TGO Daily | Friday August 6, 2021 | Embracer Group Acquisitions
In the news: Embracer acquires multiple studios, Nintendo's Switch continues to sell well, Mario Golf gets a solid free update, and the co-founder of Fullbright steps back due to his own bullying.
TGO Daily | Friday August 6, 2021
✏️ From the Author
I’ve got no plans this weekend except to finally catch up on sleep. I didn’t doze off today writing the newsletter, so yay for beating my temporary narcolepsy! I’m hoping I can reset this weekend and be better next week.
I’m setting goals for myself, but going to take everything one day at a time. So, let’s start with something easier to achieve: sleep.
Have a great weekend! Back to the news on Monday!
Until next time,
Brandon
Embracer Group Acquires 8 Studios
Embracer Group announced yesterday that they have acquired eight studios for approximately $313 million USD. The contract also stipulated acquired studios could also earn more money if they meet certain milestones during the next 8 years, but what the milestones are was not shared. The acquired studios are:
Crazy Labs (Israel) - Dev behind multiple mobile games.
Ghost Ship Games (Denmark) - Deep Rock Galactic.
Easy Trigger (Sweden) - Huntdown.
Force Field (The Netherlands) - Coaster Combat, Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
DigixArt (France) - Road 96, Lost in Harmony.
Slipgate Ironworks (Denmark) - Rise of the Triad, Wrath: Aeon of Ruin.
3D Realms (Denmark) - Duke Nukem Forever.
Grimfrost (Sweden) - A Viking merchandiser.
Embracer Group says that they anticipate the acquisitions to earn them $232 million - $348 million USD by the end of the next financial year. You may remember this group from earlier in the year pursuing aggressive acquisitions - talking to over 150 companies.
Nintendo Switch Nears 90 Million Units in Sales
Nintendo says that as of June 30th they are at 89.04 million units shipped, with 85 million units in consumers hands. This number increased by 4.45 million units from March 31st alone.
With this achievement, the Switch has now topped the PS3’s lifetime shipments (87.4 million) and Xbox 360’s (84 million). Nintendo attributed big Switch numbers of sales last year due to the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is currently their second best-selling game (33.89 million). Their best-selling game, unsurprisingly, is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (37.08 million).
Mario Golf Super Rush Free Update
The first free update for Mario Golf Super Rush comes with several additions to help pad out a game that many critics felt needed more on release. Here’s what to expect in the latest update:
Toadette has been added to the roster.
A new course, New Donk City, has been added. This course will require players to ricochet their ball of the buildings to make their way down the course.
Ranked mode is being added. This will allow players to rise in rank and earn rewards. A particularly enticing one being able to unlock multiple Yoshi colors for play if you reach Rank A- or higher.
Nintendo says they have also improved motion controls.
The developer, Camelot, worked on Mario Tennis Aces and seems to be on track of giving the same treatment to Mario Golf - a smaller game on release, but consistently updated with free content to fill it out. Aces ended up going from 16 characters on launch to 30 on their final update, so we can likely expect the same kind of attention to this one.
Fullbright Co-Founder Steps Back from Position
From an investigative report by Polygon, Steve Gaynor, co-founder of Fullbright (Gone Home, Tacoma), has stepped back from his leadership position at Fullbright. Originally working as Creative Lead and Manager on their latest title, Open Roads, he has stepped down and transitioned to a writer role.
Fullbright has been having female employees consistently leaving since 2020 and all of them have cited the reason being Gaynor creating a toxic environment. One former employee said this about Gaynor:
“This is going to sound like a joke, but I’m completely serious: Working for him often felt like working for a high school mean girl. His go-to weapon was to laugh at people’s opinions and embarrass them in front of other people.”
Six other former employees agreed with this description of Gaynor. Employees said that he would be demeaning, which would give them feelings of being gaslit. It was consistent and heinous enough that leadership, during hiring, would be wary to hire more women due to the anticipated onslaught of his emotional abuse.
A Fullbright representative confirmed that Gaynor stepped back from his leadership role on Open Roads back in March and stayed on as a writer. In order to keep him away from the team, Annapurna Interactive (their publisher) is acting as a mediator between Gaynor and the rest of the team.
Brandon’s Thoughts: I highly recommend you give the full Polygon article a read when you get a moment. Seeing the statements other employees made about his emotionally abusive behavior is just sad. His ‘apology’ response to the article is also included in it, but to me seemed completely disconnected and disingenuous - not even acknowledging the pain he caused people, he claims it was his ‘leadership style’ that was hurtful. We have problems in the industry not solely because of people like Gaynor, but because others allow people like him to continue to have a space to practice their abuse. At some point the companies will have to realize a band-aid doesn’t help stop the spread of a cancer.
🕹 Free Games
Due to a technical issue, Epic Games Store has added two free games for a week. Take a look at them and claim them before they leave on August 12th!
Epic Games Store
A Plague Tale: Innocence - Now - Aug 12
Minit - Now - Aug 12
💡 Read More
Here's everything revealed as part of Sony's PlayStation Indie Spotlight event. Oxenfree 2 looks like it’ll be good. I’m also rather intrigued by Wytchwood.
Deathloop has gone gold ahead of its September 14th release. This means that that we shouldn’t expect the title to be delayed, as has become customary in these times.
Riders Republic's beta is coming round the mountain when it comes on August 23rd.
👋 Say Hello!
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Thanks for the read <3