Hitmarker Highlights

Hello there ??

Welcome back to another Hitmarker Highlights!

It's been a varied week of news, as Sega has decided to spend over $700 million on the creator of Angry Birds, and Nintendo has continued to make headlines for yet another legal situation after targeting YouTubers for posting videos about modding its games.

There's not too much variation from us, though, we're back with the usual best jobs, candidate insights, and career advice, so let's dive straight into it! ??

Hot jobs ??

These were the 10 most popular job listings on our platform this week:

Over 100 new vacancies have been posted in the last week, again, you can see ’em?here.

Big news ??

?? Sega acquires Angry Birds creator Rovio for €706 million

• Sega announced on April 17 that it has agreed to acquire Rovio, the company behind the popular Angry Birds franchise, for €703 million ($775 million).
• Sega intends to take advantage of Rovio's expertise to expand further into the mobile market, while Rovio aims to do the opposite, using Sega's knowledge of external platforms to break out of mobile gaming.
• In January, Israeli mobile publisher Playtika made a €683 million ($750.96 million) offer to acquire Rovio; however, talks ended in March. Analysts speculated at the time that interested buyers could include Electronic Arts (EA), Take-Two Interactive, Sony, Netflix, and Disney.

Other news ???

It's been another turbulent week. Nintendo has returned to targeting content creators for uploading videos of in-game modifications, and Halo veterans Frank O'Connor and Joseph Staten have left Microsoft. The mobile market has also taken center stage this time, with Capcom and Niantic announcing a new Monster Hunter mobile game, and publisher Ten Square Games laying off 25% of its workforce. ??

?? Nintendo targets YouTuber for uploading Zelda: Breath of the Wild multiplayer mod footage

?? Halo franchise director Frank O’Connor and series veteran Joseph Staten leave Microsoft

?? Capcom and Niantic announce new mobile game Monster Hunter Now

?? Mobile publisher Ten Square Games lays off 120 employees and shuts down two games

We publish a mix of 3–4 stories every weekday, covering all areas of the gaming industry. You can find the rest of our articles here.

Hiring insights ??

We heard from quite a few of you last week regarding your specialties, so this week we're putting candidate location front and center of this section! ??

As you can see, people using the Hitmarker platform tend to be from the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, with over 60% of all users in Q1 based in one of those three countries. This, of course, could be because we are an English-only platform language-wise, and because at the time of writing 75% of all job listings on Hitmarker are based in the US, UK, or Canada. There's perhaps a chicken-and-egg situation occurring.

The one that caught us by surprise here, as Education did in last week's sector graphic, was Bulgaria ????, because we've only posted four Bulgarian jobs so far in 2023, from Ubisoft, SEGA, and Sports Interactive. Bulgaria's population is ~1/10 the size of France's, yet Bulgaria is just 0.1% behind France in terms of user share.

We'd love to hear stories from people in any of these top 10 locations, particularly Bulgaria, OR from people who are in places like Bulgaria where it's incredibly difficult to find on-site jobs in the video game industry. Drop a comment below and we'll reply ASAP.

Getting social ??

Our LinkedIn and Twitter pages are filled with brand-new daily content. Be sure to check them out if you're looking to stay up-to-date on the latest news, advice, and jobs in gaming!

Here are a couple of our top posts over the past week:

Everyone likes free stuff, especially useful free stuff, so we’ve compiled a list of the best free gaming career resources available this week here on?LinkedIn.

The list includes advice on everything from landing jobs in game development and game art to general job-seeking advice for people of all experience levels. Check it out if you're looking for your first job or just looking to change things up!

Oh, and don't forget to apply for any positions with your newly acquired knowledge here. ??

If you love testing (and breaking!) games and you're looking to get paid for it, look no further!

This week on Twitter, we've put together a thread of our top tips to help you land a job in quality assurance (QA), especially if you're trying to get your foot in the door.

Want to put our advice to good use? Check out all available QA vacancies on Hitmarker here.

The end ??

Thanks for reading this week's Hitmarker Highlights! We'll be back next week with your daily dose of gaming news and advice. ??

Best wishes from us all,

Danny and the gang at Hitmarker