News business Xbox / Bethesda, Roblox, Gothic Remake: What’s New This Week?
Sales figures, studio buyouts, financial reports … If you are interested in these topics, you’ve come to the right place. Each week we will come back to the video game business news in this section. On the agenda of this edition: the takeover of ZeniMax Media / Bethesda by Microsoft officially recorded, the IPO of Roblox or the announcement of the studio responsible for the development of the remake of Gothic.
Bethesda officially joins Xbox
“It’s a big day for Xbox,” he said explained Phil Spencer, head of the brand, last Tuesday. Microsoft has completed the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, for $ 7.5 billion. One of the largest buyouts in the industry’s historyahead of King (Candy Crush) from Activision Blizzard ($ 5.9 billion) and behind the acquisition of Supercell (Clash of Clans, Clash Royale) by Tencent ($ 8.6 billion). There are no longer 15 Xbox studios, but 23 with the integration of id Software (Doom), ZeniMax Online Studios (The Elder Scrolls Online), Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, The Elder Scrolls), Arkane (Prey, Dishonored, Deathloop) , MachineGames (Wolfenstein, the upcoming game from Indiana Jones), Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Ghostwire Tokyo), Alpha Dog (MonstroCity: Rampage) and Roundhouse Studios, which represent nearly 2,300 employees. Microsoft account “To provide these teams with the best foundation so that they can continue their impressive work”and leave them “Developing Games Like They Always Have”
Roblox valued at over $ 38 billion
The company Roblox – publisher of the creative platform of the same name – has made its first stock exchange listing last Wednesday. At the close of trading, the share price was set at USD 69.50 would value the Californian company at over $ 38 billionor more than the 37 billion Electronic Arts for example. Founded in 2006, Roblox has exploded in recent years and especially in 2020 under the effects of the health crisis 33 million active users per dayhalf of which are under 13 years of age. The platform is accessible on PC, mobile phone and Xbox and makes it possible to create games, share them and even generate income from it for the developers of the most popular games, since paid options (cosmetics, specialty items) can be integrated against capacities … a virtual currency (Robux) is offered. Last year, Roblox sales soared 82% to $ 1 billion, and the company expects it to do even better in 2021 ($ 1.5 billion).
Gothic remake in the hands of a new studio
The constantly growing family of THQ Nordic Studios, a subsidiary of the Oger Embracer Group, has welcomed a new member: Alkimia Interactive. Founded last summer, this Barcelona-based studio brings together “a team of RPG enthusiasts” whose first project is none other than Remake of Gothic, originally developed by Piranha Bytes, a German studio that is also part of THQ Nordic. Gothic Remake was formalized for release on PC, PS5 and Xbox series in February 2020 at a currently unknown date. The first fruits of the work of Alkimia Interactive, which continues to exist recruit
USA: a record February
$ 4.6 billion generated the US video game market in February. As revealed NPD groupThis corresponds to an increase of 35% within a year and a new record for a month of February. A performance that was driven in particular by hardware sales (406 million USD) and increased by 121% compared to February 2020. Identification number: la Nintendo SwitchDominating both the number of units sold and the money generated, the company has had the best performance on the matter – all consoles combined – in a month of February since the Wii in 2009. Additionally, the Switch’s sales now exceed those of the Nintendo DS and became the Nintendo console that made the most cash behind the Wii and the seventh in United States history. The PS5 is the second best console in February. and it also sets a record: no other console has made so much money from sales after four months in the market. In terms of games, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury comes out ahead of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Persona 5 Strikers, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Madden NFL 21 in the top hits for February without even including of its sales. in the eShop. Little Nightmares 2 is also doing well with its sixth place. The full ranking can be found here Here
V1 Interactive (disintegration) closes its doors
Founded in 2014 by Marcus Lehto, co-creator of Halo, le studio V1 interactive a display its closure. The first game, Disintegration, was released last June for 49.99 dollars on PC, PS4 and Xbox One and has never managed to win over players with its concept that combines FPS and real-time strategy. Proof of this is that the multiplayer servers shut down three months after their release and just a single player campaign was far from convincing. The title was Developed by a team of 30 with the support of the Private Division label, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive that publishes The Outer Worlds in particular. Marcus Lehto said the studio staff will benefit from job search assistance.
Briefly in the industry news
- Little Nightmares 2 was released on February 11th on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch and has already passed that Millions of copies sold. It took the predecessor more than a year to reach this sales milestone.
- Also doing well for Loop Hero, Rogue-Lite, published by Devolver which was sold to 500,000 units In a week. It’s only been available on PC since March 4th.
- 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is his turn 400,000 sales on PS4. Atlus and Vanillaware, which has received praise for its narrative qualities, was eligible for a French translation for its Western release last September.
- Humble Bundle collected more than $ 30 million for a total of 224 charities in 2020B. $ 8.1 million donated to Médecins sans frontières, Direct Relief, the International Rescue Committee and Partners in Health to fight Covid-19.
- The sumo group has theirs Release label in secret modeThe aim is to support projects of our own internal teams, but also “small creative pearls” of independent studios.
- Epic Games continues litigation against Apple and Google. After filing similar lawsuits in the US and Europe, the firm has Filed a complaint against Google in Australia, which denounces “its dominant position in the distribution and payment system of mobile applications”.
- Omeda Studio a raised $ 2.2 million to create a new MOBA called Predecessor that reuses Paragon’s assets, which was discontinued by Epic Games in 2018.
More business news for the week of March 8th:
By iGamesNews, Writing from igamesnews.com
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