Business
Koch Media Officially Rebrands as Plaion
Koch Media has officially rebranded under their new moniker; Plaion.
Managing managing director Klemens Kundratitz spoke at length about the changes, while emphasizing that the games publisher will remain “first and foremost a games company” while adding that the rebrand will “acknowledge who we truly are”.
“But the more we thought about it, the more we wanted to go all the way,” Kundratitz said, during an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz. “It’s more impactful, it’s got an external statement but it’s also an internal statement to our people. We’re opening this new chapter, they’re part of this, we’re a modern, growing, ambitious, global company, and it’s energising people internally.
“Obviously, we want to avoid people seeing this as window dressing. The signal we’re sending is that we’re on a journey and it’s good to give this journey a new name, new visual appearance. New is always exciting.”
“We have made such an enormous transformation since we joined the Embracer Group,” he continued. “Our name for so many years was associated with physical distribution, perhaps with us being more of a central European company – although including the UK because that was among the first three countries where we launched. But we’re perhaps not seen as a global company. And it’s sometimes difficult for some people to pronounce.”
“We’re not mutating into a different company, we’re just following a path that we’ve already been on since becoming part of Embracer Group. We’re growing in all areas. It’s certainly not a departure from physical distribution. Our mantra is we want to offer games wherever and however people want to play them: physical, digital, collector’s editions. Whatever way people want to consume our content, we’re there. We’re long-term committed in the physical space, but equally we need to reinvent ourselves all the time.”
“We’re a very transformed company and we have an ambition on a global scale to continue to grow, both on the content creation side and the sales side, as well as diversifying into different forms of entertainment. We’re ready to give ourselves a new look, a new style, and open a new chapter.”
The re-branding also applies to Koch Film, which will now be known as Plaion Pictures, which is a fresh approach for the world of film content creators, such as horror content creators and others within the film industry.
“Koch has always been a B2B brand and it will continue to be,” Kundratitz said. “All our consumer-facing publishing labels – Deep Silver, Prime Matter, Ravenscourt, Milestone and Vertigo Games – will stay the same. I think it’s easier to transition from Koch to Plaion in a B2B environment.”
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.”
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.
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.”
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