Service provider PTW has acquired co-development studio Ghostpunch Games for $13 million.PTW CEO Deborah Kirkham said the deal will enable the company to "deliver exceptional development services" to its global partners."Ghostpunch is a highly respected development partner for numerous top-tier triple-A studios, boasting a remarkable retainment rate of over 90 percent," added Kirkham, who described the studio as a "standout" business with an "impressive reputation."Founded in 2015, Ghostpunch currently has over 60 employees working on projects across a variety of platforms. The studio is familiar with middleware technology such as Unity and Unreal and has worked on notable franchises including Fortnite, Mortal Combat, Borderlands, Risk of Rain, Civilization, and Prey.Notably, PTW believes the studio's vast experience can be combined with its own "deep QA knowledge" to offer new AI-based QA automation and other services to clients in the future."Additional synergies can be seen through the combination of PTW's AI-based art technology and Ghostpunch's art integration capabilities, which will bring new generative ar…
Author: Sophia Reynolds
Cypriot game studio Eschatology Entertainment has secured $11.3 million in funding to develop an upcoming Souls-like shooter.The investment round was led by PUBG maker Krafton, which made headlines earlier this week after purchasing Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks.The Korean company was joined by other investors including GEM Capital and The Games Fund, both of which co-led a $4 million investment into Eschatology when it broke cover in 2022.Eschatology is currently a 65-person studio that operates remotely. Its development team includes veterans from Valve, Wargaming, 4A Games, Bluehole Studio and more.The company is pitching its debut project as a triple-A narrative first-person shooter set in an apocalyptic wild west. The unnamed title is currently in active production with a finished vertical slice. Eschatology claims the latest cash injection will ensure a "timely release" while also enabling it to establish a publishing team.Studio co-founder Fuad Kuliev said the deal represents more than straightforward "financial investment."
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Tose, a Japanese developer that's assisted larger studios with development on their games, saw consistent losses during the third quarter of the 2023-2024 fiscal year.In its recent earnings report spotted by Automaton, net sales for the studio came to 3.243 million yen (or $20.1 million), down 27.6 percent from the previous year. Overall losses amounted to 367 million yen over the nine-month period.
Cancellations and project delays to blame
As translated in its report, Tose puts the blame on several projects being cancelled by unnamed clients. Some were in development since the start of the 2023-2024 year, and their cuts led to "a large loss" in revenue.Blame was also laid at in-progress projects being pushed to the 2024-2025 year. As such, Tose has lowered its forecast projections from 5.520 million yen to 4.830 million yen for the remainder of the fiscal period.Tose didn't list any specific projects, but it's worth noting that throughout the decades, it's worked with Nintendo and Square Enix. The 44-year-o…