BGM Daily Download DLC - 7 June 2024
Big Games Machine
PR and marketing agency for the global video games industry, covering both B2B and B2C audiences
Eyes up, Guardian! Our latest BGM Daily Download wrap-up has landed, complete with our regular recap of all the hottest developments, announcements, and bombshells from across the games industry.?
Welcome to The Daily Download DLC.
It’s the calm before the storm: the period before Summer Game Fest overwhelms us with reveals, announcements, shadow drops and more! Be that as it may, there was still plenty going on throughout this week in the run-up to the impending, nitro-fueled news influx.
Layoffs continued to affect some of the industry’s top talent, with developers from Avalanche Studios and Behaviour Interactive the latest victims of this devastating trend. Meanwhile, IGN revealed that Take-Two looks set to abandon the indie scene, parting ways with Private Division alongside previously announced plans to close Rollerdrome studio Roll7 and Kerbal Space Program developer Intercept Games.
It was a better week for GPU giant Nvidia, which surged past $3 trillion in market value, overtaking Apple to become the world's second most valuable publicly traded company, just behind Microsoft. Speaking of PC gaming, Sony revealed that it’s finally giving PSVR2 owners the ability to use the acclaimed headset on thousands of SteamVR titles—provided they are willing to invest in the ￡50 (or $60) adapter that is required.?
Of course, we also can’t forget about Bungie, which finally launched Destiny 2’s long-awaited expansion, The Final Shape. One could almost argue that fans were a little too excited to jump in, with the game struggling to keep up with demand on launch day, so much so that it caused some players to miss key cutscenes in the game’s storyline.?
Ready for an XP boost? Keep on reading for the full lowdown on all the biggest gaming news from over the past week.
IGN has learned that Take-Two is not only in the process of closing Kerbal Space Program 2 developer Intercept Games and OlliOlli World developer Roll7 but is also looking to either sell off or shut down the entirety of its indie label, Private Division. According to IGN, at the end of April, management told employees that Take-Two would no longer support Private Division and laid off most of its staff.
Avalanche Studios has laid off 50 employees after closing its studios in New York and Montreal. According to a statement released by Avalanche, the decision will affect approximately nine percent of employees worldwide. Avalanche Montreal was a fairly new addition to Avalance Studios Group, having only officially opened its doors in October last year after Avalanche acquired Monster Closet's development team.
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Sony has announced that it will be releasing a PlayStation VR 2 PC adapter on 7 August at select retailers, including the PlayStation Direct store. The device, which costs ￡50 (or $60), will allow headset owners to use the acclaimed hardware beyond the confines of the PlayStation 5 on acclaimed titles such as Half-Life: Alyx. The news comes following reports that PSVR2 production was stalled earlier this year due to low demand.
Over 90 Behaviour Interactive employees have been laid off, according to a press release from the Dead By Daylight developer. This is the latest in a series of staff layoffs for Behaviour, with a previous round of layoffs at its Montreal studio at the start of the year. Most affected staff this round are also based in Montreal, marking a second blow to the region’s development scene following Avalanche Montreal’s closure.
Bungie has said it is “truly sorry” for a string of issues that have been affecting players following the launch of The Final Shape, an expansion expected to bring together more than ten year’s worth of Destiny storytelling. Due to the huge influx of traffic (Steam data alone showed over 200,000 players trying to log on simultaneously), Destiny 2’s servers have struggled to keep up with demand, causing players to be kicked out of the game mid-activity and miss vital story cutscenes.?
Surging past $3 trillion in market value, chip giant Nvidia has overtaken Apple to become the world's second most valuable publicly traded company. Nvidia’s share price has been rapidly climbing since last year, powered by bets that the US firm is positioned to be a major winner from a wave of investment in artificial intelligence (AI). Nvidia's market value now places it just behind Microsoft, another industry leader heavily invested in AI through ventures like OpenAI's Chat GPT.
And that’s it for now! We’re off to go recharge our controllers, but we’ll be back next week with another roundup of games industry goodness.
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