In The News
Epic Games has conditions: Epic Store will stop exclusives if Steam changes to an 88% developer revenue share. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted this yesterday, “If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honoring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam … Such a move would be a glorious moment in the history of PC gaming, and would have a sweeping impact on other platforms for generations to come…”
Earnings and Sales:
Nintendo came in slightly under expectations “with its latest earnings post for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019,” VentureBeat reports. “Operating profit for the three months ended March 31 were $266 million (29.7 billion yen), below the $321 million that analysts expected. For the full fiscal year end March 31, 2020, Nintendo said it expects operating profit of $2.32 billion, compared with estimates from analysts of $3.13 billion.” The company sold “34.74 million hardware units to date, along with 187.52 million copies of software” for the Switch. “During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Nintendo sold 16.95 million units, up 12.7 percent from the previous year.” Finally, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 13.81 million units to date.
Microsoft reported “earnings for its third fiscal quarter of 2019, including revenue of $30.6 billion, net income of $8.8 billion, and earnings per share of $1.14 (compared to revenue of $26.8 billion, net income of $7.4 billion, and earnings per share of $0.95 in Q3 2018). All three of the company’s operating groups saw year-over-year growth,” VentureBeat reports. “Analysts had expected Microsoft to earn $29.8 billion in revenue and report earnings per share of $1.00.”
Persona 5 has sold more than 2.7 million units worldwide, Gamasutra’s Chris Kerr reports. “The news comes via the Amazon Japan listing for Persona 5 Royal (a new enhanced version of the game).”
Supercell and Internet Matters are partnering “in a bid to help children stay safe while gaming online,” according to a press release. “The partnership will see the pair working together to provide families with new advice and resources to help their children navigate the mobile gaming world safely.”
IN: James Ohlen, formerly of BioWare, joined Wizards of the Coast “to focus on creating original intellectual property” for a new studio, he told GI.biz’s Brendan Sinclair.
Chris Taylor, known for games like Dungeon Siege, announced “a new cloud-based gaming platform, Kanoogi, and a new real-time strategy game, Intergalactic Space Empire,” VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi writes.
Bloodborne’s board game adaptation raised “over $1.6 million on Kickstarter. The board game adaptation of FromSoftware’s PlayStation 4 exclusive broke through its $200,000 goal in just 17 minutes,” GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports.
Codemasters Birmingham “has moved into a brand new … 14,000 square foot office [that] spans two floors of the newly-constructed Alpha Tower,” GI.biz’s James Batchelor writes.
Nutaku, an “adult gaming portal,” has opened “a dedicated mobile storefront for Android users,” GI.biz’s Matthew Handrahan reports.
Voice actor Troy Baker’s beef with Borderlands 3 is alive and well. As a recap, Baker lamented that Gearbox didn’t offer him his role as Rhys back, but Gearbox claimed they did and he declined. Now, in an interview with OnlySP’s Rhain Radford-Burns, Baker said “‘I said I would love to come back,’ Baker started. ‘They [Gearbox Software] said I’m not coming back.’”
Extra Esports News:
Mike Modano, of the NHL Hall of Fame, invested in Tiidal Gaming Group. It’s the parent company of Lazarus, and he is now a “brand ambassador,” Esports Insider’s Graham Corking reports.
Partnerships:
NBA 2K League and Stance are partnering “to serve as the competition’s official sock partner. Stance will sell not only team-branded socks, but outfit in-game basketball avatars,” TEO’s Graham Ashton writes.
EPlay and Next Joy are partnering “for distribution and marketing for the Chinese market,” Esports Insider’s Joe Wong reports.
Reddit AMA: Cloud9.
Interviews: Gen.G’s Chris Park (TEO).
Happy birthday Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev!