We have found ourselves at a loss as our competitors continue to produce new products, leaving us feeling having achieved nothing – Pony Ma, CEO, Tencent

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

Tencent canceled a Nier mobile game, but they are working on a mobile Elden Ring.

A demo for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available.

Only half of the game developers received a pay raise or bonus in 2023. 

Now let’s play:

Welcome to The Power-Up #68

Game-Up

🎉 Steam Next Fest returns, offering "hundreds" of PC game demos and "hours" of developer streams over a seven-day event. Players are invited to explore a wide array of new titles and connect with creators.

🗡️ Tencent reportedly canceled a Nier mobile game due to challenges with monetization and high licensing fees. The development team was shifted to other projects while reassessing the viability of licensed games amid evolving regulations.

💍 Tencent is also developing a mobile adaptation of Elden Ring. They aim to make it a free-to-play model with in-app purchases, seeking to emulate the success of Genshin Impact.

🗺️ The rumored Call of Duty: Black Ops — Gulf War is said to feature a fully open-world campaign, developed from scratch with exploration elements including vehicles and fast-travel. The game might bring back familiar Black Ops characters.

😬 The Silent Hill 2 Remake will debut on PS5 and PC, with a Sony console exclusivity lasting 12 months before potentially arriving on other platforms. This remake revisits the acclaimed 2001 horror classic, following protagonist James Sunderland to the eerie town of Silent Hill.

🗡️ A demo for the eagerly awaited Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is now available, featuring Cloud and Sephiroth's journey in Nibelheim, with an update planned to add Junon exploration. The full game is set to launch on February 29 for PlayStation 5.

Round-Up

📣 Roblox launches AI-driven instant text translation, fostering global interactions by converting messages into various languages on the fly. Future plans include expanding this technology to achieve real-time voice translations.

📢 Phil Spencer announces a Future of Xbox event next week, fueling anticipation for strategic updates after Xbox's promising kickoff to 2024. Speculation rises about potential shifts in exclusivity, highlighted by rumors of flagship games like Indiana Jones or Starfield reaching beyond Xbox platforms.

🤩 Honkai: Star Rail surpasses 100 million downloads globally, with plans to introduce Apple Vision Pro Compatibility Mode. 

📱 Silent Hill: The Short Message surpasses 1 million downloads on PS5, reflecting a strong fan interest despite mixed reviews.

🎮 Nintendo's latest quarterly results highlight significant sales with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom reaching 20.28 million and Super Mario RPG selling 3.14 million copies. The Switch hardware sales have also climbed to 139.36 million units, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe leading as the best-selling Switch game at 60.58 million units.

Biz-Up

🚀 In 2023, a staggering 72% of game revenues came from mobile, according to Xsolla's State of Play report. The report highlights the gaming industry's growth, with total sales and user count increasing by 44% and 22% respectively from 2020-21 to 2022-23, and projects the industry to reach $363 billion by 2027. This growth is attributed to trends like cloud gaming, the increasing influence of women in gaming, and the significant share of mobile in yearly gaming revenues.

😱 In 2023, only half of the game developers received a pay raise or bonus, reflecting stagnant salaries amidst the high cost of living in major industry cities. Despite the hard work and long hours, upward mobility remains limited.

📉 Square Enix's financials for nine months ending December 31, 2023, show net sales at ¥257.6 billion ($1,741 billion), a modest 1% increase, while profits fell by 42% to ¥26.8 billion ($181,14 million). 

🤯 Japanese physical game and hardware sales reached nearly $3 billion in 2023, marking a 7.8% increase from the previous year, with "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom" leading as the top-selling game and the Switch OLED as the best-selling console.

📈 Australia's gaming industry sees a significant 21% revenue growth to $345.5 million, underpinned by a strong gaming culture and governmental support like the Digital Games Tax Offset scheme. The sector anticipates further expansion with a 17% increase in employment.

🤝 Nitro Games has received an additional €3.5 million to continue the development of Warframe Mobile, in partnership with the game's creator, Digital Extremes.

🥽 StatusPro has secured $20 million in funding from Google Ventures and other investors to expand its XR sports gaming empire. The company, based in New York and Miami, aims to revolutionize sports gaming with virtual reality, having already launched NFL Pro Era and NFL Pro Era II on platforms like Meta Quest 3 and PlayStation VR 2.

Industry Level-Up

😔 Crop Circle Games is reportedly undergoing staff layoffs affecting various departments, marking the first such event in February for the studio currently engaged in a secret project.

🤝 Anna Megill (ex-Control, the Fable reboot) has been appointed as the lead writer for CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, Project Orion. Dan Hernberg (ex-Amazon, Blizzard), Ryan Barnard (ex-Hitman) and Alan Villani (ex-WB Games/Mortal Kombat) are also joining the team.

🔒 Threshold Games, founded in 2019, will shut down on February 9, a month before it was set to officially reveal itself and what it was working on.

🤝 CVC Capital Partners is nearing a deal to acquire Jagex, the RuneScape developer, from Carlyle Group for £900 million, following Carlyle's decision to sell the company just two years after its acquisition.

🪧 Editorial and creative staff at IGN, the world's largest video game website, are forming the IGN Creators Guild with the NewsGuild-CWA, seeking voluntary recognition from parent company Ziff Davis.

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Stay powered-up until next time.

Bobby & Andrei