The Snap

Good Afternoon. We’re back. Hope y’all are recovering from the Turkey. No shame in relaxing the belt an additional notch.

— Derek Neville, Jason Liu

MAIN QUEST: TikTok Ramping Down Nuverse

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is planning to scale back its gaming division, Nuverse, potentially affecting hundreds of employees. This move comes despite Nuverse's involvement in publishing successful titles like Marvel Snap. While ByteDance will maintain other gaming interests, such as Ohayoo and casual TikTok games, it's stepping back from the broader global video game market.

There has been no official public disclosure on the specifics of the restructuring, but reports suggest that ByteDance is discontinuing its involvement with already launched games under the Nuverse brand and has instructed employees to halt work on unreleased games by December. The future of ByteDance's gaming endeavors, including the possible sale of Moonton—a mobile gaming studio it bought for around $4 billion—is currently under discussion amidst ongoing layoffs.

This development is part of a broader pattern of restructuring within ByteDance, which also includes recent layoffs at Pico, a VR company it acquired. Despite substantial investments in the gaming industry to challenge rivals like Tencent, ByteDance is now shifting focus, though it's unclear whether Nuverse will be shut down entirely or continue in a different capacity.

Step back: this move marks a significant step back from ByteDance's ambitious gaming market presence. While some behemoth deals have been pushed through in 2023, it looks like 2024 is likely going to be a cooling period for growth-oriented and market entry-type acquisitions in gaming. Perhaps there will be room for a few discount tuck-ins.

HUD

• 💵 Event production company ReedPop is investigating a potential sale of its Gamer Network business, which includes several publications including GamesIndustry.biz and Eurogamer. ReedPop acquired Gamer Network in 2018.

• ⏸️ Ubisoft is reportedly the latest company to suspend its advertising on the X social media platform. The Assassin’s Creed publisher joins other major companies such as IBM, Apple, Disney, and Sony who have pulled their ads following a tweet from Elon Musk seemingly supporting an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

• 🔇 A former Rockstar developer has taken down most posts on his personal blog, which were mostly behind-the-scenes stories from his time with the company, after receiving an email from the GTA publisher.

MAJOR W

• 🧟 Nakwon: Last Paradise, the upcoming Zombie Survival PvPvE game from Dave the Diver studio Mintrocket, begins its pre-alpha playtest tomorrow.

• 🤠 Red Dead Redemption 2 hit a new daily peak player count on Steam over the weekend after the game was discounted as part of Steam’s Black Friday sale.

• 📈 Co-op horror game Lethal Company has passed Resident Evil 4 and Baldur’s Gate 3 to become the highest-rated game on Steam for 2023 and is currently the 2nd best-selling product on Steam behind the Steamdeck.

F IN THE CHAT

• 📅 Bungie has announced that the next Destiny 2 expansion, The Final Shape, will be delayed until June 4, 2024. The announcement confirms the delay rumors from October, which surfaced following a large round of layoffs at Bungie.

• 😡 While playing, some Assassin’s Creed Odyssey players were met with a fullscreen pop-up ad promoting Black Friday sales for other Assassin’s Creed titles. Ubisoft has blamed a technical error for the in-game ads, saying the ads were meant to appear in the main menu, not in-game menus.

CAREER CORNER

• Partnership Marketing Manager - Humble Bundle (California)

• Senior Producer Esports - Monumental Sports & Entertainment (Washington DC)

• Senior Influencer Marketing Manager - Gearbox Entertainment (Frisco)

HIVE MIND

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