While PlayStation will remain our core product, we will expand our gaming experiences to PC, mobile, and cloud.– Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO, Sony

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

RoboCop: Rogue City will (finally!) have a New Game + mode. Pacific Drive has a new gameplay trailer and Cyberpunk’s sequel could have multiplayer elements. 

Oh, and Sam Barlow is working on 2 new horror games. 

If you like this newsletter, please share it on your socials. It would help us a lot.

Now let’s play:

Welcome to The Power-Up #62

Game-Up

🦾 RoboCop: Rogue City receives a new update, introducing the much-anticipated New Game Plus mode, allowing players to replay the story with existing skills and upgrades, for the full "invincible robotic law enforcement officer" experience. 

🤡 Rocksteady announces that Joker will not only appear but also be a playable character in the first season of free DLC for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, set for release in March. (the game itself will be released on February 2).

🧟 Sam Barlow, known for Immortality and Her Story, is developing two new horror games: a sci-fi horror FMV game and a third-person survival horror.

☠️ Death Stranding Director’s Cut is launching on the iPhone 15 Pro on January 30. The game will be available for $39.99, with a preorder price of $19.99, and it will also be available on Macs or iPads equipped with Apple’s M-series chips.

🚘 Pacific Drive is launching on PS5 on February 22. Ironwood Studios' latest gameplay trailer delves into the game's mechanics, offering survival tips for navigating the ever-changing Olympic Exclusion Zone, a Bermuda Triangle-like mysterious area.

Round-Up

⚔️ CD Projekt aims to begin full production on Project Polaris, the next mainline Witcher game, by mid-2024, hoping to engage around 400 staff members in the process. The new Witcher trilogy will be developed on Unreal Engine 5.

🦾 And speaking of CDPR, multiplayer elements are being considered for the Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Project Orion, currently in its conceptual phase.

🎮 Sony CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, envisions a future where gaming is ubiquitous, extending beyond PlayStation to include PC, mobile, and cloud platforms, aiming for seamless gaming experiences across various devices.

☁️ Yoshida-San is also emphasizing the value of cloud streaming over 'all-you-can-eat' subscriptions, highlighting the hybrid nature of PS Plus which offers both a subscription service and pay-per-content options.

👎 The British Army's recruitment campaign in Fortnite, titled Operation: Belong, was withdrawn following backlash for targeting the game's young audience. Promotional content by influencers and an official trailer were removed.

Biz-Up

📉 Focus Entertainment is set to rebrand as Pullup Entertainment starting April 1, following a revenue decline of 9% to €128.3 million ($139.02 million) in the first nine months of the 2023-2024 financial year. The French publisher's third-quarter revenue specifically fell by 43%, amounting to €43.3 million ($46.9 million).

🤯 The global games market is projected to reach $189.3 billion in 2024. Newzoo forecasts a "lean year" for the industry, focusing on sequels and existing IPs, while generative AI tools will grow but not significantly impact game production at scale this year.

🚀 Mobile gaming marketing company Gamelight is set to hit an impressive $1 billion annual revenue in 2024 - just a year after it launched.

💰 Rize.gg raises $430,000 pre-seed round to train and empower gamers.

Industry Level-Up

😔 League of Legends developer Riot Games is laying off 530 employees, about 11% of its workforce, to refocus on high-impact projects. 

🗝️ Wimo Games, known for VR and mobile titles, has shut down after three years, resulting in around 36 layoffs.

👎 Netmarble is liquidating Metaverse World, a subsidiary focused on developing the Metaverse platform Grand Cross: Metaworld, due to shifts in the metaverse market.

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

Bobby & Andrei