2077 was just a warm-up – Igor Sarzyński, Narrative Director, CD Projekt Red

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

A FPS where you kill dinosaurs will come to PS5 this year. A remake of the classic Atari 400 will be released on March 28 and global mobile game revenue decreased to $107 billion in 2023.

Also, Nintendo Switch 2 could come in September, but this is just a rumor. 

Now let’s play:

Welcome to The Power-Up #57

Game-Up

🤴 Ubisoft has released a free playable demo of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC ahead of the game's full launch next week. The full game will launch on January 18, with 3 days of early access for Deluxe Edition preorders. I played it and I liked it. 🤩

🦖 TeamKill Media has announced Son and Bone, a PlayStation 5-exclusive first-person shooter where players battle dinosaurs, set to release sometime this year.

🏝️ Sand Land, a new game by Dragon Ball Z creator Akira Toriyama and ILCA, is set to launch on PS5 and PS4 on April 26, 2024, with pre-orders now available in standard, deluxe, and collector's editions.

🦾 Development for the next Cyberpunk game, codenamed Orion, is officially underway at CD Projekt Red's new Boston office, with key team members like narrative director Igor Sarzyński and quest director Pawel Sasko beginning their work on the project.

Round-Up

🧌 New cast announced for The Last of Us season 2: Young Mazino (Beef) will be Jesse and Isabela Merced (Transformers: The Last Knight, Sicario 2) wil be Dina. 

👾 The Atari 400 Mini, releasing March 28th, is a compact remake of the classic Atari 400, including 25 classic 8-bit games and a CX-40 joystick replica. Priced at $119.99, it features 720p output, gameplay rewind, save functions, and USB ports for peripherals, but excludes a power adapter.

🕹️ Ai Shark, formerly known as GameShark, hinted at a September 2024 release for the Nintendo Switch 2 in a press release about its re-launch, suggesting a coincidence with the console's debut.

Biz-Up

📈 Nintendo's shares reached a record high, driven by growing expectations for the Switch 2 and speculation about further investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund. 

💰 In 2023, China led global mobile game spending with $37.6 billion and recorded the highest number of downloads at 29.32 billion. 

🤑 Global mobile game revenue decreased by 2% to $107 billion in 2023. The top three highest-earning mobile titles were Evony, Lineage M, and Honkai: Star Rail. 

🤩 Esports Wales has received a £50,000 ($64,000) investment from Media Cymru's Development Fund, aimed at further developing and supporting the national Welsh Esports League and official clubs across Wales.

Biz-Up

🤝 Shuji Utsumi, founder of Q Entertainment, has been appointed as the new CEO of Sega of America and Sega Europe, also serving as their president and COO. Utsumi will officially take on his new role in April, bringing his extensive experience from Sony and his previous tenure at Sega.

🤝 Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, former CD Projekt Red lead quest designer, has joined Rebel Wolves as the creative director, bringing 13 years of experience from projects like The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 to his brother Konrad's studio.

😔 Playtika is reducing its workforce by approximately 10%, leading to up to 400 job cuts, though this decision will not impact the company's nearly 1,100 employees in Israel.

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

Bobby & Andrei