🕹️ SNAP back

Happy Weekend! 24 years ago today the United States Postal Service issued their first postage stamp featuring a video game as a part of a commemorative stamp sheet.

The stamp was 33 cents, the game was the Atari 2600 version of Defender and 90 million stamps were produced.

—Tim Rhyne, Derek Neville

MAIN QUEST: Marvel SNAP collects $100 million investment stone

Second Dinner, the developer behind Marvel Snap, has secured a $100 million investment from Griffin Gaming Partners after TikTok owner ByteDance parted ways with the game's former publisher, Nuverse. Griffin Gaming Partners has funded companies such as Discord and Frost Giant Studios, developers of the upcoming Stormgate game.

Following ByteDance's divestment from Nuverse, Second Dinner assured players that Marvel Snap would continue to operate and thrive. Marvel Snap was released in June 2022 and gained quick success with 22 million downloads and $200 million in revenue. The new investment aims to support the development of Marvel Snap and incubate original IP.

Step Back: ByteDance announced they would be winding down Nuverse back in November, as the company looks to restructure and pull back their gaming business. Second Dinner will continue to operate independently following the investment.

HUD

• Twitch CEO held a live Q&A following the layoff of 500 individuals on Wednesday. The company’s bottom line was the deciding factor for the layoffs: “I’ll be blunt: we aren’t profitable at this point.” Later adding “… we really need to run the company based on where we're at today”

• Sega continues its restructuring efforts by naming Shuji Utsumi as the CEO of Sega America and Europe with Yukio Sugino stepping into Utsumi’s Co-COO role on April 1, 2024.

• The release date for the Switch 2 may have been leaked at CES. Altec Lansing unrelieved AI-Shark, the successor to the GameShark. The press release for the new product claims “The official launch is planned to coincide with the Nintendo Switch 2 in September 2024.” Nintendo has not officially released a name or release window for its next console, and AI-Shark later said the date was speculation.

• Smite 2 was officially announced at the 2024 Smite World Championship. Smite 2 will be built on Unreal Engine 5, an upgrade from Unreal Engine 3 which the original Smite currently runs on. Smite 1 will continue to run as a separate game once Smite 2 releases.

MAJOR W

• 🚕 Last month SEGA announced they would be reviving classic IPs, such as Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi. Leaks now suggest that Panzer Dragoon, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Sakura Taisen also have new games that are in early development.

• 🌌 Starfield is kicking off 2024 with its biggest update yet. The update will go live on Steam on the 17th, and roll out to all players 2 weeks later. The update will include over 100 fixes and improvements.

F IN THE CHAT

• 🔨 Valve issues DCMA takedowns on fan projects Team Fortress: Source 2 and Portal 64. Many were hopeful it was not real following a fraudulent takedown attempt of OpenXRay, a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. mod base with GSC Game World’s blessing.

• 👎️ Layoffs at Discord and Playtika bring this week’s industry layoffs to over 2,700. Companies continue to cite growing headcount too quickly in previous years or are seeking to reduce redundant positions.

CAREER CORNER

• Social Media / Community Manager — Muddy Robot Games (Remote, US)

• Senior User Researcher — People Can Fly (Montreal, CA)

• Senior Data Analyst, Mobile — Electronic Arts (Vancouver, CA)

HIVE MIND

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