It’s Friday again, so it’s time for your weekly dose of gaming business news that EarlyGame likes to call Industry Intel. Here’s what’s been going on the business side of things these last 7 days.
Ex-Blizzard Boss Mark Morhaime Is Back!
The former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime is back in the game, funding his new publishing company, dubbed Dreamhaven. He’s gathered Blizzard veterans to form a new studio with a “shared vision”. The new project will focus on publishing video games and supporting developers. It already has two daughter studios - Moonshot and Secret Door, who will be working on new titles.
Hardware Preorders Are Now Open: PS5, Xbox Series X, RTX 3090
Players across all platforms are closer to the next generation of gaming than ever before. With the upcoming releases of the PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nvidia's monstrous RTX 3090, many stores and websites are already accepting preorders.
However, the difficult global situation means that factories don’t pump those machines out in the regular schedule, and delays, as well as shortages, are very much expected. What? We might not play asap after the release?
This past week, both Sony and Nvidia have apologized “in advance” for expected shortages. The graphics card manufacturer’s long-awaited 30 series was launched with a very rocky start - supplies were exhausted in a matter of hours, many stores didn’t get them at all, and bot purchases put many units in the hands of speculators.
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Unfortunately, Nvidia has admitted that a similar story is expected for the flagship 3090 cards as well. Almost the same thing has been happening with the PS5 preorders - if you’ve already given Sony some of your cash, better prepare to wait a bit longer than expected, in case you’re one of the many unlucky gamers.
- READ MORE: Industry Intel: There’s a Mario Shortage!
Microsoft Acquires Bethesda and Id
In some of the major industry news we’ve heard lately, Microsoft got themselves ZeniMax Media, the publisher who owns Bethesda and id, among others. This adds cult series such as The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, and Fallout in Microsoft’s already impressive (and constantly growing) catalog. In a somewhat untraditional fashion, the gaming world has accepted the news very positively. Legendary game maker John Carmack has even stated that the 7.2B deal will allow him to “re-engage” with some of his previous work - this could mean a brand-new new DOOM or even Quake experience!
Some Curious Numbers: Nintendo, Fall Guys and Avengers
The gaming industry continues on its steady way up and companies are making record numbers.
Nintendo shared a new milestone - 200 million accounts registered worldwide. It is fair to say that Mario, Zelda, and all the other iconic Japanese characters are more popular than ever.
Here in the West things are also looking good with Fall Guys now having sold 8.2 million copies.
Lastly, a recent 1.3.0 patch for Avengers reportedly fixed over 1000 issues ranging from small graphical glitches all the way to progression-stopping bugs. Now that’s what we call a big fix!
For more industry news and video game information, keep reading EarlyGame!
