Byte Action - Issue 83
Byte Action is a newsletter for game developers and fans
Hello, and welcome to the 83rd edition of Byte Action newsletter!
Last week the news in game development were filled with Amazon and Activision Blizzard announcing that they will be ending the fully remote work as their employees would have to return to the office for three days per week.
As expected it resulted in a lot of backlash from their employees who argued that there was zero justifiable reason not to continue allowing that flexibility and will most probably result in a lot of people looking for opportunities elsewhere.
In other news - Sega has announced that effective July 1 Sega’s employees will receive a 30% salary increase. Sega says that the increase is part of its strategy to "invest in human resources" so that it can create a more comfortable working environment. This is a great example from Sega of how to retain your employees who continue to do amazing work.
Lastly, we have a new studio on the block - Wildlight Entertainment - a new Remote First studio, staffed by many devs who previously worked on Apex Legends and Titanfall have officially announced themselves to the world. They are currently working on yet announced AAA shooter IP.
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The Byte
The Action
Retro Byte
Studio Byte
Starbreeze cuts its losses almost in half compared to 2021
Starbreeze noted that, from January 2023, it will get a 80% share from Payday 2 sales on Steam, versus 75% until that point, so we could see revenue from the title grow in upcoming financial reports for that reason.
Legal Stuff
Epic Games is challenging Google in an Indian tribunal for not complying with some portions of an antitrust directive, alleging that the tech giant is not hosting the gaming company’s app store on Google’s Play Store app.
Acquisitions/Investments
Fitness games developer Quell has raised $10 million in a series A
Esports organization VSPO has received a $265 million investment from Savvy Games Group.
A group of industry professionals from Lithuania have launched a GameDev Fund
New Game Corner
Deliver Us Mars is an atmospheric sci-fi adventure taking you on a suspense-fuelled, high-stakes mission to recover the ARK colony ships stolen by the mysterious Outward. It was developed by Keoken Interactive and you can play it now.
Resource Byte
This week in this section we’ve got a website called Salaryaftertax.com - it’s for anyone who is thinking about what base salary to ask for when interviewing for a position in a different country, or anyone who is curious to find about taxation in different countries in general.
Who’s Hiring?
Lighting Artist- Liquid Swords - Stockholm, Sweden
Audio Programmer - Liquid Swords - Stockholm, Sweden
Gameplay Programmer - IO Interactive - Barcelona, Spain
Senior Animator - Supermassive Games - Guildford, UK
UX Lead - Embark Studios - Stockholm, Sweden
Senior Producer - Avalanche Studios - NYC
Senior Character Artist - Avalanche Studios - Stockholm, Sweden
Senior Environment Artist - Smilegate Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain
Senior Technical Artist - Yager - Berlin, Germany (Remote)
Lead Concept Artist - Unbroken Studios - El Segundo, CA (Remote)
Lead Animator - Techland - Wroclaw, Poland
Senior Engine Programmer - Keen Games - Frankfurt, Germany (Remote)
Rumours
According to ‘Game Developer’ Sony has been claiming that it's being harassed by Microsoft over Activision Blizzard merger. And so the saga continues…
Dev Talks
Michael Lin & Fish Ling Interview: HoYoverse's Honkai Star Rail
Michael Lin: The experience that we can bring with Star Rail is someone can play a Honkai: Star Rail on the go in the metro or on a bus and whenever he or she gets home, they'll be able to hop onto the computer and continue the journey on computer, and that's something very unique to the game
Events
Interesting talks, large gaming expo, a lot of entertainment and plenty of networking opportunities.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for taking your time to read this, and I hope you’ve found it useful. As from me - I am wishing you all an amazing week ahead!
Tomas