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- Blizzard games to return to China under new NetEase deal | The Midweek Memo #014
Blizzard games to return to China under new NetEase deal | The Midweek Memo #014
Elsewhere, Ascendent Studios furloughs most of its workforce, there are layoffs at Take-Two, and Nintendo will not attend Gamescom 2024.
Hitmarker
April 17, 2024
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Hello again 👋
It’s been another eventful week in gaming, with multiple major announcements, juicy rumors from some of the biggest names around, and the now depressingly routine confirmations of layoffs at various studios.
To begin, Blizzard has announced its games will return to China one year after they had been pulled from the region as part of a new partnership with NetEase. Nintendo has also confirmed that it will not attend Gamescom 2024.
As for the juicy rumors, leakers have claimed that Bungie is now working on the third Destiny installment, while EA is said to be stepping away from the Dead Space franchise once again after disappointing sales results.
Workforce-wise, Ascendent Studios has furloughed most of its staff following layoffs at the developer last year. And, in breaking news, Take-Two is also set to let go 5% of its people, which equates to around 600 jobs being lost.
Hot jobs 🔥
This week's list includes a good mix of experience levels and locations!
[1] Engineering Manager | Age of Empires
🏢 CaptureAge 🗺️ Remote Anywhere 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 5+ years exp
[3] Junior Dev Tester
🏢 ZeniMax Media 🇫🇷 Lyon 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 0+ years exp
[4] Production Assistant
🏢 PTW 🇬🇧 London 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 1+ year exp
[5] QA Tester
🏢 Smoking Gun Interactive 🇨🇦 Vancouver, BC 📄 Temp 🎚️ 1+ year exp
[6] Growth Marketing Manager
🏢 Yodo1 🗺️ Remote Anywhere 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 3+ years exp
[7] Software Engineer
🏢 Niantic 🇺🇸 Palo Alto, CA 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 1+ year exp
[8] Associate Technical Artist - Rigging
🏢 Electronic Arts 🇨🇦 Vancouver, BC 📄 Temp 🎚️ 1+ year exp
[9] Events Manager
🏢 Age of Learning 🇺🇸 Remote USA 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 4+ years exp
[10] Partner Producer
🏢 Discord 🇺🇸 Remote USA 📄 Full Time 🎚️ 4+ years exp
We've posted over 190 new opportunities since our last dispatch. Hopefully, there’s something suitable for you on the platform if nothing here was a hit!
Big news 📰
Blizzard has announced that its games will be available again in China thanks to a new deal with Chinese publisher NetEase. Microsoft has also reached an agreement with NetEase to explore bringing the latter's titles to Xbox systems.
The original 14-year deal between Blizzard and NetEase ended in January 2023 after the two parties failed to agree terms on its renewal. This resulted in the shutdown of services for Overwatch, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, and other Blizzard releases in mainland China.
It has not been officially confirmed when Blizzard's catalog will be available again, but the deal is expected to take effect in the coming months.
Other news 🗞️
Away from Blizzard, Nintendo confirmed that it will not attend Gamescom 2024. The company was one of the main exhibitors at Gamescom 2023, raising questions about why it has chosen to skip this year's event.
It's also been a big week of rumors, with an accurate leaker claiming Destiny 3 is in development at Bungie and multiple claims that we won't see another Dead Space game for a while after its remake missed sales targets.
Unfortunately, it seems that it just wouldn't be a Hitmarker newsletter without some unpleasant layoff news, as Immortals of Aveum developer Ascendent Studios has furloughed the majority of its employees.
Additionally, news has just broken that Take-Two will be letting go 5% of its staff—around 600 people—despite its CEO Strauss Zelnick stating just weeks ago that the company had “no current plans” to reduce its workforce.
Looking for visuals and charts, rather than words, to understand the daily news?
Bay Area Times is a visual-based newsletter on business and tech, with 250,000+ subscribers.
Here are two of our most-viewed LinkedIn posts from the last seven days, we hope you find them as interesting/useful as our followers over there did!
If you have one year of professional experience and are looking to gain more, you've come to the right place with this week’s junior-level jobs thread!
Nintendo, EA, and Epic are on the hunt for developers, artists, and marketing staff in North America, while Jagex, Ubisoft, and Chillbase are searching all over Europe, Australia, and the rest of the globe.
We're constantly posting new junior-level positions on our platform, but be aware that they often close quickly due to the high volume of applications!
PRO TIP: Have a base template of your CV/resume and cover letter ready to be edited/updated efficiently and a constantly maintained portfolio if you’re in a profession that relies heavily on seeing examples of prior work.
We've been keeping an eye on "Sunset Devils" by indie developer “illseer” for a while, and we just had to share the latest with you all!
Sunset Devils is an isometric shooter set in the Old West that’s heavily influenced by spaghetti westerns, with players taking on the role of a bounty hunter named Red.
Aside from its fancy pixel art graphics, it also has rather interesting shooting mechanics. To reload a weapon, players must follow the same steps as in real life. For example, a revolver's cylinder must be opened before loading or ejecting bullets, and the hammer must be pulled back before firing.
Sunset Devils has no release date yet, but illseer has recently opened up a Steam page where the game can now be wishlisted!
Peace out ✌️
A lot is going on in the gaming world right now, and we're especially eager to find out more about Destiny 3, the future of Dead Space, and Nintendo's next console! 👀
However, we can’t ignore the ongoing current of negativity the industry is facing.
We hope anyone impacted by layoffs and other terrible situations in gaming can get back on their feet as soon as possible. Things are certainly better than they were earlier this year, but the news always sucks to hear and report on.
We’re rapidly approaching 10,000 layoffs in 2024 and are just out of Q1. The situation has even hit major news outlets over here in the UK today, with Sky News running a special report following last week’s Bafta Games Awards.
“Things can only get better”, as D:Ream—featuring a certain Professor Brian Cox—once sang.
Wishing you and yours all the best,
Danny and the gang at Hitmarker 🧡