Ensuring not another day goes by without games journalists googling exec headshots, long-time Bethesda SVP Head of Publishing Pete Hines has retired to ‘start an exciting new chapter’. Bethesda praised Hines’ authenticity, integrity and passion in a statement on Twitter.
It was already the best selling game of all time, but at this year’s annual Minecraft Live, it was announced that they’ve sold over 300 million copies. This puts Minecraft over 100 million ahead of the next best selling game, GTA V. Crazy.
The latest from Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE - COCOON is just as intriguing, creative and moreish. The puzzles are really nice, and all a good level of challenge. Everything else, from the visual and sound design to each little interaction wouldn’t be misplaced in a ‘Satisfying Aesthetic ASMR Compilation’ video. Really cool.
While consumers celebrate 2023 as a ‘great year for games!’, a lot of those who make them weren’t as thrilled. Stephen Totilo at Axios looked back over the year, and spoke to developers: over 6,000 industry jobs were cut in 2023, with major studios like Epic and EA making significant staff reductions. The impact extends beyond development roles, affecting DNI and HR jobs, and disproportionately impacting women. Unions may offer a solution as the industry adjusts to post-pandemic working conditions.
As the ink dries on the final steps of Microsoft’s acquisition, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has announced he will only stay on til the end of the year - closing out his 33rd year at the company under Phil Spencer’s leadership. Kotick’s time at the helm was marred by various controversies such as; discrimination lawsuits, allegations of union busting, unfair labour practice complaints and layoffs amid record profits. Hopefully a change in leadership will help turn things around.
UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has granted Microsoft approval to acquire Activision Blizzard. This removes the final roadblock for Microsoft, allowing the biggest acquisition in videogame history - $68.7 billion USD - to conclude.
Less than a month after the absurd and disastrously-received Runtime Fee stuff, the Unity CEO steps down, effective immediately. James M. Whitehurst becomes interim CEO and Roelof Botha is appointed chairman, as the search for a new permanent CEO begins. Riccitiello’s tenure was marked by a focus on expansion, but included many boneheaded moves including floating the idea for charging real money to reload ingame guns, pushing generative AI, and more. Sooo… byebye!
Erik Peterson from Valve’s Steam Business team has shared an interesting talk/presentation on how games are surfaced, and broadly how visibility works on the platform. Always interesting to get a look behind the curtain, especially from the likes of Valve.
It’s that time again. 🎃 For the last few Octobers, A Short Hike creator Adam Gryu has opened the gates to the annual Pumpkin Festival. Jump in, admire people’s creations, and find a nice spot to carve and place your own. New this year: hats! Always a bit of fun.
Creative Australia has commissioned a new very interesting study exploring Australian musicians’ vital role in the games industry, their working conditions, and the challenges of diversity in this sector. Lots of interesting stuff in here, and the full report is free.