Game News Round-Up

LucasArts artist Ti-Ning Kwa has passed away

• Kwa provided art and model work for The Sims sequels and their expansions and Tribes 2 before pivoting to making award-winning, high-end luxury eyewear.

Saber Interactive teams with Paramount to develop triple-A Avatar (Nickelodeon's Avatar) project

Fallout series reaches 100m viewers worldwide

Sims 4 gets embalming, grim reaping, reincarnation, and naked moon rituals in new Life & Death expansion

• Arrives October 31st

Foamstars is now free-to-play

Riot teases ‘new playable experiences’ in the Valorant universe

• Valorant, which has 35 million players per month, is moving to Unreal Engine 5 (currently on Unreal 4.27)
• Fun fact: Valorant is built on-top of the ShooterGame sample of Unreal Engine 4

Hi-Rez Studios lays off staff to 'ensure' Smite 2's long-term success

• Several teams across Hi-Rez and its subsidiaries have been impacted by layoffs as the company puts more weight behind Smite 2's development.
• A specific number of reductions was not revealed, but Chisam said Hi-Rez's marketing and publishing teams have been affected. Cosmetic content and system features teams at subsidiaries Evil Mojo (Paladins), G&A, and Titan Forge (Smite) were also impacted.

French publisher RIVRS raises €4m to "professionalise and industrialise" UGC

• "Our proven model puts us in pole position to capture the global UGC market," said co-founder
• RIVRS was founded in 2021 in Rennes, France, by Romain Hubert and Loïc Deffains. It has already developed ten games, reaching revenues of "nearly €500K for a single title".

Antstream Arcade makes "small number" of layoffs

• Retro games streaming firm attributed job cuts to a "strategic shift in focus"
• Unclear specifically how many people are affected
• Antstream was founded in 2013 and launched its games streaming service in 2019. In recent years, it has been expanding that service to more platforms, including Xbox last year and PlayStation earlier this year.

Mario + Rabbids director and Red Dead Redemption lead designer found new studio Day 4 Night

• Day 4 Night's first project, a new IP, is described by Xbox co-founder Ed Fries - whose 1Up Ventures is financing the studio alongside publisher Krafton - as "easily the most creative thing we have seen in quite some time".

Xbox co-founder J Allard has joined Amazon

• He's working on "new ideas" as Vice President of Product (device and services team)