Sea of Stars is the game of my dreams - Thierry Boulanger, co-founder, Sabotage Studio

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

RIP James McCaffrey, the eternal voice of Max Payne.

EA is rebranding its Frostbite engine, Prince of Persia has gone gold and Carlyle Group is considering selling RuneScape developer Jagex.

Oh, and an old Insomniac game earned the company $567 in profit after selling almost 2 million units. The world of game development is really challenging! 

Let’s start:

Welcome to The Power-Up #53

Biz-Up

🧑‍💻 Activision Blizzard ends hybrid work for QA testers, prompting criticism from the ABK Workers Alliance for its impact on vulnerable employees. Activision cites in-person efficiency, committing to individual employee accommodations.

📈 The Australian gaming sector generated AU$345.5 million ($233.8 million) in revenue, marking a 21% increase year-on-year, with 79% of game studios having less than 20 employees. This growth is accompanied by a workforce that is 69% male, 26% female, and 5% transgender, non-binary, or gender diverse. 

💰 The New Zealand games industry grew by 7% to NZD $434.4 million ($270.9 million) in 2023, a slower rate compared to the previous year due to Australian tax incentives, skill shortages, and hiring diversity issues

🤞 Embracer Group extends its credit and loan agreements to 2025, committing to pay $254.1 million by January 2025 as part of its strategy to decrease debt. This move follows a restructuring involving mass layoffs and studio closures.

🔧 EA is rebranding its Frostbite engine, emphasizing a partnership approach with studios while allowing them the freedom to choose other game engines for development.

💵 Google, after losing an antitrust suit to Epic, will introduce alternative billing options in the Play Store, reducing its revenue cut. Separately, Google will pay a $700 million settlement unrelated to the Epic dispute.

👋 The Carlyle Group is considering selling RuneScape developer Jagex, with bids from private equity firms Advent International and CVC Capital Partners falling short of the desired £1 billion ($1.27 billion).

🐺 The Chinese esports team Wolves from China won the Call of Duty Mobile World Championship, earning $400,000, while Indian team GodLike Esports became the runner-up with $170,000, their best performance in the competition's history.

✍️ Overwolf paid $201 million to in-game modders and creators in 2023, a 25% increase from the previous year. With partnerships with top studios and over 50 billion mod downloads on CurseForge, Overwolf aims to pay out $1 billion to creators by 2030.

Industry Level-Up

🤝 Materia Music has acquired Australian gaming record label Boss Battle Records, known for supporting composers in major titles like Star Wars and Apex Legends. 

Round-Up

💔 Voice actor James McCaffrey, known for his roles in video games such as Max Payne and Alan Wake 2, has passed away at 65. 

✨ Sea of Stars, winner of Best Independent Game at The Game Awards 2023, has surpassed 4 million players since its launch. The game has also been recognized at the Golden Joysticks and by the British Academy Film and Television Awards.

🥷 A ransomware group hacked Insomniac Games and leaked over 1.67 terabytes of data, including game information and private employee details, after Sony refused to pay a $2 million ransom. 

🔫 Leaked documents also reveal Sony's concern over Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, contradicting a previous statement by outgoing PlayStation boss Jim Ryan. Sony fears the merger could disrupt the industry and allow Microsoft to "leapfrog" ahead in gaming, particularly with the strategic value of Activision's live service games and the potential loss of Call of Duty exclusivity.

📉 Twitch experienced a 3% decrease in viewership in November 2023, totaling 1.72 billion hours watched. The most watched games list is dominated by titles like League of Legends and Grand Theft Auto V.

☠️ Four years after its release, Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding has attracted 16 million players worldwide. The game debuted on PS4 in 2019 and later expanded to PC and PS5.

🎄 Sony is running a massive Christmas sale, slashing prices on nearly 5,000 PS5 and PS4 games, with discounts up to 80%. The sale, ending on January 5th, features significant price reductions on popular titles like Elden Ring, Final Fantasy 16, Alan Wake 2 or Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, among others.

🧰 Ludo.ai introduces a text-to-video generator tool for game developers, allowing rapid creation of gameplay videos from text prompts. This innovation aims to streamline the game development process, particularly for indie creators, by visualizing concepts and assisting in project approvals.

Game-Up

💛 Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown has gone gold, preparing for its January launch. Despite initial plans for a different game, this 2D platformer, backed by the team behind the Rayman games, is gaining traction among fans and is seen as a key step in reviving the Prince Of Persia series.

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

Bobby & Andrei