Sherbytes: Industry News Megathread, v.2

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Keywords Studios have acquired Halo co-developer Certain Affinity, no value disclosed as of yet


Its Keywords second acquisition in the last few months after Wushu Studio in August
 
Pretty Sizeable new Vampire Survivors DLC coming 31st October


Vampire Survivors join forces once more with KONAMI, this time featuring their notable Castlevania franchise, in a new DLC which many have been anticipating!

The Vampire Survivors have come a long way in their honorable hunt, and after joining forces with the Belmont Family, they are the closest they've ever been!

This all-out celebration has over 20 new characters, 40+ weapons including more whips than you can count on one hand, 30+ music tracks, and the BIGGEST stage we've made yet! Even though we're literally at Dracula's Castle, there's still zero vampires?

And the cherry on top: a man.

Available on October 31st on Steam, Xbox X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation5, PlayStation4, Nintendo Switch, Android & iOS
 
Pretty Sizeable new Vampire Survivors DLC coming 31st October


I wish I liked this game more, but I love Castlevania, so I will probably get this. I think this is the third or fourth Castlevania crossover like this I have seen, so Konami knows there is demand there. But will they ever make a new Castlevania game? I know I am in the minority, but I just want a new classic (non-Metroidvania) title.
 
Netflix has shut down thier "AAA" studio Team Blue which included some notable industry veterans


In late 2022, Netflix wooed Overwatch executive producer Chacko Sonny from Blizzard to build its SoCal studio. (Sonny had stints on Call of Duty and Sony Santa Monica before that).

In spring 2023, Netflix's SoCal studio added Joesph Staten, a longtime creative lead on Microsoft's Halo franchise at Bungie and 343 Industries. Staten was exiting the Xbox camp for Netflix to work "as creative director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP," he said at the time. That move was widely covered in the gaming press, a sign that Netflix was very serious about this gaming thing.

That same spring, Team Blue also recruited art director Rafael Grassetti, who had nearly a decade of experience at Sony Santa Monica where he'd most recently been the God of War studio's overall art director.

As of October 2024, however, all three are gone and Team Blue has been shuttered, a Netflix rep confirmed to Game File.

Netflix declined to say how many people overall have been impacted by the closure, but Team Blue had included other seasoned veterans, too.

Its director of technology, Jerry Edsall, had more than a decade of experience in senior roles at Microsoft's The Coalition before joining Netflix's studio in spring 2023.

Gavin Irby, design director on Team Blue until this month, had a decade of experience in lead roles at Blizzard, Bungie and Jagex.
 
Keywords Studios have acquired Halo co-developer Certain Affinity, no value disclosed as of yet


Its Keywords second acquisition in the last few months after Wushu Studio in August
I saw this, and I looked up Keyword. I didn't realize how big they'd gotten. $841m in revenue in 2023, and that's a lot of properties:
Keywords Studios plc is an Irish video game industry services company based in Leopardstown. Founded in 1998...the company completed its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.

Keywords Studios has acquired several other companies, including Certain Affinity, Blindlight, Climax Studios, Forgotten Empires, GameSim, Heavy Iron Studios, High Voltage Software, Smoking Gun Interactive, Tantalus Media, and Wicked Workshop.

List of acquisitions by Keywords Studios (filtered: development studios)
NameAcquiredBusiness
GameSimMay 2017Development
D3TOctober 2017Development
SperasoftDecember 2017Development
Fire Without SmokeMay 2018Development
Snowed In StudiosJuly 2018Development
Studio GoboAugust 2018Development
WizcorpApril 2019Development
Marching CubeJanuary 2020Development
Coconut LizardJune 2020Development
Heavy Iron StudiosSeptember 2020Development
High Voltage SoftwareDecember 2020Development
Tantalus MediaMarch 2021Development
Climax StudiosApril 2021Development
Wicked WitchDecember 2021Development
Forgotten EmpiresJune 2022Development
Mighty GamesAugust 2022Development
Smoking Gun InteractiveSeptember 2022Development
Hardsuit LabsMay 2023Development
The Multiplayer GroupDecember 2023Development
Wushu StudiosAugust 2024Development
Certain AffinityOctober 2024Development

A number of those studios, including the aforementioned Certain Affinity, as well as Wushu Studios, who makes Sniper Elite, State of Decay, and helped co-developed Forza 5, have very close ties with Microsoft. I wonder if at some point Microsoft will acquire Keyword.
 
Whilst being in the middle of a being taken over themselves too

Ahhhh...well, that greatly decreases the chances Microsoft will purchase them. Private equity would sooner chop up an asset to piece it off during an opportune market cycle than sell it wholesale outright at a fair price.
 
Ahhhh...well, that greatly decreases the chances Microsoft will purchase them. Private equity would sooner chop up an asset to piece it off during an opportune market cycle than sell it wholesale outright at a fair price.

I did think for a while though that Microsoft would probably acquire Certain Affinity due to the amount of work they do on Halo and there is a lot of ex Halo era Bungie people there too
 
I did think for a while though that Microsoft would probably acquire Certain Affinity due to the amount of work they do on Halo and there is a lot of ex Halo era Bungie people there too
I was thinking Microsoft might acquire Keyword Studios itself, but if they get taken over by a private equity outfit, I suspect the chance of that suddenly becomes effectively nil.
 
TIL that it's been almost 40 years and no one still knows the exact day Mario 1 was released in North America.
 
From monitoring employee menstrual cycles to now getting physical biometric data of their players:




Activision/Blizzard just need to burn down to the ground at this rate.
Reminds me of I think BMW when they wanted to charge a subscription for Seat warmers on a car you purchased. Insane.
 
New game unveiled called [REDACTED} set in the Prison from The Calisto Protocol

 
New game unveiled called [REDACTED} set in the Prison from The Calisto Protocol



Not that I have anything against twin stick shooters (at least I assume that’s what this is based on what they’ve shown) but I can’t say I like the cartoony aesthetic as a follow up to Callisto Protocol. For all that game’s faults, I think it nailed the atmosphere and art design, both of which appear pretty much absent here.
 
For anyone looking forward to that Exodus game (Ex Bioware Devs + Wizards of the Coast) and loves video game store based books

There was novel released recently based in the universe of that game (set after the events of the game) weighing in at 928 pages and theres a part two coming at some point too

 
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