Crunchyroll, Diablo 4, Zelda Skyward Sword HD …

News business Crunchyroll, Diablo 4, Zelda Skyward Sword HD …

Sony Completes Acquisition of Crunchyroll Anime Streaming Service

Sony has just taken over from Crispy roll by the American group WarnerMedia for $ 1.175 billion. The operation announced last December still depended on the green light from US competition authorities, who feared a dangerous monopoly. With its subsidiary Funimation, Sony was already a major player in Japanese animation. Now the three industry leaders in the French market, Crunchyroll, Wakanim (a subsidiary of Funimation) and ADN (50% owned by Crunchyroll) belong – at least in part – to the Japanese giant.

With this acquisition, Sony is proud to have one “Unprecedented Opportunity to Serve Anime Fans Like Never Before”. And for a good reason: Crunchyroll with 5 million subscribers and 120 million registered users in over 200 countries and territories, holds one of the largest anime catalogs. As Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment said, the goal is to: “Create a Unified Subscription Experience for Anime ASAP”. According to the sources ofEurogamer, Sony is even said to offer PlayStation Plus subscribers access to its anime streaming services.

USA: Zelda Skyward Sword HD and Monster Hunter Stories 2 shine in July

The US video game industry generated $ 4.6 billion in July, as revealed NPD group. A result of 10% compared to July 2020, thanks in particular to the significant – and consequential – increase in revenue from hardware sales: + 98% to $ 323 million. This is the highest result in a month of July since 2008 ($ 447 million). The PS5 had the best sales, but the Switch continued to dominate the number of copies sold for the 32nd straight month.

On the game side, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD hits the bestseller list on July 20th. Nintendo hadn’t taken the top spot since Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury was released last February. Good performance for Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, which comes in third and has three times more sales in a single month than its predecessor on 3DS throughout its career. Let’s also emphasize the honorable sixteenth place of NEO: The World Ends With You, especially since it was released on July 27th at the end of the month. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War remains the leader in the best-selling game rankings of 2021, while MLB The Show 21 has pushed Resident Evil Village down from second place.

The 20 best sellers in July in the US

The 20 best-sellers of 2021 in the US

Former Typhoon Studios team founds Raccoon Logic

If you enjoyed Journey To The Savage Planet, a humorous exploration game, here is some news to keep you happy. Its main creators are back under a new banner: that of Raccoon logic. Their old studio, Typhoon Studios, was acquired by Google in 2019 and then closed earlier this year after Stadia Games and Entertainment was dissolved.

Raccoon Logic, based in Montreal, already employs around twenty people. Backed by an investment from Chinese giant Tencent, the studio also regained the rights to the Journey to the Savage Planet license. “We are very excited to continue the work we started at Typhoon Studios and expand the Journey to the Savage Planet franchise in the future.”, announced Reid Schneider, director of the studio.

Unity is offering Parsec for $ 320 million

unit, Publisher of the popular game engine of the same name, announced the acquisition of. famous Parsec, Specialist in remote access to computers in the cloud. In the face of the pandemic and explosion in teleworking, Parsec’s technology has enabled many developers to continue working from home. It is also thanks to Parsec that the press was able to remotely focus on games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. “This transaction marks a milestone in Parsec and Unity’s expanded vision of the cloud that developers can expect to work from anywhere, on any device with powerful tools and a seamless cloud infrastructure for the future.”, is happy about unity in his communicates.

The repayment amount is $ 320 million, Unity’s largest acquisition to date. Since going public last year, the American company has been offering MLAPI, which offers infrastructure services for multiplayer, and Pixyx, which specializes in 3D data processing.

Activision Blizzard: Three new departures announced, including that of the director of Diablo 4

Last month, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, which is required to respond to allegations of systemic sexism, discrimination and bullying. Since then, the number of people leaving the American company has multiplied. Blizzard chairman J. Allen Brack resigned earlier this month. Then, last Wednesday, we got in the columns of. learned Kotaku Departures from Luis Barriga and Jesse McCree, each director and lead designer of Diablo 4, and Jonathan LeCraft, World of Warcraft designer.

Activision Blizzard has confirmed the information without giving an official reason for these large discrepancies, as the developers concerned are veterans of the company. “We already have a rich pool of talented developers and new managers have been appointed when necessary. We are confident that we will continue to grow, provide our players with amazing experiences, and move forward to ensure a safe and productive work environment.” for each “a representative from Activision Blizzard simply replied to Kotaku.

Announced at BlizzCon 2019, Diablo 4 is being recalled under the supervision of veteran Rod Fergusson, former head of studio The Coalition and historical producer of the Gears of War saga. The game doesn’t have a release date yet, but it is updated regularly through quarterly reports.

Coming soon in the week’s business news

• 6.3 million players have tried Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, on Notice Ninja Theory as a game just hosted an optimization update for the Xbox Series. The game is available for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and in Xbox Game Pass.
• Control has hit the 10 million player mark, says Remedy in his Balance sheet.
• Microsoft gives us meet on August 24th at 7 p.m. for their Xbox conference gamescom 2021. “You will learn more about the games announced and developed by Xbox Game Studios, but also from our partners that will arrive before the end of the year, that will soon be available in Xbox Game Pass, and more.”announced the manufacturer.
• Hearts of Iron IV and Stellaris have sold three and four million copies respectively, Paradox Interactive revealed during its Balance sheet.
• The Korean company Krafton (PUBG) went public and was able to raise 3.8 billion US dollars. The company intends to develop the PUBG brand through the development of new games in the world of Battle Royale (PUBG: New State, The Callisto Protocol).
• Spec Ops: The Line Director Cory Davis and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck have announced the studio open eyes. Your first project will be a single player “Cosmic Horror” game with an emphasis on environmental stories.