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EA, the sprawling publisher that laid off 5 percent of its workforce in February, has reported net bookings of $7.43 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024. That's a 1 percent upswing-year-on-year and was largely driven by the company's roster of live service releases such as EA Sports FC and Madden NFL.Net revenue for FY24 increased by 2 percent over that same period to $7.56 billion. Live service titles delivered $5.54 billion of that total. Full game titles pulled in $2.02 billion, with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor highlighted as a major contributor.EA CEO Andrew Wilson said the company managed to produce "bigger, bolder world class entertainment" during the fiscal year and engaged "hundreds of millions of players and fans."He claimed EA will "co…

In the year since Dead Island 2's launch, the game has amassed "well over" 7 million players.Developer Dambuster Studios revealed the milestone in celebration of the game's first birthday. Similarly, those players have taken out 24 billion zombies across PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S, and PC."All of us at Dambuster Studios are humbled and thrilled by the outstanding response of our passionate slayers!" it wrote. "It’s been a truly memorable year for the Dead Island franchise."It's unclear how that translates to sales, but the game was successful almost immediately. It opened to 1 million copies sold in its opening weekend, and 2 million within a month.Likewise, Dambuster didn't highlight a particular system it did well on, …

Software developer Yellow recently raised $5 million in seed funding from A16z Games to build out its 3D modeling tool YellowSculpt, which is powered by generative AI.As Yellow explains, the tool lets artists and designers create "clean, animatable, pre-rigged 3D character meshes" in minutes. Its aim is for YellowSculpt to make 3D creation more accessible and help prepare 3D characters to be used in games proper.In its press release, Yellow noted how genAI tools are typically made for 2D art and characters. To founder Mandeep Waraich, YellowSculpt will help 3D artists and also "further our societies" as more people use the tool.A16Z's Jack Soslow gave a similar sentiment, saying Yellow's focus is on "empowering human creativity through AI…[and] making …

Xbox president Sarah Bond claims Microsoft's decision to shutter key studios such as Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks is about ensuring the company's video game business is "healthy for the long term."Bond was addressing the closures during an interview at Bloomberg Live and described the decision to wind down major studios as "extraordinarily hard." In justifying the move, she claimed Microsoft has a "deep responsibility" to ensure its games, devices, and services can survive moments of transition within the game industry. "The news we announced earlier this week is an outcome of that," she said.Bond said the industry has been "flat" over the last year despite a lot of "tremendous releases" in 2023. "The growth di…

What could help triple-A games get even bigger right now? According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, the answer lies in ads.During a recent earnings call Q&A, Wilson was asked by an analyst about "dynamic ad insertion" in triple-A titles as a means of revenue. While he thinks it's "still early" for that, he noted its potential as a "meaningful driver of growth" for the publisher.In fact, internal teams at EA are already exploring "very thoughtful [ad] implentations," Wilson revealed. For him, the important thing is to build up communities in games, then figure out how ads are potential growth drivers."We have looked over the course of our history to be very thoughtful about advertising in the context of our play experiences. […] As we start t…

Blizzard Entertainment revealed it's canceled this year's BlizzCon, where it typically shows off big reveals for its current and future games.The axing was made after "careful consideration," and was one the studio says it didn't make lightly. It marks the fifth cancellation following the ones in 2022 (due to the studio's workplace harassment allegations), 2020 (COVID), 2012, and 2006.In the showcase's absence, Blizzard says it'll reveal more information on its games at events like Gamescom. It also plans to have several in-person events around the world specifically to commemorate the Warcraft series, which turns 30 years old.Blizzard hopes those appearances will "carry the same spirit of celebration and togetherness.""Our hope is tha…

Another Crab's Treasure has only been out for a day, and the crustacean soulslike has already sold 30,000 copies across all systems.Developer Aggo Crab revealed the news on Twitter, saying it was "happy to see you all having fun (but not too much, it IS a souls game)." The title released on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S (where it's also on Game Pass.)While Aggro Crab didn't single out a particular system the game is thriving on, it appears to be doing well on Steam. At time of writing, it's the eighth topselling title behind games like Fallout 4 and Persona 3 Reload."A HUGE thank you for all the love and support for day one of Another Crab's Treasure," it wrote. "We can't believe we're actually watching y…

A new report from Digiday reveals Roblox players will be able to buy real-life items from Walmart within the platform itself.The Walmart Discovered server, which goes active later today, will let players visit a digital replica of the store. There, they can try on in-game items and load an "ecommerce experience" that links to the retailer's website.Companies like Meta and X have openly talked about wanting their platforms to be one-stop destinations for banking, socializing, and more. With this Walmart partnership, Roblox Corp. is making a statement and (challege) to other companies with those aims.Roblox is at an advantage and disadvantage here. The platform is big with teens and young adults, but this may raise further questions about it exploiting its own playerbase.In th…

Rise of the Ronin has been out for over a month, but Koei Tecmo is already singing its praises.In its writeup for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the developer singles out Team Ninja's newest action title. It claims sales have already surpassed the two Nioh games, and has a "high valuation" with players.It's worth noted both Nioh games collectively sold 7 million units as of October 2022. It may be the studio is comparing Ronin's sales to those games' initial start—within a month, those games sold sold over 3 million and 2 million units, respectively.Like both Nioh games, Sony Interactive published Ronin, which is currently a PlayStation 5 exclusive. It's unclear when it'll be ported to PC, and if Koei Tecmo will handle publishing duties for it.