Sparkers Blog

News Mash-Up - Week # 47

Written by Sparkers | Wednesday, 8 December 2021

 

Top News Items

    • For Black Friday week, the UK reported 941,000 physical retail units which is -13% lower than last year’s Black Friday week and -30% lower than 2019 Black Friday week which fell on week 48.

    • Kojima Productions, founded by Hideo Kojima, who fell out with his once former paymaster Konami, will look to make media content that is not video games. In a statement by Riley Russell, who will head this new division, the thinking was “to expand the reach and awareness of properties now under development at Kojima Productions.". The studio has also recently opened a new LA Studio that focuses on TV, film and music, so as the Japanese studio continues to focus on video games, the American-based studio will dive into Entertainment as well as video games.

    • Harmonix, the developer of the music simulation game, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, has been acquired by Epic Games. No details were forthcoming of how much Epic paid for the developer.

    • Amazon Studios’ boss Jennifer Salke mentioned that a Mass Effect TV show is in the pipeline.

    • Pokémon Go developer, Niantic, is estimated to be worth $9 billion following a$300 million investment from hedge fund Coatue. Niantic is an eleven-year-old American company that specializes in mobile game development. The company built its reputation as a for-hire developer and worked on several household IPs including Harry Potter, Pikmin and Pokémon.

    • Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, has said he would consider standing down if the company's issues cannot be fixed "with speed".

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New games

Week commencing Monday 29 Nov. 2021 

Date Title Platform(s) Genre(s) Developer(s) Publisher(s)
30 Nov. Beyond a Steel Sky NS, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Adventure Revolution Software Microids
  Clockwork Aquario NS, PS4 Action platformer Westone Strictly Limited Games
  Evil Genius 2: World Domination PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX Real-time strategy, simulation Rebellion Developments Rebellion Developments
2 Dec. Dairoku: Agents of Sakuratani NS Visual novel Idea Factory Aksys Games
  Solar Ash Win, PS4, PS5 Action-adventure Heart Machine Annapurna Interactive
3 Dec. Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain NS Party, puzzle Nintendo EPD Nintendo
  Chorus Win, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX, Stadia Space combat Fishlabs Deep Silver
  Danganronpa Decadence NS Visual novel Spike Chunsoft Spike Chunsoft
  Disney Magical World 2: Enchanted Edition NS Life simulation Bandai Namco Studios, Hyde Bandai Namco Entertainment