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Industry News February 7, 2024

Activision Blizzard to lay off 899 employees across Infinity Ward, Blizzard, Toys for Bob, and Sledgehammer Games

It appears that nearly half of the 1,900 job cuts recently announced by Microsoft will affect Activision Blizzard employees in California. The Call of Duty maker will lay off a total of 899 workers next month.

Deals February 7, 2024

RuneScape maker Jagex to be acquired for over $1 billion, with CVC Capital Partners named as buyer

RuneScape developer Jagex might be sold to Luxembourg-based private equity firm CVC Capital Partners. The studio’s current owner Carlyle Group has been looking for potential buyers for several months now.

Industry News February 6, 2024

Several veteran devs join Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, with games like Control, Mortal Kombat, and Hitman in their portfolio

CD Projekt has added several industry veterans to Project Orion, the upcoming sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. The game is now in the early stages of development at its North American division.

Events February 6, 2024

Program for WN Conference Abu Dhabi’24 announced: details about event and partnership with Abu Dhabi Gaming

The first WN Conference of 2024 will take place in Abu Dhabi on February 15-16. Here are all the details about the event, which will be attended by representatives of such game companies as Ubisoft, Unity, SuperScale, Savvy Games Group, and Leonardo AI.

Industry News February 6, 2024

Suicide Squad barely made it into top 10 highest-grossing games on Steam, debuting much weaker than Persona 3 Reload

Palworld continues to dominate the Steam charts for the third week in a row. None of the new releases, including Perosna 3 Reload and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, managed to dethrone the hit survival game.

Industry News February 6, 2024

Nintendo reports strong 9-month period: nearly $9.5 billion in revenue and 11.96 million Super Mario Bros. Wonder units sold

Nintendo has released its financial report for the third quarter ended December 31, 2023. The Japanese gaming giant also updated the sales figures for its first-party games such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Industry News February 6, 2024

Honkai: Star Rail surpasses 100 million downloads globally in less than year after launch

Honkai: Star Rail has reached an impressive milestone in less than a year since its global launch in April 2023. This proves miHoYo’s strength in making successful live service games.

Industry News February 5, 2024

Spring Valley surpasses 11 million downloads, while its lifetime revenue approaches $10 million

Spring Valley, a mobile farming game by Playkot, has reached a new milestone. It now has 11,584,618 lifetime downloads.

Industry News February 5, 2024

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League tops UK boxed charts, but its peak of just 13k CCU raises concerns

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had a strong commercial debut, but mixed reviews and its player count on Steam raise questions about the game’s long-term success. And players may also be wondering what the future holds for Rocksteady Studios.

Industry News February 5, 2024

[UPD] New multi-platform strategy emerging inside Xbox as Microsoft plans to bring its first-party games to PS and Switch

Microsoft might change its strategy by turning its Xbox division into a multi-platform publisher. According to recent reports, the company plans to launch its first-party games on other consoles in the future.

Industry News February 2, 2024

Persona 3 Reload becomes Atlus’ most successful launch on Steam, peaking at over 42k concurrent players

Persona 3 Reload has just been released globally to critical acclaim. We’ll have to wait before Sega shares the official sales figures, but the game’s performance on Steam already indicates a strong launch.

Industry News February 2, 2024

V Rising surpasses 3.9 million copies sold: how it compares to other survival games

V Rising is finally coming out of Early Access, along with the upcoming release on PlayStation 5. To celebrate the milestone, Stunlock Studios has also disclosed the game’s lifetime sales.

Industry News February 2, 2024

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth tops 1 million copies sold, making it fastest game in series to cross this mark

The launch of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth turned out to be successful for Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. The game has already sold over 1 million copies.

Industry News February 1, 2024

Granblue Fantasy: Relink peaks at nearly 74k concurrent players, marking another strong launch for Japanese devs

The beginning of 2024 turned out to be extremely successful for Japanese developers. Granblue Fantasy: Relink, a new RPG developed and published by Cygames, is now doing big numbers on Steam.

Industry News February 1, 2024

Devolver expects its full-year revenue to be at least $90 million, co-founder Harry Miller returns as CEO

Devolver Digital has released a trading update for the financial year ended December 31, 2023. The publisher also announced a number of board changes.

Industry News February 1, 2024

[UPD] Devolver-owned studio Artificer cuts half its staff, signaling dark times for devs of turn-based tactics games

Job cuts continue to affect studios around the world, with Polish developer Artificer becoming the latest victim. It cut roughly half of its team.

Industry News January 31, 2024

Palworld sells 12 million copies on Steam alone, breaks Game Pass record for third-party game launches

Palworld continues to break records. The hit survival game from Japanese indie team Pocketpair has reached 12 million units sold on Steam in less than two weeks.

Industry News January 31, 2024

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown only reaches 300k players, as Ubisoft employees reportedly fear mass layoffs

Ubisoft could be the next major game publisher to be hit with mass layoffs. According to a new report, the company will be in trouble unless it changes its strategy and management approach.

Industry News January 31, 2024

Resident Evil 4 hits 6.48 million copies sold, as Capcom’s three-quarter revenue reaches $718 million

Capcom has shared its financial results for the nine months ended December 31, 2023. The company’s video game business continues to grow, driven by strong sales of Street Figther 6 and back catalog titles like Resident Evil and Monster Hunter.

Industry News January 31, 2024

Activision Blizzard added $2.1 billion to Microsoft’s gaming revenue in Q2, driving its 49% growth

Microsoft has published its financial report for the second quarter of FY24 ended December 31. This is the company’s first earnings release since completing the Activision Blizzard deal, so it is interesting to see how the acquisition impacted its gaming business.