Annapurna Interactive walks out

We’re getting caught up after a couple weeks of vacation. Lots of news to cover, so let’s dive right in! 

Sony’s crazy month

It’s been quite the crazy month for Sony.

We discussed a few weeks ago how the company pulled their game Concord (which cost over $400 million to develop) after a few weeks, offering refunds to those who purchased it. We also mentioned how their latest game, Astro Bot, was a hit among critics. 

Since then, there have been a lot of updates from Sony. Some exciting, some annoying. Highlights include:

• Sony raised the price of their DualSence PlayStation 5 controllers and the PlayStation 4 version of Horizon Zero Dawn (more on that below). 
• Sony announced the PlayStation 5 Pro. The new hardware does not have a disc drive, and costs $200 more than the current model. 
• They announced Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered - a remade version of a seven year old game. 
• Sony announced special 30th anniversary versions of their current hardware. These limited edition consoles and peripherals come in the original PlayStation gray. However, if you wanted an anniversary PlayStation 5 Pro, you likely couldn’t get one. 

Finally, Sony held a State of Play event last week. The biggest announcement from the press conference was Ghost of Yōtei, a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima. Check out the trailer below, or see everything announced at the event.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows remains hidden

Ubisoft’s eagerly-anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows was delayed until Feb. 14, 2025.

The announcement comes as Ubisoft said in a recent financial meeting that Star Wars Outlaws has underperformed. Ubisoft says they plan to improve Outlaws before the holiday season, and will launch the game on Steam in November. 

After Outlaws’  “softer than expected” sales, Ubisoft wants to avoid similar issues with their other marquee franchise. This comes as Ubisoft’s stock price hit a 10-year low, and investors are calling for major changes with the company.

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All of Annapurna Interactive’s employees walk out

The entire games division of Annapurna Interactive resigned en masse last week after a deal to spin off the group fell through.

Bloomberg has a breakdown of what happened:

Annapurna Interactive President Nathan Gary and his team had been negotiating with Ellison, the daughter of billionaire Larry Ellison, to spin off the video-game division as an independent entity. When Ellison pulled out of the negotiations, Gary and other executives resigned and were followed by around two dozen other staffers.

The exodus has led to chaos as game developers partnered with Annapurna try to figure out what this means for their upcoming projects. As a publisher, Annapurna is responsible not only for funding the games but for handling services such as quality-assurance, adapting the products for local markets and marketing. Over the past few days, game makers working with Annapurna have scrambled to find new points of contact and figure out whether the company will continue to honor its agreements.

Annapurna is responsible for a number of highly regarded independent games, including Stray, Outer Wilds, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Neon White. IGN has an in-depth look at what happened at the studio, and what comes next.

Side Quests

⚖️ Nintendo is suing Palworld developer Pocketpair for alleged patent infringement. A videogame patent lawyer breaks down Nintendo's lawsuit. 

📉 How the games industry turned pandemic success into disaster.

😈 Diablo 4 made over $150M from microtransactions, bringing its lifetime revenue to over $1 billion (so far). 

🚀 Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk’s SpaceX over unauthorized use of land Cards Against Humanity purchased for its members. 

🐸 Valve’s new multiplayer game Deadlock lets you turn cheaters into frogs. Unfortunately this is only in-game. 

🔒 A new California state law will require digital storefronts to inform players they don't actually own digital games. 

😟 Square Enix says Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth “did not meet our expectations.”

✊🏻 SAG-AFTRA is striking against League of Legends.

👪 Valve announced Steam Families, allowing game sharing among a household. 

👵 Shirley Curry, known online as Skyrim Grandma is retiring from making gaming videos at 88. 

👎🏼 Xbox laid off 650 employees, while Embracer studio Lost Boys Interactive laid off an unspecified number of employees. 

🤖 Electronic Arts desperately wants investors to know it's on the generative AI bandwagon.

🎮 Specs for the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 video cards have leaked. 

👩‍⚕️ The Silent Hill 2 remake will be exclusive to PlayStation for at least one year.

Ⓜ️ Games featuring paid loot boxes will soon receive a mandatory “M” for mature rating in Australia.

🚫 Game development engine Unity is dropping its unpopular per-install runtime fee.

💸 The Borderlands movie cost roughly $115 million to make, but made only $31 million globally. 

New Releases this week:

9/:30: Zoochosis (PC)
10/1: Throne and Liberty (PlayStation, Xbox or PC)
10/3: Parcel Corps (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
10/4: Until Dawn Remake (PlayStation and PC)

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