Business

Jam City Lays Off 17% of Staff

Published

8 months ago

August 5, 2022

Anthony DiMoro

Game Developer Jam City, which is the team behind the mobile titles such as Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery and Disney Emoji Blitz, has reportedly laid off around 17% of their staff which essentially impacts hundreds of employees throughout the company, according to VentureBeat.

The primary impact of the layoffs was felt within subsidiary studio Ludia, who were behind Jurassic World Alive. Jam City is also behind the blockchain game Champions Ascension.

Jam City said, in an official statement, that the decision to lay off between 150 to 200 people across the firm was a “necessary move to enhance our flexibility and increase operating efficiencies, better positioning Jam City for long-term growth.”

“This also follows a broader restructuring we recently completed to realign our development teams under genre divisions focused on subject-matter expertise to optimize performance,” the statement continued. “We thank those who are leaving us for their many contributions and are providing severance packages and benefits to help with the transition.”

Furthermore: “In light of the challenging global economy and its impact on the gaming industry, Jam City has made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 17%. In recent years, we have made a number of strategic acquisitions, and this move represents a right sizing of our work force to address redundancies associated with those transactions.

“While Jam City remains profitable, we believe that in the current operating environment, this is a necessary move to enhance our financial flexibility and increase operating efficiencies, better positioning Jam City for long-term growth. This also follows a broader restructuring we recently completed to realign our development teams under genre divisions focused on subject-matter expertise to optimize performance. We thank those who are leaving us for their many contributions and are providing severance packages and benefits to help with the transition.”

Business

Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022

Published

6 days ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.

According to the data:

The numbers

Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)

Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
Free games claimed: 700 million
Number of new PC releases: 626
Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)

Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.

Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.

Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”

Business

California Judge Dismisses Gamers Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft

Published

6 days ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

A federal judge in San Francisco has ruled that the group of 10 plaintiffs “[lacked] allegations” in their lawsuit filed last year that claimed Microsoft’s ownerships of Activision Blizzard would harm consumers and competition in the video games market, according to a filing shared by Reuters.

While US District Judge Jacqueline Corley dismissed the case, she also gave the plaintiffs 20 days to refine their lawsuit and resubmit it, and the group’s lawyer, Joseph Saveri, said that there are plans to officially submit an amended lawsuit with “additional factual detail” that will address the judge’s concerns.

It marks a victory for Microsoft, but their battles are far from over as they still face a hearing over the Federal Trade Commission’s legal complaint, which is currently slated to take place in August of this year.

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard originally expected the transaction to be complete by June 30, 2023.

Business

Super Evil Megacorp Expanding Team for Netflix Project

Published

6 days ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Catalyst Black developer Super Evil Megacorp has expanded their team following the announcement of their new partnership with content streaming platform Netflix, which include new additions from big name brands like Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Rockstar Games, according to MobileGamer.biz.

These are some of the appointments:

Tim Hume – lead gameplay tech engineer
JC Simbulan – lead animator
Steven Goodwin – senior technical engineer
Jurie Horneman – lead narrative engineer
Cassandre Beaumier – production director
Milo Casali – senior level designer

Netflix’s vice president and head of external games Leanne Loombe commented on the new title in the works for Netflix.

“It’s a big bet for us and we’re very much focused on creating an ecosystem around the streaming content and the game,” Loombe said. “It’s really a transmedia play for us in this brand new IP.”