Year: 2024

Global commerce platform provider Xsolla has announced the hiring of Cathleen Nilson as its new chief financial officer. Nilson, who has over two decades of experience in the technology industry, joins the company after a one-year stint at Kami Vision, which specializes in video-based generative AI.Prior to that, she served as CFO at Turing.com and Samsung. She previously spent time in the video game business as the global IT finance controller for Electronic Arts.In February 2024, the company announced a shakeup of its leadership structure, bringing new executives into the company. Nilson's hiring as CFO may be an extended result of this change in management.

Xsolla's financial heft has invited global scrutiny

While players probably don't know the name Xsolla, studios across the globe have partnered with the company to operate their payment and monetization platforms. Among these studios are Dying Light 2 developer Techland, Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios, and Chinese publisher NetEase Games.Xsolla's r…

Epic plans on bringing Fortnite and other mobile titles to a litany of storefronts, but not those it views as "rent collectors" in disguise.The company outlined its new strategy in a blog post and explained it will support marketplaces that offer "all developers a great deal" while ending partnership with some others—including the Samsung Galaxy Store."Today, we're announcing that Epic plans to bring our own mobile games including Fortnite to other mobile stores that give all developers a great deal. And, we will be ending distribution partnerships with mobile stores that serve as rent collectors without competing robustly and serving all developers fairly, even if those stores offer us a special deal for our own games," it wrote.

Fortnite is coming back to the EU iOS store

The company reiterated that Fortnite will be returning to iOS in the European Union soon, while the Epic Games Store is also heading to Android worldwide and iOS in the EU. Those moves come after a new Digital Markets Act was introduced across EU territories, offe…

Tony Pankhurst, an actor for Supermassive Games' Dark Pictures franchise, passed away this past May. He was 67.The actor's family published a tribute page, but offered no details on his passing. They called him a "dedicated football fan," and called for any donations to be sent towards Hospice in the Weald.Born in 1957, Pankhurst provided the likeness for the Curator, an in-universe narrator who occasionally talks to the player about their choices. The character appears across all four mainline games, and the 2023 Dark Pictures: Switchback VR game."[Tony] was the face of the Curator, and we loved working with him," wrote Supermassive. The developer donated £200 toward Hospice, thanking him for co-creating "a character loved by many."Outside of games, the UK actor had minor (and often uncredited) roles in big films like Rogue One, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the Tom Hardy-led film Legend."[Tony] is much loved and will always be remembered," concluded the Pankhursts. "We look forward to hearing your stories of times with him in due course."…

A new report from Yahoo Finance details the allegedly fraught conditions within Meta's Reality Labs division.The studio focused on augmented and virtual reality has repeatedly lost money for the Facebook company, reportedly due to multiple reorganizations and "top leaders" lacking knowledge of the technology.It's been over a decade since Meta (then Facebook) acquired VR developer Oculus for $2 billion. Current and former Meta staff claim things changed after founder Mark Zuckerberg became enamored with the metaverse during the pandemic, which has led to a "pretty chaotic" work culture.Sources allege regime changes would occur every three to six months, with Meta leadership outside the division brought on to whip Reality Labs into shape. An ex-engineering executive described it as "forklifting [leaders] into any position.""They play employee bingo," said another source. "They move people into AR that don’t really understand it. It’s hardware and experience, not a news feed in your hand."There have been "severe doubts" about leadership, said a third source, exacerbated by unrealistic expectations or projects be…

After nearly 20 years, the Xbox 360 has been fully retired. Its digital storefront, which opened alongside the console's launch in 2005, is now closed.Microsoft previously announced the marketplace would shut down late last year. Players can no longer buy games, DLC, or movies for the console, but anything bought prior to the closure can be re-downloaded to Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S.The end of the marketplace puts a final bow on the console. Throughout its lifetime, the Xbox 360 helped define the Xbox brand, thanks to Xbox Live, the dashboard (and its many evolutions), and key games like 1 vs. 100 and Gears of War.

The 360 gave Xbox more wins than it knew what to do with

How big was the Xbox 360? Call of Duty had a multi-year exclusivity deal for DLC maps stretched across multiple games, a practice that transitioned over to PlayStation and has now led to Microsoft owning the popular franchise.Changes and add-ons like the Xbox Live Arcade, Kinect, Avatars, and New Xbox Experience helped turn the console into a more c…

Last week saw the formations of wall-to-wall unions within Blizzard and ZeniMax, which represent some of the biggest moves in the game industry's current unionization drive.On the newest Game Developer Podcast episode, Bethesda's Autumn Mitchell touched on several benefits won by union negotiators during discussions with Microsoft. One such benefit is "recall rights," wherein companies are required to offer to bring back employees they laid off if they need to refill their role two or three years after they're dismissed from the company.Mitchell explained that she'd seen these terms in other tech industry contracts, and their inclusion is a boon for employees and employer alike. "We're talking about eliminating that 'revolving door' at least to some degree," she said, alluding to the fact that high turnover obliterates institutional knowledge.In other words, the industry's swaths of layoffs could potentially be alleviated by studios having a fast method to re-hire new talent after their finances are stabilized.Fellow Bethesda developer Chris Lusco highlighted other unionization gains, such as converting some freelancers to…

The upcoming Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra will be published by Plaion, a major subsidiary owned by Embracer.Under a partnership with developer Skydance Games, Plaion has the worldwide publishing rights for the 2025 action-adventure title. It marks a major get for the publisher and its parent company, both of which saw multiple layoffs and closures in 2023 and 2024.Following the dissolution of a $2 billion deal with the Savvy Games Group, Embracer went through a devastating restructuring period that's seen plenty of cancelled projects.Securing publishing rights for a Marvel game doesn't balance the scales of that scuttled deal. But it shows Embracer is at a point where it can move beyond killing off what it can to save money.It's also a notable change for Skydance, which has typically self-published its previous titles like Arashi: Castles of Sin and Archangel.As of this past March, Embracer's restructuring has ended, and CEO Lars Wingefors said the company's future involves making and releasing good games.Plaion was impacted by some of that restructuring, and CEO Klemens Kundratitz called this Skydance deal "a testament to [our] ongoing mission to become…

Capcom said it has "outperformed" expectations during the quarter ended June 30, 2024, despite net sales and operating income tumbling year-over-year.According to the publisher's latest fiscal report, net sales decreased by 32.5 percent year-on-year to 29.5 billion yen ($190.5 million) and operating income fell by 46.4 percent to 12.8 billion yen ($82.6 million).Ordinary income dropped by 47.9 percent year-over-year to 13.4 billion yen, and net income attributable to owners of the parent dipped by 45.1 percent to 9.9 billion yen.

Capcom says it's still on track

Capcom said those numbers "outperformed" its plan for all business segments during the quarter, and noted it remains on track to achieve its full-year earnings forecast."During the three months ended June 30, 2024, sales in Capcom's core Digital Contents business centered on releases of existing titles on additional platforms and catalog sales of major titles released in previous fiscal years because the launch timing of new titles will be concen…

Korean publisher NCSoft has sunk $3.5 million into Swedish studio Moon Rover Games.Moon Rover will use the cash to finance the development of a cooperative shooter "built on emergent gameplay systems.""This investment represents a milestone in the history of Moon Rover Games. It will enable us to combine the experience and ambitions of our team with the vast knowledge of NCSoft in the development and operations of online games, to bring new gameplay experiences to players around the world," said Moon Rover CEO, Julien Wera.

Far Cry, Battlefield, and Halo vets onboard at Moon Rover

Moon Rover was formed in 2023 by a team of EA and Ubisoft veterans with experience working on franchises like Far Cry, Battlefield, The Division, Halo, and Mirror's Edge. The studio's debut project is codenamed 'Project Aldous' and is billed as an "original IP for PC and consoles."NCSoft, known for developing and publishing titles like Guild Wars 2 and Blade & Soul, said Moon Rover's &qu…

BioWare was suspiciously coy when asked whether it was considering releasing a standalone character creator for Dragon Age: The Veilguard before the game’s full release on 31st October.
When asked at a preview event whether it was under consideration, the game’s co-director Corinne Busche replied, “It’s a much requested feature; we’re TBD on that but it would be pretty stinking cool.” The question itself was asked by Outside Xbox’s charming Andy Farrant.
I was at that preview event and I played the new Dragon Age game all day, and you can read whether I think The Veilguard is any good, and what I learnt talking to BioWare about it, elsewhere on the site.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Preview – Bioware Is Back!

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