/Thread - 3/05/24
It's been a while, traveler. Also, wanna meet up at GDC?
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
Execs were clearly back from DICE - Last week, Sony laid off 900 people in their PlayStation division. EA cut 5% of its workforce. A bunch of smaller studios joined the party, too - Wildlife Studios, Deck Nine, Radical Forge, and Cloud Imperium also let folks go. Brendan Sinclair has a great writeup diving deep into Sony’s financials, motivations, and helps color how the hell we’re still living in this nightmare.
Nintendo: No Yuzu for you - The popular Switch emulator Yuzu is no more. Nintendo settled a $2.4MM lawsuit against the developer, who doesn’t actually distribute illegal content, but makes it pretty easy to load up Switch ROMs you totally backed up from your existing library. Nintendo argued that Yuzu’s existence helped over 1 million players play a leaked version of Tears of the Kingdom before its release. Since the lawsuit settled, we won’t see any new legal precedent set when it comes to emulation as it pertains to copyright, which is great because how else am I going to play Uniracers in TYOOL 2024?
I’m posting actually cool game news now because this newsletter is turning into a doom scrolling summary. Here’s a quick roundup:
NASA attacks the darkness - NASA just released a 5E-compatible RPG adventure about rescuing an errant Hubble Space Telescope. Good luck figuring out 5E’s rules for 3D fighting in a 10x10x10 cube!
MLB The Show enters the 21st century - MLB The Show 24 will give players the ability to create female players in their popular Road to the Show game mode. RTTS starts players off in AA ball, where they need to develop their skills and improve their performance to work their way up to the Majors.
Helldivers 2 Wins February - Helldivers 2, bringer of galactic democracy at any cost, went full Mission Accomplished by the end of February. The game is Sony’s best-performing Steam title ever, and has gone on to sell around 3 million copies. What’s particularly interesting, according to analyst Mat Piscatella in an IGN interview, is that the game is gaining momentum over time, rather than losing it. He compares its word-of-mouth trajectory to Guitar Hero, which is fantastic company to be in.
Hang Out With Us at GDC - Chris and I are headed to San Francisco for GDC later this month. We’ll be there the 20th through the 22nd. If you’d like to catch up or grab a drink, respond to this email or hit one of us up on LinkedIn. If you wanna talk shop during business hours, hit up this link here to schedule something.
By The Numbers
2025 - When the Switch 2 is expected to launch.
$1.6B - NetEase’s 2023 revenue.
Better Know An Indie
Orwell is a game where Big Brother has arrived - and it’s you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you. But, be warned, the information you supply will have consequences. Grab it on Steam for $9.99.
Have a Great Week
As always, thanks for stopping by. We’ll see you next week!