/Thread - 1/12/24
Second Dinner raises a bunch, but the layoff trend continues.
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
Second Dinner raises $100MM. The Marvel Snap developers announced they raised nine figures in a Series B round led by Griffin Gaming Partners. Snap, which is a pretty awesome mobile-first game with a lot of white-hat monetization, has drawn $200MM in revenue in the year and a half it’s been live. Even now, that’s gotta put them in $1B+ valuation territory. Is there a Unicorn superhero?
Dare you resist… THE CLAW?! - MSI announced a Steam Deck competitor named The Claw at CES this week. It’s using Intel guts to power the machine, and claims a 54Whr battery. Unlike the Steam Deck, it’s using Windows 11 for its OS rather than Valve’s open source linux variant, SteamOS.
Pictured: MSI’s brand team Steam says yes to AI. Valve announced this week that they’re allowing games that are developed with AI tools onto the platform. Devs have to report what type of AI they’re using (pre-generated or live-generated) ahead of release, and they’re launching a system that leans on players to report any illegal content in games. 14,000 games launched on Steam last year. If it’s anything like what happened when Amazon allowed AI-written Kindle books on their platform, that number could 10x this year - not that you’d want to play any of them.
I’m just collapsing these into one layoff bullet. Twitch, (35% of staff), Unity (25%), Google’s AR division (“hundreds”), Discord (17%), Playtika (10%). Stay safe out there. I hear Second Dinner is hiring.
By The Numbers
9 - The number of DICE award categories in which Spider-Man 2 received nominations.
$345K- How much Square Enix donated to the Japanese Red Cross in the wake of the Noto Peninsula earthquake.
Looking For More
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Newzoo (Amsterdam ) - QA Engineer
Epic Games (Raleigh-Durham, NC) - Lead Producer
Better Know An Indie
Chillquarium is a cozy and relaxing idle game. Buy fish and raise them in real time, then sell them to turn a profit! Customize your aquarium as you progress from a simple starter tank to your dream setup by filling your collection with rare exotic fish and ultra-rare color variants! Grab it on Steam for $4.79.
Have a Great Weekend
As always, thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you next week!