Catharina Lavers Mallet

It’s fantastic to see another major player in the gaming industry, Atari’s Infogrames, placing game preservation at the heart of its business strategy. As highlighted in a recent article, Atari CEO Wade Rosen is committed to preserving and re-releasing classic games in ways that respect their original integrity while making them accessible to modern audiences. This move further underscores the increasing importance of game preservation, not just as a cultural necessity but as a viable business opportunity. Recent reports, such as the 2023 Video Games Europe Key Facts and Newzoo’s insights, have highlighted the growing significance of preserving our gaming heritage. Initiatives like #StopKillingVideoGames, which has gained record popularity, are part of a broader trend recognizing the need to safeguard video games' cultural and historical value. With GOG already making game preservation a core aspect of its business model, it’s encouraging to see this movement gain more momentum across the industry. As more companies and initiatives join forces, the preservation of gaming history is becoming an essential focus that will benefit both the industry and players alike. https://lnkd.in/d_Mz8NM5

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What's next for Apple's and Google's mobile platform duopoly? If you are in Reboot Develop, come to hear my answers to this question at 16:00CET on Tuesday, April 22nd, at the GD Ent. Stage. After the stakeholder workshops in March 2024, the European Commission has launched a formal investigation into Apple's and Google's DMA implementation plans. Please find below EGDF's response on the topics the Commission should focus on in their investigation. Both Apple and Google must do more to enable third-party application stores and payment systems in their platforms, ensure better access to data, and help game developers access key operating system features. The formal Commission investigation does not mean everything will be on hold for the next 12 months. New mobile distribution channels will emerge, service providers will build new services helping to introduce third-party payment systems, and game developers will find new and innovative ways to use improved data and OS features access to boost their business. 

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Episode 5 of The Talent Game podcast is live! 🥳 In this episode, Erla Gunnhildardóttir (Fractional CFO, Supercell, CCP Games) shares her inspiring journey into the gaming industry, starting with her love for board games and leading to her role at CCP Games. She opens up about her experience with layoffs at CCP, providing valuable insights into navigating financial planning and the emotional challenges during such times. Erla praises the leadership at CCP for their empathy, professionalism, and focus on maintaining a positive workplace culture despite difficult decisions. The conversation dives deep into the importance of company culture, with Erla emphasizing the role of leadership in shaping it through clear communication and setting behavioral expectations. She highlights the power of trust, psychological safety, and coaching in building high-performing teams. Erla also discusses how finance teams can play a strategic role beyond traditional back-office functions by fostering collaboration across departments. Key Takeaways ✅ Finance teams should be integrated into broader company functions, fostering collaboration rather than being siloed as a back-office role. ✅ Empathy and care are essential when navigating difficult situations, such as layoffs, to maintain a positive workplace culture. ✅ Effective leadership shapes workplace culture through clear values, communication, and behavioral expectations, fostering resilience in challenging times. ✅ Building high-performing teams requires trust, psychological safety, and coaching to enable team members to bring their whole selves to work. ✅ How candidates discuss their current or past employers during interviews reveals key insights into their mindset and attitudes.

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Lots of people changing jobs or on the hunt at the minute. Some useful tips to be mindful of from Amanda here. Even though you'll understandably be focused on landing the new role as smoothly as possible, these aren't unreasonable expectations at all and much easier to tackle up front than to deal with after the fact.

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In the last 12 months, our games have sold over 4.5 million copies across all stores and been added to Steam wishlists over 9.5 million times. I'm incredibly proud of our developers and honored to serve as their publisher! Here's a detailed breakdown, starting with current lifetime sales thresholds: - Manor Lords has sold over 2.5 million copies. - Against the Storm has sold over 1.2 million copies. - Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic has sold over 600,000 copies. - Empires of the Undergrowth has sold over 450,000 copies. - Old World has sold over 350,000 copies. - Norland has sold over 300,000 copies. - Terra Invicta has sold over 250,000 copies. - Cataclismo, NEBULOUS: Fleet Command, and Clanfolk have all sold over 150,000 copies each. - Xenonauts 2 has sold over 100,000 copies. For upcoming games and Steam wishlist thresholds: - Falling Frontier has over 600,000 wishlists. - Nova Roma has over 350,000 wishlists. - Super Fantasy Kingdom and MENACE each have over 250,000 wishlists. - Espiocracy, Blacksmith Master, and Fata Deum all have over 200,000 wishlists. - Fragile Existence has over 150,000 wishlists. - Beyond These Stars, Mars Tactics, Capital Command, and Whiskerwood all have over 100,000 wishlists. Our released games are generally still either in Early Access or just launched into v1.0, so they are just getting started in sales and we're incredibly excited to see all the developers will achieve over the coming years. And I'm very much looking forward to all the new releases we've got coming next year!

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Games that 'look like they were designed by a bunch of people in a CEO boardroom' aren't exciting or interesting Sensational take…however… Metaphor: ReFantazio’s sold over a million copies in less than 24 hours, and the games director gave a very balanced perspective on the JRPG landscape overall: “The other big competitor in Atlus' space keeps putting its whole budget behind into highly-polished JRPGs that fall short of lofty sales expectations, games that have all the graphics, that have all the realisms, yet fail to pull in proportionate numbers” The issue lies in the “lofty” expectations, not necessarily in the success of other legacy JRPG games. In terms of sales, FF still rank among the top-selling non-Pokémon JRPGs. However, the goal of these massive budget games is to reach over 10 million units sold, while most other JRPGs tend to sell below 5 million, and the reason they want to hit those numbers is because the budgets for the former games are high. Sales targets are based on beating marketing returns for the budget. And/or Publishers are investing heavily in their games in hopes of reaching wider audiences and achieving mainstream success. If a company wants a JRPG IP game to consistently sell 10M+ copies, they should consider leaning more toward the western market, as the JRPG market is relatively small. For instance, Persona 5, often seen as the top JRPG, hasn’t sold 5M copies individually. Even well-regarded series like Yakuza and Xenoblade haven’t hit 10M total. In contrast, games like Dragon’s Dogma, which appeal more to western audiences, have sold 12M as a series despite less popularity in the JRPG community. The western market is much larger, making it a logical target for higher sales. Reminder While ReFantazio surpassed 1M sales in 24 hours, while Dragon Ball Sparking Zero surpassed 3M sales in 24 hours on the exact same release date. This illustrates the scale of the JRPG market. Just to be clear for everyone reading this: The western market is significantly bigger than the Japanese market, and that it's logical for Japanese companies to try to target that market to increase sales.

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