Hello! I rejoin you from an internet-free weekend (not by choice, unfortunately) to share everything I missed from the last 48 hours and beyond. I did not play many games during The Great Unplug, but I did play much game, by which I mean something like six hours of Dungeons & Dragons, in which my character had some shady stuff happen to her, got knocked unconscious, woke back up and took righteous vengeance, and everybody discovered she was a warlock all along.
Oh, I guess I did play roughly two million hours of Twenty by French Guys and Overcrowded on my phone because they (mostly) work offline. Good times.
Mobile Games Stand to Make Billions by 2028, But Profits Don’t Stop Layoffs
Though we all know that just about everybody is playing mobile games (myself included), SkyQuest Technology, a data analysis company, estimated that by 2028 60% of global gaming revenue would come from mobile games. According to this report, that market will be in the neighborhood of $215 billion, or roughly 1.1 Elon Musks (the conversion rate of mobile gaming markets to Elon Musks appears to be in decline, perhaps due to some recent shoddy investments on Musk’s part).
Despite this, business will business on—Kabam, which has developed mobile games in partnership with huge corporations like Disney and Universal, is laying off 7% of its workforce. A spokesperson stated that the company “reviewed [its] strategic priorities” and were “adjust[ing its] resourcing structure in alignment with [their] goals.” Netmarble, Kabam’s parent company, saw a 14.4% increase over last year’s revenue in this year’s third quarter, but roughly a 46% decrease in net profit in the same period. Despite the layoffs, Kabam will continue hiring into 2023.
DOOM Eternal Composer Accuses id Software of Lying, Exploitation
Mick Gordon, composer for DOOM Eternal, accused id Software of lying about the soundtrack’s release. According to a 14,000-word Medium post written by the composer, he worked on the soundtrack for almost a full year before seeing any payment for his work. Gordon also claims that id Software announced that the soundtrack would be included with purchases of the Collector’s Edition without consulting him, resulting in Gordon needing to work long hours to meet the deadline. The post states that Gordon did not receive a contract for the soundtrack until 48 hours before the game released.
The album was released without Gordon’s approval, and fans of the series noted that the mix on the OST wasn’t as good as the mix in the game. Fans began harassing Chad Mossholder, who was credited on most of the tracks that they disliked, and producer Marty Stratton claimed in a Reddit post that Gordon had not submitted his music on time. According to Gordon, he still hasn’t been paid for over half of the game’s music, and Stratton offered him six figure’s worth of “hush money” to not badmouth the company, to not speak about the OST or DOOM Eternal, and to let the Reddit post assigning blame to Gordon stay up.
In other news…
He did it, folks. After 25 years, Ash Ketchum has become the number-one trainer in the anime series.
Google is now issuing refunds for its cloud gaming service, Stadia. The company announced that it would be closing the service in September, and will officially end support in January 2023.
Kevin Conroy, who voiced Batman in The Animated Series as well as the Rocksteady series of Arkham games, has passed away at 66.
Wizards of the Coast announced they would be working with cultural consultants on all future Dungeons & Dragons releases. This announcement comes after criticism of the latest Spelljammer release, which featured a racist interpretation of the hazodee, a species of simian, seafaring people.
Ubisoft has begun cancelling Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake pre-orders. The company stated that the game is definitely not cancelled, despite the long delays, lack of release date, and cancelled pre-orders. Polygon’s Owen S. Good added, “video game makers practically never declare the cancellation of a title after they’ve announced it,” so maybe take the bolded “not cancelled” in their FAQ with a rather large grain of salt.
And lastly—
oh shit oh shit Dragon Age heist animated series oh shit oh shit!!!
Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.
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