Epic Games is under fire for wholesale copying Innersloth’s Among Us for a new Fortnite Mode. Also: the latest on Activision Blizzard, earnings updates (Starbreeze, Remedy, Paradox, Unity, Roblox, Embracer Group), NPD, and more.
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TIME STAMPS
- [00:00:58] – Krafton’s IPO Woes
- [00:03:31] – App Annie and Sensor Tower Mobile Gaming Reports
- [00:07:11] – US Senate moves to take on Apple, Google with Open App Markets Act
- [00:13:13] – Epic Games Store self-publishing enters closed beta
- [00:13:49] – Fortnite shamelessly rips off Among Us
- [00:20:26] – People Can Fly has not yet received revenue from Outriders
- [00:34:46] – Investment Interlude
- [00:51:07] – Quick Hits
- [01:09:12] – Activision Blizzard Update
- [01:18:53] – California DFEH takes aim at Riot Games
- [01:21:10] – Ubisoft Singapore under investigation for harassment and toxic workplace allegations
- [01:22:10] – Starbreeze Earnings
- [01:25:39] – Remedy Earnings
- [01:28:23] – Unity Earnings
- [01:31:51] – Paradox Earnings
- [01:39:51] – Roblox Earnings
- [01:46:39] – Embracer Group Earnings
- [01:49:50] – No More Robots celebrates four year anniversary
- [01:50:58] – NPD report for July 2021
SOURCES
- Beijing’s tech crackdown casts long shadow over South Korea’s biggest IPO in a decade (South China Morning Post)
- 2021 Mobile Gaming Tear Down (App Annie)
- Senators want to rein in Apple and Google’s app store dominance
- TRUST NOBODY: INTRODUCING FORTNITE IMPOSTORS
- No entitlement to royalties on the sale of the “Outriders” game for PCF Group S.A.
- Jesse McCree, Diablo 4 Director No Longer At Activision Blizzard (Kotaku)
- Activision Blizzard’s contract workers say they’re ‘crushed’ by toxic culture (Polygon)
- SOC Investment Group takes aim at Activision Blizzard
- DFEH Files Request for Enforcement of Court Order Compelling Riot Games, Inc. to Send Notice to Workers about their Right to Speak with the Government
- Ubisoft S’pore under probe over workplace complaints (The Straits Times)
- Starbreeze Interim Report First Half 2021
- Remedy Half-Year Review (January 1 – June 30 2021)
- Paradox Interim report January – June 2021
- Unity FY21 Q2
- Roblox FY21 Q2
- Investigation: How Roblox is Exploiting Young Game Developers (People Make Games)
- Roblox “exploiting” young game developers, new investigation reports (Eurogamer)
- Embracer Group First Quarter FY2022
INVESTMENT INTERLUDE
- Unity Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Parsec
- Embracer Group Snaps Up Three More
- ROBLOX ACQUIRES GUILDED, A PLATFORM TO CONNECT GAMING COMMUNITIES
- Thunderful Group acquires To The Sky and Tussilago
- TinyBuild acquires Animal (GamesIndustry)
- Rovio Entertainment to acquire hyper-casual game studio Ruby Games
- Sony Pictures Entertainment Announces the Completion of Acquisition of Ellation Holdings, Inc., Operator of the Anime Business Crunchyroll
- Rolocule Games acquired by Dream Sports
- Keywords Studios plc Acquisition of AMC RO STUDIO
- Roblox acqui-hires Jim Greer’s Bash Video platform (GamesBeat)
- NACON ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF CREA-TURE STUDIOS, MONTREAL BASED VIDEO GAME STUDIO, BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF « SESSION »
- VR dev XR Games nets $2.1 million to expand team and create new franchises (Gamasutra)
- Mountaintop raises $30M Series A
- Israeli startup raises $2m to develop the next-gen academy platform for Esports teams (EuropeanGaming.eu)
- Kalam Labs raises $450K for its livestreaming platform for educational games (GamesBeat)
- Seattle-based Starform raises $5 million to scale up ahead of game reveal (Gamasutra)
- AviaGames raises $40M to diversify gaming
- Hero Concept received investment from WePlay Ventures with a valuation of 3 Million Dollars