News

Bungie Partners With NetEase

Published

6 years ago

June 2, 2018

Anthony DiMoro

Bungie, the team behind Destiny & Destiny 2, has announced a partnership with NetEase, who is known for their work on Minecraft, Onmyoji, and Rules of Survival.

Here is Bungie’s official announcement:

“At Bungie, our purpose is to build worlds that inspire friendship. For over twenty-five years, through Marathon, Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny, we’ve created fantastic places where players have gathered to become heroes. Now, our long-term goal is to become an entertainment company that sustains many worlds simultaneously – Destiny and new worlds to come.

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve entered into a new partnership with NetEase to help us explore new directions. With their industry expertise, they’ll empower us to build new worlds and invite players, new and old, to join us there. They’ll help us support separate teams inside Bungie to bring our newest ambitions to life.

If you’re a player of Destiny, this news won’t impact the hobby you’ve come to know. Destiny is an experience that will grow for many years to come. We’ll continue to work with our partners at Activision to foster this global community and turn new players from all over the world into Guardians. Our commitment to that world is not diminished by this announcement. We have exciting plans for the future of the Destiny franchise, and you’ll learn more about the next steps we’ll take together in the weeks to come.

For now, we’re grateful for the opportunity to welcome NetEase to the family. We have a bold vision to explore with them, but that is all a conversation for another time.”

Given the track record of both companies, not fully counting Bungie’s initial debacle with the beginnings of Destiny 2, the prospect of these two brands collaborating on future games is exciting to say the least.

Let’s see what comes of this.

Business

Patreon Hires Twitch’s Adiya Taylor as New Corporate Communications Lead

Published

1 month ago

March 16, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Content creation platform Patreon has officially tabbed Adiya Taylor as their new corporate communications lead, effective in February, according to an official announcement.

Taylor worked for Amazon’s video game streaming platform Twitch for three years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the company’s senior monetization communications manager prior to her departure.

Taylor’s hiring comes after Patreon brought on Brielle Villablanca as Vice President of communications and creator advocacy back in November 2023.

“I’m thrilled to begin crafting and implementing a communications strategy around policy, trust and safety, product and more,” Taylor said during an official post on the networking platform LinkedIn, adding that she believes Patreon is a “true advocate” for creators.

“I’m looking forward to more storytelling around how we’re fostering fandom so that creators own long-lasting businesses built around their artistry,” Taylor added.

Business

Microsoft Bringing Four Games to Rival Consoles

Published

2 months ago

February 15, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Microsoft has responded to recent reports that there will be changes to it’s first-party strategy and has confirmed that four game titles will be released on rival consoles.

More specifically, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that ‘Starfield’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ will not be among the four titles heading to other platforms. Both games had a number of candidate platforms, per reports, adding that this is “not a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.”

“We don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that,” Spencer said, according to GamesIndustry.biz. “Looking forward, I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there’s a good brand value for Xbox there.”

Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that Activision Blizzard games would begin to be added into Game Pass offerings, starting with Diablo 4, which will be added on March 28th.

Additionally, Bond said that Microsoft is still working on hardware for the future and that their focus regarding the future is “delivering the largest technical leap you will ever have seen in a hardware generation.”

Business

Sega’s Revenue See Rise to $27 Billion

Published

2 months ago

February 9, 2024

Anthony DiMoro

Sega Sammy has released its financial report for the nine-month period that officially concluded on December 31st, 2023, and that report that demonstrated a rise in overall sales and profit despite a decrease in sales for Sega’s new titles.

That decline was offset by growth in pachislot and pachinko machines, however Sega had lowered its sales forecasts for the full financial year.

Here is a breakdown, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz.

Net sales: ¥349.9 billion ($2.3 billion, up 28.7% year-on-year)
Operating income: ¥54.4 billion ($364 million, up 42.4% year-on-year)
Ordinary income: ¥57.2 billion ($383 million, up 42.7% year-on-year)
Net sales were up 130.3% to ¥120.2 billion ($805 million) in this segment
Ordinary income increased by 521.3% at ¥45.7 billion ($306 million).
Entertainment Contents segment, which includes video games, net sales were up 4.2% at ¥219.3 billion
Profit decreased by 52.5% to ¥19.7 billion ($131.8 million) as a result of weak game sales

You can read a breakdown of the entire report at GamesIndustry.biz here.