TGO Daily | December 3, 2020 | EG7 Acquires Daybreak
In The News
EG7 Acquires Daybreak
I probably should have brought this one up for yesterday’s update, but nonetheless: Daybreak Game Company, developers of EverQuest, PlanetSide, and H1Z1 have been acquired by EG7 for $300 million.
If you haven’t heard of EG7 I wouldn’t blame you, they don’t even have a Wikipedia page. According to their website, it’s a “family of companies” that handle development, publishing, marketing, and distribution. A few weeks ago they also acquired Piranha Games, developers of the Mechwarrior franchise.
On the other hand, Daybreak has also had a pretty wild journey. Formerly known as Sony Online Entertainment, they went through a number of confusing transitions between various owners. At the start of this year, they split internally into three different studios, all handling different projects.
Source: gamesindustry.biz
Genshin Impact Makes an Impact
Both Google and Apple have held their mobile games awards for 2020, and MiHoYo’s Genshin Impact won the “Game of the Year” award for both. It also won Google’s “User’s Choice” award.
This is reflected financially. According to mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower (disclaimer: I work for them), Genshin Impact made close to $400 million during the two months following its release on mobile. That’s around $6 million/day.
I still consider this to be one of the bigger sleeper hits of 2020. I’ve seen it around here and there, but the fact its the most successful new IP from a Chinese developer in history is pretty wild.
Failbetter Announce Mask of the Rose
Failbetter Games have announced their newest title called Mask of the Rose. You might recognize the studio for their previous games, Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies, which were pretty cool gothic survival and exploration games.
Mask of the Rose will be a romantic visual novel which is set in their “Fallen London” universe, and will be a prequel to their other games. Taking place in 1862, they’ve got a pretty cool universe set up of a London which has been consumed by a dystopian gothic underworld. If you’re interested in checking that out, they’ve got a free browser-based text adventure, and you can keep an eye on the Kickstarter for Mask of the Rose.
Dauntless Update
Dauntless is going to be getting a new update today which they call “Dauntless Reforged.” Notably, it will be bringing a new progression system, which will change the way you unlock content. Weapons will have a new forging system that makes them more useful when you first craft them. It’s a fairly big overhaul, but they’ve got it set up so that progression is maintained for existing players when they make the switch.
If you don’t know, Dauntless is what many people call the free-to-play Monster Hunter. You’re tasked with taking down a giant creature, whose skin you can then use to craft new weapons and armour. Encounters are like giant boss battles that can take upwards of 20 minutes. It’s fun!
Looking forward, developers Phoenix Labs will be expanding into new games with new IPs!
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