The creators of Among Us have launched a fund to support indie developers, MY.GAMES has introduced a new publishing label, and the success of Gray Zone Warfare has saved its developers from bankruptcy. Here's a recap of what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.
A scene from the upcoming animated series based on Among Us
- At the Summer Game Fest presentation, Innersloth, the studio behind Among Us, announced the launch of the Outersloth fund. They acknowledged that the gaming industry is currently going through tough times, and indie developers need support more than ever. Their fund is ready to invest between $50,000 and $2 million in games. Outersloth has already signed nine contracts, including with the creators of Battle Suit Aces, Mossfield Archives, and Rogue Eclipse.
- MY.GAMES launched the publishing label Knights Peak Interactive. This label will focus on releasing premium games for consoles and PC. The company showcased three games under this label at the Future Games Show presentation— the co-op PvE shooter Starship Troopers: Extermination, the soulslike-inspired side-scroller RPG Mandragora, and the platformer Nikoderiko: The Magical World. Additionally, Knights Peak Interactive will now encompass Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Blast Brigade vs. the Evil Legion of Dr. Cread.
- Marek Rabas, co-founder of Madfinger Games, stated in an interview with CzechCrunch that shortly before the release of Gray Zone Warfare, his company was almost out of money. They were likely to be unable to pay employees' wages by June. Therefore, in April, Madfinger Games took a big risk and released Gray Zone Warfare on the 30th, despite several technical issues. Delaying the release was not an option as the studio would not have received payments from Steam in time. Fortunately, the risk paid off. Within a week, Gray Zone Warfare recouped the development costs, which, according to Rabas, amounted to €10 million.
- Diablo IV set a new concurrent player record on Steam. According to SteamDB, on the evening of June 9, the game had 39,782 players online simultaneously. Its audience grew in celebration of Diablo IV's first anniversary.