Resident Evil 2, Supermassive Games, Haven Studios… the business news of the week

business news Resident Evil 2, Supermassive Games, Haven Studios… the business news of the week

Supermassive Games (The Quarry, Dark Pictures…) acquired by Nordisk Games

Specializing in narrative horror games, Supermassive Games is now owned by Nordisk Games. The subsidiary of the Danish media giant already owned 30.7% of the studio since last year and has therefore decided to buy the remaining shares for an undisclosed sum. ””We have an ambitious growth strategy for Supermassive Games and being part of Nordisk Games only reinforces it. I am very excited to know where the security offered by this partnership and the continued access to from Nordisk Games will lead us”, commented Pete Samuels, CEO of the studio.

Founded in 2008 in Guildford, England, Supermassive Games has long partnered with Sony on games like Start The Party!, Killzone HD, Until Dawn and The Inpatient. The studio, which now has more than 300 employees, more recently launched The Dark Pictures saga with Bandai Namco as well as The Quarry with 2K Games. The next Dark Pictures, called The Devil In Me, is also planned for this year, still at Bandai Namco.

Nordisk Games has been increasing investments in the video game sector for a few years now. The firm notably bought Avalanche Studios (Just Cause, Contraband…) in 2018 before buying 40% of the Spanish studio MercurySteam (Metroid Dread, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow…) in 2020.

Haven officially joins PlayStation Studios

Announced four months ago, the takeover of Haven Studios by Sony is now finalized. This new milestone is an opportunity to learn a little more about the operation of Haven Studios thanks to an interview published on GamesIndustry. Founded in March 2021 in Montreal by Jade Raymond and around twenty ex-members of Google Stadia, the team now consists of 106 employeescompared to around fifty last October, most of them having previously worked at Ubisoft Montreal and/or Stadia. As had been announced, their first big project is a new AAA multiplayer licensewhich is one of many game-services that Sony plans to release in the coming years.

Born in the heart of the pandemic, the studio has the particularity of having immediately implemented tools optimized for teleworking and of counting in its ranks twenty engineers specializing in the cloud. Their objective: to facilitate the creation of game-services, which are usually very heavy due to the fact that they are constantly updated and filled with content. We saw it for example with Destiny 2, which was forced to delete content to make room for new features, it is a complicated problem to manage.

We also learn that Mark Cerny, the main architect of the PS4 and the PS5, works with the studio and more specifically with its R&D department. “It’s not just about the cloud, it’s also about more forward-thinking R&D. I can’t say too much right now, but that’s obviously one of the things that appeals to us about our partnership with PlayStation. Of course, Mark Cerny is also kind of a rockstar, and to be able to collaborate with him is really exciting.”commented Jade Raymond.

Resident Evil 2 remake hits 10 million sales worldwide

After Monster Hunter Rise last week, Resident Evil 2 Remake’s turn to exceed the symbolic milestone of 10 million copies sold worldwide. Originally released on January 25, 2019 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, the title received a little boost last month with the release of a PS5 and Xbox Series patch. It has now sold twice as much as the original game released for PlayStation in 1998. A massive success, one of biggest in Capcom history behind Monster Hunter World (18 million sales) and Resident Evil 7 (10.8 million).

The publisher continues to perform well with its flagship franchise, as seen with the releases of Resident Evil 3 Remake (5.2 million) and Resident Evil Village (6.1 million). The latter will also be entitled to a Gold Edition and a narrative DLC (Les Ombres de Rose) on October 28, as well as an adaptation on PlayStation VR2. The Resident Evil news is far from stopping there since a new series adaptation has just landed on Netflix, while Resident Evil 4 Remake will be released on March 23, 2023.

Charts Europe: F1 22 in sales pole position in June

After a particularly calm month of May, video game sales picked up again in June thanks to a few notable releases. According to figures reported by GamesIndustry, 12.8 million games have been sold in Europeup 30% compared to the same period in 2021 and 52% compared to May 2022. We can highlight the overwhelming share of digital, 8.1 million of these sales having been made by download (up 33% over one year, and 65% over one month), knowing that sales on the eShop of Nintendo games are not even taken into account (since not disclosed by the manufacturer).

This does not prevent Mario Strikers: Battle League Football to be June’s Third Highest Hit and the best-selling physical game of the month. He has particularly successful in France, making 40% of its European sales in France ahead of Germany, which represents 19% of sales. In just three weeks, it has already surpassed the total score of Mario Golf Super Rush, released in June 2021.

But it is F1 22 that takes first place, while only the Champions Edition of the game was available from June 28 (July 1 for the Standard Edition). It was in Germany and the United Kingdom that he met with the most success. Another novelty in the ranking: The Quarry, the new narrative horror game from Supermassive Games, which moved into 8th position. It had a better launch with sales 19% higher than the studio’s previous game, The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes, released last October. We leave you with the complete top 20, which shows recent LEGO Star Wars titles The Skywalker Saga, Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West, and other older ones like GTA 5, Minecraft Switch Edition, Dragon’s Dogma or Civilization VI.

1. F1 22 (EA)
2. FIFA 22 (EA)
3. Mario Strikers: Battle League Football* (Nintendo)
4. Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar)
5. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Nintendo)
6. Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo)*
7. Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar)
8. The Quarry (2K Games)
9. Horizon: Forbidden West (Sony)
10. Elden Ring (Bandai Namco)
11. Mario Kart 8: Deluxe (Nintendo)*
12. NBA 2K22 (2K Games)
13. Football Manager 22 (Sega)
14. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (EA)
15. Gran Turismo 7 (Sony)
16. Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (2K Games)
17. Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft)
18. Assassin’s Creed Origins (Ubisoft)
19. Dragon’s Dogma: Darth Arisen (Capcom)
20. Minecraft Switch Edition (Microsoft)

.* Download sales not counted

Briefly in the business news of the week

• In addition to Haven Studios, Sony has also finalized the takeover of Bungie (Destiny 2), announced last January.
• “After selling 2 million copies in one week, Monster Hunter Rise’s Sunbreak expansion is now at 3 million.
• Very good performance also for Cuphead’s DLC (The Delicious Last Course), which has already reached one million sales.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge also hits one million sales, a month after its release.
• SELL has unveiled the best physical sales in France for the period from June 27 to July 3. Mario Strikers Battle League Football leads for the fourth week in a rowfollowed by Horizon Forbidden West (PS5 version), F1 22 (PS4 version, then PS5 version) and Nintendo Switch Sports.
• Nintendo has announced the acquisition of Dynamo Pictures, a Japanese animation studio that has worked on series (Yuri on Ice, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045…), films (Kingslaive Final Fantasy XV) and games (Metroid : Other M, Final Fantasy XIII-2…). This will be renamed Nintendo Pictures once the operation is finalized. Nintendo’s objective is to strengthen its production capacity of “visual content” highlighting its licenses.