The game director of Devil May Cry and Dragon’s Dogma has left Capcom, an analyst estimated Concord's sales at 25,000 copies, and the co-founder of miHoYo suggested that game developers consider changing their profession due to the advancement of AI. Here's what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.
Concord
- After 30 years and five months at Capcom, Hideaki Itsuno left the company to work on “a new game in a new environment.” The developer's next destination and project remain unknown, but Itsuno promised to reveal details later. Over the years at Capcom, he participated in the creation of several dozen games. Notably, Itsuno directed the production of several installments of Devil May Cry and both Dragon’s Dogma games.
- The multiplayer shooter Concord had very weak initial sales, reported IGN, citing data from analysts. Simon Carless, founder of the GameDiscoverCo service, told the portal that in the first six days, the game sold only 10,000 times on Steam and 15,000 times on PlayStation. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella added that in the U.S., less than 0.2% of PlayStation 5 owners are actively playing Concord. Omdia’s chief analyst Liam Deane did not disclose his figures but stated that the shooter is performing very poorly.
- Cai Haoyu, one of the founders of miHoYo, claimed that artificial intelligence will soon replace humans in the gaming industry, prompting most developers to consider changing professions. In his opinion, only two types of people will be able to develop games in the AI era: geniuses and hobbyists “who make games solely to bring their own ideas to life.” Moreover, geniuses would make up only 0.0001%. Notably, in the fall of 2023, Cai moved from the position of chairman at miHoYo to head of the advanced technology research department. He is also working at the startup Anuttacon, specializing in creating virtual worlds and other interactive products using AI.
- Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's gaming division, mentioned several of his "worst decisions" regarding games at the PAX West exhibition. One was turning down the opportunity to make Destiny an Xbox exclusive. Spencer shared that the studio Bungie itself offered Microsoft an exclusive deal, but the corporation was not interested. Another similar decision was declining to publish Guitar Hero. “I'm not one to dwell on regrets, but I missed out on so many games,” Spencer concluded.