Warner Bros' games revenue has declined 41% year-on-year, the company announced as part of its financial report for its Q2 2024, which is the three months ended June 30.

The company doesn't provide detailed figures within its Studios segment (which also encompasses TV and film), but said the decrease in games revenue was due to the "weak performance" of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, especially compared to the success of Hogwarts Legacy in 2023.

The segment's revenue as a whole was down 4% year-on-year to $2.45 billion.

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Meta has reportedly shut down developer Ready at Dawn.

That's according to Android Central, who had access to an internal memo sent to employees by VP of Oculus Studios Gio Hunt yesterday, reportedly saying that Ready at Dawn was closing effective immediately.

A spokesperson told the publication that the closure wasn't to "save money" but to ensure Meta's VR division, Reality Labs, stays on target with its new budget restrictions and can deliver "better long-term impact."

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MixRift has raised $1.6 million in a pre-seed funding round.

Outsized Ventures and Underline Ventures co-led the round, with additional contributions from SOSV and angel investors. The startup intends on using the funding to further develop and publish mixed reality titles.

MixRift was co-founded by CEO Bobby Voicu (previously CEO of social games studio MavenHut), CPO David Pripas (formerly creative director at Augmented Studios) and CTO Andrei Vaduva (previously lead engineer at Green Horse Games). All three of them worked together at MavenHut Games in the past.

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Outersloth has been a "really bad open secret" since 2022.

That's what Innersloth's communications director Victoria Tran tells us as we sit down to chat about the new indie fund from Among Us developer Innersloth. Unveiled this June, the initiative aims at providing funding to small studios, with a number of teams already supported including Outerloop Games, Strange Scaffold, and Visai Games.

But the first signs of Outersloth were seen when the new venture signed its very first title, Mars First Logistics from Australian studio Shape Shop.

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Amber has announced the acquisition of developer Madbricks for an unknown sum.

The Colombian studio specialises in co-development and has already collaborated with Amber in the past. It's also developed projects with Voodoo, ByteDance, and Maximum Games among others.

Based in Bogotá, the developer employs around 40 people.

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2weeks has raised $1.25 million in pre-seed funding, the newly founded studio has announced.

The round was led by A16Z, with 2weeks also joining the VC firm's accelerator programme, Speedrun.

Anorak Ventures, Blue Heron Ventures, Brendan Iribe, Ben 'CohhCarnage' Cassel, Art Min, Nate Mitchell, Nirav Patel, and Jamie Stormbreaker also contributed to the round.

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Sixteen Tons Entertainment is changing leadership, with founder and former CEO Ralph Stock stepping down and handing the reins to Jan Richter.

Richter joined the studio this month from ZeptoLab where he'd been working for the past four years, most recently as head of product and design. Prior to that, he worked at the likes of Mighty Bear Games, Bigpoint, and SnapDragon Games, in a career spanning almost 20 years.

Stock founded Sixteen Tons Entertainment in 1993, with the studio mainly known for its Emergency series.

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Whiteout Survival has passed $1 billion in gross revenue.

That's according to Sensor Tower's latest estimates, with the analytics firm saying the milestone was reached in 17 months.

It's the third fastest 2023 title to achieve this feat, following in the footsteps of Monopoly Go and Honkai: Star Rail.

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The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act passed in the US Senate yesterday, potentially bringing significant changes to online platforms if the bills get approved by the House of Representatives.

Both bills would apply to games platforms, aim at protecting children online, and were approved in a bipartisan 91-3 vote.

KOSA would introduce a "duty of care" for tech companies when it comes to kids using their platforms, requiring them to have stronger regulations to avoid cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, and more. The bill would also see users have to prove they meet a platform's age requirements to avoid minors using products they shouldn't.

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Electronic Arts published its financials results for the first quarter of FY2025. Despite a decline across key metrics, the company said results were above its expectations, and is looking ahead to a promising Q2 following the successful release of EA Sports College Football 25, among others.

For three months ended June 30, 2024:

EA's net bookings declined 20% compared to the same period in the previous year, mostly due to a drop in full game sales (down 58% year-on-year). Live services held steady in comparison, only dropping 7% compared to Q1 FY24.

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Moon Rover Games has raised $3.5 million in funding from NCsoft.

The investment will go towards the development of its co-op shooter codenamed Project Aldous, due to release on PC and consoles.

NCsoft's investment marks the start of a "long term partnership" between the Korean publisher and Moon Rover Games, the announcement said.

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Gamescom is continuing on its mission to build a global brand of international events, with its Asian show due to take place in Singapore this October.

Between a very successful inaugural Gamescom Latam earlier this year, the original trade show returning to Cologne in just a few weeks, and Gamescom Asia from October 17 to 20, 2024 will mark the first year with all three events taking place in full force.

While Gamescom parent Koelnmesse only acts as co-organiser for the Latam edition, it is fully behind Gamescom Asia, with project director Daria La Valle telling us that the event wants to be a platform for Southeast Asia "to come together." The German Games Industry Association is also behind the wheel, as the owner of the Gamescom brand globally.

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Capcom released its financial results for the first quarter of the financial year ending on March 31, 2025, with games sales dropping quite significantly compared to the same period the previous year.

But the publisher said in its presentation that "all business segments outperformed the company's plan."

For the three months ended June 30, 2024:

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As part of Hasbro's Q2 financial results, CEO Chris Cocks has expressed the company's commitment to focus on "digital play," mentioning a $125 million capital envelope for video games, and one to two new releases yearly from late 2025/early 2026.

In the Q&A portion of Hasbro's earnings call (as transcribed by Seeking Alpha), Cocks noted that the recent appointment of John Hight as president of Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming, as well as an increasing number of execs with video games background to the company's board, is in line with the company's strategy.

He mentioned the aim to expand some of its "mid-core and hard-core brands" and "digitise" them.

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Ubisoft has issued a statement regarding Assassin's Creed Shadows, acknowledging that some "promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community."

"For this, we sincerely apologise," the statement read. "All game footage presented so far is in development and the game will keep evolving until launch."

It is unclear what materials Ubisoft is referring to exactly, but PCGamesN mentioned in its reporting that a petition started in Japan calling for Assassin's Creed Shadows' cancellation has garnered over 94,000 signatures.

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What even is marketing?

That's the question Hannah Flynn, Izzy Jagan, and Lou Jones started their talk at Develop Brighton with.

In a conversation with the audience entitled 'What games marketing actually works in 2024?', the trio explored different aspects of the craft.

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Perfect World CEO Xiao Hong and co-CEO Lu Xiaoyin have reportedly stepped down from their roles.

That's according to Pocket Gamer, translating a company announcement and reports from Chinese media. The executives are reportedly being replaced by former senior VP Gu Liming as the company's new CEO.

Both Hong and Xiaoyin are said to be remaining at the company as directors.

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