INT. POSH HOTEL SUITE – DAY

TENCENT: Hey, Sony. Can we make a Horizon game?

SONY: Nah. We good.

TENCENT: Oh okay. Bummer.

<ONE YEAR LATER>

SONY: WHAT THE F—-

<fin>

So yeah… Sony is suing Tencent for what it calls a “slavish clone” of Horizon: Zero Dawn. Bold move! Also: EA, Microsoft, Capcom earnings, an update on the Mastercard/Visa censorship of legal game content, and more.

UPDATE: In this episode, we inaccurately converted the share price Atari paid for Thunderful Games. While it isn’t quite as absurd as we indicated, 0.15 SEK converts to $0.015 per share. So, it isn’t less than a penny, but it’s still extremely bad.

You can support Virtual Economy’s growth via our Ko-Fi and also purchase Virtual Economy merchandise!

Also… We have new Bluesky handles:
Virtual Economy – VirtualEconCast.com
Mike – Futterish.fsquared.biz
Manda – amandafarough.ca

TIME STAMPS

• [00:00:30] – Some News From Us!
• [00:05:21] – An Update on the Conservative Assault on Steam and Itch.io
• [00:15:34] – EA Q1 FY26 Earnings
• [00:20:25] – Microsoft Q4 FY25 Earnings
• [00:30:00] – Capcom Q1 FY26 Earnings
• [00:35:48] – Sony Sues Tencent Over Horizon: Zero Dawn Clone
• [00:41:59] – Investment Interlude
• [00:50:23] – Quick Hits
• [00:50:44] – Labor Report

SOURCES

• Mastercard Denies Pressuring Steam To Censor ‘NSFW’ Games [Update: Valve Responds] | Kotaku
• Vile is Banned | DreadXP
• Freedom to Buy Games | GOG
• Electronic Arts Reports Q1 FY26 Results | EA
• Earnings Release FY25 Q4 | Microsoft
• Consolidated financial results for the 1st Quarter of FY2025 | Capcom
• Sony’s PlayStation Sues Tencent Over Its ‘Slavish Clone’ of ‘Horizon’ Video Game Franchise | Variety
• Complaint for Copyright and Trademark Infringement | United States District Court, Northern District of California

INVESTMENT INTERLUDE

• Atari enters into an agreement to invest in Thunderful Group AB | Atari
• Puzzle & Dragons studio considers shareholder group request for a vote to dismiss its president | VGC
• Lyrical Media Launches Indie Video Game Publisher Led by UTA, Take Two Vet Blake Rochkind; Three Titles in Development | Variety

LABOR REPORT

• Supermassive Layoffs | Supermassive on LinkedIn
• Indie Publisher Firestoke Games is Shutting Down | Paul Farley on LinkedIn
• The studio behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed brings in union after facing closure | GamesIndustry
• Raven Software Workers Secure First Contract at Microsoft | CODE-CWA