Will you all come with me? – Cloud Strife 

Hey there.

Who knew Mario had its own Usain Bolt? An almost perfect run, computer level perfection.

Ubisoft requires employees to return to the office, despite previous promises. Spider-Man 2 will have permanent ray-tracing and Dolby Atmos.

Playtika made a big new purchase in recent months.

MK1 and Lies of P are coming tomorrow.

Hit the play button.

Welcome to The Power-Up #13

Round-up of the day

📈 Xbox Game Pass surpasses 30 million members, according to Xbox's senior director of global brand and integrated marketing, Craig McNary. I've been one of those members for a week now, despite being a die-hard PlayStation fan for many years, all thanks to Starfield.

🙋‍♀️ The upcoming Women in Games conference on October 10, 2023, aims to disrupt norms and address significant challenges facing women in the gaming industry, from representation to mental health.

🏃‍♂️ Speedrunner Niftski set a new world record for completing Super Mario Bros. in 4:54.631, in a live, human-controlled full game run. 

👫 Ghostwire: Tokyo hits 6 million players, likely boosted by its Xbox release and inclusion in Xbox Game Pass after a year of PlayStation exclusivity.

Biz Reel

📌 Unity has apologized for the "confusion and angst the runtime fee policy" it announced last week has caused and has revealed it will be "making changes" to it.

📌 Before that, 16 different studios started to boycott Unity by pulling their Unity and IronSource ads, aiming to pressure the company into canceling its proposed Runtime Fee policy.

📌 Ubisoft Montreal is facing internal unrest after reversing its stance on 100% remote work, requiring all 4,000 employees to return to the office at least two days a week starting September 11. The move contradicts earlier promises and has left staff frustrated, with some having made major life decisions based on the expectation of long-term remote work.

📌 Comic book writer Bill Willingham, the creator of the comic behind The Wolf Among Us, says Warner Bros never paid him for the game. So he made the Fables public domain.

📌 In the US, consumer spending in the gaming industry increased 3% to $4.2 billion year-over-year, fueled by gains in content and accessory sales despite a 13% decline in hardware. PS5 led in hardware sales, while mobile spending rose by 2.5%, with Monopoly Go taking the top spot.

📌 Playtika has acquired mobile studio Innplay Labs (Tiles of Fortune, Animals & Coins) for an initial $80 million, with the potential to increase to $300 million, marking its second purchase in recent months after buying Youda Games for $165 million in July.

📌 Final Fantasy VII Remake and Integrade sold more than 7 million units. It might make sense to play the game, if you didn’t, especially with the news from last week’s State of Play.

Game Central

🕹️ Hades 2 is set to enter early access in Q2 2024 on Steam and the Epic Games Store, with multiple updates planned to enrich content before the final v1.0 release date, which remains unspecified.

🕹️ Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, scheduled for release on February 29, 2024, for the PS5, promises nearly 100 hours of gameplay and a large, quest-rich world. However, players won't be able to transfer their save data from the FFVII Remake to retain levels and abilities.

🕹️ Spider-Man 2 will offer three frame rate options—30fps, 40fps, and 60fps—with ray tracing always enabled, allowing players to prioritize either graphical fidelity or smoother gameplay. The game is also natively mixed in Dolby Atmos, including its cinematics. Spider-Man 2 is due out for PS5 on October 20.

Some of the games launching this week (our picks are bolded):

• September 19: Lies of P (PS4/5, Xbox One/S/X, PC), Mortal Kombat 1 (PS5, Xbox X/S, PC, Switch), Spirited Thief (PC)

• September 20: Men of War 2 (PC), Moonstone Island (PC),

• September 21: Days of Doom (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Atari VCS), Hellsweeper VR (PC VR, PSVR2, Quest), Payday 3 (PS5, Xbox S/X, PC)

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

Bobby & Andrei