#38 Weekly Gaming News Industry Trends Round Up

Head of Motorverse maps out Animoca's path for its driving game ecosystem. Pay-to-Extract is the emerging Web3 gaming model. The 8102 Game is Made by Apes and is a blockchain-powered storytelling experience for all. TON to integrate Mocaverse as part of $20 million strategic growth deal. Immutable adds most games in the first half of 2024. FTC files complaint against Microsoft following Game Pass price hike. Apple is doubling down on its gaming ambitions. Xbox Integrates Nvidia GeForce Now. EA Sports FC 25 to feature a paid season pass. MW3 set to come to Game Pass this week. Netflix has over 80 games currently in development and plans to launch one each month. Fortnite Chapter 6 will add two new movement mechanics. 2.2M people were willing to pay $100 to play College Football 25 three days early. Upcoming 2025 Steam sales revealed for the first half of the year. Japan's mobile game installs rose in Q1 2024. European game sales decline in the first half of 2024. And, Ubisoft outperform targets as back-catalogue, digital, and player investment bookings all increase. All this plus much more.

Also in our weekly round-up:

• Bethesda Game Studios workers form 'wall-to-wall union' at Microsoft

• INTERVIEW: Esports World Cup CEO on the Future of the Industry

• Forza Horizon 5's new DLC is Gran Turismo personified

• Why GTA 6's Release Doesn't Scare Ubisoft

• Capcom plans to continue with games via physical media

• Why there's no market for AAA mobile games

• Fashion brand Coach comes to Roblox experiences

• Honda’s Racing's Gran Turismo 7 esports event returns for 2024

Gaming News 🕹️

• Netflix has over 80 games currently in development and plans to launch one each month

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 comes to Game Pass this week

• The 50 best Xbox Summer Sale 2024 deals

• Evo 2024: All the big reveals and announcements

• Everything announced at TennoCon 2024

• FC 25 developers say they welcome a true competitor, with a new FIFA waiting in the wings

• Forza Horizon 5's new DLC is Gran Turismo personified

• Meta's redesigned Quest app puts a big focus on Horizon Worlds

• SNK vs. Capcom: SVC CHAOS announced for PS4, Switch, and PC

• First .45 Parabellum Bloodhound trailer shows off VA-11 Hall-A dev's new game

• Honor of Kings surpasses 50m downloads in a month outside of China

• Fortnite Chapter 6 will add two new movement mechanics

• Streets of Rogue 2's chaotic open world sequel delayed from August until October

• Rainbow Six Mobile and Division Resurgence quietly delayed

• Making the Bloodborne kart racer come to life with Nightmare Kart

• Ubisoft has put more money into marketing Star Wars Outlaws than any other game

• Sonic X Shadow Generations physical launch edition gets an additional pre-order bonus

• Soulframe will "open up to a lot more players this autumn", says Digital Extremes

• Pacific Drive's summer update adds a photomode and is the first of a new roadmap of free updates to come this year

• Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami combines tower defense strategy with the heart of community organizing

• New Art of Fighting game and Samurai Shodown action RPG in development

• The King of Fighters XV DLC characters Mature and Vice announced

• Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition review

• Key details from the Diablo IV Spiritborn class revealed

^{Continue catching up with gaming news right after our sections on Trends, Web3 Games, Industry News, Insights, Esports, and Events!}

Web3 Games 🎯

• Motorverse exclusive interview with General Manager Will Griffiths, who maps out Animoca's path for its driving game ecosystem

• The 8102 game: a journey into blockchain-powered storytelling

• TON to integrate Mocaverse as part of $20 million strategic growth deal

• Immutable adds most games in first half of 2024

• Unioverse hires Star Citizen co-founder Eric Peterson as CCO

• Wemix unveils new games and revamped payment system

• What is pay-to-extract? an emerging web3 gaming model

• Fortnite may utilize blockchain in the future but it will not use crypto or offer NFT trading, epic games CEO tim sweeney said

• OKX racer, the first Telegram crypto game created by a centralized exchange, asks players to guess bitcoin’s price every five seconds

• Multi-faceted messaging app Telegram is seeing unprecedented popularity as it becomes the platform of choice for crypto gamers

• Pixeltap players will be able to claim an NFT, with some getting PIXFI tokens—plus a pixelverse layer-2 network is coming to TON

• Illuvium reveals new trailer as mainnet launch approaches

• Studio 369 expands Metalcore IP, launches Metalcore arena

• Immortal Rising 2 launches on immutable zkEVM

Trends 📈

• Why there's no market for AAA mobile games

• Is this a golden age for Capcom? 

• GeForce NOW has been integrated in Xbox game pages; premium memberships are discounted, and there's new games, too

• The Halo TV show and Microsoft's Xbox strategy shared the same problem

• 2.2 million people were willing to pay $100 to play College Football 25 3 days early

• Mortal Kombat mobile game to shut down a year after launch as developer NetherRealm suffers layoffs

• Apple is doubling down on its gaming ambitions

• Companies distance themselves as players recreate Trump assassination attempt in Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft

• Apex Legends' Steam review score plummets due to new Battle Pass changes

• Clickolding is a clicker game that looks like a meme but hits hard

• Metaverse expert Matthew Ball still believes in the 3D internet

• EA Sports FC 25 will feature a paid season pass

• Coach comes to Roblox experiences Fashion Famous 2 and Fashion Klossette

• Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two adds review bombing to list of risks, leads to “loss of players and revenues

• Cheaters in Street Fighter 6 ranked are getting out of hand & Capcom needs to do something about it

Industry News 🛡️

• Xbox Europe marketing lead complains they're getting much fewer funds compared to PlayStation

• FTC accuse Microsoft of breaking promise not to raise Game Pass prices after Activision Blizzard deal

• Microsoft say it's "misleading" for the FTC to call the Game Pass experience "degraded" now it costs more

• Why GTA 6's release doesn't scare Ubisoft

• Bethesda Game Studios workers form 'wall-to-wall union' at Microsoft

• New Kickstarter Head of Games is former Exploding Kittens senior sales manager

• Japan's mobile game installs and spending rose in Q1 2024

• Startup raises $16m for generative AI behaviour engine

• Judas and Bioshock dev Ken Levine thinks video game voice-acting has a problem with "turn-based dialogue"

• Report: 82% of US gamers made an in-game purchase in freemium titles in 2023

• European game sales decline by 1.9% in first half of 2024

• Upcoming 2025 Steam sales revealed for first half of the year

• Ubisoft outperform targets as back-catalogue, digital, and player investment bookings all increase

• Xsolla acquires leading LFG company LF Group

• Silent Hill creator shares his thoughts about closure of Hi-Fi Rush studio

• Interview: Victor Cardozo talks Aoca Game Lab's vision, the Arida series and the Brazilian developer scene

Level Up Your Hardware 🎧

• Asus' Steam Deck competitor just got an excellent upgrade

• The Gamma PS1 emulator for iOS gets multitap support and better audio

• Do you love sim racing enough to spend $2,499 on a steering wheel?

• The Viture Pro XR glasses are a surprisingly good private projector screen you can wear

• PC motherboard market has seemingly recovered

• New Switch accessory might confirm some leaked details about Switch 2

• PlayStation 5 Pro is still on track for a 2024 release date, according to information shared with developers this week

Events 🗓️

• Philippine GameDev Expo 2024July 26 - July 28

• SIGGRAPH 2024July 28 - August 01

• BGA at Gamescom Cologne - GermanyAugust 21 - August 21

• BGA at Token2049 SingaporeSeptember 18 -19

Esports Players & Teams News 🏆

• Natus Vincere claims EWC trophy and $400,000 prize

• OpTic Texas dominates Subliners to win CDL Champs

• Esports World Cup CEO on the future of the industry

• Fans concerned about Ropz as FaZe star hits first negative rating in years

• Valorant's 'Agent 26' to be revealed at Champs finals, it's claimed

• How to watch Evo 2024, the biggest fighting game tournament of the year

• Overwatch 2's new hero is space ranger Juno and she's available to play today

• Round one of the PUBG Mobile World Cup is complete, with the main event coming soon

• Honda’s Racing's Gran Turismo 7 esports event returns for 2024, with global live final

…Gaming News Continued 🕹️

• Terry Bogard gets a first look of his arrival in Street Fighter 6 at EVO 2024

• Tekken 8 is bringing back Heihachi and adding a new story chapter

• MtG's wild new card, Flubs, the Fool, will make a fool out of players

• Guilty Gear Strive to add Lucy from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in Season Pass 4

• Forestrike is a tactical kung-fu roguelike that lets you orchestrate fights with time-bending powers

• House of Golf 2 gets putt back with delay to August 16th

• Four-wheeled survival nightmare Pacific Drive gets free update, paid cosmetics DLC, and 2024 roadmap

• Once Human teases big September update, including new PvP and PvE scenarios

• Rockstar reportedly almost released The Warriors on GBA

• Marvel vs Capcom producer says development team has "big dreams" for crossover series

Guides, Tips and Tricks 🗝️

• How to play Nilou in Genshin Impact: Nilou explained

• FFXIV: All framer's kits and how to get them

• Where to find board games in Fallout 76

• How to get the Neon Parasol in Final Fantasy XIV

• How to intercept in College Football 25

• Best Grace build in Zenless Zone Zero – Best Drive Discs, W-Engines, and team compositions

• How to get Sanctified Water in Final Fantasy XIV

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