Application denied

Good Afternoon. Every year it seems like the screens on mobile devices get bigger and bigger. Well, Clash of Clans players may have hit the jackpot, as Supercell’s hit game is now available on PC. No need to buy the newest iPhone when you can work on your village in 4K instead of doing actual work. Those spreadsheets can wait, your archer towers need to be upgraded.

— Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: Rise and Fall of FaZe Clan

FaZe clan’s tumultuous year comes to an apparent end as they were picked up by Gamesquare (a venture firm partly funded by Jerry Jones) for $17M — a mere fraction of their blockbuster $725M SPAC listing in July of last year.

The media company rose to fame through humble beginnings on YouTube with viral “trickshot” videos. The Clan expanded deeply in content creation through a large roster of creators, including Swagg and Nickmercs.

Headwinds for the entirety of e-sports over the past few years has also been felt at FaZe, which posted $28M loss through the first half of 2023. The company’s troubles also resulted in the firing of CEO Lee Trink.

The Gamesquare acquisition will see operational leadership returned to FaZe’s original founders, where FaZe Banks (Richard Bengtson) will serve as CEO.

HUD

• Twitch CEO Dan Clancy recently applied to be a part of Twitch’s Partner Program without telling anyone he was applying. Unfortunately djclancy’s application was denied, although his rejection email did mention he could secure the partnership in the future once he establishes more consistent viewership numbers.

• Skull Island: Rise of Kong may be the worst game of 2023. The developers at IguanaBee were given one year to complete the game from scratch.

• In a recent interview with Inverse, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser was asked about the rumors around the Nintendo Switch successor, and more specifically the transition for users from one console to the next generation. Bowser pointed to Nintendo Accounts as a tool to communicate with and help transition users across console generations.

MAJOR W

• Sony has added several game soundtracks to Spotify, including Gravity Rush and Shadow of the Colossus. Sony already has a discography on Spotify boasting several game soundtracks.

• Final Fantasy 16 is having a crossover event with other Final Fantasy titles and Fall Guys later this month.

• Cloud Imperium Games single-player game Squadron 42 is feature complete and a release date may be coming soon, according to an update from the studio at their CitizenCon event.

F IN THE CHAT

• The upcoming RoboCop: Rogue City from publisher Nacon will no longer be released on Nintendo Switch. A Switch version was part of the game’s original announcement but is no longer in the works.

• This year’s layoffs continue with several PlayStation’s Visual Arts Group employees reported being let go.

• EA Sports FC 24 had to disable an in-game perk that allowed players to bug the game and walk into goals to score.

CAREER CORNER

• Games Service Reliability Manager — Netflix (Remote, US)

• Inventory Specialist — Wizards of the Coast (Renton, WA)

• VP of Engineering / CTO — Manticore Games (San Mateo, CA/Remote)

HIVE MIND

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