Without taking a deeper stance on Epic’s financial situation, in my opinion, that Fortnite currency was already insanely expensive to begin with. With a quick check of the Fortnite shop, the cheapest skins (playable characters that are 100% cosmetic, meaning they have no impact on the game) cost 800 V-Bucks, and any slightly nicer characters involving licensed IP are in the 1200–1600 V-Bucks price range. 1000 V-Bucks costs €8.99, so even individual skins are already quite pricey as it is.
1 Like
They spend ~$20M USD annually on free games, which gets them a new user for their storefront at a cost of about $2 (Epic vs. Apple leaks). So, an absolutely negligible portion of that $6bn revenue.
With a 16-18% conversion rate, the customer acquisition cost for a new paying customer comes to just over $10, meaning their lifetime spend on the storefront would need to be just over $100 for the investment to be profitable for Epic. Especially if this is targeted at the “Fortnite” generation, which has no issues using Epic. That doesn’t sound completely impossible. I would imagine that, for example, traditional digital advertising is significantly more expensive in terms of customer acquisition.
2 Likes
According to Bloom’s information, the Saudis acquired Moonton mobile studio from Bytedance for 6 billion.
ByteDance has agreed to sell its games unit Moonton to Savvy Games Group for $6 billion. Moonton is known for mobile titles popular in Asia like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which has been downloaded 1.5 billion times.
Games published by Moonton:
–
Crimson Desert was released with great hype and the game has already sold two million copies, but weak reviews (MC 78) and sales were clearly not enough for the market, and the game studio’s stock dropped 40% in a couple of days.
On the other hand, expectations for the game have been wild, and if we look at the 6-month share price development, we have only returned to the starting point.
3 Likes
This news hasn’t been brought up in discussions yet: PEGI expands age rating criteria with interactive risk categories | Pegi Public Site
Starting June 1st, the age ratings for many games will increase if they contain, for example, loot boxes or other in-game purchases, etc. This will widely affect many free-to-play games, especially if the player base largely consists of children/teenagers.
Key changes summarized here:
-
Purchases of in-game content: games with time-limited or quantity-limited offers will be classified with a PEGI 12, games with NFTs or blockchain-related mechanisms will be PEGI 18.
-
Paid random items: the default rating will be PEGI 16 if the game contains paid random items (and in some cases they can be a PEGI 18).
-
Play-by-appointment: mechanisms that reward returning to the game (e.g. daily quests) will get a PEGI 7. If these mechanisms punish players for not returning (e.g. by losing content or reducing progress) they will become PEGI 12.
-
Safe online gameplay: if games contain entirely unrestricted communication features (e.g. no blocking or reporting), they will be PEGI 18.
6 Likes
Nintendo is reducing the production rate of the Switch 2 from six to four million units per quarter due to weaker-than-expected sales, Bloomberg reports. US Christmas season sales, in particular, were disappointing. The article is behind a paywall.
5 Likes
Epic just announced they are laying off 1000 employees. Based on the statement, the reason is not AI but rather Fortnite’s downturn and other challenges in the gaming industry 
.
Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees. I’m sorry we’re here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.
Some of the challenges we’re facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics; current consoles selling less than last generation’s; and games competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment.
And some of our challenges are unique to Epic. Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.
Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI. To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.What we now need to do is clear: build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.
11 Likes
Alright.
Sony implemented a roughly 20% price increase across the board for PS5 hardware. The memory and storage capacity, driven by the AI hype, seems to be a significant portion of the hardware’s Bill of Materials (BOM), which is now concretely being passed on to consumer prices.
Over 90 million PS5 consoles have already been sold, with sales pace lagging slightly behind the previous generation. The PS4 sold 117 million units.
Whether component prices have actually risen this much or not, as the undisputed winner of this console generation, this is a logical move to protect margins towards the end of the current console generation, conveniently timed just before the release of GTA VI.
However, for the average gamer, who has been financially squeezed in recent years, this is grim news. And the future of the console market - at least in its current form - doesn’t look very bright. The PC market is predicted to overtake the console market by 2028.
At the same time, component cost pressures are impacting the next-generation console. Unit sales are already lagging, and players are content with games/graphics that are 10+ years old. Why on earth would anyone upgrade to a PS6, which perhaps offers marginally better ray tracing than the previous generation, a feature that is already quite niche and no better innovations have been made in the last 10 years?
As the hardware base shrinks, so too will Sony’s cash cow, the PlayStation Store, and its 30% distribution share in the long run.
| Region | Model | Old Price | New Price | Increase (Local) | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | PS5 (Disc) | $549.99 | $649.99 | +$100.00 | 18.18% |
| PS5 Digital | $499.99 | $599.99 | +$100.00 | 20.00% | |
| PS5 Pro | $749.99 | $899.99 | +$150.00 | 20.00% | |
| United Kingdom | PS5 (Disc) | £479.99 | £569.99 | +£90.00 | 18.75% |
| PS5 Digital | £429.99 | £519.99 | +£90.00 | 20.93% | |
| PS5 Pro | £699.99 | £789.99 | +£90.00 | 12.86% | |
| Europe (EU) | PS5 (Disc) | €549.99 | €649.99 | +€100.00 | 18.18% |
| PS5 Digital | €499.99 | €599.99 | +€100.00 | 20.00% | |
| PS5 Pro | €799.99 | €899.99 | +€100.00 | 12.50% | |
| Japan | PS5 (Disc) | ¥79,980 | ¥97,980 | +¥18,000 | 22.51% |
| PS5 Digital | ¥72,980 | ¥89,980 | +¥17,000 | 23.30% | |
| PS5 Pro | ¥119,980 | ¥137,980 | +¥18,000 | 15.00% |
Table generated by AI. I checked that the new price matches; I didn’t bother checking the others.
21 Likes
Slay the Spire 2 is actually made with the open-source Godot Engine. They switched from Unity to it, like many other indie studios recently. 
11 Likes
The domestic survival FPS indie game Road to Vostok was released in early access a couple of days ago. The game has gained visibility and seems to be second on the list of currently best-selling games:
This too is made with the Godot Engine.
The game developer talks about the release (23 min)
10 Likes
Hey, Steam’s own “top sellers” view shows Finnish sales statistics.
Globally ranked 16th according to SteamDB, which is also very strong for a Finnish, one-man studio, without a publisher, and in early access.
I bought it immediately myself, somewhat in support, even though survival FPS might not be my favorite genre.
steamdb:
"Owner estimations Game released recently, estimations take days to accumulate
~63.3 k by Gamalytic
~64.0 k by VG Insights
"
9 Likes
Yle has interviewed RedLynx founder Antti Ilvessuo. The story is in the Cultural Guest section, so it’s not hard news but more of a feel-good piece.
6 Likes
Bloomberg had a story about the gaming industry and AI. Although players are raging about the use of AI in game development, the impact of online outrage on sales is limited.
Instead, the studios themselves, when following the public comments of gaming company and studio bosses on the subject, are more cautious about AI. While it can be used to improve NPC dialogue, speed up development, and prototype worlds faster, there are concerns about IP infringements and the loss of a unique creative touch.
17 Likes
Finnish-based but Sony-owned Housemarque is releasing its next game in a week. Early reviews are excellent, although IGN only gave it a 7/10. Let’s hope Saros sells well on PlayStation.
19 Likes
Without taking a stance on the game in question, traditionally it’s the case that if IGN specifically gives a 9/10, the game is aimed at a “modern audience” and is a “production” that meets all inclusivity requirements, whereas their 7/10 games are the ones players end up loving, bolstered by high sales figures
.
5 Likes
The management of CCP Games, the Icelandic game studio behind the space MMO EVE Online, is buying the company back from South Korean owner Pearl Abyss with the support of other investors for $120 million, making it independent and rebranding it as Fenris Creations. Apparently, $20 million of the purchase price will be paid in cryptocurrency.
Pearl Abyss, known for Black Desert Online and more recently Crimson Desert, acquired CCP for $425 million in 2018—significantly more expensive than this new change of ownership.
At the same time, Google DeepMind will become a minority shareholder in the company and intends to use EVE Online for AI development:
The collaboration will explore areas including long-horizon planning, memory, and continual learning, using EVE Online as a uniquely rich environment for study. Google DeepMind will work with an offline version of EVE Online running on a local server to test and evaluate models in a controlled setting. Together, the partnership will also explore new gameplay experiences enabled by these technologies.
7 Likes
According to rumors, GTA VI is expected to get its next trailer and pre-orders in a couple of days. The rumors seem well-founded enough to share here:
- This week, Sony has been marketing PS5 upgrades to its PS4 players using the GTA VI release date.
- The PS Store, which usually always has some kind of sale running, currently has no ongoing discount campaigns, which is highly exceptional. The next sales are set to begin on May 13th.
- Some gaming media outlets have been teasing May 12th as a special date.
The timing would make sense anyway, as Summer Game Fest and its surrounding events begin in a couple of weeks. Even though GTA VI is the most anticipated game of the decade, it still shouldn’t compete for attention with other games. We’ll find out next week.
You can read more about the rumors on the resetera discussion forum.
8 Likes