/Thread - 11/03/23

Happy November, when Q4 really starts.

Greetings, traveler, and welcome to /Thread, a weekly roundup of what’s happening in the game industry, for game industry professionals, just like you.

Today’s Densely Daily Dosage

• Final_trailer_v2_jhb-edit_FINAL. FNTASTIC, developers of Zombie survival MMO The Day Before - which currently is #1 on the Steam wishlist chart - are delaying their Early Access launch from November 10 to December 5. FNTASTIC just got The Day Before back on Steam after trademark issues caused them to remove the game from the platform. Also strange: FNTASTIC relies partially on volunteers (and doesn’t pay overtime to staff) to develop the game.

  

  Iunno maybe pay people.

• This is how you deliver bad news. Odyssey Interactive’s founders announced on Twitter that they’re stopping further content development on their first title, Omega Strikers. They’re continuing to provide balance changes and support for the 3v3 competitive mobile game, and all purchases will follow players as premium currency into new games. Give it a watch and bathe in the context.

• Acquisitions, Inc. Devolver announced they picked up System Era for a cool $40MM this week. Not a bad use of capital for a company that’s lost 86% of its value since 2022.

• And another one. This week, Bungie announced a round of layoffs. Word is they hit the marketing, community, player support, and other publishing divisions the hardest - and over 100 people were let go. They’re the latest in a rash of cuts at Sony-owned developers.

• And another one. Cryptic Studios announced layoffs, as well. The Embracer-owned studio will now also under Realm of the Mad God publisher DECA Games, also owned by Embracer. When SPACs go wrong…

By The Numbers

• 10 - The number of online services Ubisoft is shutting down.

• 200 - The number of gigabytes you need to install Modern Warfare 3.

• 1,000 - The number of bug fixes in Baldur’s Gate 3’s latest patch. Awesome support post-launch for a single-player game.

Looking For More

Brought to you by our friends at gamejobs.co

• People Can Fly (Montreal, Remote) - Development Director

• Remedy (Espoo, Finland) - Senior Engine Programmer

• Zynga (Austin) - Senior Director, Product Marketing

Better Know An Indie

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Say No To SPACs

As always, thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you next week!