Microsoft has shared its fiscal report for the third-quarter ended March 31, 2024, and Activision Blizzard is doing some heavy lifting where the company's video game operations are concerned.Consolidated revenue in the More Personal Computing segment—which houses (among other things) Microsoft's video game business—increased by 17 percent year-on-year to $15.6 billion.Digging deeper, Xbox content and services revenue increased by 62 percent year-on-year, but that upswing was driven by 61 points of net impact from the company's Activision Blizzard merger.Gaming revenue increased by 51 percent year-on-year, with Microsoft attributing that surge to the perviously mentioned "growth" in Xbox content and services. Xbox hardware revenue, however, decreased by 31 perc…
Tencent's had an ownership in Alan Wake creator Remedy since 2021, and that stake has now grown to nearly five times that original amount.Per Remedy's newest filing, the tech giant's indirect shareholding value grew to 14.8 percent of Remedy's shares and voting rights as of April 24, 2024. Prior to that, the value was at 5.01 percent.Back in 2021, the stake was justified by Tencent being impressed with Remedy's output. That sentiment has likely grown with the recent success of Alan Wake 2 and Control's ongoing fortune.Tencent previously put stake into non-Chinese studios like FromSoftware and Visual Arts. It hasn't made plays towards full ownership for the former, though it's now a majority owner of Dying Light creator Techland.
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 …
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 …
"When people first interact with [Balatro], it feels so much more like you're actaully playing with playing cards. It lets them interface with some mechanics without [calling it] some cheap, dumb card game.–Balatro creator LocalThunk
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Take-Two is reportedly shutting down OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome developer Roll7.That's according to Bloomberg, which claims to have seen a note sent to the UK studio from Take-Two outlining those closure plans and employee severance agreements.Take-Two acquired Roll7 back in November 2021 for an undisclosed fee but has now seemingly decided to sacrifice the award-winning studio as part of an ongoing cost reduction program.At the time of the acquisition, Take-Two said Roll7 would enrich its Private Division publishing label with its "wealth of development talent, creativity, and style."
Take-Two's cost-cutting plans
Now, with Tak…
Playdate developers have collectively earned over $500,000 by selling their titles on the console's Catalog marketplace. Panic shared the news to celebrate the first anniversary of the storefront.The Playdate maker sold over 150,000 titles via Catalog over the past year, generating precisely $544,290 in gross revenue for developers after taxes, processing fees, and Panic's 25 percent distribution fee.Playdate owners in the USA, UK, Germany, Canada, and Japan contributed the bulk of those sales. 1,500 purchases were made during the recent Catalog Anniversary Sale, during which the average game price dropped to $4.50 from $5.36. Offering some other interesting tidbits, Panic revealed the average size of catalog titles is currently 5.03MB. The smallest game weighs in at just 30.1KB,…
Embracer Group boss Lars Wingefors has told investors he still wants to make good on a promise he issued in 2016 and stay with the conglomerate for at least 25 years.Wingefors made that pledge in 2016, when Embracer pushed ahead with its IPO, and noted he still has "17 years left to fulfil that [promise]."Assuming he achieves that goal, it means he'll be sticking around until 2041 at the very least. The long-serving boss reminded investors of his unwavering commitment in an open letter published earlier today in tandem with Embracer's announcement that it would be splitting into three standalone companies to search for "winning" business formulas."My journey started more than 30 years ago trading comic books to collectors and I have always dreamt to build…
Over a month after releasing Alone in the Dark, developer Pieces Interactive appears to be laying off an unknown number of staff.Environment artist Helena Hansen confirmed she was affected, saying her "heart breaks for myself and my coworkers right now." At time of writing, she's the only developer who's confirmed their status.Alone in the Dark released back in March to a mixed reception. The game was previously delayed twice, both to avoid 2023's heavy release cadence and then crunching over the holidays.To date, neither THQNordic (or parent company Embracer) have commented on its sales. What is known is these reductions are isolated to Pieces alone, since Embracer ended its restructuring plans in late March.Recently, Embracer split itself off into three standalon…
Microsoft is laying off an unknown number of Bethesda France workers.Game Developer understands the reductions are part of the 1,900 layoffs that were announced by Microsoft back in January as part of the company's mandate to facilitate sustainable growth.It's unclear how many people are being laid off or which roles have been placed on the chopping block.The news broke earlier this week when a number of Bethesda France streaming partners indicated the entire subsidiary was being shut down and described the move as a "discreet closure."In a post on X, one Bethesda France streamer said their partnership with the Fallout and Elder Scrolls maker was ending after eight "wonderful" years. Several influencers who appeared to share close ties with the Bethesda France…
EA Motive, the studio behind the Dead Space remake and Star Wars: Squadrons, is being tasked with "unlocking the full potential" of the Battlefield franchise.The multi-team studio will be asking a new group of developers led by Dead Space remake leads Philippe Ducharme (executive producer) and Roman Campos-Oriola (creative director) to work on Battlefield alongside the teams at Criterion, DICE, and Ripple Effect.The news comes less than two months after EA laid off 5 percent of its workforce so it could implement a new "ambitious growth strategy" focused on cultivating its own IP.Those cuts resulted in the closure of Battlefield studio Ridgeline Games, which was previously described by EA as an "instrumental" part of the Battlefield family. Ridgeline broke cov…