Episode 98: Fighting For the Little Guy… By Stealing Their Ideas (News Show)

Aug 21, 2021

Epic Games is under fire for wholesale copying Innersloth’s Among Us for a new Fortnite Mode. Also: the latest on Activision Blizzard, earnings updates (Starbreeze, Remedy, Paradox, Unity, Roblox, Embracer Group), NPD, and more.

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TIME STAMPS

• [00:00:58] - Krafton’s IPO Woes
• [00:03:31] - App Annie and Sensor Tower Mobile Gaming Reports
• [00:07:11] - US Senate moves to take on Apple, Google with Open App Markets Act
• [00:13:13] - Epic Games Store self-publishing enters closed beta
• [00:13:49] - Fortnite shamelessly rips off Among Us
• [00:20:26] - People Can Fly has not yet received revenue from Outriders
• [00:34:46] - Investment Interlude
• [00:51:07] - Quick Hits
• [01:09:12] - Activision Blizzard Update
• [01:18:53] - California DFEH takes aim at Riot Games
• [01:21:10] - Ubisoft Singapore under investigation for harassment and toxic workplace allegations
• [01:22:10] - Starbreeze Earnings
• [01:25:39] - Remedy Earnings
• [01:28:23] - Unity Earnings
• [01:31:51] - Paradox Earnings
• [01:39:51] - Roblox Earnings
• [01:46:39] - Embracer Group Earnings
• [01:49:50] - No More Robots celebrates four year anniversary
• [01:50:58] - NPD report for July 2021

SOURCES

• Beijing’s tech crackdown casts long shadow over South Korea’s biggest IPO in a decade (South China Morning Post)
• 2021 Mobile Gaming Tear Down (App Annie)
• Senators want to rein in Apple and Google’s app store dominance
• TRUST NOBODY: INTRODUCING FORTNITE IMPOSTORS
• No entitlement to royalties on the sale of the “Outriders” game for PCF Group S.A.
• Jesse McCree, Diablo 4 Director No Longer At Activision Blizzard (Kotaku)
• Activision Blizzard’s contract workers say they’re ‘crushed’ by toxic culture (Polygon)
• SOC Investment Group takes aim at Activision Blizzard
• DFEH Files Request for Enforcement of Court Order Compelling Riot Games, Inc. to Send Notice to Workers about their Right to Speak with the Government
• Ubisoft S'pore under probe over workplace complaints (The Straits Times)
• Starbreeze Interim Report First Half 2021
• Remedy Half-Year Review (January 1 - June 30 2021)
• Paradox Interim report January - June 2021
• Unity FY21 Q2
• Roblox FY21 Q2
• Investigation: How Roblox is Exploiting Young Game Developers (People Make Games)
• Roblox "exploiting" young game developers, new investigation reports (Eurogamer)
• Embracer Group First Quarter FY2022

INVESTMENT INTERLUDE

• Unity Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Parsec
• Embracer Group Snaps Up Three More
• ROBLOX ACQUIRES GUILDED, A PLATFORM TO CONNECT GAMING COMMUNITIES
• Thunderful Group acquires To The Sky and Tussilago
• TinyBuild acquires Animal (GamesIndustry)
• Rovio Entertainment to acquire hyper-casual game studio Ruby Games
• Sony Pictures Entertainment Announces the Completion of Acquisition of Ellation Holdings, Inc., Operator of the Anime Business Crunchyroll
• Rolocule Games acquired by Dream Sports
• Keywords Studios plc Acquisition of AMC RO STUDIO
• Roblox acqui-hires Jim Greer’s Bash Video platform (GamesBeat)
• NACON ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF CREA-TURE STUDIOS, MONTREAL BASED VIDEO GAME STUDIO, BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF « SESSION »
• VR dev XR Games nets $2.1 million to expand team and create new franchises (Gamasutra)
• Mountaintop raises $30M Series A
• Israeli startup raises $2m to develop the next-gen academy platform for Esports teams (EuropeanGaming.eu)
• Kalam Labs raises $450K for its livestreaming platform for educational games (GamesBeat)
• Seattle-based Starform raises $5 million to scale up ahead of game reveal (Gamasutra)
• AviaGames raises $40M to diversify gaming
• Hero Concept received investment from WePlay Ventures with a valuation of 3 Million Dollars