According to media reports, Take-Two decided to get rid of Private Division, the budget for Bend Studio's new game may exceed $250 million, and NVIDIA announced an AI assistant to help with game navigation. Here’s a recap of what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.
Tales of the Shire
- Take-Two Interactive is planning to sell or close the indie label Private Division, reports IGN, citing sources. According to the portal, the company warned employees about mass layoffs back in February. Two months later, it announced the withdrawal of support for Private Division, subsequently laying off nearly all staff members of the division. A small team remains to handle games under previously signed contracts, including No Rest for the Wicked by Moon Studios and Tales of the Shire by Wētā Workshop. It is reported that a private investment company has already shown interest in purchasing Private Division. While the deal is not yet confirmed, it's known that people associated with Moon Studios' management are involved. Sources also claim that Take-Two wanted to sell rights to the Kerbal Space Program (considering options to sell either just the IP or the IP along with Intercept Games studio) and had negotiations with Paradox Interactive, but the deal fell through.
- Days Gone game director Jeff Ross wrote on X that, according to his information, Sony spent at least $250 million on developing Bend Studio's next game. He called this figure insane. Ross stated that this amount seems especially unbelievable since Sony once refused to fund the sequel to Days Gone, which had a more modest budget of $150 million. Ross did not share details about Bend Studio's game. It is worth noting that the developer left the studio in 2020.
- NVIDIA introduced the G-Assist neural network, which helps navigate games. The AI assistant can answer gamers' verbally or written questions and provide various advice. For example, it can explain how to level up characters, where to find resources, and how to best fight enemies. Additionally, G-Assist can adjust game settings. The release date for G-Assist has not been announced.
- Madfinger Games studio announced that sales of the extraction shooter Gray Zone Warfare have exceeded 900,000 copies. The game took 30 days to reach this milestone.
- In turn, the developers of the multiplayer survival game Soulmask boasted that their game sold over 100,000 copies on its debut day. Soulmask was released in early access on Steam on May 31. At the time of writing, it had garnered 79% positive reviews, and its peak online player count exceeded 38,700 users.