FIVE AT 5: TESTRONIC NEWS ROUND-UP

European games sales data, the top mobile publishers of the past six months (spoiler: of course Tencent is at the top), the Olympic Esports Games, AI and Stress Relief. We’ve got it all this week in our Five at 5 news round-up…

Good news for the European games industry comes via Gamesindustry.biz which publishes GSD data showing that during the first half of the year, sales across the region were down by just 1.6% - despite a lack of triple-A releases. According to Gamesindustry.biz ’s Head of Games Chris Dring: “Just under 80 million PC and console games have been sold across Europe for the first six months of 2024... That's a unit sales drop of 1.6% over the start of 2023, which is a strong result considering the comparatively weaker release slate for the first half of this year compared with the year before. The first half of 2023 saw major releases including Hogwarts Legacy, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Diablo IV and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” If you have an interest in the European games sector, the full article is worth a deep dive - https://shorturl.at/RzLtu

From Europe to the Middle East, and news from the International Olympics Committee that the first Olympic Esports Games will be hosted in Saudi Arabia in 2025. Big news for the sector, as Alban Dechelotte, CEO of G2 Esports, tells the BBC: “For 20 years esports and gaming has been growing. It's clear it's not just a trend.” You can read more about it here - https://shorturl.at/ApWcB

Back to the stats, and Mobilegamer.biz has been crunching the numbers from AppMagic to take a look at the biggest grossest mobile publishers of 2024 so far. The top five are Tencent, Scopely, NetEase, Playrix and Mihoyo. As MobileGamer.biz points out: “Six months in, and of course Tencent is on top. But look at Scopely: the second biggest publisher in the business by these IAP revenue estimates. It’s worth adding a bit of context here: in 2022’s full-year data, Appmagic says Scopely was the 20th biggest publisher by IAP revenue with $635m. That was before Monopoly Go, of course…” There’s more here - https://shorturl.at/kS0YG

A group of former Google DeepMind researchers have created an AI behaviour engine that aims to transform games by improving how non-playable characters (NPCs) behave and interact. According to Techcrunch, the Canada-based Artificial Agency has raised some $16 million to create its behaviour engine. An interesting glimpse into the potential future of games here - https://shorturl.at/dfVeX

And finally, if it’s stress relief you’re after, we’ve got your covered. Or, at least, The Gamer has, as it rounds up the Top 10 Stress Relief Games here - https://shorturl.at/epXfd

Enjoy! And if you spot something worth sharing, please get in touch!