Large—scale layoffs took place at Deviation Games, the German authorities invested €800,000 in German game developers, the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom became the largest in UK retail in 2023, – we tell you what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.
Former employees of Deviation Games reported on social networks that the studio got into a difficult situation and began to dismiss developers en masse. Official representatives of the studio did not comment on their words, but, according to the Video Games Chronicle, up to 90 people could lose their jobs. Recall that in 2021 Deviation Games announced that it was working on an unannounced innovative project, the publisher of which will be Sony. Whether the game will be released now is unknown.
▪️The developers of the Open Roads adventure left the Fullbright studio and took the game with them. From now on, Fullbright has nothing to do with the project. The co-founder of the studio, Steve Gaynor, told about the incident in his newsletter, adding that he remained the only Fullbright employee. For reference: two years ago, Gainer, who then held the position of creative director of Open Roads, was accused of toxic behavior, because of which most of the employees left the studio. As of August 2021, only six people worked at Fullbright.
In mid—May, Germany hosted the Deutscher Computerspielpreis award ceremony, an annual award for game developers. One of its features is that the winners and nominees receive cash payments from the authorities of the country. This time, the authorities handed over a total of 800 thousand euros. The best German game was Chained Echoes from indie developer Matthias Linda, who was allocated € 100 thousand. God of War: Ragnarök was named the best foreign game, but its creators were not awarded a cash prize, so they were awarded only a statuette.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has shown the largest launch in British retail in 2023. According to GfK, sales of its physical edition in its debut week were more than 50% higher than at the time at Hogwarts Legacy. The game also started 2.7 times better than Breath of the Wild. Already, Tears of the Kingdom ranks eighth in the top of the most popular games in the series in terms of the number of physical copies sold in the UK, ahead of Skyward Sword and The Wind Waker.