PlayStation maker Sony and other investors have pumped $10 million into Double Jump Tokyo to finance the development of blockchain games.Double Jump Tokyo said the investment round was led by Japanese venture capital firm SBI Investment with backing from Sony Group Corporation, Taisu Ventures, Gate Ventures, TM Capital, Bing Ventures, and a "high-profile entity that wished to remain anonymous.""The capital will be deployed to further develop and support blockchain games, blockchain infrastructure, and related services, as well as to strengthen the company's organizational structure and talent base," reads a press release.Double Jump is currently working with Ubisoft to "accelerate global web3 game adoption" with Champions Tactics. It also partnered with Sega to create Battle of Three Kingdoms, a blockchain title based on the Sangokushi Taisen franchise.Blockchain and NFT projects have proven controversial in the video game industry, with detractors pointing to the speculative nature of the technology and environmental concerns. Yet, some major studios continue to flirt with a concept they feel can deliver "innovative" and "engaging&…
Author: Harper Adams
Financials for the first half of the 2024-2025 fiscal year show CD Projekt had "strong" results in multiple areas from January 1, 2024 to June 30, 2024.Revenue-wise, the Polish studio boasted 424.8 million PLN (or $109.8 million), up 30.6 percent from the first six months of the 2023-2024 fiscal year. Cyberpunk 2077 and its Phantom Liberty expansion were deemed the primary drivers for this growth.This has been the case previously in May and March, and it looks to continually sustain CD Projekt, much like The Witcher 3 did as Cyberpunk was being improved on.Financial reserves and net profit were also said to have grown during the six-month period. Reserves increased to over 55 million PLN, while net profit hit 170 million PLN, up 88.4 percent from 90.2 million PLN in 2023-2024's first half.Additionally, CFO Piotr Nielubowicz revealed CD Projekt has allocated over 150 million PLN to work on "future projects."Those projects include "Polaris," the fourth mainline Witcher game that he said is nearing full production. As of July 31, 410 (out of 639) developers are working on it, and the project recently made "substantial progress" in pre-produ…
Sega's Entertainment Contents division, which houses its video game operations, "exceeded expectations" during the first quarter of the fiscal year due to strong full game and DLC sales.As noted on the company's fiscal report for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, net sales across the segment increased by 34 percent to 72.5 billion yen ($496.6 million). Operating income rose to 11.8 billion yen ($80.8 million), an upswing on the 4.3 billion yen reported this time last year.Full game unit sales for the quarter totaled 5.8 million units, comprising 710,000 sales from new releases and 5.14 million sales from catalog titles. That's an increase on the 4.87 million units sold in Q1 last year, but Sega explained full game sales remained "slightly below expectations."Despite that, the company praised Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance for its "favorable" performance after the title topped 500,000 sales in three days. Older titles such as Unicorn Overlord and Persona 5 Royal (Remaster) made similarly noteworthy contributions.The Japanese publisher also lauded "strong" revenues related to its Sonic movie franchise.Sega acknowledged its acquisi…
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…