TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Netmarble releases 2019 financial results; Atomico and Founders Fund announce new capital; and Kwalee pays out over £1m in employee profit share scheme. Netmarble releases 2019 financial results Netmarble has announced its financial results for Q4 and full-year 2019, with sales through the quarter rising by 13.3% year-on-year to ₩551.8bn (£357.0m), with operating profit also climbing by 32.1% y-o-y to ₩50.2bn (£32.4m). While ostensibly painting a rosy picture [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Embracer Group acquires Saber Interactive; Paradox Interactive revenue up 13%; and ESL and Dreamhack sign revenue-sharing agreement with 13 leading teams. Embracer Group acquires Saber Interactive Embracer Group AB has signed an agreement to purchase US-based developer-publisher Saber Interactive Inc. in a deal with a maximum value of USD$525m (£404m), equivalent to 8.4x Saber Interactive’s 2019 EBIT. The deal includes all Saber Interactive assets, including its studio portfolio [...]

The classic video game arcade has almost become a trope for nostalgia. They appear across contemporary fiction as shorthand for a fondly remembered version of the 1970s and 1980s. The arcade’s ‘passing’ is often lamented in tandem with warm, fuzzy memories of growing up in those decades; even if that lamenting started while arcades were still active. Indeed, arcades are still active. Here in the UK there may be very little of any ‘arcade industry’ remaining, and that is true at many [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Ubisoft recruiting for AAA VR title; current-gen console sales declining at faster rate; and ByteDance appoints head of gaming. Ubisoft recruiting for AAA VR title Ubisoft Blue Byte GmbH is hiring for a series of roles to work on a AAA VR project, which will be based upon one of the publisher’s “greatest IPs”. While Ubisoft Blue Byte is best known for developing titles based on the Anno [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Flowstate Games closes pre-seed funding round; HQ Trivia folds; Sonic the Hedgehog breaks video game box office record; and Tematem raises USD$3.5m (£2.7m). Flowstate Games closes pre-seed funding round Helsinki-based mobile development studio Flowstate Games has secured an undisclosed level of funding in a pre-seed investment round led by Play Ventures. Flowstate is due to release its first casual arcade title this year, with the studio focusing on [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Nvidia revenue climbs 41%; Sony wrestling with PlayStation 5 price-setting; and Google Activision Blizzard deal valued at USD$160m (£123m). Nvidia revenue climbs 41% Nvidia has published its financial results for the forth quarter and fiscal year 2020, with quarterly revenue rising by 41% year-on-year to reach USD$3.11bn (£2.39bn), with operating income for Q4 climbing by 237% to USD$990m (£761m). The increase has been attributed to strong adoption of [...]

English Heritage yesterday found itself at the centre of something of a social media storm when it was noted that a recent marketing campaign by the history charity took a swipe at gaming. As highlighted in a tweet by Paul Kilduff-Taylor of indie developer Mode7, an English Heritage leaflet targeting parents asked on its cover: ‘isn’t it time to make their virtual world history?’. The message of the leaflet seemed to be explicitly leaning into the notion that youngsters should be [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Tim Sweeney warns against “customer adversarial” practices, Double Loop Games raises USD$2.5m (£1.9m), and Bit Fry Game Studios raises USD$3.5m (£2.7m). Tim Sweeney warns against “customer adversarial” practices Epic Games CEO and co-founder Tim Sweeney has warned the gaming industry against the use of the “customer adversarial model” in gaming as part of a wide-ranging keynote speech at the DICE summit, sharply criticising the use of loot boxes [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Activision Blizzard withdraws titles from GeForce NOW; Supercell revenue climbs 2%; and DKB bank to offer esports scholarships. Activision Blizzard withdraws titles from GeForce NOW Activision Blizzard has withdrawn its titles from the Nvidia GeForce NOW cloud gaming platform, just a week after the service launched fully. At the time of publication, neither company has cited a reason for the request, which has seen the removal of titles [...]

In this special contributed feature by Wilhelm Voutilainen, senior game analyst at GameRefinery looks at what we can learn about mobile gaming by looking back to the previous year, pulling insights from the company’s considerable pool of data. — So here we are in 2020 – not just a new year, but the start of a whole new decade. We’ve returned to our desks full of heady optimism, and focused on the future. Looking back at the past year can often be [...]