Here are the Games Industry Highlights | Week 18-19 | 2024

International News

• 🌍 PlayStation has reversed course on the Helldivers 2 PSN account requirement for Steam users after ~200K negative reviews over the past weekend (and Valve had enabled refunds even for those with more than 2h of gametime)
• 🌍 Take-Two Interactive went on a firing spree. After shutting down Roll7 and Intercept Games, they now also laid off the vast majority of the Private Division teams in Seattle, New York, Las Vegas and Munich.
• 🌍 Sad news from the Netherlands too, with Paladin Studios closing their studios and KeokeN Interactive having to let go of their workforce.
• 🌍 Supergiant Games released Hades II in Early Access today (May 6). Hades II in Early Access already has more environments, foes, and fully-voiced characters than the full version of the original Hades game.
• 🌍 Remedy Entertainment Plc has yet to recoup its costs for Alan Wake 2’s development, and Tencent raised its stake in the studio from 5% to 15%
• 🌍 Hasbro has invested $1 billion in internal video game development, following the success of its video game licensing for Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3
• 🌍 The US gives ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok or have the app banned in the US; ByteDance says it will challenge the law in court.
• 🌍 InvestGame released the Q1’24 Global Gaming Deals Report, offering insights into the gaming industry’s current market dynamics: https://investgame.net/news/global-gaming-deals-activity-report-q1-24/
• 🌍 Indie Cup Europe is still accepting entries until 19 May: https://indiecup.net/

Belgian Games Industry News

• 🇧🇪 Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) will take the Flemish games industry on an economic mission to Brazil this November. There will be a webinar on 22 May: https://www.flandersinvestmentandtrade.com/export/acties-events/opportunities-game-sector-brazil
• 🇧🇪 Oisoi Studio has announced the successful closure of a €450,000 funding round led by ForsVC and angel investors Thomas & Emmanuel Dewitte. This investment will empower the studio to expand its work in immersive experiences.
• 🇧🇪 Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds worked on a comprehensive data collection around video games. Surveying 49 studios about their operations and also gathering input on 37 VAF-supported Flemish video games that produced achievements in 2023. https://www.vaf.be/over-de-sector/data/vlaamse-gamesector-2023 (via Matthew Deboysere)
• 🇧🇪 Bolt Blaster Games announced their new game: The Spell Brigade, an online co-op survivors-like for 1-4 players. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2904000/The_Spell_Brigade/
• 🇧🇪 Walga.be and European Union are working on a GameBadges project to have a European-wide competence-based badge ecosystem targeted at the European game industry and game education. https://www.walga.be/gamebadges/
• 🇧🇪 The Belgian Game Awards submissions are open until May 21st: https://awards.belgiangames.be