Daily Briefing: Tuesday 15th March

VGC: Perfect Dark Studio The Initiative Lost Half Their Staff

According to reporting from VGC following yesterday’s report on Perfect Dark losing its director, they’ve found that up to half of The Initiative’s staff have left, citing studio leadership that prefers a top-down style of management despite the studio being founded on the opposite principles, as well as a lack of creative autonomy and project progress. Crystal Dynamics joining the project is said to spark a reboot of the project and it is still many years away.

• Bad time for the first AAAA studio, then, and bad news for Microsoft who put a LOT of money into this studio. Perfect Dark, the IP, has been called cursed following these revelations, as the original project was also under a lot of management-based duress.

Valve Sent The Creator of ‘Lutris’ A Steam Deck To Aid Development

Lutris is a ‘game preservation’ platform running on Linux, aiming to help users manage games across a wide variety of sources including existing game stores (Steam’s one of them!) and emulation platforms. Valve having an eye out for these kinds of projects is what sets them apart as devs, and Lutris is definitely one to keep an eye on as well.

• Given Windows 11 is toying with advertisements in File Explorer and the victory that is the Steam Deck, there is rightfully more and more interest in Linux gaming. Hopefully, it makes leaps and bounds soon.

Tencent Becomes Majority Investor In Tequila Works

The Madrid-based studio currently working on Song of Nunu: A League Of Legends Story has received an undisclosed-size investment from Tencent, making them the majority shareholder. It will be used to grow the studio and develop more of their original IP, like Rime and Gylt. The CEO said: “[Tencent is] a partner that can appreciate the value of top creative talent with originality as their banner. One that respects our independence and creative freedom. This partnership will allow us to focus on taking the original IPs we are known for to greater heights and create the best experiences we can dream of.”

• Tencent continuing to gobble up every vaguely proven game developer in the Western world, including Inflexion and 1C Entertainment recently. Provided it continues to be hands-off investment for the sake of money, this isn’t exactly a bad thing.