Author: Isabella Green

Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong has been out for less than a day, and already, it's made waves on the PC front.Per SteamDB, the action-RPG opened to 2.2 million players on Steam, and has quickly climbed the sales charts. At time of writing, it's the Steam store's top seller ahead of the Steam Deck OLED, Counter-Strike 2, and the incoming Final Fantasy XVI port.According to Game Discover's Simon Carless, the bulk of Black Myth's PC base on the platform is owed to China. Players in the developer's home make up 88.1 percent of that player count, followed by the United States, Hong Kong, Canada, and other countries.

Black Myth takes one big, tumultuous step for Chinese devs

While there've been several games from China that've hit big in the West, Black Myth has been positioned as the most triple-A of them all. It's had numerous appearances at game events and is effectively a console exclusive for the PlayStation 5, at least for now.The game has been embroiled in controversy prior to release, namely allegations of a sexi…

External development partner Virtuos has just announced its acquisition of Third Kind Studios, a move that they say will, "bolster Virtuos’ AAA co-development capabilities" in the years to come.

In an announcement on its website, the company revealed that the studio will continue to be led by its original co-founders and that it seeks to double its headcount in the coming years in response to growing client demand.Founded in 2016, Third Kind has co-developed several triple-A games in recent years. Many of them come from Xbox (like the new Fable and Sea of Thieves), and also include Predecessor, Omeda's revival of Epic Games' once-defunct MOBA Paragon.Per CTO Ray Tharanee, this is the first UK venture for its new parent company. On the studio's end, this will allow it to take on "new and exciting triple-A projects" and continue its own growth, including doubling its staff over the next two years."We're proud to play a pivotal role in expanding [Viruos'] global footprint, and we look forward to pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming together," he wrote.Over the past year, Virtuos has opened studios…

The status of Warner Bros. Discovery's video game division is once again in flux, and the company is hoping to license out its big properties.During its earnings call for the second quarter of the 2024-2025 fiscal year (thanks, IGN), CEO David Zaslav said outside studios could "take advantage" of franchises like Harry Potter and DC. "We have 11 studios here, and a lot of IP. […] We need to get bigger."In the past, WB licensed out its games to third-party developers. But many of these, like Rocksteady and TT Games (along with Player First more recently) were later acquired to continue making WB titles.To WB's streaming/games global head Jamie Perette, licensing will help balance out its games business. MultiVersus is doing fine in free-to-play, but he acknowledged the "lumpiness" of full-priced games that take three or four years (or more) and millions of dollars to make.Put another way, WB is still feeling the hurt from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Rocksteady's troubled live-service shooter has been repeatedly cited as a failure for WB Games, both on its own merits and in relation to Hogwarts Legacy.Whereas the 2023 game was…

Effectively immediately, Roblox has been banned in Turkey for the forseeable future.As spotted by GamesIndustry, the creation platform was banned for "content that could lead to the exploitation of children," said the country's Minister of Justice Yılmaz Tunç. "It is everyone's duty to look out for, protect and support the best interests of our children, the guarantor of our future." No specific instances of exploitation were given, but questions about safety on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite have been raised for several years.Turkey marks the first country to take a stand over
Roblox's alleged child safety issues. In late July, a Bloomberg report claimed the platform was a haven for child predators, and that possible ways to reduce their presence were shot down.While Roblox Corp. initially denied the report's claims, CEO David Baszucki later acknowledged the company needed better saftey methods.In response to the ban, Roblox Corp. told Eurogamer it would "respects the laws and regulations in countries where we operate. We look forward to working together to ensure Roblox is back online in Turkey as soon as possible."…

Prime Video is developing a new video game show, this one an anthology focused on various titles from multiple developers.Per Deadline, the series is dubbed Secret Level. Episodes will be set in the worlds of games including Spelunky and Amazon's MMO New World, along with unspecified PlayStation properties.Deadpool director Tim Miller will head up the show through his Blur studio. The company previously worked on Love, Death, & Robots for Netflix, and was name checked as a specific source of inspiration for Secret Level.For Prime Video, this marks its second video game-based show following Fallout this past April. On its own, Secret Level is the first major anthology series for the game-to-adaptation pipeline.Publishers like PlayStation and Xbox have made clear their plans to adapt their games to different mediums. But not every game may have what it takes to land on a streamer, either because they weren't built with that in mind, or they're just too old or obscure.In theory, Secret Level's anthology format could split the difference. Older games can have some time in the spotlight that could result in a popularity surge, as we've seen with Fallout and …

Newsletter platform and indie advocate Pantaloon is paying it forward to other indie studios with a free platform to help those interested in self-publishing.The titular hub includes brand plans and guidelines, templates for press releases and pitch decks, and a campaign roadmap. Per Pantaloon, the hub will be updated with new resources on a monthly basis.Indie teams have been no stranger to helping each other, but that typically takes the form of a publishing label for teams in a similar position. For those wanting to self-publish (either by necessity or choice), Pantaloon's hub will be invaluable.

Pantaloon seeks to "expose as much of the publishing machine as possible"

Founder Jamin Smith noted that with the industry's "fraught year," self-publishing may be more likely for among smaller teams. "We want to expose as much of the publishing machine as possible and connect developers with tools and services that can help," he explained."Even for studios…

Earlier this year, developers for the Apple Arcade aired their grievances with the tech giant. Now, another report from MobileGamer shows the relationship has become further strained.Some of the complaints from sources build on what was previously discussed in February. Developers are now waiting up to six months to get paid, go weeks without communication from Apple, and eventual talks can be "disappointing."One source alleged meetings often have half of Apple's team missing, and those that are there "have no idea what’s going on and can’t answer our questions. Either they don't have knowledge, or can't speak because of confidentiality reasons."Other concerns raised in the report were brand new. Many surrounded the Apple Vision Pro; a developer claimed Apple's engineering support didn't know how the headset worked, making game development for it even more difficult.Another described the process as "going back in time 10 years. Despite the advertsed power and cost, it's not a machine built for games. Getting any complex games working on the platform is difficult."

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Developers at Bungie have spoken out about what led to the studio's newest round of layoffs earlier this week, which had been reportedly planned for some time.Talking to Bloomberg, current and former staff say Bungie "grew too fast" and overextended itself with potential projects. They also put much of their ire on CEO Pete Parsons, who reportedly "failed to take accountability" for his part in these cuts.Following these new layoffs, several former Bungie employees (and Destiny 2 players) actively called on Parsons to resign, alleging he was to blame for the studio's "overly ambitious" failures.According to the outlet, Bungie received an influx of cash after Sony acquired it in 2022. The developer immediately went to work on incubating various projects, including an alleged mobile version of Destiny 2 and remakes for its older games.One notable project was "Payback," described as a co-op spinoff influenced by Genshin Impact and Warfame. The title was canceled in June to work on the extraction shooter revival of Marathon, now aiming for a 2025 launch."Payback" was reportedly helmed by longtime Destiny 2 co-director Luke Smi…

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…