We’re building games that are meant to be unapologetically multiplayer, and social is really our guiding light - Rick Ling, Rascal Games 

Hey there!

Let’s start the weekend with some news. PS5 got a new update, Alan Wake will be the longest Remedy game ever and Horizon Forbidden West might come to PC.

Oh, and the Nintendo Direct and PlayStation State of Play announcements…

Let’s play.

Welcome to The Power-Up #12

Round-up of the day

😱 The Unity price changes saga continues. If you want to know what happened, read this complete explanation from PC Gamer. And, if you’re an indie developer, understand that “Unity's Just Not Into You, Indie Developer”.

👩‍💻 And, by the way, if you want to move from Unity, Godot might be an interesting alternative. Humble Bundle just re-launched The Complete Godot Software Bundle Encore with a list of courses and assets for the people that want to learn it.

🎴 A Pokemon fan creatively repurposes childhood trading cards into a unique, epoxy-coated computer desk, adding nostalgia and functionality to their gaming space.

🎮 New PS5 update introduces a second controller assist feature, 8TB SSD support, some voice commands, support for Dolby Atmos-enabled audio devices and more.

📈 The launch of Starfield and a new Xbox Series S version drove a 76% week-on-week increase in Xbox Series S and X sales, marking the biggest sales week of the year for these consoles in the UK. One of us contributed to this trend, because Andrei just got his first Xbox ever, to be able to play Starfield.

💰 A new promotion on PlayStation store, Big Games Big deals, will be available until September 27.

Biz Reel

📌 Square Enix has lost nearly $2 billion in value and its shares have plunged almost 30% since the launch of Final Fantasy 16 in June. Despite selling three million copies in its launch week, the game has sparked debates about whether it met the company's sales targets.

📌 Unity executives, including CEO John Riccitiello, sold significant shares ahead of a controversial announcement that the company will charge developers for game downloads, sparking industry-wide fury. The stock sales are part of a larger trend, with multiple board members also cashing in shares recently. The sale of shares was in place for a long time, but you can’t not think of the timing of the price changes announcement.

📌 Meanwhile, CEO John Riccitiello canceled his plans for a town hall meeting with employees and shut down Unity's offices in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, California, due to credible death threats received by the company.

📌 Netflix’s foray into gaming continues and here’s a good explanation of what happens and what might happen: Netflix readies two-pronged approach to accelerate games adoption.

📌 The Microsoft acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is still moving ahead, with indies and unions rally behind the acquisition, while the European Union's antitrust regulators are reportedly seeking feedback from companies in the games industry regarding the updated deal.

📌 AI in gaming is moving steadily ahead. SeriesAI just announced a $7.9 million investment round to develop a “suite of AI-powered game authoring tools”. And the future seems bright for AI in gaming, a study saying generative AI will account for 50% of game development in 5 to 10 years (from 5% now). This one is a MUST READ.

📌 Blockchain gaming tries to move forward, with another investment in a web3 gaming company: Mythic Protocol raises $6.5M towards blockchain, collaboration and cross-platform ambitions.

📌 Charlie Wren, with prior experience at Sony Interactive Entertainment, Marvel Studios, and Riot Games, will be the new CCO of Epic Games, after Donald Mustard retired a few days ago.

📌 Stig Asmussen, known for directing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and its successful follow-up Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is departing Respawn Entertainment and EA. Asmussen had a 25-year career in the industry, including key roles in the original God of War series, before joining Respawn in 2014.

📌 And in another move, Telltale co-founder Brian Waddle joins Blind Squirrel Games, which also goes through a rebrand to mark its growth.

📌 Ubisoft is planning to shut down its London mobile studio, putting 54 jobs at risk and transferring the Hungry Shark franchise to Ubisoft Barcelona. The closure follows a series of cuts across Ubisoft after the company lowered its sales forecasts earlier this year.

📌 But we also have good news for the British devs: The UK Games Fund gets a $5m boost, raising its annual funding to over £13.4m as part of a larger initiative to support the UK's creative industries.

📌 Rascal Games secures $4.2 million in funding from venture capital firm Patron and other investors to develop a shared world adventure game called Project Wayward. Notable investors include Stephen Lim, Mitch Lasky, Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Anjney Midha, and a16z Speedrun. Rascal Games has a team of just two people — Rick Ling and Jonathan Lin — and it was part of the first class of A16z’s new game accelerator Speedrun earlier this summer.

📌 Immortals of Aveum developer, Ascendant Studios, laid off approximately 45 percent of its staff. In his Twitter statement, CEO Bret Robbins said: “If your studio is looking for proven UE5 artists and engineers, please reach out and let us know so we can introduce you to some incredibly talented game devs.”.

Game Central

🕹️ The PS5-exclusive game Stellar Blade is set to receive a physical release. The game will be a "stylised action RPG", single-player only, with no multiplayer component.

🕹️ Bethesda is rolling out a hotfix targeting "top issues" in Starfield and plans to introduce various "community requested" features in upcoming updates. These include Nvidia DLSS support on PC, ultrawide monitor support, quality of life improvements like an FOV slider and an HDR calibration menu, as well as a new "Eat" button for food.

🕹️ A very reliable rumor says that Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition will be released on PC. It will include both the base title and its Burning Shores DLC.

🕹️ Alan Wake 2 will be Remedy's longest game ever, with a 20+ hour runtime, according to creative director Sam Lake.

🕹️ Major indie hit Dave the Diver will launch on Switch on October 26 and will have Switch-exclusive bonuses, but only for those who preorder.

🕹️ Yesterday, Nintendo Direct took place and revealed that the original Tomb Raider Trilogy is being remastered for the Nintendo Switch. You can find a complete list of all the announcements on Kotaku.

🕹️ And all trailers and a complete recap of State of Play, on PlayStation Blog.

🕹️ Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update is set to release on September 21, just five days ahead of Phantom Liberty's launch on September 26. Players can begin Phantom Liberty after completing the Pacifica chapter in Cyberpunk 2077.

Now let’s start the weekend with this fresh and awesome cinematic trailer:

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Stay powered-up until next time.

Bobby & Andrei