Xbox Series X continue to be held back by stock shortages.

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