When I’m playing, it’s my escape, my fun, almost 50 years of playing video games and I still love them – Phil Spencer, CEO, Microsoft Gaming

Hey there!

🎉 But we have so much more:

Hogwarts Legacy is the best selling game in the US.

The Playstation Portal is 4th in sales.

Phil Spencer really enjoys playing games and A24 will adapt Death Stranding into a movie. 

But before we start: Stephen Totilo, the author of Axios Gaming newsletter and editor-in-chief at Kotaku for 12 years before Axios, has gone independent and launched Game File, a reader-supported website and newsletter focused on video games. Stephen is one of our favorite gaming journalists, so we hope Game File will be a massive hit!

Play on:

Welcome to The Power-Up #51

Biz-Up

⚖️ Valve has filed a lawsuit against the law firm Zaiger, accusing it of using "targeted extortion" tactics by threatening mass arbitration cases for alleged antitrust violations involving 50,000 Steam users.

📉 In November, the US gaming industry saw a 7% decline in total game spending, totaling $5.87 billion, largely due to a 24% drop in hardware sales and weaker console software spending compared to last year's releases like God of War and Pokémon. 

💰 MyGamez, a Finnish/Chinese mobile game publisher specializing in the Chinese market, has raised $1.6 million with support from key industry figures like Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja.

💰 Barnyard Games, backed by a team of industry veterans, has raised $3.4 million to create games for Fortnite, starting with their debut project, Mega Golf Fun Zone, on the Unreal Engine Fortnite platform.

🤑 In 2023, Asia and the MENA region are projected to spend $78.5 billion on in-game purchases, making up 87.8% of the $89.4 billion gaming market in these areas, according to a report by Niko Partners. While premium games contribute $7.8 billion, the report highlights the significant role of microtransactions and subscriptions in the gaming market.

Industry Level-Up

😣 Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, is set to cut nearly 1,100 jobs, adding to the 800 layoffs already executed, as a response to stronger and more persistent market challenges than expected. 

🤝 Midwest Games has bolstered its team with key appointments, including Alyssa Walles (ex Disney, PlayStation) as Chief Operating Officer and Gina Joseph (ex VentureBeat) as Chief Strategy Officer. 

👋 Agostino Simonetta, Chief Games Officer at Thunderful Group, is departing the company amidst a leadership reshuffle led by new CEO Martin Walfisz. To strengthen its executive team, Thunderful has appointed Claire Boissiere, Harriet Hughes, Kathrin Strangfeld, and Sue Smith to key roles. 

😔 Embracer Group has reportedly conducted layoffs at its subsidiaries 3D Realms and Slipgate Entertainment, affecting at least half of the combined staff.

Round-Up

🏆 Hogwarts Legacy is poised to break the 15-year dominance of Rockstar and Call of Duty titles as the best-selling game in the US for 2023 (so far), challenging the long-standing trend.

😭 The newly released God of War DLC, Valhalla, features an epilogue to Ragnarok's story within a roguelite structure, including an endgame challenge so difficult that even the dev team hasn't completed it on “Show Me Mastery” difficulty. 

😅 Phil Spencer remarkably spent 917 hours playing Xbox across 82 different games in 2023, equivalent to 23 work weeks, while managing a demanding executive role. His top-played games: Starfield, Diablo IV and Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition.

🎮 The PlayStation Portal debuted as the fourth best-selling hardware platform in the US for November 2023, achieving this success despite limited launch quantities and being tracked as a console rather than an accessory by Circana. 

🎥 Netflix launched 40 games in 2023, including high-profile titles like the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy, and plans to expand its portfolio to 86 games by year's end, all included in its membership without extra fees or in-app purchases. It also has 90 additional games in development.

☠️ Kojima Productions has announced a partnership with A24 to produce a live-action film adaptation of Death Stranding, aiming to create a unique cinematic experience beyond a direct translation of the game.

📈 In November 2023, PS5 sales in Europe surged by 376% compared to the previous year, topping the region's hardware sales charts, partly due to the Black Friday sales boost.

🛑 Naughty Dog has canceled the development of The Last of Us Online to concentrate on creating future single-player games. The studio realized that dedicating all its resources to post-launch content for the online game would significantly hinder their ability to develop new single-player narratives.

⚽️ EA's 2023 report reveals immense player engagement in its games, with The Sims 4 leading at 1.8 billion hours played, EA Sports FC emerging as the year's most popular franchise and games like Madden NFL 24 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor expanding their fan base.

Game-Up

🕸️ Insomniac Games has delayed the release of Spider-Man 2's New Game Plus mode and other eagerly awaited features to "early" 2024 for additional testing. 

📄 Leaked documents from a ransomware attack suggest that Insomniac Games might be developing a Spider-Verse video game. While details remain unclear, fan speculation is rife, especially considering Insomniac's confirmed work on a multiplayer game and hints of the Spider-Verse in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

🚎 Bethesda is developing "new ways of traveling" for its space RPG Starfield, in response to player feedback about the game's limited traversal options.

🥷 Preorders for the PS5-exclusive Rise of the Ronin are now open, offering two editions: standard and Digital Deluxe, with a release date set for March 22, 2024. Preordering either edition grants early access to exclusive in-game content.

🗡️ We have a gameplay trailer for Prince of Perisa: The Lost Crown. The game will launch on January 18 on all platforms, and a demo will be available starting January 11. 

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

Bobby & Andrei