Well, here we are again, taking another look at a week of gaming industry news. What’s been happening this week? Have the merciless layoffs plaguing the industry continued? Who’s said what to who?
There’s only one way to find out (well, there are several, but this is the one we’ve settled on today), so why don’t we open up the doors of time and examine just what’s been going on this week in the world of gaming?
Embracer Group splits into three
If you don’t keep up with the behind-the-scenes gaming industry drama, then you probably don’t know who or what Embracer Group is, so allow us to enlighten you: it’s the company that owns THQ Nordic and several other studios.
This week, Embracer announced that it would split itself into three different companies, each controlling a different aspect of what was once Embracer.
Those companies are Asmodee, which will handle the tabletop end of things; Middle-earth Enterprises and Friends, which will control IPs like Lord of the Rings; and Coffee Stain and Friends, which will handle many of Embracer’s other studios.
What will this change bring about in the world of gaming? It’s all to play for, but Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors will still have a hand in proceedings, so things will probably proceed largely as they have done up until now.
Samus wasn’t in Fortnite because Nintendo got weird
Nintendo is well-known for two things in the gaming industry at this point: excellent, high-quality games, and being really weird about its properties, controlling them to an almost impressive degree.
Ex-Fortnite chief Donald Mustard says the latter was the reason Metroid’s Samus didn’t appear in Fortnite; Nintendo wanted her in-game skin to be Switch-only rather than to be accessible across all platforms.
That went against Epic’s “absolute must” policy at the time, though, so the character, along with other potential Nintendo characters, never made their way into Fortnite.
If you want to know why you’ve never been able to play as Mario or Link in Fortnite, you’ve got Nintendo to blame for that particular disappointment.
Blizzard isn’t holding BlizzCon this year
There’s not going to be a BlizzCon event this year, according to Blizzard. The World of Warcraft developer says the decision wasn’t made lightly, but doesn’t give a reason for the cancellation.
Instead, Blizzard just says that it engaged in “careful consideration” when thinking about cancelling the event, eventually reaching the conclusion that BlizzCon wouldn’t go ahead in 2024.
However, you’ll still be hearing from Blizzard this year. It says it’ll be sharing more info about World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred as and when that info becomes available.
No in-person event to go to, then, but plenty of reasons to stay excited for what’s to come in Blizzard’s future.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 is going to do well for Capcom
Capcom revised its financials this week to reflect the fact that Dragon’s Dogma 2 has been a success, which is good news for anyone who likes their action-RPGs hard and obscure.
The official statement shared by Capcom says that while it previously expected to make around 140 billion yen in the 2023-2024 financial year, it now expects to make about 152.4 billion.
This represents around £786.2 million, or about $986 million, so it’s clear that Capcom is going to have a pretty good year. If you’ve played Dragon’s Dogma 2, that probably won’t surprise you.
As a refresher, the game, which came out earlier this year, received strongly positive reviews from many critics, although it also sparked a debate among the gaming community regarding subjects like accessibility, “friction”, and whether developers have an obligation to design their games with convenience in mind.
Akira Toriyama says Sand Land is great
A couple of days before the release of Sand Land, the official Twitter (we’re doggedly refusing to call it X) account for the game shared a statement from Akira Toriyama.
Never heard that name before? Akira Toriyama is the creator of Dragon Ball, the artist behind Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger, and, of course, the original creator of the Sand Land manga.
He died unexpectedly earlier this year, and the statement Bandai Namco shared, which was made in January (before his passing), is very moving indeed.
He says that fans will love Sand Land, and that even though he’s getting on a little bit in years, he knows “a little something about” video games.
The Silent Hill 2 remake guys are working on something else
Bloober Team, the studio behind the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake, has a couple more projects in the works, and they sound pretty impressive at this early stage.
A new annual report released by the Polish developer points to two games currently in development, one of which is being worked on with Take-Two label Private Division.
That game will revolve around a completely new IP, apparently, while the other, which is in development alongside Walking Dead company Skybound Entertainment, will be based on an IP owned by that company.
Are we about to get a Walking Dead survival horror game from Bloober Team? Based on the developer’s previous efforts, we can only hope so.
Escape From Tarkov is in trouble
If you’ve watched gaming highlight videos on YouTube at any stage in your life, you’ve almost certainly encountered Escape From Tarkov, a first-person shooter that revolves around realism and survival.
Well, this week, the developer of that game, Battlestate Games, ran into some trouble thanks to a new package for the game being sold on its website.
The Unheard Edition promised all kinds of goodies, but players quickly started expressing negative sentiment towards the new version, claiming it was stuffed with P2W (pay-to-win) bonuses and that it was disrespectful to the community.
Battlestate quickly engaged in damage control, but this wasn’t seen as enough, and more correction was needed, although these changes still don’t seem to be quite enough to pacify players.
