GamesIndustry

The International Olympic Committee has announced plans to create the Olympic Esports Games.

During the opening ceremony of the 141st IOC session on Saturday in Mumbai, India, IOC president Thomas Bach revealed that the recently formed IOC Esports Commission will "study the creation" of such an event.

"With respect to esports, our values are and remain the red line that we will not cross," said Bach. "Our crystal-clear position is gaining more and more respect also in the esports community."

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Microsoft has confirmed it will honour its labour neutrality agreement with the Communications Workers of America following its historical acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

In a post on Microsoft's blog, vice chair and president Brad Smith said: "As Microsoft has closed its transaction to acquire Activision Blizzard, we affirm our commitment to our labour principles and innovative approach to union partnerships.

"Microsoft remains steadfast in our support of our current and future employees in whatever choice they make about their workplace and their representatives. We look forward to meeting, listening to and learning from our new Activision Blizzard employees and continuing our collaborative engagement with CWA and the workers it represents."

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Merge Mansion creator Metacore Games has acquired animation studio Piñata.

The games company purchased all of the animator's shares; details of the deal were not made public.

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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.

John Riccitiello stepped down from Unity this week, vacating the CEO and chairman roles less than a month after an ill-advised and poorly thought out attempt to impose a per-install fee on games made with the Unity engine.

The announcement of Riccitiello's departure makes no mention of the still-blazing Runtime Fee trash fire in the background that led to this. Instead, it frames it as a retirement "effective immediately," which is not the way this sort of transition normally happens.

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Activision Blizzard is now officially part of Microsoft.

Within hours of the UK Competition and Markets Authority giving the long-debated acquisition a final green light, Microsoft announced today that it has completed the deal, making Activision Blizzard a wholly owned subsidiary.

The deal was first announced January 18 of 2022, but held up by regulatory hurdles in the UK, EU, and US.

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Arma developer Bohemia Interactive has issued a statement criticising the use of in-game images by people online claiming it to be real war footage from Israel and Palestine.

In a statement released on social media, the studio shared its guide to identifying 'fake news' videos, which it had originally published when Arma 3 was used to spread misinformation around the war in Ukraine.

"With the tragic events currently unfolding in the Middle East, we feel it is vital to share once again our statement concerning the use of [Arma 3] as a source of fake news footage," the statement said.

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Anyone who has doubted the depth of the crisis at Unity in recent months need only look at its consequences: it takes more than a storm in a teacup to capsize a CEO. John Riccitiello's retirement from the company – effective immediately, no less – is indeed a vanishingly rare thing in the games business, where blame for failure and poor judgement all too often trickles down the org chart and leaves top management unscathed.

Riccitiello's name and reputation, however, was impossible to disentangle from the unforced errors that have collapsed Unity's relationship with so many developers. From his tenure at EA being (rather unfairly) summarised as "he's the loot box guy" to his ill-judged but highly revealing description of developers who don't focus on monetisation as "fucking idiots," a significant portion of Unity's customer base had drawn a line through Riccitiello's career that connected directly to Unity's grasping and ultimately disastrous attempt to change its financial terms.

There simply wasn't any way for Unity to offer up a sacrificial scalp from further down the org chart; the buck, for once, had stopped at the top and had nowhere else to go.

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To report this morning that Microsoft has won over the UK regulator and can complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard was a relief.

It was interesting, to begin with. It was even a bit fun being able to speak to all these interesting legal types and business leaders, on all sides, about the whole process.

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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has given Microsoft the approval needed to finally acquire Activision Blizzard.

The regulator blocked the $68.7 billion deal earlier this year, primarily over concerns about competition in the cloud gaming space.

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Market research firm Niko Partners released its 2023 India Games Market Report and says the country's game revenue is poised to reach $868 million this year.

This year's projection represents a growth of 21% year-over-year compared to 2022.

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For quite a while the gaming market was considered by some to be an evergreen industry that thrives regardless of the worldwide economic situation.

And it's no wonder such beliefs were common, as the videogames market has been growing for the last 30 years, performing relatively well even during the tough 2007-2008 crisis. In 2020, not the best time for many sectors, the revenues of video game companies increased by 23.1% (Newzoo).

However, everything changed when 2022 hit the world. According to data.ai, the size of the video game industry in 2022 amounted to $193 billion, a 5% decrease from the 2021 figures. Another "novelty" was that the leader of the fall was the mobile games segment which comprised more than half of the overall gaming industry and declined by almost 7%.

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Fragbite is set to acquire Fall Damage, the Swedish-based studio behind the upcoming free-to-play competitive title Alara Prime.

The Swedish firm will pay an upfront fee of approximately SEK 20 million ($1.8 million), acquiring all outstanding shares in Fall Damage.

Half of the fee will be paid in cash "to an external institutional owner" and the other half in over four million shares at SEK 2.33 ($0.21) per share issued to the founding members of Fall Damage.

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Paradox Interactive has announced it will write down capitalised development costs for The Lamplighters League, and confirmed layoffs occurred at developer Harebrained Schemes earlier this year.

In a post on its website, the Swedish company explained that SEK 320 million ($29.4 million) will be "recognised as costs in the fourth quarter of 2023," which will have an impact on its profit before tax during the same quarter, with losses linked to the title estimated to reach SEK 248 million ($22.8 million).

"The Lamplighters League is a fun game with many strengths," Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester commented. "Even though we see cautiously positive player numbers in subscription services, the commercial reception has been too weak, which is frankly a big disappointment. Game projects are by their nature always risky, but at the end of the day we haven’t performed at the level we should. It is painful but makes us more eager to roll up our sleeves and do better."

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The European Commission is unlikely to demand further investigation into Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard following modifications the Xbox firm made to appease UK regulators.

That's according to Bloomberg, which reported that the EC has concluded these changes do no warrant putting the deal through another approvals process, according to people familiar with the deal.

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New Zealand game studio Space Rock Games has raised $900,000 from its latest funding rounds.

The developer has now amassed $1.2 million from investments as Hillfarrance Venture Capital led the funding.

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Retro game and game emulation firm Implicit Conversions has unveiled a new headquarters in Canada.

Bill Litshauer, who was appointed president, will oversee the location.

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Video game commerce firm Xsolla has acquired Lightstream, Rainmaker, and API.Stream.

Creative Solutions, a subsidiary of Videndum Group, previously owned the services.

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Team17's restructuring could end with the publisher laying off one-third of its employees, according to Eurogamer.

The outlet said the formal consultation for the cuts is expected to conclude next month, with up to 91 people's jobs at risk in the process.

Eurogamer had previously reported Team17 was planning to unload more than half of its QA staff, with up to 50 roles at risk.

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Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage is one of the few AAA video games to feature Arabic audio and text. It's also in a smaller crowd of titles to feature classical Arabic, the language that would be prominent for the golden age of Baghdad, where the game's lead, Bassim, embarks on his adventure.

Ubisoft localization manager and cultural consultant Mohammed Alemam tells GamesIndustry.biz that the goal of localization is to capture the language's intent while staying culturally relevant.

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With great power comes great responsibility. That's not only the oft-misquoted philosophy of Spider-Man's Uncle Ben, it was also the central theme of a talk by No Brakes Games' head of studio Sitara Shefta at Develop Brighton earlier this year.

Drawing on her five years of experience leading a team of 26, plus a sister studio in Lithuania, the leader of the Human Fall Flat developer shared what she believes to be the core priorities and best practices for becoming an effective manager.

"One of the worst things, in my opinion, is working somewhere you don't get to enjoy that spark, or innovation is limited," Shefta said. "I don't think that provides people with the opportunity to flourish. I knew that I wanted to create an environment where people feel happy coming into the studio – whether in person or virtually – and where people are motivated and driven about what they're doing."

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The British Esports Association has responded to backlash following the announcement of its partnership with the Saudi Esports Federation earlier this week.

In a statement shared on social media, the UK's national body for esports said it was aware the announcement "raised questions and concerns within our community" and wanted to "address these openly and honestly."

The BEA shared its "belief that every individual, regardless of their gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation, should be able to participate and thrive in the esports industry," adding that "this has not changed and will not change."

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A two-year legal dispute between Studio Wildcard, its parent Snail Games, and Angela Game has been settled, following allegations that the latter stole the source code of Ark: Survival Evolved.

In a joint statement, the three companies confirmed the dispute has been resolved, and announced Snail Games will work with Angela Game to bring its MMO Myth of Empires back to market.

The dispute began in 2021, when Studio Wildcard and Snail Games alleged that Myth of Empires was built on the source code behind their own title, Ark: Survival Evolved.

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Modern Times Group has acquired a majority stake in Snowprint Studios for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition will see the digital entertainment company provide the Swedish-based studio with tools and knowledge to help it "diversify [its] revenues and expand [its] player base," said MTG group president and CEO Maria Redin.

"Snowprint Studios brings great experience in developing, launching, and growing mobile games as well as the proven ability to work successfully with global entertainment IP owners like Games Workshop and the Warhammer 40,000 franchise," Redin added.

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Tencent, Apple, Nintendo, and Ubisoft reduced their carbon emissions from 2021 to 2022, while companies including Sega, NetEase, and Unity saw increases year-on-year.

That's according to AfterClimate's 2023 report, looking into the games industry's CO2 emissions for the year 2022, how they've evolved compared to the previous year, and progress against net zero targets.

Tencent was the company that achieved the most improvement, with emissions reduced 13.73% year-on-year, followed by Apple with a 11% drop, and then Nintendo at 2.95%, and Ubisoft at 0.14%.

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The UK's Video Games Tax Relief has driven an estimated £2.4 billion in additional economic growth since it was first introduced in 2014.

That's according to analysis by Games Investor Consulting, shared with GamesIndustry.biz, that also shows the Treasury has issued over £1.1 billion to UK companies between 2014 and 2022.

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Disney is reportedly looking to acquire Electronic Arts or a company of a similar scale as a way back into games publishing.

As reported by Bloomberg, some Disney executives have allegedly suggested that CEO Bob Iger could transform the company from a gaming licensee to publisher by acquiring EA. Iger is reportedly "noncommittal" about the potential acquisition.

GamesIndustry.biz reached out to Disney for clarification.

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VR game developer Fast Travel Games has raised $4 million in a new investment round.

The studio said that the funding will go towards expanding its business operations, which include publishing and developing new IPs for VR platforms.

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Sony is rolling out a redesigned PlayStation 5 system for the holidays.

The company today announced the new smaller PS5 will arrive at US retailers in November, followed by a global rollout in the months to come.

Like the original PS5, the new system will be available in disc and digital-only models. Unlike the original, Sony is going to offer an upgrade path for those who buy the digital version and want to add disc functionality later on.

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A year after unveiling the co-development studio Calypte, Virtuos Studios has shut it down.

As reported by Game Developer, the news was spotted as staffers shared on LinkedIn that the location was closed.

Regarding the decision to close Calypte, a representative said, "Navigating the dynamic business environment requires different approaches while making corresponding adjustments, and this difficult decision was made on the basis of the business performance of Calypte," they said.

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Regular readers may be familiar with our This Week in Business column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a bit of opinion.

Last week's column had more than a bit of opinion, as it was pushing 5,000 words and still didn't cover everything we wanted.

To remedy the situation, we're running an addendum today discussing a subject we couldn't squeeze into last week's column: a lawsuit filed against Electronic Arts by seven former BioWare Edmonton employees who said the severance they were offered fell far short of what they should have received.

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Metacore, the developer of Merge Mansion, has unveiled a new studio in Germany.

As reported by MobileGamer.biz, Metacore Berlin will work on developing content for Meger Mansion and possibly new titles in the future.

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Video Games Europe, formerly ISFE, says that minors, on average, spend €39 a month on games.

This is according to a new report in by Ipsos, which surveyed 2,808 caretakers from the UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Germany.

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Once an overlooked issue, the importance of mental health has become more recognised as a global concern over the last ten years. The gaming industry has had to look hard at itself to discover if well-intentioned words were matched with action, or if the entire DNA and culture of studios had to be re-worked to support the mental health of the people within.

At Jagex, positive mental health has always been an important part of our culture, and we were early champions of initiatives that could make a difference to the lives of our employees. But dedicated counselling support and programmes designed to encourage transparency around mental health are not enough; we knew we had to do more.

After a great start to our mental health journey, our new Chief People Officer for Jagex, Keeley Vaughan-Davies, is keen to ensure that great start isn’t the end of our story.

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EA Sports FC 24 has retained the top spot of the UK physical charts this week, despite a 48% decrease in sales.

According to GfK data, the post-FIFA title saw a sales decline across all formats, most notably on Xbox Series X|S.

Two new titles followed EA Sports FC in the top three, including Assassin's Creed: Mirage at No.2 and Detective Pikachu Returns at No.3.

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Pikmin 4 was the best-selling game in Japan in September, for the third month running.

According to the latest data from Famitsu, Nintendo's title sold another 111,636 copies in the country last month, bringing its cumulative sales to 864,229 units since its launch in July.

The PlayStation 5 version of Armored Core 6, which debuted at No.2 in August, charted at No.3 in September, knocked down one place by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. FromSoftware's title sold an additional 39,845 copies on PS5 during the month.

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Activision Blizzard has said it expects to add more of its titles to Xbox Game Pass in 2024, following the publisher's expected acquisition by Microsoft.

With both completion of the deal and the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 rapidly approaching, the publisher addressed fan queries about when the latter might be added to Microsoft's subscription service.

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Less than a month after detailing a controversial change to its business model, Unity has announced that John Riccitiello will retire as CEO and president.

Riccitiello has served in the role since 2014, and the executive will also leave his position on the board of directors as chairman.

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This week, EGX returns to London's Excel Centre – and GamesIndustry.biz will be there in full force.

As always, we will be hosting the returning Investment Summit in the venue's Platinum Suite on Thursday, October 12, plus four days of presentations and portfolio reviews in the newly interactive GI Academy Zone on the show floor.

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