News Mash-Up - Week # 33

Top News Items

• • Epic Games have announced that they will enable self-publishing on The Epic Game Store. The service is now in open beta and inviting prospective publishers to sign up. Valve introduced self-publishing several years ago under the banner “Steam Direct” back in 2017 and it has resulted in a flood of new games. The new initiative from Epic currently does not include a charge and games will be accepted provided they are certified to launch and play.

  • Roblox Q2’21 fiscal were officially released. The three months ending in June 2021 saw revenue reach $454 million, +127% v Q2’20. Net income came to a loss of $140 million, double the loss compared to Q2’20. The Roblox business model is very expensive to run with developer exchange fees running at $130 million in the quarter, infrastructure running at $109 million and R&D running at $125 million. These are all above the general, administration and marketing costs. Average Daily Active Users (DAUs) were 43 million, +29% year-on-year. Hours engaged reached 3.8 billion for the quarter, +13% year-on-year.

  • When it comes to super sampling (a technique used to visually upscale games at higher resolutions, without taking the performance hit) Nvidia has DLSS and AMD has FidelityFX Super Resolution. Intel has now joined the market with Xe Super Sampling (XeSS). XeSS was revealed in a video showcase during Intel Architecture Day 2021. The new technology upscales 1080p resolution to 4K (boasting it can replicate native 4K) using AI and will come out in Intel’s new generation of Arc GPU architecture, also known as Intel Alchemist. Intel is looking to open source the XeSS SDK and tools.

  • The Embracer Group has acquired 3 more development studios: Demiurge Studios, Fractured Byte and SmartPhone Labs. The cost of the acquisitions remains undisclosed. The game companies are “for hire” having worked on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, Borderlands: The Legendary Collection and World War Z.

  • Microsoft has started to test a new higher resolution dashboard for the Xbox Series X. Xbox Insiders will get access to the increased resolution for the Xbox dashboard, designed to improve UI elements for 4K displays.

  • World of Warships has seen an exodus of asset developers. Many of the developers have taken issue with the Wargaming.net decision to re-classify some expensive assets as only attainable in loot box game mechanics, as opposed to a direct purchase.

    
    
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Week commencing Monday 23 August 2021