The Industry Checkpoint - Issue #6

The Bitter Pills

• Anonymous sources have shed light on the layoffs at Candy Crush developer King. Sources said that staff have spent the last few years building and training AI tools and now those tools are replacing them. Game Developer

• UK-based studio, Bulkhead, is laying off workers. The studio had launched Kill Run in 2022 and was working on a 100-player battlefield game called Wardogs. The studio is trying to solicit last minute publishers in order to launch the game and retain studio talent. Game Developer

• Virtuos has confirmed layoffs at the studio - around 200 workers in Asia have been let go and around 70 employees across Europe are impacted. The company is remaining “fully committed” to their work on Oblivion Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater. Rock Paper Shotgun

• Reports of layoffs at Intel have totaled 4,000 across multiple sites in California, Oregon, Texas, and Arizona. Intel announced in April of this year that it intended to cut overall workforce by 20%. PC Gamer

• In an unsurprising but disappointing display of nepotism, Ubisoft has appointed Charlie Guillemot, son of Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, as co-CEO of the company’s new subsidiary. Charlie will be leading with Christophe Derennes to “accelerate the growth” of Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry. Game Developer

Studio News

• Octopath Traveller co-developer Acquire is working on three new original games, coming to Tokyo Game Show in September. The titles will be released on PC and major consoles. Eurogamer

• ZeniMax Union has released a statement, indicating that worker-volunteers who were elected to represent the interests of the union are bargaining with Microsoft for the benefit of the impacted teammates. While the bargain is in progress, the developers behind the unannounced MMORPG project remain employees of ZeniMax Online Studios with full pay and benefits. Rock Paper Shotgun

• Workers at Secret 6 Madrid threatened and then called off a strike after agreeing to severance terms with Testronic this week. Secret 6 Madrid leadership has confirmed that the studio will effectively shutter on July 31. Game Developer

• Silent Hill and Slitterhead creator, Keiichi Toyama confirmed that his team at Bokeh Game Studios is working on its next project (and it will not be a Slitterhead sequel). Eurogamer

• FromSoftware reportedly has another unannounced multiplatform game in development, with a release likely due next year. Video Games Chronicle

• Former Elder Scrolls developer Julian Lefay has stepped away from his role as technical producer on The Wayward Realms at OnceLost Games due to his ongoing battle with cancer. Rock Paper Shotgun

Spotlight: Sunken Wreck Tour

• Krafton issued a statement earlier this week, confirming that a Subnautica 2 internal milestone document that was leaked online is authentic. The document reveals where the development of the game was deemed to be versus expectations for its development timeline. The document includes criticism on the variety and volume of content against an expected content volume increase of over 30% vs. version 1.0 and a recommended step to reassess the release timeline and roadmap due to the lack of said content. Eurogamer

• The former Unknown Worlds leadership team has officially filed a lawsuit against Krafton for breach of contract. In a newly unsealed court document, founder Charlie Cleveland accused the publisher of deliberately hindering Subnautica 2’s development to avoid paying out the $250M bonus. The bonus appears to be the center of the fallout between the two parties, which came under additional scrutiny after bonus negotiations began for employees who were not eligible under the original acquisition terms. Eurogamer

• The lawsuit accuses Krafton of allegedly: assigning a new publishing team to the game, headed by an employee that didn’t speak English; ordered all US employees of Krafton to stop communicating with the studio; cancelled work on creative assets (trailers, advertising, etc) and localization; and demanded the game be delayed after a milestone meeting in May. Rock Paper Shotgun

Business News

• GamesBeat has launched GB MAX, a premium B2B community platform for gaming. Members will be provided access to a B2B network in games, tech, and entertainment with the aim to be a critical resource in the sector. GamesBeat

• Oncade has opened direct-to-consumer game stores for six studios: Flashpoint Games, iDream Interactive, Pariah Interactive, Akupara Games, Wanderlabs, and YummyYummyTummy. The stores are designed to help developers grow through community engagement through fan activated Community Shops to help them promote games and create and sell in-game items and cosmetics. GamesBeat

• Xbox’s principal development lead for its Graphics department put out a post on LinkedIn announcing job opportunities, drawing ire with his use of AI-generated graphics. Eurogamer

• Google has begun legal action against BadBox 2.0, the largest known botnet of internet connected TVs, digital projectors, aftermarket vehicle infotainment systems, digital picture frames, and other compromised IoT devices. These compromised devices can facilitate cybercrime like account takeovers, fake account creations, DDoS attacks, malware distribution, and password theft. PC Gamer

• Pocketpair has shown evidence in an ongoing lawsuit with Nintendo, that Nintendo filed for additional patents after Palword launched and requesting rewrite of one of its patents during the lawsuit to more strongly assert that Pocketpair was infringing upon Nintendo’s work. MMORPG.com

Startups and Shutdowns

• 90s studio Artex (Exodus, Ankh: The Tales of Mystery) has been resurrected as an indie game publisher. It aims to support smaller titles and developers in the start-up phase and plans to show off its first projects at Gamescom 2025. GamesBeat

• Weirdbunch Entertainment has opened its studio in Riyadh and has partnered with Frima gaming studio to create an action-adventure game for The Legend of Solomon graphic novel series and IP. GamesBeat

M&A

• Airship Interactive’s assets are confirmed to have been acquired by Airmergent, a successor studio and new business entity. Airship Interactive employees have been transferred to Airmergent to ensure no disruption to contracts, payroll, or delivery to clients. The studio is expecting to continue to provide art services and expand capabilities to include co-development and technology. GamesIndustry.biz

Investments and Partnerships

• UAE based publisher and developer Red Dunes Games has announced a multi-year collaboration with Acquire Corp (Tenchu, Way of the Samurai). The companies will collaborate on original IP and three projects were discussed in the announcement: Project Temor (kaiju battle game), Project Umbra (dark fantasy hunt game), and Project Shadowcar (spy thriller game). GamesIndustry.biz

• The two-person dev team behind ProductNow has announced a $6M seed round. The team aims to develop the first AI-native operating system for product teams. This article refers to this as a solo dev project, but this author believes an intern should count as a member of a development team. GamesBeat

• Everquest private server team Project Quarm has brokered a contract with Daybreak studios to bring their servers online and continue to operate services for their players as long as they adhere to stipulations that include removing certain content, instituting a player cap, and affirming they are a personal, non-commercial, not-for-profit entity unaffiliated with Daybreak. MMORPG.com

Market Insights

• Atlus has revealed that Metaphor: ReFantazio has sold 2m units worldwide. Eurogamer

• 7% of games in the entire Steam library (around 7,818 games) now disclose generative AI usage, study says. 7% of games on Steam now disclose that they use generative AI in some form, according to a study by Totally Human Media. GamesIndustry.biz

• Gamescom 2025 is set to break records after organizers confirmed they are 11% ahead on exhibitor bookings over last year at the same time. GamesIndustry.biz

• Konvoy Ventures has forecast that GTA 6 will earn $7.6B in two months, making it the largest gaming release of all time. Eurogamer

• Netflix’s Q2 2025 earnings have beat analysts’ revenue and EPS (earnings per share) expectations. The company shared caution about higher costs potentially affecting its margins in the latter half of the year due to the larger second half slate, which features the finale season of Stranger Things and Happy Gilmore 2. Shacknews

• The Star Wars Battlefront II quietly reached a record number of concurrent users (35,000) on Steam last month, three times higher than its previous peak of 10,000 players in Jan 2021. The renewed interest has been attributed to Star Wars activity due to May the Fourth, Fortnite events for Star Wars, and a community-led push for “Resurgence Day”, which was a bid to publicly campaign for the making of a hypothetical Star Wars Battlefront 3. Game Developer

Tech Innovations

• A team of Japanese researchers have announced a successful test of the world’s first petabit-class internet transmission over 1,000 km. The speed of transmission is roughly 3.5 million times faster than the average US connection. PC Gamer

• According to a report from SemiAnalysis, Meta has been expanding its AI hardware capabilities so rapidly that some of its AI data center hardware is in tents. Business Insider reports a Meta spokesperson has confirmed the tent-based infrastructure. PC Gamer

• Meta is also developing an AI-optimized, lower carbon, “green concrete” to build the floor of its Rosemount data center. The concrete mix is intended to be stronger and more sustainable than traditional concrete. PC Gamer

• Intel’s new Computer Graphics Video Quality Metric (CVGM) tool measures image quality in games in real time, detecting and rating distortions introduced by modern rendering techniques. Intel hopes the tool can be used to optimize quality and performance trade-offs for upscaling and denoising. PC Gamer

• Mercedes-Benz has announced an update to its support for in-car Teams, which enables live video of you driving to be fed to your co-Teams attendees. “…Drivers can use the in-car camera while driving, allowing other participants to see them during a meeting”. Thanks, but no thanks. We have enough distracted drivers with smartphones. PC Gamer

• Saga Origins and Chrono Labs launched KEX, an AI agent launchpad designed to enable creators and communities to build, launch, customize, and monetize intelligent agents and characters with custom logic, persistent memory, and scalable performance. GamesBeat

Government in Games

• An EU-commissioned study on generative AI and copyright suggests that the current approach towards generative AI supports an “opt-out” model that does little to protect copyright and suggests the opposite approach until a more robust solution can be worked out. PC Gamer

• European Parliament vice president, Nicolae Ștefănuță, voiced his support behind the Stop Killing Games campaign, writing in a statement that “a game, once sold, belongs to the customer, not the company.” Rock Paper Shotgun

• Nvidia has started shipping their H20 GPUs to China after it has received permission from the Department of Commerce. GamesBeat

• AMD has also been informed by the Department of Commerce that license applications to export their MI308 GPU products to China will be moving forward for review. PC Gamer

• YouTuber Francesco Salicini, was raided by police for reviewing retro game handhelds on his channel. The devices were from ANBERNIC, Powkiddy, and Trim UI. Reports suggested that Salicini was accused of violating Article 171-ter of the Italian Copyright Law, which carries a maximum fine of around $17,000 and up to three years in prison. GamesIndustry.biz

• Twelve years after its original release, Grand Theft Auto 5 is now legal to purchase and own in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The game was given a 21+ rating in June by Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Media Regulation and the UAE Media Council. PC Gamer

See you next week industry watchers,

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