Thursday, 14 November 2024

Game News Round-Up

Daily curated games-industry news digest for 14 November 2024.

General3 stories

Steam's new API lets devs grant easier build access to players

  • Previously, players would have to access those beta branches on their own in the 'Settings' tab; now, developers can add a button and text to a game's menu that shows what a build a player has and invite them to join the beta branch. Inside that branch, players will "see new UI immediately next to the play button in Steam that shows the current beta they have set, and easily lets them opt back out if they so choose."
  • Once selected, Steam will reboot and relaunch the game into beta mode and its player-selected build. That build will be further reflected in the game's Steam library page.
Game Developer

World of Warcraft’s Midnight expansion will add player housing

  • Coming Summer 2025
  • Blizzard previously experimented with a similar concept when it introduced Garrisons to World of Warcraft via the Warlords of Draenor expansion in 2014. The feature arriving with Midnight, however, appears to hew closer to community expectations by matching the player housing experiences in other MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV and The Elder Scrolls Online.
VGC

Blizzard has released remastered versions of Warcraft 1 and 2

  • Also includes a 2.0 version of Warcraft 3 Reforged, which intends to fix the massive amounts of issues from the original Reforged release
  • Blizzard has “added modern controls” for Warcraft 1, while both games include various UI and UX improvements.
  • All three titles are available as part of the Warcraft Remastered Battle Chest, which is priced at $39.99.
VGC
Free Games / Subscription1 story

November’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Classics titles revealed

  • Releases November 19th
  • Extra and Premium
  • Grand Theft Auto V | PS4/5
  • Dying Light 2: Stay Human | PS4/5
  • Like a Dragon: Ishin | PS4/5
  • MotoGP 24 | PS4/5
  • The Sims 4 Island Living (Add-on only) | PS4
  • Digimon Survive | PS4
  • Overcooked! All You Can Eat | PS4/5
  • Stick Fight: The Game | PS4
  • Clash: Artifacts of Chaos | PS4/5
  • Killer Frequency | PS4/5
  • Hungry Shark World | PS4
  • Chivalry 2 | PS4/5
  • Premium
  • Synapse | PS VR2
  • Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain | PS4/5
  • Blood Omen 2 | PS4/5
  • Resistance: Fall of Man
  • Resistance 2
VGC
Business4 stories

Ubisoft appoints new chief people officer

  • Sébastien Froidefond
  • Froidefond's expertise "spans HR strategy, performance management, culture building and employee engagement." He joins Ubisoft following a position as human resources Americans lead at Lactalis Americas.
  • Previously, he has worked at senior HR positions across a number of sectors, including beauty, pharma, and life sciences.
GamesIndustry.biz

Nexon's Q3 Results

  • Revenues: ¥135.6 billion ($874 million), up 12.7% year-on-year
  • Net income: ¥27 billion ($174 million), down 23% year-on-year
GamesIndustry.biz

Hundreds of Bethesda employees strike over remote work and outsourcing policies

  • Hundreds of Bethesda employees are striking today over remote working and outsourcing concerns they claim Microsoft has failed to address
  • Workers in Maryland and Texas are holding a one-day strike after filing an unfair labor complaint against parent company ZeniMax in October
  • According to the union, ZeniMax workers are currently required to go to the office twice a week, but it claims many are being denied their remote work requests.
  • Additionally, it’s seeking to limit the percentage of quality assurance testers ZeniMax outsources in comparison to the number of full-time workers present in its bargaining unit.
VGC

Lollipop Chainsaw RePop’s sales greatly exceeded expectations, parent company claims

  • Dragami Games' parent company Extreme has revised its annual forecast for the year as a result
  • Revised its sales forecast to ¥11.65 billion ($75.4 million), up from ¥11 billion ($74 million). It also revised its net profit to 1.08 billion ($6.9 million), up from ¥710 million ($4.6 million).
  • In all, it forecasts a sales increase of 5.9%, an operating profit increase of 50%, an ordinary profit increase of 52.4% and a net profit increase of 52.1% for the year, compared to its previous forecast.
VGC