Here are the Games Industry Highlights | Week 24-25 | 2024

International News

• We had a busy couple of weeks with over a dozen game events, so here is a useful recap of all game announcements: https://2024.gamesrecap.io/
• Valve Corporation is being sued for £656M. They are accused of using their market dominance to overcharge 14 million people in the UK. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpwwyj6v24xo
• NVIDIA became the world’s most valuable company, with its market value hitting $3.3 trillion. This surpasses Microsoft at $3.15 trillion and Apple at $3 trillion.
• Outersloth announced by Among Us devs Innersloth – a sustainable indie funding program to help other indies. https://www.innersloth.com/outersloth/
• Layoffs & closures: Embracer Group has shut down Pieces Interactive AB, a THQ Nordic studio (recent Alone in the Dark reboot). Galvanic Games, Inc is closing down, citing sales of recent title Wizard with a Gun not being strong enough to sustain the studio. Sumo Digital Ltd is laying off up to 15% of its global workforce.
• Electronic Arts (EA) execs earned $60 million in 2024 despite layoffs and office closures. CEO Andrew Wilson received almost half of that total.
• Rockstar Games’ GTA trilogy reached 30M downloads on Netflix.
• Elden Ring has surpassed 25M copies sold, right before the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC releases.
• Reminder to get your tickets for Courage Cologne if you’re going to Gamescom and are already there on Tuesday: https://courage.events/event/courage-cologne-2024/
• ‘Banana’ is currently the 2nd most played game on Steam. You just click a banana. https://steamcharts.com/top
• Mateo Covic is making Ultimate Indie Racing Game, a cart racer full of indie game characters from smaller to famous IPs. https://x.com/Zoroarts/status/1801193586173596037

Belgian Games Industry News

• Baldur’s Gate 3 has won the 2023 Nebula Award for Game Writing.
• Murky Divers, a co-op diving horror published by Oro Interactive, comes out today: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2963880/Murky_Divers/
• To prepare for the upcoming Belgian Game Awards Steam event, Robby Bisschop has started a Steam Curator listing all Belgian games on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44989459-Belgian-Game-Awards/ (DM him if you notice a missing game!)
• Oisoi Studio’s Painting VR is a launch title for Logitech’s groundbreaking MR Stylus. This innovative stylus allows you to paint in virtual reality with the precision and feel of a real brush, revolutionizing the VR art experience: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/vr/mx-ink.html
• Pok Pok has successfully closed a $6M Series A and their kids’ app & digital toy with the same name, coming to Android! https://lnkd.in/gzKJSGDB
• The Belgian Game Awards have just announced their Jury and are still accepting submissions for Student Games & Upcoming Games: https://awards.belgiangames.be/jury/
• Indie publisher Mystic Forge has announced the successful closure of a $2M funding round led by ForsVC and ROM Utrecht Region to help expand its game publishing portfolio!