TGO Daily | December 7, 2020 | Starbreeze Clears Its Debt
Welcome back! Hope you had a great weekend.
Today, we’re talking about the company who made the Payday franchise. Payday 2 was one of those games that I always wanted to get into, but never could without a consistent group to play with. That’s kinda always the case for me — I have the desire to do things like Destiny 2 raids or mastering Left 4 Dead 2 maps, but rarely have the time or people to actually pull it off.
Oh well! I’ll have to make due with the abundance of other choices I have. Until tomorrow,
Adrian
In The News
Starbreeze in the Clear
Two years ago, Starbreeze (Payday franchise) was facing insolvency. They had just released Overkill’s The Walking Dead, which was the textbook definition of a flop. Paired with a horrible management team making questionable investments, the company was doomed to fail. (For a great rundown of those events, read this article).
Ever since then, the company has been in survival mode. They entered a period of reconstruction, which is a financial recovery program for Swedish businesses. They sold off the rights for games like System Shock 3 and 10 Crowns. Perhaps most importantly: they had a management change. Sadly, they also let go of around a quarter of its staff.
Last year they completed reconstruction, and today we know that most of their creditor debt has been paid off. Their full focus is now on Payday 3 to be financially successful so they can continue operating the company. They have been optimistic, because Payday 2 has continued to bring in some necessary funds over the last few years — so they know the IP is strong. Fingers crossed!
Call of Duty Makes Bank
Activision Blizzard have announced that the Call of Duty franchise has brought in $3 billion in revenue over the last 12 months. That captures data from the yearly entries Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare, as well as Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile. Over 200 million people played at least one of those games in 2020.
Apparently the $3 billion from Call of Duty alone is close to equaling the most amount of money that Activision (the branch, not the full company) has ever reported in a full year. Wow!
Monster Hunter: World Gets Review Bombed
Here’s a wild example of how video games interact with the rest of the world.
A new Monster Hunter film has recently been released, made by a lot of the same people from the Resident Evil films. In it, a soldier makes a racist joke about Chinese people. Unsurprisingly, this angered those who were watching the film in China, and the film has now been totally cancelled from being shown in the country.
Not only that, but people have taken to review-bombing the Monster Hunter: World Steam page:
Capcom has publicly distanced themselves from the film, but they are also have a Monster Hunter: World tie-in, which would explain the reviews. This may have happened regardless of Capcom’s involvement, but I thought it was interesting to see.
Two PC Gaming Notes
If you’re a PC player, here’s two things you might want to know about:
First of all, The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is now free forever on GOG Galaxy. It’s been given away many times before, but now it’s an incentive for people to try out their app. If you’ve never played it before, be ready for some janky gameplay. Most people recommend you skip to the second game (or even the third — either way works just fine).
Also, if you’re into JRPG’s, then you can now pick up Dragon Quest XI Definitive Edition. The original game has been around for a few years, and the definitive edition on the Switch for a while. Now you can pick up the full experience on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
Also In The News
Seems like Persona 5 Strikers getting Western release in February
“Rocksteady releases update to five-year-old Batman: Arkham Knight”
“Did Genshin Impact swipe an opportunity from under Nintendo's nose? | Opinion”
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