Lightforge Games is laying off the majority of its team and pausing development on Project ORCS.The fully-remote studio was formed in 2021 by a group of Blizzard and Epic Games veterans and quickly secured $15 million to finance its debut project.Project ORCS was billed as a cross-platform social experience that would let players "create worlds and tell stories with unprecedented freedom." The studio claimed it would combine the creative elements of Minecraft with the open-ended storytelling of tabletop RPGs.Although Lightforge is cutting jobs across the board, the studio intends to regroup as a "skeleton team" to carve out a viable future.
Capcom has posted its full financials for the 2023-2024 year, which was very kind to the Japanese developer.As of March 31, 2024, net sales hit ¥152.410 million (or $977M), up 21 percent from 2022-2023, and a new record high. It also marks the seventh year in a row of record-high profit and 11th year of operating income growth (¥57.08 million).In late April, Capcom raised its revenue goals for the fiscal year to ¥152.4 million. The change was done in light of Dragon's Dogma 2's performance, which stands at 2.62 million sales overall.Street Fighter 6, which released last June, has sold 3.3 million units. The remake of Resident Evil 4 has netted 7.02 million units across its lifetime, bringing that franchise's total performance to 36.29 million copies sold.In total, Capcom&…
Capcom has posted its full financials for the 2023-2024 year, which was very kind to the Japanese developer.As of March 31, 2024, net sales hit ¥152.410 million (or $977M), up 21 percent from 2022-2023, and a new record high. It also marks the seventh year in a row of record-high profit and 11th year of operating income growth (¥57.08 million).In late April, Capcom raised its revenue goals for the fiscal year to ¥152.4 million. The change was done in light of Dragon's Dogma 2's performance, which stands at 2.62 million sales overall.Street Fighter 6, which released last June, has sold 3.3 million units. The remake of Resident Evil 4 has netted 7.02 million units across its lifetime, bringing that franchise's total performance to 36.29 million copies sold.In total, Capcom&…
Xbox president Sarah Bond claims Microsoft's decision to shutter key studios such as Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks is about ensuring the company's video game business is "healthy for the long term."Bond was addressing the closures during an interview at Bloomberg Live and described the decision to wind down major studios as "extraordinarily hard." In justifying the move, she claimed Microsoft has a "deep responsibility" to ensure its games, devices, and services can survive moments of transition within the game industry. "The news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that," she said.Bond said the industry has been "flat" over the last year despite a lot of "tremendous releases" in 2023. "The growth di…
How well is Dragon's Dogma II doing for Capcom? So good, it's got the company changing up its projections for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, apparently.The developer has revised its earnings forecast from ¥140 million ($900.1 million) to ¥152.4 million ($979.8 million). All of this is in light of "recent operational results," which includes both the fantasy-RPG and 2023 hits like Street Fighter 6.Credit was also given to older games from "major series," which likely include Resident Evil. As such, the company "expect net sales, operating income, ordinary income, and net income [will] all outperform our previously announced forecast."Without providing hard numbers, Capcom claims Dragon's Dogma II has performed "favorably." Half a month af…
Swedish conglomerate Thunderful Group is divesting Nordic video game and peripheral distributor Nordic Game Supply.Nordic Game Supply works with key retail partners in the Nordic region and currently supplies over 1,500 storefronts.Thunderful, which publishes titles like Planet of Lana, Somerville, and Steamworld Build, had been conducting a strategic evaluation of Nordic Game Supply due to "difficulties with its profitability throughout 2022 and 2023."It had been in conversations with a number of potential buyers as part of that evaluation, and has now chosen to sell the vast majority of Nordic Game Supply assets and business operations to Handelsselskabet af 15 Marts 2024, a company owned by acting Nordic Game Supply CEO Henrik Mathiasen.The two parties have signed off on a pre…
Medieval strategy title Manor Lords sold over 1 million copies within 24 hours of making its Steam Early Access debut. The title landed on Steam on April 26, 2024, and surpassed that milestone the very next day.Publisher Hooded Horse explained Manor Lords topped 170,000 concurrent players on Steam over the weekend, with SteamDB estimating it delivered a peak of 173,178 concurrent players.Manor Lords is strategy smorgasbord that features in-depth city building, economic and social simulations, and large-scale battles.Hooded Horse claims the game has become the most wishlisted project on Steam with over 3.2 million player wishlists, but recently told many of those eager players to consider waiting for the full release before diving in."Please, don't feel any pressure to buy the gam…
Amazon has already branded its Fallout show a "hit" and commissioned a second series, but now we know what that means in more tangible terms.As reported by Variety, the live-action Amazon Prime Video adaptation pulled in 65 million viewers in 16 days to become the second most-watched title ever on the streaming platform.That milestone also means it has become the most-watched release since The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted in 2022.Amazon noted Fallout is now the most-watched show within the 18-34 age demographic and explained 60 percent of viewers live outside the United States. Specifically, the company said demand for the show in the UK, France, and Brazil was particularly strong.Given Amazon hasn't discussed how it sizes up audiences, it's unclear if …
Update (05/02/24): Bloomberg is reporting that Take-Two intends to shut down Intercept Games.Although Take-Two wouldn't disclose how the studio has been impacted by the 70 layoffs in Seattle, where Intercept is located, documentation reviewed by Bloomberg indicates the studio will be shuttered.Take-Two had already told Game Developer it will continue to make updates to Kerbal Space Program 2.Original story: Take-Two is laying off 70 people in Seattle as part of an ongoing cost-reduction program.The publisher is currently attempting to reduce its headcount by 5 percent to enhance its "margin profile while still investing for growth." It announced those layoffs just weeks after spending $460 million acquiring Gearbox from Embracer.A WARN notice filed in Washington shows the co…
Per a recent Insider Gaming report, Ready or Not developer Void Interactive was hacked, and the source code for its shooter was stolen in the attack.An alleged 4TB worth of data was stolen, comprising of over 2.1 million files. While it's still investigating, Void stressed no "user or staff-related information" has been leaked.Also stolen were supposed console builds for PlayStation 4 and 5 and Xbox One and Series X|S. Insider Gaming claims the stolen information pertained to the game itself, and its assets and proprietary code are currently intact.Ready or Not had its full 1.0 release on Steam last year after an Early Access launch in 2021. Speaking to Kotaku, a Void representative blamed the hack on "critical vulnerabilities" from the TeamCity cloud service it us…
Starting today, LinkedIn users can play a trio of games created by its News team, via computer or mobile app.Per VP Dan Roth, the "thinking-oriented games" were made to offer users a break and connect them to other players. Beyond fostering new connections (that could lead to jobs), Roth hopes the games spark a "healthy bit of competition" in the community.LinkedIn joins the New York Times and Spotify in non-traditional platforms launching browser and app-based games for mass appeal. Its games can only be played once per day, and players can see who among their connections is also playing.The three games—Queens, Pinpoint, and Crossclimb—will have their stats revealed in a weekly newsletter. Each game is a LinkedIn take on a well-known casual game: Pinpoint is a word…