The Industry Checkpoint - Issue #3

Highlights of the Week

• WB Games has confirmed a new leadership structure, promoting three studio heads to focus on four key properties. Yves Lachance will lead as SVP of development for Harry Potter and Game of Thrones related games; Shaun Himmerick will be SVP of development for Mortal Kombat and games based on DC Comics; Steven Flenory will be SVP of central tech & services. GamesIndustry.biz

• In Embracer Group’s annual report, the conglomerate revealed that it has reduced its headcount by 1,857 employees over the past year due to ongoing restructuring. The company is in the process of splitting into three standalone publicly traded entities to better realize the potential of their workforce. Embracer has completed divestiture of Easybrain, Saber Interacative, and Gearbox over the past year. Game Developer

• Bungie has officially delayed Marathon. In a posted development update, the team cited feedback around the reveal and the alpha playtest as key reasons for the delay. ComicBook Gaming

Studio News

• The development staff on Lies of P have been rewarded with an earlier-than-scheduled launch bonus, two weeks of paid vacation, and a Switch 2 console for hitting sales milestones. The title recently passed 3 million units in cumulative sales. Video Games Chronicle

• Spanish YouTuber BaityBat, who covers gaming news and developer interviews, has stated that a Build a Rocket Boy employee indicated the studio was already working on a new game project “for a tv series you all know”. The rumor comes on the heels of the troubled launch of their first game, MindsEye - a narrative driven, single player action-adventure featuring driving and shooter combat. ComicBook Gaming

• Playdead co-founder, Dino Patti, says the studio’s lawyers intend to move forward with a lawsuit against him. Playdead had threatened legal action for a LinkedIn post he made in late 2004 that contained a “lengthy description” of Limbo’s development and an “unauthorized” photo owned by Limbo art director Arnt Jensen. Video Games Chronicle

• The Chinese Room, developer of Still Wakes the Deep, appears to have made a small number of layoffs following their DLC launch for the game this week. The possible layoff is suggested via posts on LinkedIn. GamesIndustry.biz

• Footage of a cancelled D&D RPG, codenamed Project Dante, has appeared online. The third-person action game, in development at Hidden Path Entertainment, was cancelled after three years in development and was never formally announced. Video Games Chronicle

• 1047 Games has announced a layoff after the launch of Splitgate 2 via LinkedIn late Friday. Resources at the studio are being redirected to improve the game and respond to player feedback. Cofounders Ian Proulx and Nicholas Bagamian are no longer taking salaries as they “lock in to deliver the next phase of the project”. LinkedIn

Business News

• Ubisoft Halifax (Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, Rainbow Six Mobile) employees file to unionize with media union CWA Canada. The union was filed on June 18 and is expected to order a secret ballot soon. Game Developer

• The founder of Nexus Mods, Robin ‘Dark0ne’ Scott, is stepping away from the project as ownership of the site changes hands to a company called Chosen. Nexus Mods has had to reassure its community on the change in ownership, as dedicated sleuthing uncovered that Chosen, founded in 2025, appears to have ties to NFT, AI, and crypto initiatives. Rock Paper Shotgun

• HoYoverse is suing a player for $150,000 over a pre-release stream of a new Honkai: Star Rail character. The publisher asserts that Alredo Lopez “unfairly or unlawfully obtained a game update before its release date” when he broadcast an early look at Castorice, a floral dragon summoner, to a Discord channel with around 12,000 members. Rock Paper Shotgun

Startups and Shutdowns

• A year after raising €300,000 on Kickstarter to fund its JRPG, Studio Camelia has shut down. The funding had covered half of the development for their title, Alzara Radiant Echoes, and they had failed to secure further funding. Alzara Radiant Echoes was one of the most backed video game projects on Kickstarter last year. Game Developer

M&A

• Tencent has denied a report about acquisition interest in Nexon. Earlier in the week, Bloomberg had reported that late founder Kim Jung-ju’s family had been considering the deal, “speaking to advisers and evaluating options”. GamesIndustry.biz

• Pearl Abyss is looking to sell Eve Online developers CCP. Pearl Abyss has supposedly been sounding out interest from a set of games publishers. CCP had launched EVE Echoes in 2020, have an EVE Online FPS in development, and are rumored to be incubating on web3 games. Rock Paper Shotgun

Investments and Partnerships

• Thousands and Wildcard Alliance have announced a joint $9M fundraising round to accelerate development of their integrated products: the Thousands protocol/platform aimed to channel creator-centric user acquisition and Wildcard, a third person 2v2 collectible card action game featuring fast paced arena combat and strategic deckbuilding. GamesBeat

• Root has announced it has raised $9M in seed funding to build a next-gen social platform with customizable apps designed towards building and maintaining large communities. GamesBeat

• Turkish mobile studio Bigger Games has announced that it has raised $25M in its Series A funding round to grow its portfolio of games. Its most recent title, Kitchen Masters, is a match-3 game with reportedly strong early retention and engagement. With the funding, Bigger Games will refine gameplay and launch Kitchen Masters to other markets. GamesBeat

• Studio555 has raised $4.6M in a seed funding round to create a “playable app” that will focus on interior design, allowing users to create and design personal spaces without needing any technical expertise. GamesBeat

• Xbox and AMD have signed a “strategic, multi-year agreement” for the next generation of Xbox. AMD will co-engineer silicon across a “portfolio of devices” and AI powered experiences. GamesIndustry.biz

• Take-Two Interactive has extended its partnership with NBA, NBPA, WNBA, and WNBPA. With the multi-year agreement, Take-Two can continue creating video game experiences in its flagship NBA 2k franchise and NBA Take-Two Media, an entertainment organization, will be co-created to “bring fans and players together through competitive gaming, social-first content, original programming, and live events.” Game Developer

• Global esports company Team Liquid has announced a partnership with online eyewear retailer Zenni Optical. GamesBeat

Spotlight: Kickstartin’

• Maestro Media has announced they hit the Kickstarter goal for their Clash of Clans tabletop game in the first 30 minutes of its launch. GamesBeat

• Anima Interactive has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its game, Take Us North. The title is an adventure/survival game following the journey of migrants and asylum seekers on their way to cross the US-Mexico border. The company has raised $21.4k of their $30k goal at the time of this writing. GamesBeat

• Resolute Games has announced the upcoming launch of their Kickstarter campaign for VR MMORPG, Eldramoor: Haven in the Mist. The campaign will start on June 24 with an initial $25k goal for funding. MMORPG.com

Market Insights

• Sloclap’s Rematch reached over one million players in the first 24 hours of release. The title had nearly 93,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Vice

• Developer Shift Up has posted on social media this week that Stellar Blade has sold over 3 million copies. X

• Geoff Keighley has posted on social media this week that this year’s Summer Game Fest has been the most watched Summer Game Fest event to date. SGF 2025 had over 50 million livestreams and a peak concurrent audience of 3M+. X

• Cooperative climbing adventure game Peak has sold 100,000 in its first 24 hours of launch. Developer Aggro Crab launched the title “mere months” after Aggro Crab failed to secure funding for its next title. It had originally sought $3-4M to finance that project. Facing a reluctant investment environment, the studio chose to developer multiple smaller titles with remaining funds. Game Developer

• According to a new report by Liquid Web, about 43% of gamers have skipped upgrading their GPU to pay rent and 57% of respondents have been blocked from GPU purchases due to scalping or price hikes. Only 25% of gamers are willing to spend more than $500 on a GPU. The survey comprised of 1,000 US-based PC gamers in May 2025. GamesBeat

• Grow a Garden, a Roblox game focused on buying seeds, waiting for them to grow (online or offline), and harvesting your crops (to do this all over again) is now seemingly bigger than Fortnite in terms of concurrencies. According to RoMonitor, a Roblox third-party monitoring tool, the title achieved 16.4 million players over the weekend (Fortnite’s last known peak is 15.3 million). Eurogamer

• According to a news article from The Game Business, “most third-party Switch 2 games posted very low numbers” (units sold) at launch. The best-selling third party game so far has been Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Sega is currently the biggest third-party publisher for Switch 2 with Sonic X Shadow Generations, Yakuza 0: Director’s Cut, and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S. Nintendo Life

Tech Innovations

• Google AI has made me feel better at playing Pokémon badly. According to a case study in the latest Google DeepMind report, a Gemini_Plays_Pokemon project by engineer Joel Zhang (unaffiliated with Google) had the AI run through Pokémon Blue on Twitch. The team observed the AI repeatedly "panicking” during battles: as soon as things started to look dicey, the AI agent attempted to flee or had observable degradation in reasoning capability, forgetting to use the pathfinder tool while low on health or power points. PC Gamer

• Xreal will start selling its Xreal One Pro AR glasses beginning July 1. The glasses offer the largest field of view in consumer AR (57 degrees), ultra-thin lenses, and an optical system that reduces overall size and ambient light interference. GamesBeat

• Disney is upgrading the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run ride with Unreal 5. In partnership with a third-party game developer and Industrial Light and Magic, the new experience will send riders to the desert planet of Tatooine to capture a group of ex-Imperial officers and pirates, with Mando and the Child assisting. The new experience will be releasing May 22, 2026, for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. GamesBeat

Government in Games

• Donald Trump has once again extended the TikTok sale deadline to September 17. This marks the third time that Trump has extended the deadline. Any deal for the sale will need Beijing’s approval, assuming Bytedance feels that there’s actually teeth in the recurring threat.  PC Gamer

See you next week industry watchers,

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