Daily Briefing: Tuesday 5th October

The Epic Games Store is finally getting a proper achievement system

The Epic Games Store released way back in December 2018 and, somehow, the purported Steam competitor has existed ever since without a proper achievement system. That is finally set to change, though, as Epic recently confirmed that Epic Achievements will be added to a select few games starting next week. This isn't technically the first time the Epic Games Store has introduced achievements for certain games, but previously they were on a pretty ad hoc basis whereas this new system is a properly unified one like players would expect from Steam or Xbox.

• The first games to get achievements will be Rocket League, Hades, Pillars of Eternity, Humankind, Zombie Army 4, Defense Grid, and few others that are still to be confirmed by Epic. Developers will reportedly gain access to the suite of achievement tools soon, so players should expect more games to add the functionality before the end of the year. Epic Achievements will also grant XP that will level up a player's Epic account for bragging rights. Bronze achievements are worth 5-45XP, Silver 50-95XP, Gold 100-200XP, and Platinum 250XP.

Konami are looking to indie devs to help revive classic IP

Konami recently announced the imaginatively named Action & Shooting Game Contest - a new indie developer competition that will allow other creators to make games based on Konami's own classic IP. According to a new report from IGN, indie developers will be in the running to win a grand prize of $18K. If Konami want to publish and sell the game, the company will invest up to $271K i its development as well as providing additional support across supervision, mentoring, marketing, and localisation.

• Konami have published a list of some-80 games that developers can base their new projects on. This list includes the likes of Gradius and Star Soldier but, tellingly, not Metal Gear Solid or Castlevania. This apparent exclusion plays into a wider suite of reports that Konami are working with various internal and external partners to revive Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania, and Silent Hill for new markets. Konami are working on Castlevania themselves in Japan while a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is reportedly in the works at port-masters Virtuos. A number of different Silent Hill projects are reportedly in the works at various external Japanese studios, so it look like those rumours are hanging around a bit longer.

Paradox Interactive undergoing shakeup, multiple projects cancelled

Paradox Interactive announced this week that several projects will not be moving forward. The published confirmed in a statement that they will be reassessing and redistributing resources to "proven game niches that better meet the company's requirements on returns and risk." Returning Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester outlined that the company "was born and raised in strategy and management games" and, as such, has "therefore we have sharpened our pipeline further to ensure that the projects with the highest potential have the resources necessary for the best possible development."

• Wester also noted that the spate of cancellations will return an approximately $15.4m loss on Paradox Interactive's Q3 profits before tax. It's an interesting time for the Sweden-based publisher. Former CEO Ebba Ljungerud stepped down last month following "differing views on the company's strategy going forward" and was replaced by Wester, whom she initially replaced back in 2018. Ljungerud's tenure was rather unsatisfying, with Q1 2021 posting a 44% drop in profit over the same period last year. Paradox live and die by their niche and it looks like there was some debate over where that niche lay.