Money

Noodle Cat Raises $4.1 Million in Funding

Published

10 months ago

November 15, 2022

Anthony DiMoro

Noodle Cat Games has officially announced that they have raised $4.1 million in seed funding as they aim to build a new studio centered around “a flexible, iteration-based development model rooted at the intersection of trust, creativity and empathy.”

The funding round was led by Makers Fund, with participation from 1Up Ventures and Epyllion

The studio was co-founded by Epic Games veterans such as former Epic lead systems designer David Hunt, former Epic principal programmer Michael Noland, and former Epic head of publishing Ed Zobrist, who will fill the roles of CEO, CTO, and business advisor, respectively, at Noodle Cat.

Their team is also composed of former talent from EA, Bioware, Popcap, and Flying Lab Software.

“Our industry is notorious for demanding immense personal sacrifices in order to get a game to the finish line,” CEO David Hunt said, according to an official statement issued on the Noodle Cat website.

“Usually, it’s not malicious. The time pressure and fleeting nature of financial success make it easy to stack one seemingly minor sacrifice on top of another. I’ve seen this grind too many coworkers to dust. In one heartbreaking case, I lost a friend and mentor to heart failure far too early in his life, due to overwork.”

Business

Scriptic Raises $6 Million in Additional Seed Funding

Published

3 weeks ago

August 29, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Interactive drama developer and BAFTA-nominated studio Scriptic has raised a total $6.2 million in additional seed funding, including $500,000 from the Sony Innovation Fund, bringing the total seed investments to $8.7 million.

The funding will be deployed to continue going towards the expansion of its mobile narrative offerings, and the studio aims to provide its generative AI developer tools to more writers and storytellers.

“It’s a huge honor to have Sony Innovation Fund join our roster of stellar investors, and we’re thrilled that they share our vision for the future of interactive media and storytelling,” Scriptic CEO Nihal Tharoor said, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

This marks another example of studios who find Angel Investors and find VC investors to fund their initiatives, and those deals making waves in the gaming industry.

Business

Epic Games Store Hits $820 Million in Player Spending During 2022

Published

6 months ago

March 22, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Epic Games has officially released financial data related to it’s growing marketplace on PC, showing that $820 million was spent on the Epic Games Store during the 2022 year, and promised support for third-party subscription services and new ‘content hubs’ to help companies promote their titles.

According to the data:

The numbers

Total users of Epic Games Store PC: 230 million (up 19% year-on-year)
Epic cross-platform accounts: 732 million
Daily active users peak: 34.3 million
Monthly active users: 68 million (up 10%)

Total spending, incl. Epic’s games: $820 million (down 2%)
Spending on third-party games: $355 million (up 18%)
Free games claimed: 700 million
Number of new PC releases: 626
Total library of PC games: 1,548 (up 68%)

Epic Games stated on it’s blog that more PC games launched during the 2022 year than in any year prior.

Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands were among the most popular titles related to player engagement and player spending, and Epic Games looks to deepen their focus in 2023 as they aim to improve the store launcher’s performance.

Epic Games also aims to add support for subscription services from third-party publishers and live service products by the end of the 2023 year, adding that they are also working on ‘content hubs’ which will be separate from product pages and will enable publishers to “share information with users in a robust editorial format.”

Market

Xbox Q2 Revenue Dips 13%, Game Pass Continues Growth

Published

8 months ago

January 25, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

Microsoft has reported declines in Xbox revenue during the three months ended December 31, 2022 with gaming revenues were down 13% and Xbox content and services revenues down 12%, but were offset by the growth of Xbox Game Pass.

The Xbox Game Pass subscription business has reported a record number of active players, reporting a record 120 million monthly active users across its gaming ecosystem.