Tim Bender, CEO of Manor Lords publisher Hooded Horse, discussed why he thinks the way we measure games' success needs to evolve.On LinkedIn, Bender highlighted a post claiming the game showed "the pitfalls of Early Access" due to its declining player base. Often, concurrent players can be used to gauge how a new (or old) game is doing at any given time.But in his view, both industry analysts and players should stop eyeing games through a lens of immediate and constant growth. That line of thinking has caused "so much trouble" in the industry, and led to a "distorted endless growth" perspective."We need to move away from takes [like these]," he said. "Not every game should be aimed at becoming some live-service boom or bust."He went on…
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) released a statement regarding the recent layoffs at Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and other Microsoft subsidiaries.In it, the worker-led organization said the layoffs "highlight the need for [game developers] to organize." With layoffs becoming so common, the CWA noted unions at Sega of America and ZeniMax (which was unaffected) can help establish some saftey measures.The CWA's had a stable relationship with Microsoft since the publisher stayed neutral as QA teams at Blizzard and ZeniMax were unionizing. It even put support behind Microsoft when the FTC tried stopping the Xbox maker from acquiring Activision Blizzard.
Developers whose games were going to be delisted by Adult Swim Games are reportedly receiving full ownership from Warner Bros.Both Owen Deery and Landon Podbielski revealed WB gave them the rights and store listings to their respective games.In March, they and other developers said WB would retire the ASG label within 60 days (as in, right now). A "universal decision" back then meant published titles would be delisted, and developers wouldn't (and couldn't) just have the rights reverted to them.
Duck Game and Small Radios Big Televisions back to their creators
"[Small Radios Big Televisions] will not be 'retired,'" said Deery. "Owne…
Developers whose games were going to be delisted by Adult Swim Games are reportedly receiving full ownership from Warner Bros.Both Owen Deery and Landon Podbielski revealed WB gave them the rights and store listings to their respective games.In March, they and other developers said WB would retire the ASG label within 60 days (as in, right now). A "universal decision" back then meant published titles would be delisted, and developers wouldn't (and couldn't) just have the rights reverted to them.
Duck Game and Small Radios Big Televisions back to their creators
"[Small Radios Big Televisions] will not be 'retired,'" said Deery. "Owne…
In just under four days, Another Crab's Treasure has sold 100,000 copies across PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.Aggro Crab's newest title opened last week with 30,000 copies in just under 24 hours. A majority of those sales, according to a reply by the developer, are courtesy of Steam, though it's currently knocked out of the platform's top 10 bestsellers list."From the bottom of our little hearts, thank you for the best game launch we've ever had," wrote the developer. "Aggro Crab no longer slept on?? New era?!?!"Player-wise, it's shored up a little over 4,700 players as an all-time peak, which was hit over the weekend. Thus far, Aggro Crab hasn't disclosed its player numbers, particularly on Xbox, which had a …
South Korean publisher Krafton and other investors have sunk $15 million into UK studio Red Rover Interactive to accelerate development on its debut project codenamed 'Coltrane.'The investment comes less than a year after Red Rover broke cover and means the studio has raised around $20 million to date. Tirta Ventures, Overwolf, The Games Fund, Behold Ventures, GEM Capital, Lifelike Capital and Acequia Capital all joined Krafton in the Series A funding round.Commenting on the news, Red Rover CEO Fred Richardson said the company's rapid progress is a result of its commitment to "validation driven development," which has seen the studio loop in its community from the get-go."[This approach] has been a cornerstone of our development philosophy, ensuring we really …
With Gearbox Software now in Take-Two's hands, Gearbox Publishing San Francisco has been renamed to Arc Games.After last week's $460 million split from Gearbox, Embracer maintained control of the San Franisco publisher.A studio changing its name can also herald some kind of structural change. That's not the case here: in its post, Arc stressed that everything else is business as usual.Meaning, Arc will still publish previously agreed-upon games like Hyper Light Breaker, and continue to be involved in titles such as Star Trek Online and Gunfire Games' Remnant series."It's still the same publishing team since Remnant 1," said series designer Ben Cureton. "This is a name change for our publisher, and it doesn't affect [Gunfire]."