Bungie
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Ukrainian Game Studios are Fighting Back | Games ReCAP
The Ukrainian game development industry has responded with unified defiance following the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
- Major Ukrainian studios including GSC Game World and Frogwares have suspended operations and prioritized staff evacuation following the Russian invasion.
- International gaming companies, such as Bungie, CD Projekt Red, and the developers of the Metro series, have pledged game sale proceeds and direct donations to organizations like the International Red Cross, Save the Children, and Project Hope.
- Riot Games has suspended regional esports tournaments to address the instability caused by the ongoing conflict.
Roundtable News | Acquistions & VR Failures | Episode 293
The gaming industry is currently undergoing a period of intense consolidation, characterized by multi-billion dollar acquisitions such as Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard and Sony’s acquisition of Bungie.
- Major industry consolidation, exemplified by Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Sony’s purchase of Bungie, is driven by the need to secure intellectual property and expand capabilities in mobile and live-service gaming.
- Large gaming entities are prioritizing long-term ecosystem stability and subscription service growth over immediate financial returns to mitigate the impact of escalating development costs.
- Meta’s Reality Labs division has incurred massive financial losses, signaling a failure to achieve mass-market adoption for its metaverse strategy.
Tell Me More: Issue 92
The gaming industry experienced a period of intense consolidation and volatility in early 2022, characterized by high-profile acquisitions and shifting corporate strategies.
- Sony acquired Bungie for $3.6 billion to gain expertise in live-service game development, aiming to launch ten live-service titles by March 2026.
- Game industry M&A activity in January 2022 alone reached $85.4 billion, surpassing the total value of all deals announced in 2021.
- The FTC has signaled it will investigate Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, indicating a more rigorous regulatory review process.
Bungie, Obsidian, Riot, and Xbox Devs Reveal Their Annual Pay
The gaming industry has seen a surge in pay transparency initiatives, driven primarily by developers in the United States and Canada utilizing the social media hashtag #GameDevPaidMe.
- The #GameDevPaidMe social media movement has gained traction as a tool for industry pay transparency, with developers across North America publicly disclosing their compensation packages.
- Senior-level roles in software engineering and design command high salaries, such as a $213k annual salary for an Obsidian design director and $155k plus a 15% bonus for a senior software engineer at Demonware.
- Compensation for quality assurance (QA) roles varies significantly, ranging from $20k for a tester at Playground to $105k for a quality engineer at Xbox as of 2021.
Which New Switch Games Are Winning the Discovery War?
This analysis examines the competitive landscape of game discovery on the Nintendo Switch and Steam platforms during the latter half of 2021 and early 2022.
- The Nintendo Switch marketplace is highly saturated, with approximately 40 new games released weekly and only 5% of the nearly 1,000 digital titles launched in H2 2021 achieving five-figure unit sales before discounting.
- Success on the Switch is heavily dependent on platform-specific factors, specifically securing official Nintendo featuring or appearances in Nintendo Direct showcases to maintain chart longevity.
- Effective March 2022, Steam reduced the discount cooldown period from six weeks to 28 days while tightening regulations to ensure most seasonal and custom sales are subject to this mandatory waiting period.
Game Industry Consolidation Report 2021
The global video game industry experienced a period of unprecedented consolidation between 2021 and 2022, characterized by a rapid increase in both the volume and total value of mergers, acquisitions, and private investments.
- The gaming industry experienced a massive surge in deal activity, with total transaction value rising from $71 billion across 844 deals in 2021 to $127 billion across 1,320 deals in 2022, a 78.8% year-over-year increase.
- M&A activity dominated the market in 2022, reaching a total value of $102.3 billion, driven primarily by Microsoft’s $68.9 billion bid for Activision Blizzard and Take-Two’s $12.7 billion acquisition of Zynga.
- The PC and console sector was the most active M&A segment in 2022, accounting for 83 transactions worth a combined $74.9 billion.
57: To the Point
Sony’s acquisition of Bluepoint Games highlights a distinct, protectionist strategy compared to the aggressive expansionist tactics employed by competitors like Microsoft.
- Sony’s acquisition of Bluepoint Games reflects a protectionist strategy of securing long-term partners, contrasting with Microsoft’s aggressive expansionist approach of buying multiplatform studios.
- Bluepoint Games plans to transition from its established role as a remaster specialist to developing original content, a significant strategic shift for the studio.
- New Chinese government regulations are imposing strict content restrictions, including bans on 'effeminate males' and the removal of morality systems that allow players to choose between good and evil paths.
10 Print RIP
This industry commentary reflects on the legacy of Sir Clive Sinclair, the British computing pioneer who passed away in September 2021 at the age of 81.
- EA's share price fell by approximately 7% following the announcement that Battlefield 2042 would be delayed by one month.
- Mobile analytics firm App Annie and its CEO were fined $10 million and $300,000 respectively by the SEC for misleading practices regarding the handling of confidential data.
- Former Bungie audio director Marty O’Donnell was found in contempt of court and ordered to pay $100,000 to his former employer for unauthorized use of Destiny assets.
Three Decades of Games Industry Consolidation
The global video games industry is currently undergoing a significant wave of consolidation, highlighted by three major acquisitions in early 2022: Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, Take-Two’s $13 billion acquisition of Zynga, and Sony’s $3.6 billion deal for Bungie.
- The console market has reached a 'moderately concentrated' status with a 2021 Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) of 2,207, while PC and mobile segments remain unconcentrated with HHI levels below 1,500.
- Major 2022 acquisitions—including Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard, Take-Two’s $13 billion deal for Zynga, and Sony’s $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie—signal a strategic industry shift toward securing IP and talent for cloud and cross-platform services.
- The global games market has quadrupled in size over the last decade, preventing any single firm from achieving a monopoly across all platforms despite increasing consolidation.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light Pre-Orders Are Very Strong, Analyst Suggests
Industry analysis from June 2020 indicates strong consumer demand for the Destiny 2 expansion, Beyond Light.
- Industry analyst Benji-Sales reports that pre-orders for the Destiny 2: Beyond Light expansion are performing strongly well in advance of its September 22, 2020, release date.
- Destiny 2 reached a peak of over 154,000 concurrent players on Steam as of June 2020, marking the game's highest PC player count since the 2019 launch of the Shadowkeep expansion.
- Bungie has confirmed that Destiny 2 will receive a next-gen upgrade for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, featuring 4K resolution and 60fps support.
Destiny 2: Linear Music in an Open World
The audio team at Bungie developed a modular, systemic approach to music implementation for Destiny 2 to address the challenges of scaling linear, high-production-value scores across a vast, open-world environment.
- Bungie transitioned from Destiny's original system of custom-scripted, one-off music for missions to a modular 'music system' that uses expanded, multi-intensity audio pieces to create a linear-feeling score in an open-world environment.
- The new system allows designers to script activity scores directly during development, enabling them to audition music immediately and reducing the need for audio team intervention in the early scripting process.
- Music is organized into 'music sets' assigned to specific destinations, which randomly cycle through various intensity levels and transitions to maintain a consistent, high-quality score without requiring unique, hard-coded implementation for every encounter.
Activision Blizzard Revenue Down 15% in Q3
Activision Blizzard’s financial performance for the third quarter of 2019 reflects a period of contraction, characterized by year-over-year declines in both revenue and active user engagement.
- Activision Blizzard reported a 15% year-over-year decline in Q3 2019 net revenue to $1.28 billion, with net bookings falling 27% to $1.21 billion.
- Total monthly active users (MAUs) across the company dropped 8% year-over-year to 316 million, with declines occurring across all three divisions: Activision (down 22%), Blizzard (down 11%), and King (down 6%).
- Revenue by division saw significant year-over-year drops for Activision (down 47% to $209 million) and Blizzard (down 38% to $394 million), while King remained relatively stable with a 1% decline to $500 million.