Cartic P
AVP, Game Production and Business
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Business of Games: Everybody discusses layoffs. Here's this post about funding details from the last 2 weeks. #MondayMotivation 19 biggest funding rounds, partnerships, and trends from the last 2 weeks #2361. Steel City Interactiveraises £15m in funding2. VaultNsecures $1.6M in seed funding round3. Sony forms new studiowith ex-Deviation Games devs4. Seeds Labsraises $12 million for Solana-based Bladerite5. Param Labsraises $7M to fund gaming ecosystem development6. ByteDance sells Red Alert Online devC4 Gamesfor $35.8 million7. Yellowraises $5M from A16z for Gen AI-powered 3D modeling tool8. Overwolf acquiresNitroPayin 8-figure deal to boost ad tech offering9. Gorilla Capitalinvests in Lola Panda educational apps developer BeiZ10. Subscribleraises $300,000 to launch ad-free mobile games platform11. Jamangoraises $2.5M to launch browser-based game maker this year12. Trophy Gamessnaps up 20 titles from Tivola Games in acquisition deal13. Sharp Alphacloses $25M+ Fund II to back gaming, sports, and media startups14. Iconic Artsraises $3.1M to create original properties for games and Hollywood15. PlanetPlay parentSphaira Innovationhas acquired UK studio Playmob for an undisclosed sum.16. Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser’s new company,Absurd Venturesis creating an “open world action adventure”17. Civilization,’ ‘XCOM’ and ‘The Sims’ Vets Launch Game DeveloperMidsummer StudiosWith Funding From Trevor Noah’s Day Zero Productions18. Gaming content generation platform Stori has rebranded asNucanonhaving raised $500,000 in what the startup says is another pre-seed raise.19. Oisoi Studio, based in Ghent, Belgium, has announced the successful closure of a €450,000 funding round led by ForsVC and angel investors Thomas & Emmanuel Dewitte.Top Trends:1. EA is looking to introduce in-game ads2. Roblox revenues increase to $801m in Q13. Grand Theft Auto 6 now expected out in fall 20254. Dubai launches new Gaming Visa as part of 2033 vision5. Brazil passes new bill to bolster its video games industry6. Netflix brings new "digital theme park" Nextworld to Roblox7. PTW opens new motion capture studio in partnership with Imaginarium Studios8. Microsoft shut down several Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.9. Microsoft’s Will Launch Its Xbox Mobile Gaming Store This July With Candy Crush and Minecraft#gamingIndustry #gamedesign #mobilegames #gamedev #gamedevelopment #gamedeveloper #indiedev #unity3d #madewithunity
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Cartic P
AVP, Game Production and Business
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If you like this, check more insights athttps://businessofgames.icartic.com/p/business-of-games-everybody-discusses
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🎮 Leonardo Miralrio 👾
Biz Dev | Tech investor | Content Creator | Streaming | Mobile Gaming | Localization | LQA | Gridly CMS | Geek & Gamer |
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Game Cookies: Adaptations, Layoffs, and New Ventures 🍪Hello movie buffs and game developers! Here are today's key updates from the gaming industry, featuring insights into video game adaptations, significant layoffs, and exciting new ventures. Let's dive in!🍪 Do Video Game Adaptations Need Games to Come Along for the Ride? 🍪Avalanche Studios Group' Just Cause franchise is the latest to join the wave of Hollywood adaptations, joining titles like BioShock and Gears of War. However, unlike these, Just Cause’s movie may arrive without a new game release. With the film likely coming out with no new game since 2018's Just Cause 4, the question arises: do game companies benefit from these adaptations without concurrent game releases?🥠 Hollywood's interest in game adaptations is clear, but game companies should strategize to ensure these adaptations also boost game sales. Nintendo's involvement in their adaptations, like the Super Mario Bros. movie, showcases a balanced approach.🍪 Behaviour Interactive Lays Off Almost 100 Staff 🍪Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight, has announced layoffs affecting nearly 100 employees. This comes just months after cutting dozens of jobs earlier this year. The company cites "strategic changes for future growth" amid industry competition and economic challenges.🥠 Layoffs are always difficult, especially for those affected. It's crucial for companies to find sustainable ways to navigate economic pressures without compromising their workforce.🍪 Ubisoft Vet David Polfeldt Opens New Studio in Barcelona 🍪David Polfeldt, a veteran from Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment, has launched a new studio in Barcelona called Bespoke Pixel Studio. The studio has raised $25 million in funding and aims to create original intellectual property focused on refined gameplay. Polfeldt's extensive experience includes work on The Division, Avatar, and Far Cry 3.🥠 It's exciting to see industry veterans like Polfeldt starting new ventures. Bespoke Pixel's focus on original IP and refined gameplay promises to bring fresh and innovative experiences to the gaming world.Stay tuned, keep exploring, and remember: successful adaptations require a balance of innovation and strategy 🦉Don't forget to share this post and click the bell 🔔 on my profile to stay updated with the latest news!Sources:- Video Game Adaptations: https://lnkd.in/eZTqffMx- Behaviour Interactive Layoffs: https://lnkd.in/eyxVtUPb- David Polfeldt's New Studio: https://lnkd.in/eSzgjE28
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mario ricco
STUDIO ART DIRECTOR - PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
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THE PARTY IS OVER, or... just moving elsewhere - In 2023, the video game industry experienced a record-breaking number of critically acclaimed releases, but with reduced funding, the $184.3 billion industry is now hoping AI can help bridge the gap between ambition and resources. Venture capital firms invested just $4.1 billion into gaming companies in 2023, a far cry from the $14.6 billion invested in 2022 and the $16.2 billion invested in 2021. Large gaming companies used the influx of funds from 2020 to 2022 to scale up their staff to take on hugely ambitious games with budgets topping $300 million. However, in this suddenly more difficult funding environment, these same companies have been undergoing massive layoffs and are scaling their ambitions back down. The god of the AI will save everyone?https://lnkd.in/d5xYkdpU
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Steve Theodore
Sr. Technical Art Manager @ Unity Technologies | Technical Art
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Another day, another games industry layoff. Or five, or fifty.This is probably not the most original observation, but this is exactly the right time to be starting up something new. Sure, there are real problems with with market saturation and yes, right now a lot of me-too money is flowing out of the space as fast as it flew in during the pandemic -- but startups are all about connecting people with ideas, and right now there are a lot of great people who've been thrown out of their comfort zones and ready to take risks that they might have passed on six months ago. This is the right time to be building. And don't forget: because of all this chaos, a project that starts in 2024 is going face less competition and a less jaded public when it comes out. Yes, games are an inherently risky bet -- but let's face it : if you're pumping money into another hand-wavey GenAI project, it's probably going to be an also-ran in a crowded field.
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Joshua Famaks
Best social media video editing for gaming, podcasts, comedy and more
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Xbox’s announcement of closing several recently acquired game studios feels like it's harmed their brand image in a very deep way.There's a lot of confusion, anger and sorrow over:🔹the perceived betrayal of the “joining the Xbox family” narrative they delivered when the studios were bought🔹the hard-working creatives who may still be in work today if Xbox hadn't gotten involved.We've seen publishers with near ubiquitous power with record labels syphoning a musician’s rights to their own music. 🎸We've seen ambitious gambits for market control when Xbox One tried to be the all-in-one, always-online, heres-a-webcam-in-your-living-room lounge entertainment centre. 🕵️♂️Combine those things and somehow it might see fewer partners willing to work with Xbox, and fewer customers willing to buy into their ecosystem.Considering during the Blizzard-Activision acquisition court proceedings, Xbox were quoted to admitting to “losing the console war”, the mindset behind these decisions becomes clearer to everyone.#XboxGameStudios #TangoGameworks #ArkaneAustin #AlphaDogStudios #RoundhouseGames #GamesIndustry
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Robert Wynne
Co-Founder & COO, Unannounced Studio; Product Director, Project GREAT WALL | China <-> US Gaming
I spent much of the weekend chatting with my co-founder and other studio members on the closure of Tango Gameworks. I genuinely believe that this closure in particular, and Xbox's... interesting... responses to inquiries about it will have the largest effect on developer sentiment of any event so far.Though there have been I guess ~20,000 jobs eliminated in the game industry since the beginning of this layoff era, humans generally don't emotionally process numbers. Humans find symbols to represent how an abstract concept feels. For the layoff era, I believe the closure of Tango Gameworks will become this symbol.Our industry enjoys a professional comity among perceived insiders that I personally very much enjoy. It's one of the best parts about working in gaming. However, I believe this comity is often ascribed to / aped by industry executives, which I believe is a natural phenomenon.Developers and investors are going to stop paying attention to and / or blaming the Phil Spencers & Sarah Bonds of the industry.I don't take umbrage with any of these executive types. I am sure they are personally fine people. I'm sure they generally have good intentions. I'm not sure that has anything to do with why we should ascribe agency to them in their public statements.I believe Phil Spencer was a symbol in the industry for developers who hoped for a business model that could support individuals choosing their own path of video game development i.e. work on a forever franchise live ops for higher income, or work on smaller titles for creative fulfillment. He is no longer that.I am curious why people listened to / believed the Phil Spencers of the industry to begin with, or really any representative of a publicly-traded company making a public statement about the company. First I think on what a representative of a company is motivated to do. Then I listen to what they say. If what they say and what they are motivated to do are aligned, I see no reason to listen to that representative, as they are just saying what they are paid to say. At publicly traded companies, it's the fiduciary responsibility of such individuals to say what is in the company's best interests. We shouldn't blame them for that, but we also shouldn't ascribe any agency to their statements.I think developers and investors are now numb to statements.I'm sure we all wish executives would explain their actual thinking and intentions. That ain't gonna happen. What I personally would prefer instead is that society would generally stop listening to happy-corpo-talk. The demand-side of the equation would then drive a change toward executive 'authenticity', but the reality is that key personnel at publicly traded companies are never ever going to be authentic.The only personal response is to try to remain authentic where you can.#studiolife #startuplife #gameindustry #gaming #gamedevelopment
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🎮 Leonardo Miralrio 👾
Biz Dev | Tech investor | Content Creator | Streaming | Mobile Gaming | Localization | LQA | Gridly CMS | Geek & Gamer |
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🌟 Tough Calls in Gaming: Square Enix's Strategic Cuts, Don't Nod's Nostalgic Dive & KeokeN's Community Plea 🌟Hello, Game Cookies readers! 🚀 Today, we're delving into some intense dynamics shaking up the gaming industry. Let’s explore these pivotal moments:1. Square Enix's Strategic $140 Million Reset 🍪Square Enix is taking a bold $140 million step back to leap forward, cancelling several projects to focus on a more selective game development strategy. This decision, leading to substantial financial adjustments, reflects a shift towards enhancing quality over quantity. Our take? It’s a tough but necessary move to align with evolving market demands and player expectations. 📉2. DON'T NOD Revisits the 90s with "Lost Records" 🍪Don't Nod Entertainment is setting the stage for a nostalgic journey in 'Lost Records: Bloom & Rage', where players navigate dual timelines of friendship and choices reflecting 90s teen life. This narrative-rich experience is designed to resonate with both those who lived through the era and younger gamers curious about pre-digital times. It’s a creative gamble on nostalgia, promising a fresh twist on storytelling. 🕹️📼3. KeokeN Interactive Turns to Kickstarter Amid Layoffs 🍪After a challenging phase without securing new projects, KeokeN Interactive is making a heartfelt appeal to its community. The studio plans to fund 'Deliver Us Home' through Kickstarter, hoping to rebuild from the ground up. This move underscores the harsh realities small studios face and the power of community support in the indie gaming scene. 🚀🧱Stay curious, keep exploring, and remember: in gaming, every end can herald a new beginning. 🌟🎮 Share your thoughts and let’s navigate these evolving tides together! Activate the bell on my profile to stay updated!#GamingIndustry #SquareEnix #DontNod #KeokeN #VideoGames #BusinessStrategy #CommunitySupport #Innovation🍪 Sources:- Square Enix's Financial Strategy: https://lnkd.in/eSEtKzc5- Don't Nod's "Lost Records": https://lnkd.in/eNz_-rr2- KeokeN's Kickstarter Plan: https://lnkd.in/egjQGXeB
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Dr. Chee Wong
Creative Director | Opus Artz🔜 Kind of Art 2024Making games, gamers want to play
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Pete Parsons | Key Excerpts 1/ 220 Layoffs"Due to rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic conditions, it has become clear that we need to make substantial changes to our cost structure and focus development efforts entirely on Destiny and Marathon. That means beginning today, 220 of our roles will be eliminated, representing roughly 17% of our studio’s workforce."2/ SIE Integration for 155"We are deepening our integration with Sony Interactive Entertainment, working to integrate 155 of our roles, roughly 12%, into SIE over the next few quarters3/ New PS Spinoff incubation studio project for 3rd franchise"We are working with PlayStation Studios leadership to spin out one of our incubation projects – an action game set in a brand-new science-fantasy universe – to form a new studio within PlayStation Studios to continue its promising development. "For over five years, it has been our goal to ship games in three enduring, global franchises. To realize that ambition, we set up several incubation projects, each seeded with senior development leaders from our existing teams. We eventually realized that this model stretched our talent too thin, too quickly. It also forced our studio support structures to scale to a larger level than we could realistically support, given our two primary products in development – Destiny and Marathon. Additionally, in 2023, our rapid expansion ran headlong into a broad economic slowdown, a sharp downturn in the games industry, our quality miss with Destiny 2: Lightfall, and the need to give both The Final Shape and Marathon the time needed to ensure both projects deliver at the quality our players expect and deserve. We were overly ambitious, our financial safety margins were subsequently exceeded, and we began running in the red. After this new trajectory became clear, we knew we had to change our course and speed, and we did everything we could to avoid today’s outcome. Even with exhaustive efforts undertaken across our leadership and product teams to resolve our financial challenges, these steps were simply not enough.As a result, today we must say goodbye to incredible talent, colleagues, and friends.Bungie will continue to make great games. We still have over 850 team members building Destiny and Marathon, and we will continue to build amazing experiences that exceed our players’ expectations.There will be a time to talk about our goals and projects, but today is not that day. Today, our focus is on supporting our people.
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Bob Holtzman
Game Publishing (Internal) at Tencent | Brand Communications | Advisor I Former Riot, Nexon, Kerbal
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Capital investors can make a big return today by just stashing their cash in the bank. That's the big reason why we're seeing so many layoffs - and why it's going to get a lot more difficult for startup studios to raise money. But there's also a change happening in our industry and it's this change that will create new opportunities that arise from these current hard times. Investors no longer “just” want the next League of Legends. They’re now looking for who can build the next Roblox. Players and #gamedevelopers – amateur or professional - need to be considered as part of your audience now. For the start-up studios relying on VCs to support them, it's going to get more difficult to raise capital unless you have a platform play at the heart of your video game.Look at Grand Theft Auto's evolution, from a product, to a live service and in 2025, GTA6 will offer single-player product, online live service and (most likely) a creative platform for modders and developers to "play" and create content. We saw Epic Games already deliver on this with Fortnite and we know younger gamers are experiencing all of this already in Roblox. Our industry’s strongest feature is our passion. This passion is part of the reason these changes happen - people are innovating and disrupting the way things are today. But it's this innovation - when it succeeds - that delivers hit games that delight players. Interest rates won’t rise forever. Companies will define and refine their own strategies against the needs of capital. And these new innovative strategies will earn capital and require talent to execute.I can’t wait to see what’s next.
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Iman Khabazian
AI Generated Realtime Backends
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You may know that I've been living the startup life for the past few years. It hasn’t always been smooth, but we’ve created beautiful technology, and I won’t stop pushing until it’s successful.Over the last year, the games industry has endured mass layoffs. For me, this presented an opportunity to work with other indie game developers to build a game and share in the revenue it generates. While I’ve built many games—some of them quite profitable—I’ve always dreamed of having a personal stake in the game I'm building, and working with others who also had a stake.I always try to build games from a place of love and positive energy and what better way to do that than with a team of volunteers.Four months ago, our startup, Launch It Labs (myself,Daniel Parker Sam Fischgrund), signed our first revenue-sharing deal to build a game called LiteByte. It’s a zen puzzle coloring game with a highly differentiated mechanic.The game doesn't have the bells and whistles you'd get with a triple-A budget, but game play wise, LiteByte is a master piece.We decided to be ambitious and launch simultaneously across all three major stores. As of yesterday, we did just that and we hit the charts at #40. As of today LiteByte is currently charting at #5 (within the Paid Entertainment category) on the Apple App Store.This is where you come in. In order for this game—and our startup—to be successful, we need the support of our friends. Please purchase the game ($3.99 on the Apple Store), play it for 10 minutes, and if you have feedback, share it with me. If you like the game, please give us a 5-star rating and a review.If you’re reading this, I probably don’t get to interact with you as much as I’d like—that’s the nature of the lives we’re living—but if you download and play LiteByte, you’ll be engaging with something I’ve poured a lot of passion and creativity into, a game I’m proud to have helped build.Download here (https://udi8a.app.link/)Your support is deeply appreciated!
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Arison Uchôa
Coordinator of Game Industry Policies
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With all the news about layoffs and other restructuring movements in the Gaming Industry worldwide, one of the questions I receive most often nowadays is whether the sector is becoming less attractive.Personally, I want to make it clear that my answer to this is NO. However, it's not about trying to rescue the models operated in the sector so far as if they were not part of the problem, but understanding the multitude of movements affecting the sector simultaneously and seeking an alternative in the face of them.What happens, from my point of view, is not a decrease in the consumer market's momentum, but a mismatch in the sector's investment perspective by capital. Products need to be sustainable and look at a real market understanding that there are direct and indirect competitors that need to be overcome every day, in addition to controlling and increasing the efficiency of production processes to ensure that budgets are realistic for meeting fiscal goals at the end of the day.Even in a sector with long-tail products, there is no company that can afford to project the recovery of its investments only two or three years after the launch of a game, especially in a world where there are increasingly more products on the shelves (without bringing up the discussion about the quality of these) and increasing pressure from algorithms for quick results.Moreover, we operate in a sector that is often averse to entrepreneurial thinking and adopting rational planning instead of passionate hope about its products. On the one hand, there is speculative pressure that profoundly affects large studios through their shareholders, on the other hand, there is a similar situation within independent studios that seek success through trial and error (often with only one or two chances to hit their target before they fall apart).Furthermore, as a Game Designer and Public Policy Articulator, I feel there is a real abandonment of the true potential of Games as interactive media. Games are not just Entertainment. We are Innovation, we are Creative Economy, and we are an integral part of a framework of interactivity-based solutions that are more than necessary in today's world, and for that, you can be sure that resources are not lacking. I speak from experience after raising almost a million for impact projects based on games during 2023, with no forecast for contraction.Seeing this potential that makes Games capable of changing the world is also part of the sector's growth and maturity, of its entrepreneurs and professionals, and I hope that the changes and complicated situations that have been occurring since 2023 bring changes in this perspective.This is definitely not an advocacy for Devs stop creating entertainment products, but a sincere will that they can start thinking about how fun, sustainable and enjoyable is to create solutions that impact other people with their problems.#gamingindustry #innovation #creativeeconomy #gamedesign #publicpolicy
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