Top Stories

Marathon Reportedly Had a Budget of Over $200 Million — and While the Pressure Is on Bungie to Gain More Players, It Is Not Facing an Imminent, Concord-Style Shutdown (4 min read)

Bungie's Marathon reportedly cost over $250M to develop, but has only generated ~$55M in gross revenue from an estimated 1.2M copies sold. No imminent shutdown is planned, though Sony remains under pressure after Bungie's prior Destiny 2 shortfalls. (IGN)

1000xResist creator: the game industry needs a universal video codec for FMV games (6 min read)

The creator of 1000xResist is calling on the industry to adopt a universal video codec for FMV games, arguing that fragmented codec support across platforms creates unnecessary friction for developers building live-action content into their games. (Game Developer)

Business & Finance

Black Tabby Games slinks into game publishing with 1000xResist creator's next game (5 min read)

Black Tabby Games — developer of Slay the Princess — has launched a publishing label, Black Tabby Publishing, with its first signing being the next game from the creator of 1000xResist. The move signals indie studios increasingly stepping into publishing roles. (Game Developer)

Survival shooter Road to Vostok 'secured the entire production budget for this game for years and years to come' within 24 hours of its Steam early access launch (6 min read)

Solo dev Antti Leinonen says Road to Vostok's Steam early access launch generated enough day-one revenue to fund development "for years and years to come." 💰 The Finnish survival shooter had been building hype since its 2022 demo. (PC Gamer)

Studios & People

The First Berserker: Khazan studio Neople announces restructure of dev teams (1 min read)

Nexon subsidiary Neople has reorganized its dev teams following The First Berserker: Khazan's "final stage" of development, with staff reallocated to Dungeon & Fighter projects. The company denies layoffs, though earlier reports tied the move to disappointing sales. (Gamesindustry)

Former Bethesda artist says 'every single developer' has already brought up 95% of the complaints that made it to launch, but as Todd Howard told him, 'we can't do everything' (6 min read)

A former Bethesda senior artist says devs internally flag ~95% of issues that players later complain about post-launch, but resource constraints prevent fixes. Todd Howard's response: "we can do anything, but we can't do everything." (PC Gamer)

Games & Releases

Konami's eFootball tops 1 billion downloads (3 min read)

Konami's free-to-play soccer title eFootball has surpassed 1 billion downloads, a significant milestone for the live-service game that launched in 2021 after replacing the Pro Evolution Soccer series. (Game Developer)

Free-to-Play Borderlands Mobile Game Suddenly Available as 'Limited-Time Test' on iPhone (5 min read)

Zynga's NaturalMotion studio quietly launched a free-to-play Borderlands mobile game on iPhone as a "limited-time test," currently US-only. Gearbox is involved in an advisory capacity only, providing creative guidance on franchise lore. (IGN)

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse developers are trying really, really hard to make sure you know it's a metroidvania without using the word 'metroidvania' (7 min read)

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, developed by Dead Cells studio Evil Empire, is being described as a "2D exploration action game" — Konami's workaround for communicating metroidvania without crediting Nintendo's IP. (PC Gamer)

AI/Tech & Tools

After Crimson Desert Apology, the Boss of PUBG Says He Doesn’t Care if a Developer Uses AI for Artwork ‘If They Make Good Gameplay’ - IGN (6 min read)

PUBG Studios head Taeseok Jang says AI-generated artwork doesn't concern him as long as a game delivers good gameplay. His comments follow Pearl Abyss's apology for unintentionally shipping AI art in Crimson Desert. (IGN)

gg! see you in game!

-james