Sony, Vicarious Vision, CD Projekt… The business news of the week

Business news Sony, Vicarious Vision, CD Projekt… The business news of the week

Sony invests in Epic Games again!

In July 2020, Sony announced in the press that it had invested 250 million dollars in Epic Games, to support the technological development of the company behind the Unreal Engine 5. In April 2021, again, this time for $200 million† A new agreement celebrated by Aloy’s arrival from Horizon: Zero Dawn in id:45791 Fortnite|sponsored=false]† Finally, Sony seems to want to go much further in its idea, as Epic Games has announced this week that the Japanese company had injected $1 billion Additionally. In focus: technological development and implementation of the metaverse†

Today, Epic Games announced $2 billion in funding to further the company’s vision to build the Metaverse and support continued growth.

The other billion comes from KIRKBIA the family holding and investment company behind the LEGO Group† These additional investments should not disrupt the established order, as the press release indicates that Epic Games remains under the control of Tim Sweeney† Of course the press release omits the word Kenichiro YoshidaChairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Sony Group Corporation †

As a creative entertainment company, we are excited to invest in Epic to deepen our relationship in the realm of the Metaverse, a space where creators and users share their time. We are also confident that Epic’s expertise, including its powerful game engine, combined with Sony’s technologies will accelerate our various efforts, such as developing new digital experiences for sports fans and our virtual production initiatives.

Vicarious visions: the disappearance of the studio is effective

On January 22, 2021, we learned that: Vicarious Visions, which was part of Activision Publishing, went on to integrate Blizzardwith the mission of supports the developments of the makers of diablobyoverwatchby
starcraft or the universe warcraft† To this studio we owe the GBA version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2† various guitar hero license opusesor the remakes Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy†

The studio has been open for over a year therefore no longer has the ability to direct the development of a game, engaged in Diablo II: Resurrected and assist in the production of Diablo IV† At the time of announcement, Jen O’neal, studio director Vicarious Visions, was promoted to executive vice president of development at Blizzard. A position she left three months later† By November, the integration of the Vicarious Vision teams was completed, but the entity continued to exist. This week, a short tweet from the studio account announces that: the merger is now completewhich effectively leads to the disappearance of vicarious visions

We have officially merged with Blizzard Entertainment. Our development team will remain in Albany, NY and will focus entirely on Blizzard games. We invite you to follow us on @Blizzard_Ent.

That is why after 28 years of existence, Vicarious Visions bends back to become Blizzard Albany. We’ll just have to wait and see what the developers of the old studio have in store for us.

CD Projekt RED Provides Sales and Financial Update

If the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 been disastrous for the image from CD Projekt, the company is doing very well and is even starting to regain public credit. At the same time, the studio formalized the development of a new saga The Witcher under Unreal Engine 5, and a major reorganization of the studio has been underway for months. Shortly after the end of the financial year, CD Projekt announced that it got the next gen porting project from The Witcher 3postponed indefinitely to review the remaining work while the preparation of the presentation of the results for the year 2021. It is now ready and we can say that the company is gooddespite a very significant drop in results†

Between January and December 2020, CD Projekt achieved a turnover of 478 million euros, for an operating profit of 260 and a net profit of 257 million. For the period from January to December 2021, the numbers are less encouraging, but remain positive. That’s how we learn turnover is 194 million euros, operating profit is 50 million and net profit is 45 million† The significant drop in revenues is due to the fact that: Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t carry the companybut also by a total pay increase of 23%and by the a lot of investments created. On the other hand, GOGthe DRM-free sales platform, lose money with a net loss of 6.4 million euros.

It’s with the games that CD Projekt gargles, because that’s what we’ve learned The Witcher 3 had more than 40 million copies sold even before the release of the next generation, and surpassed the franchise’s total sales 65 million copies† We are much further along the Cyberpunk 2077 side, but we are more than 18 million copies sold from the exit. So we’re still a long way from the flop and we can imagine that the studio is preparing a plan to boost sales on the occasion of the arrival (undated) of the expansion† In addition, the balance sheet only speaks of a single extension, and Adam Kiciński, the CEO, indicates that: the RED Engine multiplayer support project has been discontinued.

We should also not forget that CD Projekt recently bought The Molasses Flood, after making Digital Scapes CD Projekt Red Vancouver† Finally, here is an overview of the evolution of the workforce distribution between December 2020 and February 2022. We note that most developers are now working on new projects (including the new The Witcher), which the team of Gwent is being maintained and working on a new single-player mode, which grows for the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, and that The Molasse Flood gets stronger.

Cloud Gaming: A New “Market” That’s Starting to weigh heavily

Released in 2003 with OnLive, cloud gaming will have taken nearly 20 years to begin its true democratization† We had to develop technology and infrastructure and wait for internet speeds to increase. Now installed with Nvidia’s GeForce Now, xCloud (Xbox Cloud Gaming), PlayStation Now, Shadow, Amazon Luna, Stadia and much more, cloud gaming would already weigh 1.5 billion dollars according to the recent Newzoo report. In the documents accompanying the analysis, we learn that cloud gaming would now cover 21.7 million users worldwide, with continued growth expected.

There is even talk of a multiplication of income, which could be reach $6 billion by 2024† To give you an idea of ​​the attrition, know that Newzoo indicated in the previous report that this market weighed “that” $671 million† But how to explain this sudden progression and these astonishing predictions?

On the one hand, we find the difficulty getting high quality equipment because of costs and shortages. On the other hand, we notice a major simplification of access to cloud gaming, the deployment of 5G and the acceleration of fiber optics, and a global advancements in technology linked. But to continue, it will be necessary to improve the capacity of the servers, continue the work on reducing latency and hope that the improvement of the connection will attract new customers.

Just in the business news of the week

• Bungie has announced that it will become a “digital first” company, allowing residents of several states in the United States to work 100% remotely. More info here.
• A DFEH attorney resigned, saying: California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom allegedly interfered in the case of the state and Activision-Blizzard. Full details of this new development in our special news.
• Nintendo paid €36.6 million to buy land and build a new building opposite his current headquarters. The building will be dedicated to R&D and completion is scheduled for December 2027.
• 41% of digital sales of LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga took place on Xbox consoles. On this point, the Microsoft console is ahead of the PlayStation consoles (34%), the PC (18%) and the Switch (7%).
• Embracer Group (THQ, gearbox) plans to buy other studios† Currently, the company has 62 studios and has paid a total of $8 billion.
• epic games invests in the Brazilian studio Aquiris (Horizon Chase Turbo†† The studio has signed a publishing agreement and will receive investment to develop future projects. The amount was not disclosed.
• Capcom has announced that The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles had expired at 500,000 copies in the world
• Despite appearing on the PlayStation Studios banner, Kojima Productions “is and remains an independent studio”said Hideo Kojima.
• Pokemon Unitethe lightweight MOBA developed by TiMi Studios now over 70 million downloadsall media combined.