Microsoft Draft Day

Good Afternoon. PlayStation announced their State of Play 2024 broadcast will be this Wednesday, Jan 31st at 2 PM PT / 10 PM GMT.

—Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: Microsoft Drafts Johanna Faries to Lead Blizzard

Johanna Faries has been appointed as Blizzard’s new president, succeeding Mike Ybarra who left Blizzard alongside last week’s 1900 layoffs. Faries was the General Manager of Activision’s Call of Duty and has over a decade of experience within the NFL. Her role will be filled by VP of Product Management Matt Cox.

In an email to the company, Faries took on their new role by acknowledging the differences between each vertical of ABK’s structure. “Activision, Blizzard, and King are decidedly different companies with distinct games, cultures, and communities.” Going on to state that Call of Duty and Blizzard games each have very different “requisite models of success.”

Her first day will be February 5th and will have the difficult task of not only taking on the role of a new leader, but one that will need to convince the new parent company that their $69 billion investment can revive their struggling games portfolio.

Step Back: Faries’ first scheduled actions display an immediate effort to acknowledge and address employee’s concerns first. This empathic leadership approach will be critical in navigating the fallout from the mass layoffs.

HUD

• 👎️ Embracer’s restructuring continues. Eidos Montreal confirmed 97 were affected by layoffs and the next Deus Ex game has been canceled in favor of an “original franchise.”

• 📈 Enshrouded passed 1 million players after 4 days of early access. This paid co-op survival is currently only on PC and peaked at 160k concurrent players over the weekend.

• 🔨 There are rumors that Nintendo plans to produce 10 million Switch 2s by 2025. The rumor is based on a Bloomberg reporter’s analysis of display data. As the Switch 2 has not officially been revealed yet, it is not clear on the time frame for the rollout of those 10 million units.

MAJOR W

• 🙊 Edmund McMillen, the indie dev behind Binding of Isaac, confirms they have talked to Epic Games about a possible Fortnite collaboration. Additionally, Edmund mentioned the Fall Guys skin conversations “just went silent.”

• 🤝 Midwest Games announces a publishing partnership with Mexico developer 1 Simple Game to launch The Lullaby of Life. CEO Ben Kvalo aims “to change where games come from” believing you don’t need to be a company in a major tech hub to launch great games.

F IN THE CHAT

• 📽️ Canceled Call of Duty gameplay leaked online. A multiplayer lead at the time, Brain Bright, confirmed its legitimacy was for a game that would have replaced 2013’s Ghosts.

• 🦇 Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was taken offline only an hour into its early access release due to a bug that was auto-completing the story when players first logged in. Developer Rocksteady says they have identified the problem and are working on a fix.

CAREER CORNER

• Head of Analytics — Snowprint Studios (Hybrid, Sweden)

• Head of Global Brand Management — Splash Damage (Bromley, UK)

• Art Director — Studio MDHR (Remote, CA)

HIVE MIND

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