Hello, and welcome to the 88th edition of Byte Action newsletter!
Whoever went to GDC - hope you all had a great time? There have been some cool announcements such as Unity AI, Ubisoft AI that writes NPC dialogue, Paradox’s Life By You, though the definite showstopper for me was The Unreal Editor for Fortnite which will give creators new tools to create custom Fortnite maps and experiences. Epic also announced a major change to the way creators can make money from Fortnite, promising that 40 percent of the game’s net revenues will be put back into a pool for creators.
Last week we also had an official reveal of another new studio in the UK - Lighthouse Games. Led by Gavin Raeburn the studio already has 30 employees and is currently working on yet unannounced AAA game.
In other news - Rock Paper Shotgun reported that EVE Online developers CCP Games are working on a new game set within the EVE universe and that it will use blockchain technology, after CCP received $40 million (around £32.7 million) from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Lastly, Atari has announced its plans to acquire System Shock remake developer Nightdive Studios for $10 million. The acquisition will apparently allow Atari to "enrich its large library of owned IP, be able to leverage Night Dive’s proprietary technology, and utilize Night Dive’s publishing capabilities to support Atari’s retro-focused growth strategy.
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The Byte
The Action
Retro Byte
Studio Byte
Build a Rocket Boy is an independent game developer, headquartered in Edinburgh Scotland, with operations in Budapest Hungary, the Netherlands, France, and California USA. Led by game developer Leslie Benzies, Build A Rocket Boy’s team includes hundreds of the industry’s brightest development talents with the shared vision to create new and innovative entertainment experiences. Build A Rocket Boy’s first project is EVERYWHERE – a new multi-world game experience that blurs the line between reality and the digital world.
Legal Stuff
Chris Avellone will receive over $1m in settlement over retracted sexual misconduct claims
Lawsuit Over Fatal Call of Duty Swatting Incident Settled for $5 Million
UK regulators just gave Microsoft a tentative green light regarding the Activision deal
Acquisitions/Investments
New Game Corner
Valve has announced that a limited test version of Counter-Strike 2 will be released on March 22, but it will only be available to selected players chosen by Valve. The full version of the game will be available for free to all players in the Summer of 2023.
Resource Byte
This week in this section we’ve got Incogni. In simple terms Incogni wants to help you take back control of your data in a super easy way.
Who’s Hiring?
Narrative Mission Designer - Liquid Swords - Stockholm, Sweden
Senior Online Engineer - Lighthouse Games - Royal Leamington Spa, UK
Lead Game Designer - Carry1st - Remote
Lead 3D/Prop Artist - Build a Rocket Boy - Edinburgh, UK (Remote)
Senior Camera Artist - Supermassive Games - Guildford, UK
Lead Backend Engineer - Embark Studios - Stockholm, Sweden
Creative Director - Avalanche Studios - Stockholm, Sweden
Lead Animator - Crytek - Frankfurt, Germany (Remote)
Senior Game Designer - Smilegate Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain
Lead Technical Animator - Lucid Games - Liverpool, UK (Remote)
Gameplay Animator - Rogue Factor - Montréal, CA (Remote)
Unity Developer - Hyper Hippo Games - Vancouver, Canada (Remote)
Gameplay Programmer - Counterplay Games - Worldwide (Remote)
Rumours
Dev Talks
Interview with Build a Rocket Boy founder Leslie Benzies and Assistant Game Director Adam Whiting
“For a lot of people now, their first gaming experience is Minecraft, or Roblox: innately creative, expressive games… I think, ultimately, they need to graduate on to something that’s a bit more grown-up, something that’s a bit more robust, something that’s a bit more cool.” Adam Whiting
Events
London Games Festival - March 29th to April 9th
The annual London Games Festival is visited by over 100,000 people. Games London has one mission: to make London the games capital of the world.