Gamescom kicked off last night with its annual Opening Night Live showcase, bringing a range of game announcements, release dates and gameplay reveals for a range of upcoming titles.

Xbox and Take-Two dominated the Geoff Keighley-hosted presentation, which was livestreamed from Koelnmesse in Cologne. If you missed the full two-hour showcase, here are the main highlights:

GamesIndustry.biz will be reporting from Gamescom all week. You can keep up with our coverage right here.

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Black Myth: Wukong was released today, and already it has set new records on Steam.

At the time of writing, the game is being played by 2.13 million concurrent users making it the best performing single-player game of all time by this metric.

It more than doubles the record Cyberpunk 2077 set when it launched in 2020, when it reached one million concurrent users within two hours of its debut. It has even passed the peak of another 2024 hit, Palworld, which VG247 reports topped out at 2.1 million concurrent users.

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Encouraging women to request higher pay — and not just to match the salaries of their male counterparts — could be the key to closing the gender pay gap.

That's according to Tanja Loktionova, founder of Values Value, who presented the findings of the recruitment agency's annual salary survey at Devcom yesterday.

During her session, she showed that not only do women earn less than men in almost every discipline within the games industry, but they also expect less when asked what salary they believe would be fair.

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Developers that relegate their storytelling to cutscenes and linear dialogue are severely limiting themselves in how they tell stories — and likely driving players away.

That's according to Kelsey Beachum — best known for her narrative work on Mobius Digital's seminal 2019 title Outer Wilds, but who has also written for Dying Light 2, The Outer Worlds and Groundless, among others — as she delivered the opening keynote at Devcom in Cologne today.

Her opening example was the classic Super Mario Bros, where the story boils down to Toad telling Mario that the princess is in another castle. Illustrating this as a timeline, she marked these moments in red as they bring a complete halt to gameplay: the player is no longer involved.

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The latest episode of the GI Microcast is now available to download, taking a quick dive into the biggest stories of the past week.

Our main topic this week is the launch of the Epic Games Store on mobile, bringing Fortnite back to Android and (in the EU) iOS four years after Epic began its legal dispute with Apple and Google. We discuss the potential for alternative mobile stores, and Epic's goal to reach 100,000 installs before 2025 despite the 12 to 15 steps players must go through on each mobile ecosystem.

And in this week's What Do The Numbers Mean?, Chris takes a look at the long-awaited release date for Devolver Digital's The Plucky Squire, two fairly hefty (and one very similar) games coming out around it, and, of course, sales figures that offer a little more context.

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As the Devcom developer conference kicks off in Cologne today, the organisers have shared the results of this year's speaker survey, with almost 90% of respondents stating they believe AAA games can succeed without additional purchases.

In a survey of 100 speakers, out of 300 industry experts who will take the stage over the next two days, 89% said AAA titles can be "financially successful just by being Buy-to-Play."

The result comes after years of scrutiny over add-on-purchases within the AAA games spaces, including loot boxes (such as EA's Ultimate Team modes for its sports games), battle/season passes, and progress boosters such as XP multipliers and crafting resources.

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Ubisoft has made another round of layoffs, this time cutting staff from two of its US studios.

A total of 45 employees have been let go across the Assassin's Creed publisher's San Francisco studio and Red Storm Entertainment, which is based in Cary, North Carolina. It is unclear which departments have been affected.

"Yesterday Ubisoft San Francisco and Red Storm Entertainment informed their teams of a restructuring that resulted in 45 employees leaving Ubisoft," a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN in a statement.

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The Epic Games Store is launching on mobile today.

The Fortnite firm announced it will be bringing its games marketplace to Android worldwide, and to iOS in the European Union thanks to this year's Digital Markets Act requiring Apple to enable third-party stores on its mobile ecosystem.

Epic's mobile catalogue will begin with three titles, starting with Fortnite, which marks its return to iOS, as well as Rocket League Sideswipe (a spin-off of the popular racing sports game that launched in 2021) and the brand new Fall Guys Mobile. The latter will feature cross-play and cross-progression with the popular online game already on PC and consoles.

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Phiphen, a US-based film and TV production company, is breaking into the video games sector with a new publishing business, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal.

Phiphen Games will be run by Molly Conners, who is also the CEO and founder of Phiphen, who told us the movie firm has previously invested in selected games projects in the past and was keen to do something more in the space.

"We realized that there are a lot of similarities in the way the games and film industries work, and we found that we could bring a lot of our experience in film and project management to game developers," she said.

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Embracer Group has released its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year, with net sales dropping 24% year-on-year to SEK 7.9 billion ($754 million).

There were also sales declines across its mobile, tabletop and entertainment divisions, but the company said these were in line with expectations due to a quieter release slate compared to the same quarter last year.

Most notably, PC and console games suffered a 34% decline due to comparisons with calendar Q2 2023, when Plaion released the best-selling Dead Island 2.

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Gamescom is more than just a week in Cologne.

The world's biggest games show has expanded dramatically in recent years with the launch of satellite events in other markets; first with Gamescom Asia in Singapore, which debuted in 2021, and this year heading to Brazil with the first Gamescom Latam.

The Cologne show already prided itself on being an international event, attracting companies and visitors from all over the world and representing different nations with the country pavilions found in the business halls. But co-organiser Felix Falk, also managing director of German games trade association Game, says the physical expansion into other territories demonstrates the global role Gamescom aims to play in the games industry.

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Valve is introducing new rules regarding store page descriptions on Steam, forbidding the inclusion of external links within the text.

Developers will no longer be allow to link to other websites, including social media pages, with Valve emphasising that the latter are covered by the specific link fields already available.

Store descriptions must also not link to other games on Steam, or use any embedded imagery that mimics Steam's UI or buttons, such as wishlist buttons.

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German consumers spent €4.28 billion in the first six months of 2024, a dip of 6% compared to the same period last year.

The news comes from a report by German trade association Game, based on data from GfK and the Sensor Tower-owned Data.ai. It marks the market's first decline after several years of growth.

The sharpest drop in revenue was from hardware sales, which were down 18% year-on-year to €1.2 billion. This is due to slowing sales of PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series consoles, as well as Switch entering the eighth year of its lifecycle.

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The latest episode of The GamesIndustry.biz Microcast is now available to download.

This week, we continue our look at the latest financial results, with highlights from Warner Bros, Bandai Namco, Sega and Remedy. We dive a little deeper into Sony and the decline it faces in PS5 sales, as well as our conversation with Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick around the publisher's latest results and its future line-up.

We also discuss Krafton's acquisition of Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP following closures at Xbox earlier this year, and we introduce a new segment, What do the numbers mean?, where we foolishly indulge Chris and his love of sales statistics.

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Apple is updating its business terms in the EU to allow developers to link to external payment systems or promote offers form other platforms that do not use the built-in iOS payment system.

But these options will only be available to developers who agree to the updated terms, and Apple will still be taking a cut of each purchase.

In a post on its developer support website, Apple explains that it will claim a 5% 'initial acquisition fee' on any digital goods and services purchased during the first year after an initial install. This is for new users only and will not apply to customers already using the app before the new link out options come into play.

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'Survive until 2025.' The phrase still echoes around the games industry as it faces ongoing layoffs and studio closures.

At Develop:Brighton this year, GamesIndustry.biz invited an array of developers, studio heads, managers, and more to share their advice on how to endure the turbulent times we're experiencing. Here's what they had to say:

CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson kicked things off by sharing a survival story from the Eve Online developer's early years, which still applies to those trying to find funding in 2024.

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Warner Bros has hired Yves Lachance to lead its Montreal games studio, appointing him video president and studio head for the developer.

He will lead the management for all disciplines across the studio, as well as working closely with Warner's publishing teams and other internal studios. He will report to WB Games' senior vice president for production and studios Ben Bell.

Lachance joins after more than eight years at Bethesda Game Studios Montreal, a studio he helped launch in 2015.

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The long-running and historic partnership between Nintendo and Sega to create Olympics video games reportedly ended in 2020 when the event's organisers sought opportunities elsewhere.

Lee Cocker, who served as executive producer on multiple Mario & Sonic Olympics titles, told Eurogamer the International Olympics Committee allowed the licensing deal to lapse as it "wanted to look at other partners and NFTs and esports."

"Basically the IOC wanted to bring [it] back to themselves internally and look at other partners so they would get more money," Cocker added.

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Microsoft's results for the final quarter of its financial year are in, showing continued growth in overall gaming revenue while Xbox console sales once again decline.

The acquisition of Activision Blizzard was cited as a key factor in the growth recorded, with revenue from Call of Duty and the publisher's other properties now converted from third party to first party.

The growth of Xbox contributed to a solid year for Microsoft overall with total revenue from all of its businesses rising 15% year-on-year to nearly $65 billion.

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Skydance Games has partnered with Plaion to publish Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra when it debuts next year.

The game was unveiled earlier this year during GDC, and features both Captain America and Black Panther in a World War II setting. It is being developed by Skydance New Media, the studio led by Naughty Dog alum and Uncharted creative director Amy Hennig, as well as her fellow co-president Julian Beak.

While the specific devices have yet to be confirmed, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is due to launch some time in 2025.

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Keywords subsidiary Lively is facing a small number of layoffs as the latter streamlines its business.

GamesIndustry.biz received a tip that Brighton-based developer Electric Square was making redundancies, but the company informed us these are limited to the sister studio Lively.

A spokesperson told us the layoffs are the result of a recent strategic review, in which the compay decided to "streamline certain areas of [the] business," with a small number of people at Leamington-based Lively now at risk of redundancy.

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The latest episode of The GI Microcast is available to download or watch now, discussing some of the biggest stories from the past week.

On this episode, we discuss Humble Games' claims that is restructuring amid reports of mass layoffs and ponder how this reflects some of the biggest challenges in publishing today. Specifically, we look at a range of indie-focused publishers and the troubles they've encountered in the past year, and discuss the future prospects for this segment of the market.

We also discuss two stories in which generative AI was a primary concern, from Activision reportedly using these tools at the potential expense of staff and the SAG-AFTRA strike, in which the union is trying to protect voice actors from being exploited by companies using AI.

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Valve has introduced several changes to how demos are handled on Steam, as well as how developers can better get them in front of potential players.

Perhaps the most notable addition is that studios can now set up separate store pages for their free demos, where they can post screenshots, trailers and specify the contents of this download. These pages will also automatically link to the full game's store page for wishlisting or purchase.

In the announcement post, Valve said these pages are optional and can be taken down at a later date if the developer chooses. Studios will need a full written description, screenshots and tags before a page can go live. Pages can be set up for demos already available on Steam.

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The upcoming movie adaptation of Bioshock has seen its budget slashed as Netflix focuses on making it a smaller, "more personal" project.

Variety reports the revelations come from a Thursday panel at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, where the film's producer Roy Lee said the BioShock project was being "reconfigured" following a change in leadership at the streaming firm.

In March, Netflix named Dan Lin as its new film boss, with the producer of the company's live action Avatar: The Last Airbender remake replacing Scott Stuber, who was in charge when the BioShock film was announced back in 2022.

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Tech firm Improbable has posted its first full-year profit, recording £11 million in the black for 2023.

The company announced this news as it submitted its filing to Companies House yesterday, also reporting a 37% year-on-year increase in revenue to £66 million and a cash position of £185 million.

Improbable was founded in 2012 and originally focused on technology that could be used to create large-scale, persistent simulations for use in video games. In 2021, it shifted focus towards metaverse technologies, although some of its tools can still be used for games and virtual worlds.

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The commercial video games industry is more than 50 years old, yet there is still the sense that it is struggling to find acceptance among the mainstream – at least, when compared to the likes of TV and film.

While negative media coverage from mainstream publications or attacks from politicians may be less common than in decades past, the industry still attracts scrutiny (currently, it's most often around loot boxes and monetisation, or concerns around addiction). But the situation is improving overall, and countless industry members and organisations are doing their part to demonstrate the benefits that video games bring into people's lives.

One example is 'Push Play: Gaming for a Better World', a book published back in March and written by NCSoft's president and chief strategy officer Songyee Yoon. The title explores the many positives of playing video games, why they have become so popular, and how the industry can overcome some of the biggest challenges it faces.

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Nintendo has revoked the win of the team that triumphed in the Splatoon 3 World Championship earlier this year after allegations of misconduct arose regarding several of its players.

Jackpot won the official Nintendo competition back in April, but a statement on the Nintendo VS X account yesterday reveals their win will be "considered vacated" and the team will not receive trophies from this competition.

"It has come to our attention that certain members of team Jackpot... acted in a manner that is not in line with our community guidelines while playing the Splatoon 3 game," the platform holder wrote.

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Most sports video games can be daunting for those with just a casual interest in the activities they emulate. While the likes of FIFA, Madden, NBA 2K and MLB The Show aren't entirely inaccessible to the mainstream, they are also clearly geared towards those who live and breathe football (traditional or American), basketball, baseball or whichever ball-based sport is at the title's core.

There are a handful of alternatives through the likes of Nintendo's Mario-fronted sports games, but by and large these simulation titles are the only option for those who wish to indulge in a little digital athleticism.

A team of Electronic Arts veterans are determined to change this with the formation of Play By Play Studios, a new developer that emerges after three years of stealth today.

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