E3 lives, Stadia dies, and Twitch continues to make bad moves that alienate its community. Also: Saudi Arabia and Tencent look to step up investments, and a beefy labor report.
Ubisoft leadership has all but given up on fixing the company’s culture as Tencent increases its ownership stake. Also: NPD for August 2022, GameStop bleeds, Square Enix reconsiders how it approaches studio ownership, 343 loses its leader, and Microsoft and Sony continue to butt heads in the UK over Activision acquisition.
Embracer Group’s latest spending spree nets them one of the world’s most recognizable IPs (and much more). Also: Unity slumps amid hostile takeover, Take-Two posts losses on Zynga acquisition, Nintendo is in the hot seat again, Activision commits to the union-busting bit, and NPD for July 2022 as spending continues its slide back to pre-pandemic levels.
Call of Duty is in a slump, and Activision is waiting out the clock until the acquisition having reportedly canceled a long in-development mobile World of Warcraft game. Also: Earnings, GameStop’s terrible NFT marketplace, Square Enix’s bananas comments about its former Western teams, and more.
Minecraft is taking a hard line against those who would abuse the game with crypto and blockchain schemes. Also: Earnings season begins with Capcom, Microsoft, and Sony, ABK workers walkout again, Rockstar on the mend, and Meta jacks the price of the Quest 2 by $100.
We talk a lot about diversity, equity, and inclusion on this show. Manda sat down with Code Coven’s founder, Tara Mustapha, and marketing coordinator, Myleah Lofland, earlier this year to discuss how Code Coven is…
The Video Game Industry Celebrated Pride with a Bear Market (News Show): The pandemic boon is quickly becoming a memory as inflation, rising prices, and a thin release slate put pressure on developers and publishers. Also: Activision workers list demands for workplace safety, the Communications Workers of America back Microsoft’s Activision acquisition, and Québec may be set to quash its local game scene.
There was a lot to learn from the 2022 Keigh3 / Not-E3 / Game Mess showcases, and we’ve got beefy trend analysis for you! Also: NPD for May 2022, Microsoft takes more union-positive steps, EA and Ubisoft slash executive compensation, Activision shareholders do lots wrong (but one thing right), and a double FAFO!
GameStop revenues are up, but other indicators are looking ugly. Also, Microsoft takes steps toward supporting unions, Xbox cloud gaming evolves, EA tries to repair Pride damage and more. You can support Virtual Economy’s growth…
This episode is a bit of all of your faves. We have some interesting earnings stuff to discuss (Embracer Group, EG7, Thunderful, and CD Projket), the labor report is getting saucy, and we get to talk about funding for indies!