PlayStation Studios, Quantic Dream, Nintendo Switch… the actus business of the season

news business PlayStation Studios, Quantic Dream, Nintendo Switch… the actus business of the season

Sony buys Savage Game Studios to enter the mobile gaming market

Sony continues its quest for diversification. After pushing the presence of its original productions on the PC, the company has just announced the acquisition of Savage Game Studios, his very first mobile games studio. The founders of this team, born in 2020 and based in Berlin and Helsinki, have worked for Supercell (Clash of Clans), Wargaming, Rockstar Games and Insomniac Games, among others. On the PlayStation Blogexplain that they were particularly drawn to it “An opportunity to tap into the incredible catalog of PlayStation franchises” and from “Benefit from the breadth of support that only PlayStation Studios can provide”. Sony announces that they are already working on it “a AAA action game for mobile”without specifying the license in question.

The studio will be part of a whole “Playstation Studios’ new division dedicated to mobile games”who will focus “creating innovative mobile experiences based on current and upcoming PlayStation franchises”. Recall that in July 2021 Sony began building a team of mobile games specialists, successively hiring Nicola Sebastiani (former content manager for the Apple Arcade subscription), Kris Davis (former business development director at Kabam), Olivier Courtemanche ( former mobile product manager at Disney and Zynga) or Chris Spencer (ex-producer at EA Chillingo).

As announced in its financial statements last May, Sony estimates that by March 2026, almost half of its annual releases will be on PC and mobile, and the other half on PS5. Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, still wants to reassure console fans:

We’ve assured you before that we had plans to release some games on PC, and we’ll say it again today: our activities outside of the console world in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community or our passion to create exceptional singles-player storytelling experiences (…) Our mobile game development efforts will seamlessly complement our existing activities, offering new ways for audiences to interact with our content and reach new audiences that haven’t yet familiar with the PlayStation universe or our games. Hermen Hulst, Patron of PlayStation Studios.

Quantic Dream is acquired by Chinese giant NetEase

The rumor made the rounds last March, now it’s being recorded: NetEase has announced the acquisition of French studio Quantic Dream (Detroit Become Human, Beyond Two Souls, Heavy Rain…), in which it has been a minority shareholder since early 2019. The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but according to business outlet Les Echos, the acquisition value is with Quantic Dream “A few hundred million dollars”.

That Announcement Release emphasizes the fact that Quantic Dream “Will continue to operate independently”. “We maintain our independence in our editorial line, artistic direction of projects and direction of the studio. Our teams, which are fully associated with this operation and benefit directly financially from it, will of course remain fully intact and continue to grow and develop.can we read “There will be absolutely no change in leadership. NetEase’s policy is not to intervene in the studios they acquire. After that, we will have the opportunity to further strengthen our commercial and marketing partnership with NetEase by Asia, which is a very important region for us.”adds David Cage, CEO and founder of the studio, in Les Echos.

Quantic Dream becomes NetEase’s first European-based studio. Like its rival Tencent, the Chinese company is in a period of global expansion. It posted $8.8 billion in sales in 2021, more than any western third-party publisher, thanks largely to mobile games like Harry Potter: Magic Emerges, Marvel Super War and Knives Out. “NetEase isn’t buying Quantic to make more mobile games, although it’s not impossible that we might be interested in it in the future”says Guillaume de Fondaumière, Managing Director of Quantic Dream, in Les Echos. NetEase wants to make a name for itself in the console gaming market. With this in mind, the company has recently acquired or established several studios in Japan and the United States (Sakura Studio, Grasshopper Manufacture, Nagoshi Studio, Jackalope Games, Jar of Sparks).

In the columns of gaming industryGuillaume de Fondaumière points out that the allegations that Quantic Dream faced for its toxic culture and its conflicts with the press did not stand up No effect” on discussions with NetEase. The studio is currently developing three new games in-housebut so far only Star Wars Eclipse has been officially unveiled.

Switch: Updated sales figures for many Nintendo games

As you probably know, Nintendo updates the sales ranking of its top 10 most popular games on Switch every quarter (at this address), dominated by the trio of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (46.82 million), Animal Crossing New Horizons (39.38 million) and Super Smash Bros Ultimate (28.82 million). On the other hand, the oldest and less common titles are more complicated to track their progress.. However, we can rely on the database of the Japanese organization CESA, which makes it possible to discover new numbers every year.

Compiled by a forum member Install base, The following figures refer to December 31, 2021. They take into account sales worldwide in physical and dematerialized form. A chance to once again confirm the excellent longevity of Nintendo games on the Switch.

• Super Mario 3D All-Stars: 9 million (including 750,000 in 2021)
• Super Mario Maker 2: 7.89 million (of which 980,000 in 2021)
• The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening: 6 million (not 750,000 in 2021)
• Mario Tennis Aces: 4.28 million (including 620,000 in 2021)
• Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze: 4.12 million (not 700,000 in 2021)
• Kirby Star Allies: 3.98 million (not 560,000 in 2021)
• Fire Emblem Three Houses: 3.82 million (not 420,000 in 2021)
• 1-2 Switch: 3.63 million (not 180,000 in 2021)
• Paper Mario The Origami King: 3.34 million (not 290,000 in 2021)
• Yoshi’s Crafted World: 3.01 million (not 450,000 in 2021)
• Weapons: 2.66 million (of which 100,000 in 2021)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2: 2.44 million (not 270,000 in 2021)
• Pikmon 3 Deluxe: 2.23 million (including 290,000 in 2021)
• Captain Toad Treasure Trackers: 2.13 million (not 360,000 in 2021)
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX: 1.89 million (including 290,000 in 2021)
• Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition: 1.68 million (not 200,000 in 2021)
• Mario Kart Live Home Circuit: 1.58 million (not 500,000 in 2021)
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: 1.5 million (not 190,000 in 2021)
• Astral chain: 1.28 million (of which 70,000 in 2021)
• dr Kawashima’s brain training program: 1.2 million (including 150,000 in 2021)
• Bayonetta 2: 1.04 million

Sony and Tencent invest again in FromSoftware

After allotment of new shares, Tencent (through its subsidiary Sixjoy Hong Kong) now owns 16.25% of FromSoftware and Sony 14.09%.. Kadokawa remains the majority shareholder of the studioa Japanese media conglomerate best known as a publisher of manga and magazines (including the famous Famitsu), which owns 69.66% of the shares.

With this new issue worth 36.4 billion yen (260 million dollars), FromSoftware’s valuation is now 120 billion yen (858 million dollars). When Kadokawa bought the studio in 2014, it was valued at just… 2 billion yen ($15 million). This operation will obviously result in strengthening the resources of the team led by Hidetaka Miyazaki, whose size has changed with the phenomenal success of Elden Ring (16.6 million in sales).

specify that Kadokawa had already signed a strategic partnership with Sony and Tencent last year to expand its activities in the field of video games, but also in the field of animation.