Sherbytes: Industry News Megathread, v.1

[Valhoven]

Dark Souls turns 12 years old today. *humbly bows down

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[Sycho Sid]

 

[Valhoven]

 

[method115]

This is shocking news that I could have never seen coming.

 

[avenue94]

This is shocking news that I could have never seen coming.

It's honestly a bit surprising at least given most companies are happy to ignore these kind of fuck ups. It's not like Unity has been profitable...ever I think?

 

[Valhoven]

On Disney and deeper gaming industry inroads with thoughts on EA acquisition:

Iger, who is now in his second run as CEO of Disney, oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox during his first spell in charge.

As well as working on various Star Wars titles, including Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi series, EA announced last year that it had struck a deal to make “several new games” based on Marvel properties, including Iron Man and Black Panther titles.

It was reported last May that EA was actively pursuing a sale or merger, in the wake of recent M&A activity in the games industry such as Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which could be completed this week.

New site Puck a Puck claimed EA had held talks with Disney, Apple, Amazon and Comcast-NBCUniversal over a potential sale.

During an earnings call last summer, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about reports that the company was pursuing a sale.

“First, I’m sure you don’t expect me to comment on rumors and speculation from some small red media outlets,” he responded. “But be that as it may, I would tell you, I think we are in an incredible position. We’re soon to be the largest standalone independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment in the world.”​

 

[method115]

On Disney and deeper gaming industry inroads with thoughts on EA acquisition:

Iger, who is now in his second run as CEO of Disney, oversaw the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox during his first spell in charge.

As well as working on various Star Wars titles, including Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi series, EA announced last year that it had struck a deal to make “several new games” based on Marvel properties, including Iron Man and Black Panther titles.

It was reported last May that EA was actively pursuing a sale or merger, in the wake of recent M&A activity in the games industry such as Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which could be completed this week.

New site Puck a Puck claimed EA had held talks with Disney, Apple, Amazon and Comcast-NBCUniversal over a potential sale.

During an earnings call last summer, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about reports that the company was pursuing a sale.

“First, I’m sure you don’t expect me to comment on rumors and speculation from some small red media outlets,” he responded. “But be that as it may, I would tell you, I think we are in an incredible position. We’re soon to be the largest standalone independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment in the world.”​

I actually wouldn't mind this. Disney has a lot of IPs that could make great games. If they have their own gaming company to do it that would be nice. Respawn I'm sure could pump out some fantastic games.

I guess my only issue would be if things go well that could lead to Sony losing the Spiderman games with Disney wanting their own companies to continue the series.

 

[Valhoven]

I actually wouldn't mind this. Disney has a lot of IPs that could make great games. If they have their own gaming company to do it that would be nice. Respawn I'm sure could pump out some fantastic games.

I guess my only issue would be if things go well that could lead to Sony losing the Spiderman games with Disney wanting their own companies to continue the series.

Imagine the crapstorm if another studio than Insomniac developed Marvel's Spider-Man 3. Talk about shoes to fill...

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[KaNesDeath]

Sweeney has made all the wrong decisions with how to expand his company with Fortnite revenue. FTC fine really sent fear into the company. They pivoted quite hard from Fortnite being a marketing strategy to bypass COPPA into user content generation model like Roblox.

His continued infatuation with the metaverse and enabling pump an dump crypto is problematic. These are scam tactics that wont wash over time in the gaming community.

 

[Valhoven]

Activision CEO Kotick is leaving position in a couple months, reports Insider Gaming.

Full read here.

 

[rikwebb]

Cross posting from the Xbox thread

Pete Hines is retiring from Bethesda

 

[rikwebb]

Deviation Games are staffing up again .... Interesting to see what the outcome of this as it pretty much looked like the Sony partnership was dead

 

[Valhoven]

Skull Island: Rise of Kong launches to a cacophonous mix of laughter, disappointment, and outrage that it comes with a 50€ price tag.

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Nice read on fiasco here, including the title not even placing anywhere on publisher’s own website. Oof. Zero-day damage control.

 

[rikwebb]

The Fallout TV show premiers 12/04/24 on Amazon Prime

"Fallout" fans now have a new date to circle in their calendars: April 12, 2024. That's when Prime Video's highly anticipated live-action TV series adaptation of the beloved video game franchise will debut, the streamer announced on Monday (which is the 26th anniversary of "Fallout Day").

Set in the future post-apocalyptic Los Angeles and world of "Fallout," the series is an original story based on "Fallout" that will be part of the canon of the games. Beyond that, the exact plot of the TV show is under lock and key, but a fun video announcing the premiere date certainly gets those "Fallout" vibes exactly right.

 

[method115]

Some reports on xbox performance. Seems they did better than expected in some areas. Not sure what they forecasted for hardware if they did at all.



Also saw this which I thought was pretty insane to see.

 

[Valhoven]

Spirit of the North 2 has been officially announced and can be wishlisted across platforms. Launch date to follow.

I played the first game and while hard indie, it left me with a feeling – part sorrow, part hope – that stayed long after finishing the journey. There’s also some beautiful art direction in late-game involving your traversing aurora borealis.

All in all, a memorable experience in overcoming grief. Sequel looks to expand on that.

 

[rikwebb]

Some Capcom sales updates from their FY2023 Q2 report

Street Fighter 6 has sold 2.47m overall, and Resident evil 4 has sold 5.45m overall

 

[Valhoven]

Capcom announces new engine on the way:

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Capcom has announced that a successor to RE Engine is in the works, codenamed REX Engine.​

Japanese with English undertext:

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[Valhoven]

Ghostrunner II launched yesterday (to absolute crickets!), getting drowned out in both run-up and launch by this year’s strength of schedule.

I’m guessing sales will not be what they could have been. Oof. They should have delayed, IMO. This month especially is nuclear.

If interested, currently 40€ and all-platform availability. Application file orbits a modest 13GB.

 

[method115]

Ghostrunner II launched yesterday (to absolute crickets!), getting drowned out in both run-up and launch by this year’s strength of schedule.

I’m guessing sales will not be what they could have been. Oof. They should have delayed, IMO. This month especially is nuclear.

If interested, currently 40€ and all-platform availability. Application file orbits a modest 13GB.

The first game was interesting but it was sort of meh overall. I played for a bit 2 hours and put it down.