The video games industry is a driver of significant value across the UK economy. - Dan Wood, co-CEO, UKIE

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

The writer of the Red Dead Redemption series joined Absurd Ventures. A huge promotion is active on PlayStation Store and Destiny 2: The Final Shape is delayed. 

Who would have thought? Most US kids prefer gaming subscriptions over physical games.

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Let’s play:

Welcome to The Power-Up #44

Biz-Up

🙌 Bandai Namco has invested in two US-based startups, Flickplay and Code Charm, as part of its 021 Fund initiative to support games industry startups. Flickplay specializes in digital toys for mini-games and AR, while Code Charm develops cloud-based art platforms.

💻 Sony has partnered with MMO developer NCSOFT to expand beyond console gaming and reach a broader audience. This collaboration is rumored to include an MMO based on the Horizon franchise.

👻 Ghostrunner II, developed by One More Level, has generated $6 million in revenue, surpassing its production budget of $4.2 million and netting a profit of $1.93 million. 

📈 In Q3 2023, Ten Square Games reported a significant recovery with a 53.4% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $8.5 million, driven by mobile titles like Fishing Clash and Hunting Clash, reaching 2.7 million and 2.0 million monthly active users.

💰 Kek Entertainment has raised $8 million to develop a cross-platform vehicle shooter game, aiming to bridge mobile and PC/console gaming.

🤯 Lumikai and Google forecast India's gaming market to reach $7.5 billion by 2028, with midcore and hardcore games growing 49% annually. The country's 568 million gamers, including 140 million in-game spenders, contribute to India being the second-largest market globally with 15.4 billion yearly downloads.

💰 Laton Ventures is a new venture capital firm investing in early-stage game companies and developers.

Industry Level-Up

👋 ReedPop is exploring the sale of its Gamer Network business, which includes popular gaming sites like Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, and Rock Paper Shotgun, but will retain UK events EGX and MCM ComicCon.

🥷 Ubisoft Bordeaux is preparing for new projects within the Assassin’s Creed series, hinted by the recent hiring of Rik Godwin as a lead writer for the franchise.

🇰🇷 SIE has reportedly signed an agreement with Shift Up, making them Sony's first Korean second-party studio for the exclusive PS5 release of Stellar Blade, previously known as Project Eve.

🤝 Michael Unsworth, writer of the Red Dead Redemption series, has joined Dan Houser's Absurd Ventures as head of story and creative management, alongside former Rockstar veteran Lazlow Jones.

😡 Embracer Group has laid off 50 employees from Fishlabs, known for the Galaxy on Fire franchise, as part of its ongoing restructuring program. 

😖 They will also close Free Radical Design, the studio behind TimeSplitters, on December 11.

Round-Up

📈 In 2021, UK video game technology, including game engines and VR, contributed £1.3 billion ($1.65 billion) to non-gaming sectors like information technology, energy extraction or business services, supporting 9,900 jobs.

🎄 72% of US children prefer game-related gifts for Christmas, with only 22% desiring physical games. Most children are eyeing subscriptions (39%), consoles (38%), and in-game currency (29%)

🗣️ EA's new patent proposes a system allowing players to voice in-game characters by inputting speech into a synthesizer and converter. This would enable players to record their own voices or input text for character dialogue.

📈 Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty propelled CD Projekt's financial growth with 4.3 million copies sold in two months, driving the company's revenue to 443 million PLN ($112,8 million) in Q3 2023.

⚔️ And now that they're done with Cyberpunk, the studio has allocated nearly half of its workforce to develop The Witcher 4, known as Polaris.

Game-Up

🎮 Sony's PS Store has launched a massive End of Year Deals promotion, replacing its Black Friday sale with over 2,800 discounted PS5 and PS4 games, available until December 20th, 2023. 

➡️ Bungie has delayed the release of Destiny 2: The Final Shape from February 27, 2024, to June 4, 2024. To fill the gap caused by this delay, Bungie is introducing extra content, including the Season of the Wish and a new content drop in April, Destiny 2: Into the Light. 

📢 Capcom is expected to announce a major new game for 2023, releasing in 2024, which is neither a Resident Evil nor a Dragon's Dogma 2 title. 

🚀 And, by the way, Dragon's Dogma 2 is set for release on PS5 on March 22, 2024, as confirmed in a recent showcase.

🆓 Assassin's Creed Syndicate is free on PC until December 6 as part of an exclusive giveaway on Ubisoft's website, available to anyone with a Ubisoft account and accessed via the Ubisoft Connect launcher.

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

Bobby & Andrei