Steam, Riot Games, Remedy … the business news of the week

News business Steam, Riot Games, Remedy … the business news of the week

Steam: What were the biggest achievements of 2021 on the platform?

Like every year, Valve a Top 100 Have the most earnings on Steam in 2021. Note that they are grouped into multiple categories, but not in order, making it impossible to classify them precisely.

We start with the platinum category, in which there are twelve titles, including regulars, namely CS: GO, Dota 2, GTA V, PUBG, Destiny 2 and Rainbow Six Siege. Dead by Daylight for its part managed to reach platinum for the first time. Four games released in 2021 did well, starting with Amazon’s New World MMO, which hit its biggest concurrent high this year (913,634), and survival game Valheim, which sold 8 million last August. Despite the barrage of negative reviews, Battlefield 2042 also tops the rankings. The Battle Royale Naraka: Bladepoint and Apex Legends complete the package.

The gold category shows the longevity of multiplayer games like Warframe, Sea of ​​Thieves, TESO and Rust. Co-op was also in the spotlight this year with It Takes Two and Back 4 Blood, while Forza Horizon 4 and Forza Horizon 5 are both present. In the Silver category there is a bit of everything, with safe values ​​(Monster Hunter World, Stellaris, Civilization VI, Ark …) and games from 2021 (Resident Evil Village, Outriders, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Age of Empires IV, Halo Infinite). The rest of the top 100 also features new releases like Biomutant, Tales of Arise, Humankind, NieR Replicant, Guilty Gear Strive, and Farming Simulator 22.

What stands out in this year’s top 100 is that Microsoft has become one of the largest publishers on Steam. Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Age of Empires IV have been added to the achievements previously experienced by Halo The Master Chief Collection, Sea of ​​Thieves, Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 4 or even Ori and the Will of the Wisps not to mention Bethesda’s major licenses (Fallout, Doom, The Elder Scrolls) who joined the Xbox Game Studios team.

The full top 100 below

Riot Games agrees to pay $ 100 million following a gender discrimination lawsuit

In 2018, Riot Games was the subject of a class action lawsuit for sexism in the workplace and wage discrimination. The case had occurred after it was posted on the website Kotaku, a study of working conditions at the California company known for League of Legends. The article revealed facts of sexual harassment and discrimination against women that led two former employees, Melanie McCracken and Jes Negrón, to go to court. In 2019, Riot Games had already tried to settle the dispute financially for $ 10 million, but the proposal, which was deemed insufficient, was blocked by the DFEH and DLSE, two California agencies responsible for enforcing civil rights.

Finally a deal has been found like this week from the. reported Washington Post. Riot Games has agreed to pay $ 100 million to end the lawsuits, including $ 80 million paid to all women who worked for Riot Games in California between November 2014 and today, or more than 2,300 eligible people. The remainder will be used to cover the plaintiffs’ legal fees. Note that the agreement has yet to be approved by the court in the coming months.

In addition, Riot Games is committed to “Structural reforms” and set up a $ 18 million fund over three years to adjust and implement wage differentials “Diversity Initiatives”. The company must also be monitored for three years by a third party who is responsible for monitoring and handling personnel complaints while ensuring that employees are paid fairly. “We hope this agreement recognizes those who have had bad experiences at Riot and shows our willingness to lead by example by demonstrating responsibility and equality in the video game industry.”, Riot Games responded in a communicates.

Remedy signs a deal with Tencent for its future free-to-play multiplayer

Mentioned since September 2018, but still very mysterious, the Remedy studio’s “Vanguard” project will count on financial support from the Chinese giant Tencent. Developed for PC and consoles, it is a free, cooperative multiplayer game that will mark Remedy’s first foray into the “game services” field. It will be published and localized directly in some Asian countries by Tencent, which will also produce a mobile version, while Remedy will release the game for the rest of the world. “The development of the game is currently in the ‘Proof of Concept’ phase. Its development budget will correspond to that of a typical AAA from Remedy until the end of the first year of operation. It is co-financed by Remedy.” and Tencent (…), who are responsible for their own costs of publishing and operating the game in their respective territories and sharing a portion of the revenue after reimbursement of development costs. “

Recall that Tencent acquired a 3.8% stake in Remedy last May. The Finnish studio is expanding its partnerships after signing with Epic Games Publishing for Alan Wake 2 and Alan Wake Remastered, 505 Games for Control and Project Condor, and Smilegate for CrossfireX

Coming soon in the week’s business news

• Genshin Impact is the game that generated the most posts and reactions on Reddit in 2021. MiHoYo’s game is ahead of League of Legends, the gaming subreddit, GTA RP, and Final Fantasy XIV music videos.
• Sea of ​​Thieves has passed the five million sales milestone on Steam alone. An achievement achieved in a year and a half since it landed on the Valve platform in June 2020, following its initial release on Xbox One and Microsoft Store PC in March 2018.
• Nintendo Switch will be sold out in early 2022, according to the latest statements from Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.
• Nintendo unveiled the best-selling indie games released on Switch in 2021. Dans le lot, on retrouve Cyber ​​Shadow, Unpacking, Tetris Effect: Connected, Stick Fight: The Game, Curse of the Dead Gods, ENDER LILIES, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus, Spelunky 2, Road 96, Subnautica + Subnautica: Below Zero, Littlewood, ISLANDERS, Slime Rancher, Eastward and Axiom Verge 2.