Guilty Gear Strive turned three years old in mid-June, and developer Arc System Works revealed the game has now crossed 3 million players worldwide.

The anime fighter originally released for PlayStation 4 and 5 and PC in 2021, followed by a Japanese arcade release in July that same year. It finally came to Xbox One and Series X|S in March 2023, in addition to Xbox Game Pass.

3 million players, but how many sales?

It’s unknown how this player milestone translates, sales-wise. As of last August, the fighter sold 2.5 million copies, and both Arc System and Bandai Namco have been mum on its commercial performance since.

Strive was the first mainline Guilty Gear entry since 2014’s Guilty Gear Xrd, and the first game in the series to release on current consoles.

Along with the typical post-launch DLC with new fighters, Strive will be further supported with an upcoming anime. Developed by animation studio Sanzigen (which made an animated music video for the game), the Dual Rulers show will adapt Strive’s story mode.

Fighting game franchises like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, and Tekken have jumped over to animation with continued success, so it makes sense Arc System would have its newest fighting game step into that ring to bring more attention to Guilty Gear.

Capcom has made what may be its first studio acquisition in 2024 via the purchase of Minimum Studios for 888,888 New Taiwan dollars (or around $27,265).

Per Capcom, the acquisition was done “to sustainably bolster its developmental and technological capabilities, aiming to achieve its long-term management goal of 100 million units in annual sales.”

It acquired two-thirds of the Taiwan-based company, which was founded in 2018. Per its website, Minimum specializes in game and character animation across human, mechanical, and animal characters.

Capcom’s investment in Minimum makes sense

All three of those fall inside Capcom’s remit. In fact, Minimum has been working with Capcom since its founding, citing its facial and body animation work in Resident Evil 4 Remake, Resident Evil Village, and Dragon’s Dogma II.

Last year, Capcom made a similar acquisition with Swordcanes, which worked on Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush. Like Minimum, Swordcanes specialized in animation and art, and also helped work on Street Fighter 6.

Capcom also recently confirmed a new Resident Evil game was in development, with Resident Evil 7’s Koshi Nakanishi returning as director. Given Minimum’s majority resume is related to the survival horror franchise, the deal may have something to do with this new entry, or another project also in the works.

EA is sunsetting three Battlefield titles on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this month.

The publisher confirmed Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will be removed from digital storefronts on Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 31, 2024. DLC and “all extra related content” will also be pulled from sale.

“Online services for these titles on these platforms will end on November 7th, 2024. While the online components of these titles close for these platforms, if you own the game, you will still be able to play the single-player component,” added EA.

Battlefield 3 will remain playable on PC, while Battlefield 4 and Battlefield: Hardline will remain playable on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

EA’s regularly scheduled sunsetting

EA regularly delists older titles and on its website explains that “some games go away for legal reasons, or because players are asking for resources elsewhere.”

The publisher maintains a regularly updated list of titles facing an online services shutdown and will be giving others the chop in the coming months including FIFA 22 and Disney Sorcerers Arena.

News of online service shutdowns that render key multiplayer components unplayable or result in products being pulled from shelves often prick the ears of game preservationists. Fortunately, all three Battlefield titles remain playable on other platforms (for now).

Many schools offer quality training in game design, but being trained in game design is not enough to become a game designer.

To fully integrate into a team and thrive, a game designer must develop soft skills and new skills that are not systematically offered in school training.

This publication series aims to better prepare future game designers for their missions. I draw on my experience as a game designer, lead designer, and trainer.

To be or not to be …

If there is one aspect that differentiates veterans from novices, it is mastery of soft skills. What is it about?

Soft skills correspond to an individual’s personal qualities and behaviors within a team. Called soft skills in English, they become more and more important when recruiting a future member of a development team.

You will easily find generalities on essential skills in the studio, such as being a team player, respecting requests to the letter, or being very demanding regarding your own work. But today, I would like to share with you other very concrete soft skills that are the fruit of my 28 years of experience as a game designer.

Soft skills 1 – Always follow the implementation of your design

Just because you have written a design document does not mean it will be developed to the letter. The reasons may be multiple: The programmer or artist may misunderstand your design intentions and not ask you for an explanation, a technical requirement may prevent its implementation exactly as you envisioned, your design document may be missing of clarity, or quite simply, not to be read! I have personally experienced all of these situations.

In such circumstances, your most conscientious colleagues will ask you questions or seek instructions, but not all will do so. It is, therefore, your responsibility to ensure that your design is correctly understood and implemented. Never forget that you will be blamed if the gameplay is mediocre, not the team members who put it in place, even if they did not respect your specifications!

Good practices

To avoid this type of problem, the best practices are as follows:

Case study

To illustrate my point, I will share situations I have witnessed or experienced with you. Of course, the names are fictitious to preserve each person’s anonymity.

Luigi is a game designer for an action-adventure game in which the main character is accompanied by a teammate. He designs the mechanics that manage the teammate’s behavior, the places he goes, the attitude he adopts, and the actions he takes. This mechanic is based on the positioning of waypoints by the level design team.

Luigi simply wrote a detailed design document and trusted the rest of the team to correctly implement his design.

But the artistic team goes after the level designer and modifies the map’s topology: Certain passage points are found under the ground or hidden by added decorative elements.

As a result, the functionality works poorly, and the gameplay seems inconsistent. Luigi doesn’t realize what happened because he doesn’t spend enough time testing the new content. Poorly highlighted, the functionality is ultimately abandoned.

Soft skills 2 – Prepare intelligently for the meetings to which you are invited

If a meeting is well organized, it has an agenda and a list of topics to be discussed. If you are invited to a meeting, it is because your contribution is considered valuable. Your ideas and opinions are, therefore, expected.

If, during the meeting, a subject is put on the table and you have not had time to think about it beforehand, your contribution will be superficial or even counterproductive. You risk coming across as someone who “counts for nothing ”, a simple performer who brings no added value. And if you improvise a response to show presence, you risk saying something without any point, something which will ultimately tarnish your image.

Good practices

If you are invited to a meeting, here are the best practices to follow:

Case study

Here is a new illustration of what to do…and not to do:

John is invited to a meeting organized by the project’s creative director. Other game designers will also be present. The agenda specifies that we will discuss a feature in the game that is not satisfactory: cooperative action between two players from the same side.

When the creative director puts the subject on the table and asks the game designers present for their opinion, John, who has not really thought about the problem, is uncomfortable and settles for a very general proposal. But Emma, the other game designer, makes another proposal and illustrates it with a diagram. A drawing is much more understandable than a speech, and she reinforces her proposition by citing games that use the solution she proposes.

John weakened his position on the team, while Emma emerged as making a better contribution to the project. His solution is chosen not because it is better but because it is presented in a more convincing manner.

Soft skills 3 – Be humble and open to changes

A game designer is always attached to his work to his ideas. It’s normal. But a game mechanic remains a mere figment; we can never be sure of its interest until it has been developed and integrated into the game. In other words, an idea may seem very good on paper but may turn out to be disappointing once implemented.

This situation is common.

Indeed, the quality of the player’s experience results from the interaction between many aspects of the game: its mechanics, settings, rhythm, the player’s objectives, complexity, etc. A mechanic can effectively contribute to a quality experience in one game but be detrimental in another.

Therefore, a game designer must demonstrate modesty and develop a spirit of self-criticism. He must objectively analyze the relevance of his design choices. He must listen to the opinions of other members of his team. Above all, he must take into account the feedback from the playtests.

Therefore, he must be ready to start from scratch if a game mechanic is not satisfactory. Experience shows that if a game mechanic does not work, simple improvements may not be enough; it is often preferable to start again with a new mechanism.

Some young game designers tend to defend their ideas against all odds; they make it a personal matter. They are wrong. Their interest is that their name is associated with a published and effective game rather than their ideas being retained in a mediocre or never-published one.

Common sense advice? This is not the case for everyone. Here is a new illustration of the consequences when a designer persists in defending “his” vision of the game.

Case study

Igor is the lead-level designer on a multiplayer game for home consoles. The first playtests, carried out with players from outside the studio and representatives of the targeted audience, validate the game mechanics but point out problems in the maps: They are too large in relation to the number of players, the latter get lost easily, and they have too many bottlenecks.

The playtest sessions follow one another. Each session comprises players who have never played the game and all report the same problems related to level design. The problems cited by the playtesters are nevertheless systematically reported to Igor after each playtest session, but the modifications made to the maps are minor and do not change the feedback from the playtesters.

After several months, faced with Igor’s reluctance to fundamentally change the maps, the studio management removed him from his position and replaced him with another team member.

To be continued …

In the next part of this publication, I will discuss the other essential skills, in my eyes, for a game or level designer.

Pascal Luban

Game designer & creative director, freelance

28+ years of experience serving game developers and publishers

www.gamedesignstudio.com

Photo credit: Poca Wander Stock

Keywords is set to be acquired by Swedish investment firm EQT at an enterprise value of £2.2 billion ($2.8 billion).

The prolific game service provider—which assists with development, art production, localization, QA, marketing, and more—confirmed the deal will value each Keywords share at £24.50 in cash.

“The boards of Bidco (EQT) and Keywords Studios are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended cash acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Keywords Studios by Bidco,” reads a statement posted on the London Stock Exchange. “The Acquisition is to be effected by means of a scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act.”

The acquisition values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Keywords at roughly £2.1 billion on a fully diluted basis and “implies an enterprise value of approximately £2.2 billion.”

EQT will finance the acquisition with a combination of equity capital and debt financing. The deal is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Keywords hopes new ownership will help it overcome “near-term challenges”

Keywords’ chairman of the board, Don Robert, said the company will benefit from EQT’s operational expertise and deep industry network. He claimed the Swedish firm will “provide a good home for our valued employees as they continue building trusted partnerships with our customers.”

“Whilst the Board expects the continued execution of Keywords Studios’ strategic objectives and its leadership position to create significant value, the Board is also mindful of the near-term challenges in the broader video games and entertainment industries, as well as other longer-term uncertainties, which have caused volatile returns for Keywords Studios’ shareholders over the past fifteen months,” he added.

“On balance, the Board believes that this offer represents a good opportunity for Keywords Studios shareholders to realize value for their investment in cash upfront at a significant premium to the undisturbed share price. We therefore unanimously recommend the offer to our shareholders.”

EQT Asia chairman Jean Salata said Keywords is an “exciting business in a growing and fragmented video game technology services market,” and claimed the acquisition will take the service provider to even greater heights.

“As a private company under EQT’s ownership, Keywords Studios will be well positioned to make the long-term investments required for the transition to next-gen video gaming and for global expansion,” said Salata.

“We plan to draw on our experience in the services and technology sectors to support management and invest further in innovation, talent, and M&A to accelerate Keywords Studios’ current strategy.”

Surgent Studios, developers of this year’s fetching Afrofuturist platformer Tales of Kenzera: Zau, have laid off more than a dozen staff. The cuts come just over two months on from the release of the debut video game release from the multimedia studio founded by Assassin’s Creed Origins star Abubakar Salim.

Before Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Surgent contributed to a number of films starting with 2021’s The Whale, through to this year’s Wild Goat Surf. The studio bill themselves as focusing on storytelling across a variety of media, from games and film to podcasts, with Zau being their first video game project.

News of layoffs first broke via posts from former employees on LinkedIn (thanks, Game Developer), including a level designer and technical artist. Surgent subsequently confirmed the cuts by stating that “just over a dozen people” had been affected, with Salim listing producers, artists and animators as among those laid off.

“It’s a difficult time in the games industry, but we remain incredibly proud of our entire team’s work on Zau and of the praise it has received from critics and players alike,” they continued, before adding that the studio’s focus would be on “supporting those affected, continuing our work on Zau, and looking to the future with our next creative projects”.

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Zau was revealed at the end of last year as a moving metroidvania inspired both by African Bantu cultures and Salim’s own experiences of grief. In our review around its release on April 23rd, Alice Bee (RPS in Peace) praised its sensitively-told story and beautiful design, while finding its platforming and combat to be a little imprecise at times.

Surgent are yet to announce their next project or future plans for Zau. Best of luck to those affected by the layoffs.

Tiny Garden is bringing back the spirit of Polly Pocket with a cutesy farming sim game set inside a virtual plastic clamshell inspired by the nineties toy phenomenon.

Spanish developers Ao Norte’s adorable game imagines a world in which the iconic hinged mini-dioramas are ecosystems of their own able to grow crops, as players sow seeds before turning the handle on the side of the clasped toy to help carrots, lettuces and all other manner of plants and vegetables spring up. (Nice find, Eurogamer.)

The objective is simply comfort and customisation, with no defined scoring or challenges to speak of. Harvesting crops gathers more seeds, with the chance to discover new plants – including rare shiny plants, Pokemon style – and complement your garden with furniture and other decorations acquired by trading your crops.

Certain plants can also terraform the gridded landscape, allowing for more arid solid to plant cacti in, verdant grass and bushes, or water created by fountains to grow water lilies and other aquatic flora.

Watch on YouTube

Ao Norte explicitly describe the game as being as compact as the clamshells that serve as its levels, saying not to expect hundreds of hours of unique gameplay from the “tiny game by a tiny team”. Still, it sounds like there should be plenty for anyone after a relaxing few hours to pass the time with at least.

Tiny Garden has already passed its modest funding goal over on Kickstarter, with Ao Norte aiming for a release on Steam and Itch.io next February for the relaxing farming toybox.

Take good care of your Wii U because Nintendo is no longer offering repairs.

Last year, Nintendo told customers in Japan it would soon be ending repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals once it had run out of parts.

That dark day has finally arrived. In a translated X post, the company said it has “run out of parts necessary for repairs, so as of July 3, 2024, we will no longer be accepting repairs for Wii U consoles and peripherals.”

Nintendo no longer offers factory repairs for the Wii U or its gamepad and accessories in other locations including the United States and Europe, meaning the 12-year-old console has become something of an endangered species.

The Wii U launched in November 2012 as a successor to the hugely popular Wii. The console, however, failed to win over consumers and sold just 13.56 million units worldwide.

It was eventually supplanted by the Nintendo Switch, which fired Nintendo back into the stratosphere by achieving over 141.3 million lifetime sales to become the company’s best-selling home console of all time.

How will Nintendo go one better? The company’s hasn’t formally unveiled its next slice of hardware, but has confirmed it will provide a glimpse at the Switch’s eventual successor before the end of the current fiscal year in March 2025.

Multiple reports suggest the company is working on another Switch-like device that can double as both a handheld machine and home console, which wouldn’t be too much of a stretch given just how popular the Switch (and its form factor) has become.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, scaling a brand effectively requires more than just an innovative product or service. For B2B and e-commerce marketers, understanding the intricacies of growth strategies across different stages of business development is crucial.  

A recent analysis of 71 brands offers valuable insights into the optimal strategies for startups, scaleups, mature brands, and majority offline businesses. Here’s what we learned. 

Startup Stage: Building the Foundation 

Key Strategy: Startups focus on impressions-driven channels like Paid Social to establish their audience base. This approach is essential for gaining visibility and creating a strong initial footprint in the market. 

Case Study: Pooch & Mutt exemplified this strategy by leveraging Paid Social to achieve significant year-on-year revenue gains while also improving acquisition costs. This foundational step is crucial for setting the stage for future growth and stability. 

Scaleup Stage: Accelerating Conversion 

Key Strategy: For scaleups, having already established an audience, the focus shifts to conversion activities. Increasing spend in impressions-led media helps continue generating demand while maintaining a balance with acquisition costs. 

Case Study: The Essence Vault successfully applied this approach, scaling their Meta presence while minimizing cost increases. This stage emphasizes the importance of efficient spending to maximize conversion rates and sustain growth momentum. 

Mature Stage: Expanding Horizons 

Key Strategy: Mature brands invest in higher funnel activities to avoid market saturation and explore international expansion opportunities. This strategic pivot ensures sustained growth and market diversification. 

Case Study: Represent scaled their efforts on TikTok, enhancing growth and improving Meta efficiency. By expanding their presence in the US, they exemplified how mature brands can navigate saturation and seek new markets for continued success. 

Majority Offline Brands: Embracing Digital Channels 

Key Strategy: Majority offline brands primarily invest in click-based channels like Performance Max. However, the analysis reveals significant opportunities in Paid Social, suggesting a balanced approach for optimal results. 

In the ever-evolving landscape of eCommerce, staying ahead requires constant adaptation and strategic insights. The Fospha State of eCommerce Report for Q1 2024 brings valuable data to the forefront, guiding marketers, advertisers, business owners, and agencies in the eCommerce industry on where to channel their efforts for maximum return.  

The report reveals a significant underinvestment in paid social channels, with advertisers reaching only 59% of their potential, suggesting an opportunity to nearly double spend for profitable returns.  

Here are some key takeaways from the report: 

Meta and TikTok emerge as leaders in paid social success, with Meta boasting the highest relative Return On Ad Spend (ROAS). Notably, TikTok stands out for new customer acquisition, outpacing other channels in driving new conversions.  
Snapchat’s major update has catapulted it as a growth channel worth watching, with a remarkable 504% increase in ROAS year-over-year.  
The report highlights a widespread issue in the industry: the underrepresentation of impressions-led channels by Google Analytics and ad platforms’ own attribution models. This discrepancy emphasizes the need for standardized measurement methods to accurately report performance.  

Now is the time to reassess your investment in paid social, explore the potential of emerging channels like Snapchat, and adopt reliable measurement methods to navigate the complex digital marketing landscape effectively. 

For a deep dive into these insights and to leverage them for your digital strategy, download the full Fospha State of eCommerce Report Q1 2024. Embrace the data-driven insights to refine your approach, optimize spend across platforms, and drive your eCommerce brand towards profitable growth.