GamesIndustry

Not that there was ever really much doubt, but we now have the numbers to confirm it: Xbox Series finally has a huge exclusive hit on its hands.

Bethesda's Starfield has topped the US sales charts for September, sliding into the top ten for the year thus far in the process. Everyone knew that Starfield would be a success, but commercial performance on this scale was never a given. Bethesda games generally do well, but are not guaranteed chart-toppers, with their numbers only getting truly impressive when you look at the long tail performance.

It remains to be seen if Starfield will have the kind of long tail seen with some of Bethesda's other games – the comparison that will most likely be trotted out in the coming months and years is Skyrim, though demanding any company to find a way to bottle the lightning that turned Skyrim into an industry phenomenon is a pretty huge ask.

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The London Games Festival is set to return for its ninth year, from April 9 to 25, 2024.

Over ten programs have been confirmed across the capital, including Now Play This from April 6 to 14 at Somerset House, the Games Finance Market between April 11 and 12, the BAFTA Games Awards on April 11, and WASD, which runs from April 25 to 27 at the Truman Brewery.

A new conference called Screen Play will take place on April 10, highlighting connections between the games, television, and film sectors.

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3.5 million video games were sold across the UK last month, a slight rise of nearly 1% over the year before (GSD data).

The best-selling game by a country mile was EA Sports FC 24. It's a strong launch for the game, with sales only down 8% over last year's FIFA 23. It was expected that there would be some decline due to the rebranding, plus the fact last year's FIFA launch was particularly strong. EA's dominance of the football game genre looks set to continue even without the FIFA IP.

The second best-selling game of the month belongs to Xbox's Starfield. After four weeks the game is narrowly behind Forza Horizon 5's launch in terms of sales, which remains the fastest-selling first-party Xbox game this generation (note: Forza Horizon 5 was also available on Xbox One). Of course, both games were available upon release in the subscription service Game Pass, so the true scale of their success is not purely about how many copies it sold. Two-thirds of the Starfield’s unit sales were on PC.

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Update: Six to Start founder Adrian Hon confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that the departures are the consequences of a wave of redundancies and "contract terminations/non-renewal."

He explained: "Six to Start currently has around 25 full-time and part-time staff, comprising a mix of employees and contractors. A little over 50% of staff are being let go, including myself, owing to a restructuring by OliveX, our parent company. Some people are going this month, and others will be staying on for a few more months.

"Ultimately OliveX are facing the same pressures that are affecting the rest of the games industry – macroeconomic challenges that make raising money harder, interest rates, a return to a pre-COVID level of demand for games and digital experiences, etc."

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Following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, Call of Duty's exclusivity deals are poised to end.

As reported by Game Developer, the news comes from Xbox boss Phil Spencer in a recent appearance on the Official Xbox podcast.

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Game publisher Devolver Digital has donated to the ongoing relief efforts for Palestinian families.

The company's donation went to the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is working to provide assistance and protection for registered Palestinian refugees in the West Bank.

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Assassin's Creed marker Ubisoft has announced that Montreal will serve as its North American hub for its production operations.

The company intends for the hub to accelerate its global strategy for gaming projects and business operations. Ubisoft's North American production comprises of its six Canadian studios and three US locations.

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Niantic has announced that its location-based RPG, Monster Hunter Now, has been downloaded 10 million times.

The mobile title reached the milestone a month after its global release.

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Revenue generated by Swedish games companies in the country has grown 13% year-on-year, reaching €3.1 billion in 2022, according to the annual report from Sweden's games trade body Dataspelsbranschen.

When including international sales in addition to domestic sales, revenue generated by Swedish games companies reached €8.1 billion last year, a 38% increase year-on-year. The Embracer Group represented €3.5 billion of this total, the trade body added.

The number of people employed by the Swedish games industry increased 6% in 2022, to 8,445 people.

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Starfield debuted at No.1 in Circana's US charts for September, instantly becoming the seventh best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date.

Bethesda's space-adventure RPG ranked as the best-selling title across Xbox and PC according to Circana's monthly US sales report, as shared by executive director and industry analyst Mat Piscatella.

PC was the lead platform for the game, which launched on September 6. It's worth noting that Starfield's success as reported here doesn't include its performance on Game Pass.

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There has been a lot of activity recently from EU and UK legislators with each seeking to outdo the other with new laws being introduced at every turn. There is also increasing regulatory activity and enforcement relevant for the games industry, with consumer regulators building capabilities through investment into technology and staff.

It doesn't look like all this activity is going to slow down either, with potentially even more legal changes on the horizon and regulators gearing up to get even more involved.

EU and UK consumer legislators are focused on the digital world, with the games industry at the forefront of the minds of regulators. Game developers and publishers should take stock of the position and react to make sure their monetisation techniques are compliant – or are likely to remain so with the upcoming changes.

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Video game sales across Europe were down in September compared with the year before, according to the latest figures from GSD.

September 2022 was a five-week month, and as a result the numbers appear down 16% over September 2023. But this year was a four-week month. And so if we compare week 36 to week 39 (the like-for-like sales weeks), overall game sales are down just over 1%.

The main reason for the drop was this year's EA Sports FC 24. EA's new football game brand has got off to a strong start, but it is 10% down compared with the launch of FIFA 23 last year. It's worth noting that FIFA 23 had a particularly strong launch. If we compare EA Sports FC 24's launch with FIFA 22, and sales are actually only down 3.7%. EA had anticipated some initial decline as a result of the name change.

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Voice moderation is a sensitive issue. Players expect privacy, but long gone are the halcyon days of early, friendly online gaming. Today, when players interact with strangers in online games it can all too often lead to toxic behaviour. Striking the balance between player privacy and safety for online communities is the challenge facing games studios today.

Boston-based start-up Modulate wants to help game companies clean up toxic behaviour in their games with machine learning-based tools that promise to empower moderators and protect players.

Modulate CEO Mike Pappas told GamesIndustry.biz why its voice-native moderation tool ToxMod is more beneficial than old forms of grief reporting, why studios should build effective codes of conduct amid changing online safety regulations and how their technology and guidance is helping to make online communities safer.

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53% of game developers have noticed a rise in toxic player behavior over the past year, according to a new report from Unity.

The 2023 Toxicity in Multiplayer Games Report also includes the survey responses of 2,522 consumers.

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Zen Studios, the creators behind Pinball FX, has reportedly laid off 32 employees.

The news was spotted as Adam Dienes, a community manager at the studio, took to social media to announce that he was affected and looking for a new role.

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2023 marks ten years since Peter Molyneux's social experiment with Curiosity: What's Inside The Cube concluded, promising one user a direct role in strategy game Godus as the 'God of Gods.'

In the following years, a Eurogamer interview with that player, Bryan Henderson, and a controversial interview with Rock Paper Shotgun prompted a lot of negativity towards Molyneux, and compelled him to take more of a backseat, handing over the reins of his studio 22cans and resolving not to speak to the press.

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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.

This column has plenty of recurring themes, but one of the most obvious ones is big companies and renowned developers saying things and placing bets that would turn out to be disastrously ill-advised.

Sometimes it's because these companies are run by fools and these big names are in fact Pagliacci-level clowns. But sometimes it's because even people who know what they're doing are just wrong a whole lot, about a bunch of things. October of 2013 gave us plenty of examples of these points, and I'll do my diplomatic best to avoid saying which ones belong in which category.

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UK subscription provider EE has unveiled a new slate of services and products.

Among them were three new updates to its video game services offerings.

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Mobile games veterans David Nelson, Tom Storr, and Phillip Black have formed consultancy firm The Experimentation Group.

As reported by MobileGamer.biz, the group aims to collaborate and help developers grow "by using science" and provide industry advice, as stated by Storr, King's former product lead for innovation.

Appointments for The Experimentation Group are free, so long as a studio has a mobile casual game with more than 10,000 active users, can "ship a small experiment in two weeks or less," and is happy to share updates and the lessons it's learnt with the consultancy group and the industry.

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The first salary survey data from GamesIndustry.biz and XpertHR is available now.

It's part of a joint project to highlight pay from not just across games, but also how it compares to other industries. The first data from the project was revealed during the GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit last month.

The project is still in its early phase, and it currently encompasses 25 UK studios and over 3,000 employees.

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Roblox is set to move back to working in-office, according to an update shared with employees.

As detailed in a blog post written by Roblox founder and CEO David Baszucki, the company has asked an unspecified number of staff to return to work at its San Mateo headquarters by next summer.

Remote employees will be notified by email with details regarding the location of their roles.

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Paradox Interactive and Harebrained Schemes (HBS) have agreed to separate.

On January 1, 2024, the companies will part ways; both parties said the decision was a part of their strategic and creative priorities.

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Market research firm Niko Partners released its SEA-6 Games Market reports, which say that PC and mobile games are poised to hit $5.8 billion in 2023.

The SEA-6 group compromises of the countries Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

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The winners of the 2023 US GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards have been revealed.

The awards are all about making the games industry a better place to work, and the winners are ultimately decided by an in-depth survey of employees. Over 50 US companies signed up to take part, with 14 winners in total.

The biggest winner of the project is Electronic Arts, with three teams accepting awards. Those teams are: Cliffhanger Games, Ripple Effect and Maxis.

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Content warning: This article discusses violence towards children.

Activision made a secret deal with Remington to feature the arms maker's Adaptive Combat Rifle in 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The paper said the deal was detailed in internal Remington documents that were obtained by legal counsel in discovery during a lawsuit filed by parents whose children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012.

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After the highs experienced across the industry since 2020, the landing has felt brutal this year.

Games companies across the board are shrinking, laying off staff, closing down. While the market itself remains healthy, with game sales rising, it certainly feels like a tough year.

Even established indie companies couldn't escape the challenges of the hour, with Devolver Digital's stock price plummeting throughout the year, and a number of its releases for 2023 moved to next year.

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Brighton-based studio FuturLab has said Square Enix opening up its IP for Powerwash Simulator has been key to the game's ongoing success.

Speaking on stage at last week's GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit in London, co-CEO Kirsty Rigden discussed the partnership between her studio and Square Enix Collective, the game's publisher.

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Games job board Work With Indies will donate 100% of its revenue to organisations providing aid to Palestine.

"Regardless of our politics, our religion, our race, where we were born, or where we currently live, none of us wishes to see innocent people suffer, lose their lives, or those of their family members," the job board said in a statement shared on social media.

It announced that all revenue made this month will be given "to organisations providing humanitarian assistance to families in Palestine."

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Games industry charity GamesAid raised over £23,269 in three days at EGX via its tombola.

This amount includes an impressive £10,000 donation from a single anonymous donor.

Items available at the GamesAid Tombola ranged from games and memorabilia, to collector's editions and an Xbox Series X.

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UK developer Frontier is planning to lay off an unknown number of employees as it conducts an organisational review of its business.

The news was announced to investors this morning as part of a trading update, in which the company said it plans to "refocus on its core strengths following a period of disappointing financial performance and more challenging industry conditions."

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Half of Bandcamp's employees are among those affected by the mass layoffs occurring at Fortnite creator Epic Games.

Kotaku reports that those who are being dismissed from the music platform will receive six months' severance pay, although the Bandcamp United union is negotiating better terms.

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EA Sports FC 24 has remained at the top of the UK boxed charts for a third week despite a 36% sales decrease.

GfK's report showed that the Xbox Series X|S version of EA Sports FC dropped the most, while PlayStation 5 saw the majority share of sales.

Assassin's Creed Mirage also held its place at No.2 following its debut last week, even though it saw a 77% decline in sales. Like EA Sports FC, sales of the PlayStation 5 version were highest.

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Analogue has announced that it is working on a N64 FPGA machine.

The device inspired by the Nintendo 64 will launch in 2024, and among its features is the option to display 64-bit era games in 4K resolution.

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Epic Games has unveiled Now on Epic, which will allow companies that bring their existing titles to the Epic Game Store to earn 100% of their revenue during the first six months.

The program is eligible for products launched on third-party PC or subscription services before October 31, 2023.

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The deal is done. Activision Blizzard is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Microsoft after two years of regulatory investigations and in the face of protests from various corners of the games industry.

With the 'will they/won't they' part of this saga finally over, the pressing question is: What happens next?

"At the risk of hyperbole, I believe we will see a significantly changed video game industry once the two companies are fully integrated," Kantan Games CEO Dr. Serkan Toto tells GamesIndustry.biz. "In the US, we only have two big, publicly traded video game studios left – and even those have been perpetual acquisition targets for several years now, although I personally hope they stay independent as long as possible."

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Something Wicked Games announced that it has hired Will Shen as its new lead content designer.

He joins the studio that has brought other games industry veterans such as Robert Land, Jessica Sliwinski, and Akil Hooper.

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Pete Hines is leaving Bethesda after 24 years.

With last month's launch of the long-awaited Starfield finally in the rear-view mirror, Bethesda's head of publishing announced his departure on social media.

"I am retiring and will begin an exciting new chapter of my life exploring interests and passions, donating my time where I can, and taking more time to enjoy life," Hines said.

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SIDE, an audio services provider and PTW subsidiary has reached a deal to acquire music and sound studio Vibe Avenue.

The acquisition aims to expand the company's sound design, music, and soundtrack production services; Vibe Avenue will be rebranded as SIDE Montreal.

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Avalanche Studios Group has announced that it will launch a new office in Montreal, Canada.

The studio will be Avalanche's fifth studio as it joins locations in Stockholm, New York City, Malmö, and Liverpool.

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