🕹️Killer Mickey

Happy 2024. New year, new Mickey Mouse. Steamboat Willie has officially entered the public domain, so naturally the mouse will be the star of several upcoming slasher films and horror games including Nightmare Forge Games’ Infestation 88 (keep reading for Infestation 88’s name change).

— Jason Liu, Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: China Backpedals on Gaming Restrictions

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) revised its approach to live service games, a response to a significant market downturn affecting companies like Tencent and NetEase. This followed the introduction of draft rules aimed at live service game monetization strategies, which initially caused market panic. The National Press and Publication Administration later signaled a willingness to adjust these rules after considering public feedback.

Furthermore, an official named Feng Shixin was reportedly removed from his position in the CCP's Publicity Department, which oversees the gaming industry. This move is believed to be connected to the draft regulations and the resulting negative impact on stock prices. This sequence of events highlights the dynamic interaction between regulatory policies, the gaming industry, and market forces.

Step back: It’s no surprise that the markets have a massive impact on policy but it is interesting to see that gaming companies can create such backlash. Given industry consolidation, gaming giants are going to have more and more exposure to the markets more broadly and headwinds to their gaming divisions will undoubtedly impact their overall appeal (e.g. Tencent, Apple, Google, Microsoft).

HUD

• 🙅 As Microsoft and PlayStation continue to acquire studios, with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard being the latest, one independent studio plans to remain independent. In a recent interview, CD Projekt Red Chief Strategy Officer Adam Kiciński said they are not interested in joining a larger entity.

• 🚫 Twitch has updated its attire policy to ban implied nudity. According to a post by Twitch on its site, the policy update is to prevent streamers from using censor bars to cover themselves, even if they have clothing under the censor bar, as the thumbnails may show up in the categories section, even if labeled as Sexual Themes.

• 🚀 A Disney Parks blog post highlighted Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world Star Wars heist game Star Wars Outlaws and claimed the game would be out late this year. Before the post, the only announced release window for the game was a broad 2024, and the post was shortly edited to say 2024. A statement from Ubisoft says the post was an error, and the release timing for the game remains unchanged.

MAJOR W

• ⛏️ Jack Black is joining the cast of the upcoming live-action Minecraft film. The actor shared a picture on Instagram of him preparing for the role by reading Minecraft for Dummies.

• 🏗️ 34 years after its release, a 13-year-old who goes by blue scuti became the first person to “beat” Tetris, triggering a killscreen and crashing the game after clearing a line on level 157.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🙅 Nightmare Forge Games changed its game Infestation 88 to Infestation: Origins after learning the number 88 is often used as a hate symbol by white supremacists.

• 👎️ Jukai Studio closed and stated that on top of poor sales, many of their team members and “close ones were constantly attacked by a cyber persecutor.” No staff was laid off; instead, the team decided to go their separate ways.

CAREER CORNER

• Paid Media Director — Epic Games (Cary, NC)

• Marketing Manager, Email — Humble Bundle (Remote, US)

• Technical Product Manager, Marketing Insights — Take-Two Interactive (New York, NY)

HIVE MIND

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