Game News Round-Up

Two box sets celebrating the games of Tetsuya Mizuguchi announced

• Sounds and Visions: Enhance at 10 and The Enhance Soundworks Collection Boxed Set are available to pre-order now ahead of their release next year.
• Produced by Enhance, Lost in Cult, and Cook & Becker, Sounds and Visions: Enhance at 10 and The Enhance Soundworks Collection Boxed Set will be limited to 1010 and 505 copies respectively.
• The Sounds & Visions: Enhance at 10 Boxed Set contains a book, CD, glass sculpture and glass prints
• The Enhance Soundworks Collection Boxed Set features 9 Vinyl Records covering Rez Infinite, Lumines, Tetris Effect and Humanity

Clock Tower: Rewind released

• Enhanced version of the original Clocktower, marking the games first proper international localization
• Released for Xbox One / Series S / X, PS4/5, Nintendo Switch and PC
• Has received positive reviews, though fans have called out the lack of advertising for the release

November’s PlayStation Plus Essential games have been announced

• Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 – Turbocharged (PS4/5)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (PS5)
• Death Note Killer Within (PS4/5)
• Day one release.
• It's a "Werewolf" (read: Among Us) take on the Death Note IP

Nintendo Music app launching later today, featuring decades of Nintendo soundtracks

• Exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online members (basic tier)
• For iOS and Android
• Due to the way video-game songs are constructed, some songs can be "extended" (looped) for a custom set user time period (up to 60 minutes)
• Users will be given recommendations based on their Nintendo Switch play history, and it will also be possible to hide certain soundtracks in order to avoid spoilers.
• More songs will be added to the future
• Fan response has been mixed. The app itself has been praised but the "fear" Nintendo will start copyrighting music videos on YouTube has caused an overall negative reaction to the news

GameSpot staff endure another round of job cuts

ProbablyMonsters lays off "about 50 people" as Battle Barge project cancelled

Dozens of staff laid off at Inflexion as part of restructuring

• The news comes after Inflexion Games shut down its UK division last week.
• At least 22 people have been affected

Fingersoft lays off 14 employees

• Fingersoft was founded in 2012 by Toni Fingerroos, releasing its debut title, Hill Climb Racing, that same year. Its spin-off, Lego Hill Climb Adventures, launched in May 2024.

Team17 appoints Rashid Varachia as CFO and COO

• The firm's current CFO Mark Crawford to step down on October 31

Unity appoints former King exec Steve Collins as CTO

• Collins replaces Marc Whitten, who resigned from his role as chief product and technology officer in June

PlayStation’s Wolverine director has taken over Xbox’s Perfect Dark

• Brian Horton, who was previously named publicly as the creative director of Insomniac’s Marvel Wolverine title in 2021, left the studio in the summer and has joined his fellow Crystal Dynamics alumni at Xbox’s The Initiative
• Brain Horton previously helmed Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and 2015’s Rise of the Tomb Raider
• Wolverine is now being led by the design duo behind 2021’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, creative director Marcus Smith, and game director Mike Daly

Ubisoft Q1 Results

• Sales: €672 million (down 19.6% year-on-year)
• Net bookings: €642 million (down 21.9%)
• Digital net bookings: 527 million (down 26.5%)
• Back-catalogue net bookings: 494 million (down 28.95%)

EA Q2 Results

• Revenue: $2.05 billion, up 8% year-on-year
• Net income: $234 million, down 26% year-on-year
• Net bookings: $2.08 billion, up 15% year-on-year

Xbox Financial Results (Three months ended September 30, 2024)

• Gaming Revenue: Up 43% year-over-year
• Xbox Hardware Revenue: Declined 29% year-over-year
• Content and Services Revenue: Increased 61%, with 53 points of net impact from the Activision Blizzard acquisition
• Game Pass: Set a new Q1 record for total revenue and average revenue per subscriber

Black Ops 6 launch was ‘the biggest Call of Duty release ever’, Microsoft claims

• “Last week’s launch of Black Ops 6 was the biggest Call of Duty release ever, setting a record for day one players as well as Game Pass subscriber adds on launch day,” he said.
• “And unit sales on PlayStation and Steam were also up over 60% year-over-year. This speaks to our strategy of meeting gamers where they are by enabling them to play more games across the screens they spend their time on.”