Work and Play
Sony has a State of Play, and some big companies announce their quarterly profits.
Blizzard has a new president, some large companies announced their recent-quarter profits and Sony held their first State of Play press event of 2024. What was announced? Find out below.
Sony’s State of Play
Sony held their first State of Play press conference of 2024, and made some big announcements. Here are a few of the top games discussed:
Silent Hill: The Short Message is a free to play game that can be downloaded right now on the PlayStation Store.
A new trailer for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which is expected in 2025.
A new trailer for Stellar Balde is released.
The Silent Hill 2 remake is coming in 2024.
A new trailer for Judas, from Ken Levine, the creator of Bioshock.
New details are announced for Rise of the Ronin, including gameplay.
An announcement trailer for Sonic X Shadow Generations, which releases this fall.
Other announcements include Metro: Awakening VR, a new Dragon’s Dogma 2 trailer, Until Dawn Remastered, and a new Hideo Kojima action-espionage game called PHYSINT.
It’s just Business
Blizzard has a new president as some huge video game companies released their quarterly profits.
With Mike Ybarra leaving Blizzard, Johanna Faries was named president of the game company. Faries worked for Activision since 2018, last serving as general manager of Call of Duty. In her introductory post, Faries acknowledges the recent changes within the company:
The loss of talented teammates in recent days is hard to hold side-by-side with the immense excitement I feel about joining Blizzard – and building on the momentum you’ve created for Blizzard’s next chapter.
Meanwhile Electronic Arts saw quarter profits rise 42%, thanks to 7% growth of their soccer game EA Sports FC 24. Microsoft saw even bigger gains, thanks to their acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Total gaming revenue increased 49 percent, making gaming Microsoft’s third biggest business, ahead of Windows.
Gaming is now Microsoft's third largest business, bigger than Windows. Microsoft made $62 billion in Q2 2024 (fiscal). Gaming contributed $7.11 billion, more than the $5.26 billion from Windows https://t.co/VaV6MxQoag https://t.co/zilgpMRZju pic.twitter.com/0L302dmPDa
— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) January 30, 2024
While large companies profited, layoffs continued. The labor news from this week includes:
- Sega of America laid off 61 employees
- Edios lost 97 employees, and canceled a new Deus Ex game
- Devolver laid off half of its Artificer studio
- Airship Syndicate laid off 12 people, with the President and CEO taking pay cuts
Side quests (more stories worth reading)
🎴 The popular deck building game Dominion is now a free video game on Steam and smartphones.
💰 The Guardian has a great article on Gary Bowser, the man who owes Nintendo $14 million.
🎮 Microsoft is considering launching Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on PlayStation.
⚾ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will grace the cover of MLB The Show 24. Also, check out every cover athlete since 1997.
🔦 The latest update to Alan Wake 2 allows players to turn off jump scares.
📖 “There's Probably One More Chapter to This Story” says the creator of the Last of Us games.
🚫 Meanwhile, the actor who played Abby in The Last Of Us Part II said fans harassed her and threatened her child. Be better, people.
💸 Palworld servers cost nearly $500,000 per month to keep up, with the directive from the CEO to “never let the service go down no matter what.” It helps that the game has 19 million players.
🔫 Spec Ops: The Line was unexpectedly delisted from Steam and other PC storefronts.
🚫 Persona 3 Reload removes the original game’s transphobic lines.
🐉 Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth sold 1 million units globally.
🔚 Rocksteady pulls Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League an hour into early access after games “auto completed.”
🃏 The Van Gogh Pokémon cards that caused issues for a museum last year will be reprinted and more easily available.
📈 A report from Griffin Gaming Partners says that 95% of game makers are developing or maintaining a live service game.
👋🏼 The director of Destiny 2 will step down after the release of The Final Shape.
⚰️ Tencent reportedly killed an unannounced Nier mobile game.
👋🏼 Devolver Digital’s CEO Douglas Morin has stepped down.
🦸🏿 The Avengers are more popular than the Suicide Squad, at least on day one on Steam.
New Releases this week:
Check out 10 new games to play in February.
2/6: Foamstars (PlayStation)
2/8: Helldivers II (PlayStation and PC)
2/8: Shanghai Summer (PlayStation, Switch and PC)
2/8: The Inquisitor (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
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