VGIM’s Video Games Year In Review: Part 1, 05/12/2024
It's not all about layoffs (but it mostly is, sorry)
This week’s Video Games Industry Memo is:
Preventing suicide since 2005. Uniting people against suicide every day.
I take a look at the biggest stories from the games industry from 2024
Ubisoft lays off nearly 300 people as it shuts down XDefiant
Marvel Rivals rips off Overwatch in this week’s release
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Hola VGIM-ers,
Welcome to December. We’re just weeks away from the festive finish line and we are so close to experiencing the delight of cool brandy butter on a freshly cooked mince pie. Salivating.
Anyway, the big thing you - yes I mean, you - need to focus on is getting your submission for VGIM Game of the Year into my inbox by close of business tomorrow.
I’m pulling together my annual round up of my reader’s favourite games next week so I can schedule it and forget about it while tapping out a Power Play chapter.
So if you want to share 200-300 words about your most played game of the year - and it is, preferably, one of Space Marine 2 or Helldivers 2 - get it sent to george@half-space.consulting pronto for your chance to feature.
But don’t write it right now though; you’ve got a newsletter to read, my friend.
The big read - VGIM’s Video Games Year In Review: Part 1
If there’s one thing I can say with confidence about 2024, it’s that it has been the best part of 12 months long.
Yes, we’re nearly at the end of a year that the games industry would, quite frankly, prefer to forget.
But as someone who studied history at university and who - to level with you - needs a couple of easy to write newsletters to round off the year, I couldn’t stop myself from poring over the past.
So here is the first part of VGIM’s Video Games Year in Review, in which I explore some of the top stories that shaped the industry between January and June of this year. Enjoy!
January - Let the bloodbath commence
Video games businesses across the world wished their workforces a happy new year in January 2024 by *checks notes* laying loads of them off.
Over 3500 people were let go by businesses as wide ranging as Activision Blizzard, Unity, Riot and Twitch as the games industry continued to feel the comedown from the pandemic financial sugar rush.
Speaking of unexpected disappearances, the Chinese government withdrew draft rules which threatened to impose spending caps in online games in the territory.
The policy, which had initially been floated in late 2023, had caused a sharp decline in the value of publicly traded domestic games giants such as Tencent and NetEase.
Its withdrawal was welcomed by the market, though not by the government official responsible for it who - somewhat ominously - was reportedly moved on elsewhere.
Finally, despite January typically being a quiet month for video game releases, Palworld - aka “Pokemon with guns” to me and you - sold over 7m copies in its first week on sale as it attracted attention from both players and an army of lawyers working for Nintendo. Eeep.
Most read VGIM: Baldur’s Great Acting Performances
February - Epic partnerships
Disney made waves in February after announcing a partnership and equity investment with Epic Games to create its own “persistent universe” that would “interoperate” with Fortnite.
In short, the $1.5bn deal aimed to give the Mouse friendly entertainment giant the equivalent of a digital theme park to call its own. Just don’t use the word metaverse anywhere near this project, ok?
In other news, Microsoft was forced onto the front foot to respond to credible reports that it planned to bring exclusive titles such as the forthcoming Indiana Jones game to multiple platforms.
This resulted in the worst thing we could all have imagined: a podcast interview featuring multiple Xbox executives. Oh, the humanity!
Meanwhile, the jobs bloodbath continued with Sony Interactive Entertainment, Electronic Arts, ESL FaceIt and Supermassive Games getting in on the not-very-nice act.
There were also contrasting fortunes for two live service titles which launched in the month, with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopping as extraordinarily hard as Helldivers 2 succeeded.
And as if that wasn’t enough big news from February, Balatro launched too - swallowing up hours and hours of my life in the process. Cheers!
Most read VGIM: PlayStation shutters London Studio
March - Grand Dev Hold-ups
Rockstar managed to give everyone in the global games industry jitters in March after reports emerged that - gasp! - Grand Theft Auto VI’s likely 2025 release date was slipping due to production delays.
The reports also suggested that the company was planning to overcome delays by mandating that staff return to work. The move proved controversial, but at least they didn’t add to the wave of industry layoffs I guess?
In further Epic news for Epic Games, Apple was forced to allow the company to set up a developer account - and by extension a rival app store - on iOS after European regulators bared their teeth.
After initially rejecting Epic’s efforts to set up a developer account for itself in Sweden, the arbiter of the App Store decided to reverse course after it was reminded of the existence of the shiny new Digital Markets Act (and the sizeable fines attached to breaching its fresh competition rules) by regulatory boffins.
Additionally, the industry decamped to San Francisco for Game Developers Conference where one of the big talking points outside of “oh my god, why is everyone being fired” was the impact - or otherwise - of generative AI on video game development.
Oh, and Nintendo continued to play for time while waiting to announce the Switch 2 by launching Princess Peach: Showtime - a game which one of my friends described as having “immense bisexual energy”.
Now that’s a reason to play a video game.
Most read VGIM: Five lessons from Game Developers Conference
A message from our sponsor The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM): The suicide prevention charity, is teaming up with Jingle Jam 2024 (Dec 1–14) to unite some of the world’s best games and creators and raise life-changing funds. Whether you want to fundraise with your team, reach a new gaming audience, or grab the famous Jingle Jam Games Collection (£400+ of games for every £35 donation), there’s something for everyone. Email charliesarginson@thecalmzone.net to explore playing your part in preventing suicide.
April - Embracer the chaos
The biggest story in April was the predictable fracturing of Embracer Group under the weight of its own inconsistency.
Like the empire of Alexander The Great - but without the victories - the company announced that it was splitting into three separate business units after it failed to secure funding to plug the massive hole in its finances.
Elsewhere, Vladimir Putin popped up at a meeting of the regional committee of Kaliningrad to explore whether Russia could create its own video game console and game development engine.
Meanwhile, in cheerier and more consumer friendly news, the Fallout TV show launched to critical acclaim on Amazon Prime - accruing millions of viewers and generating a load of sales for Bethesda’s long lived RPG series in the process.
And in the month’s releases, Manor Lords tweaked at the edge of what we mean by “solo developer” to help sell its medieval strategy vision to the world.
Most read VGIM: The rise and fall of Embracer Group
May - Media May-hem
The biggest news story in May was IGN’s acquisition of games media empire Gamer Network, swallowing up its portfolio of consumer media titles such as Eurogamer and its flagship trade outlet Games Industry Biz.
Considering the redundancies that have followed (and the ones that seem likely to come as a result of it), it looks like the purchase doesn’t seem to be great news for our ailing specialist media. Alas.
In video game hardware news, Nintendo confirmed that news about the launch of the Switch 2, which had initially been slated to launch by the end of 2024, would be shared prior to the end of the company’s financial year - leading to frantic circling of March 2025 on the calendars of industry watchers.
Microsoft, meanwhile, confirmed that it planned to launch its own mobile game app store in July 2024 to rival the likes of Apple and Google. The first version of the store would, however, be limited to selling in-game consumables, as everyone awaited the outcome of ongoing legal ding-dongs over how easily the traditional app stores should make it for people to access rival shops through their ecosystems.
Speaking of in-game items, Epic found itself on the wrong side of the law after receiving a €1.125m fine from Dutch consumer authorities for improperly exhorting kiddies to buy stuff in Fortnite. Helen Lovejoy would be pleased.
And in regards to releases, Animal Well - the first game from Video Game Dunkey’s publishing label Big Mode - made waves with its thoughtful, and a little eerie, take on the Metroidvania genre.
Most read VGIM: IGN buys Gamer Network
June - Shutdowns for the Summer
The games industry job losses shifted into a new gear, with a raft of studio closures - or rumoured restructures - taking layoffs for the year past 2023’s headline total of 10,000.
Across the course of the month, Pieces Interactive (makers of the Alone in the Dark reboot) and Avalanche Montreal both closed their doors.
Take-Two also, somewhat bafflingly, attempted to claim that it hadn’t closed down Roll7 and Intercept Games in the previous month despite the fact that, erm, they obviously did.
In cheerier news, Summer Games Fest took place and saw the announcement of…some games.
While it did lift the lid on Civilisation VII and Blumhouse’s curated collection of horror titles, the general consensus was that this year’s Keighley Fest was playing for time ahead of bigger announcements later in the year.
And in an unexpected turn of events, French mobile game giant Voodoo whipped out €500m to buy “in the moment” social media app BeReal.
If anyone genuinely predicted that happening at the start of 2024, I owe you a drink.
Most read VGIM: Five lessons from Summer Game Fest
News in brief
Not Ubi-softening the blow: Ubisoft has won the award for games industry grinch by announcing hundreds of layoffs just before Christmas. The company’s decision to shutdown (I am not saying the word sunset) service game XDefiant is resulting in the closure of production offices in Osaka and San Francisco, as well as a headcount reduction in Sydney. It also means that layoffs in the industry for the year are reportedly nearly double last year’s ‘unprecedented’ figure of 10,000. Ouch.
Gotta cash ‘em all (again): The Pokémon Trading Card Game has managed to rack up $200m of revenue worldwide in its launch month, according to App Magic. The game has been generating an average of $6.5m a day since launch, hitting a peak of $8.4m on November 22nd as people went mad for the game’s Mass Outbreak event. I guess you could call it a…viral hit *pops on sunglasses*.
Pain in the ASA: Only a handful of the top grossing mobile games that feature loot boxes are properly declaring their presence via social media advertising, according to a new report. A BBC News investigation found that only 2 of the top 45 grossing mobile games on sale in the UK were displaying the presence of paid random items in adverts on platforms like Meta.
Counter-terror action: A first person shooter which allows players to participate in the October 7th attack from the perspective of a Palestinian has been removed from Steam in the UK. The developer of Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque seemed to be confused about why the game had been removed at the request of the UK’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit. The likely answer? Because it allows you to play - to all intents and purposes - as a Hamas soldier; an organisation that is a proscribed terror group in the country. Ah.
Riot on track: Finally, a quick moment of congratulations to Riot for changing its terms of service to allow it to issue penalties for off-platform conduct to its players in regards to its games. In short, if you stream one of their games and use them for an inappropriate purpose - such as spreading illegal or hateful content - you will be subject to penalties previously reserved for in-game misbehaviour from the publisher. Good stuff, eh?
A message from our sponsor The Campaign Against Living Miserably: CALM’s vision is that no one feels like suicide is their only option. But right now, too many people are struggling to see a way forward.
Every day in the UK we lose 18 people to suicide. This isn’t just a stat on a page. These are our mums and dads, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, partners and friends. That’s why we’re here to help anyone struggling with life - and provide everyone with the skills to help prevent suicide.
Find out more about CALM at https://www.thecalmzone.net/what-we-do
Moving on
A serious shake up in the video games trade press, with both James Batchelor and Marie Dealessandri announcing that they are leaving Games Industry Biz at the end of the year. Make your offer to snap them up quickly because they’re both too good to be available for long…Oh, and as if that wasn’t enough, Simon Maxwell is ending his lengthy stint as Managing Director at Gamer Network too. Blimey…Meanwhile, MCV/Develop’s Richie Shoemaker has announced that he is off to pastures new. Vince Pavey is stepping up as Editor…
Jobs ahoy
Bungie is hiring a Principal Communications Manager to lead the comms strategy on Destiny and Marathon…Meanwhile, Electronic Arts is hunting a Director of Creative Strategy to work out of Redwood City…Rockstar really do want to hire a Director of Territory Communications in the UK, but have reposted the role AGAIN…The Pokemon Company want to recruit a Director, Chief Product and Experience Officer Office in London…And Ubisoft is picking up a Community Developer - The Crew in Paris…
Events and conferences
The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, Virtual - 5th December
GamesAid Gala Dinner, London - 5th December
BIG, Bilbao - 6th-7th December
The Game Awards, Los Angeles - 12th December
Pocket Gamer Connects, London - 20th-21st January
Games of the week
Marvel Rivals - Blatant knock-off of multiplayer FPS Overwatch - but with a Marvel skin! - arrives this week.
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete - Fully paid up version of previously free to play Animal Crossing mobile game is available now for anyone with a spare tenner.
Infinity Nikki - I genuinely googled “what is Infinity Nikki” to discover that this is apparently an “open world dress-up adventure game with platform and puzzle elements.” It also features cats.
Before you go…
A hearty congratulations to all involved in this year’s One Special Day to support UK games industry charity Special Effect.
Despite the headwinds in the sector this year, players and businesses around the world raised over £600,000 for the cause in October - making a massive difference to all the people it supports.