And a bit more into Steam revenue

#Steam@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV
#SplitFiction@GameDEV
#AssassinsCreed@GameDEV

I'm not surprised 😑

#EA@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV
#LayOffs@GameDEV

Good one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De7s-IB_DAw
#Hardware@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

The ongoing AI bubble is already bigger than the dotcom bubble in the late 90s. And it will pop, it's unavoidable.

#Finance@GameDEV
#AI@GameDEV

Who would've guessed
(Everyone)

#AI@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

One of the biggest investors in the game industry shared his thoughts about red flags while pitching:

1. No Sound Validation Of A Problem And Market Potential: A common mistake founders make is rushing to present their solution without clearly defining the problem first.

2. Fuzzy Financials And Unrealistic Projections: Even with a compelling vision, inadequate financial planning is a deal-breaker. A seed deck showing wild projections with no clear path to get there doesn't induce trust.

3. Founding Team With No Skin In The Game And Little Expertise: Investors aren't just hunting for ideas; they are searching for people. If founders aren't investing their own money or time into their business, it raises serious concerns about commitment. A team still working other full-time jobs while pitching their startup sends a clear signal: They aren’t all-in. Investors are more likely to back founders who eat, sleep and breathe their startup.

4. Cluttered, Overloaded Deck: Overwhelming investors with too much information is another common pitfall. Slides with a wall of dense text, complex charts or excessive jargon almost immediately lose interest, no matter how good the product is. A pitch deck is a high-level overview, not an exhaustive document.

5. Early Equity Dilution And Governance Gaps: Excessive early equity distribution creates multiple problems that compound over time. When founders give away too much ownership to early hires, advisors or friends, they risk two critical failures:

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2025/08/21/5-seed-deck-red-flags-that-can-make-investors-say-no-thanks/
#Business@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Not buying it!

- Revenue is okay
- Profits are in decline
- They fired even more people

But none of it was worth such a delay minutes before the originally planned announcement.

#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Investors are kinda sad about Ubisoft moves: when you cancel half of your games and move release dates of others by a year or two, it somehow NOT MAKING IT LOOK LIKE A PROFIT.

Shares lost over 30% today, 60% in one year and 95% in 5 years. Yes, kids, they are 95% less valuable than they used to be!

#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Adobe stocks are in decline by 23% since the beginning of the year, over 18% in one month.

Their AI tools are not bringing more paid users to the ecosystem, then a lot of people left when they tried to discontinue Adobe Animate a week ago (and then placed it into low maintenance mode instead).

And if investors' panic over game companies and Ginie3 is foolish, the Adobe one may be reasonable: except for poorly executed AI plugins in Photoshop, the overall stack of tools stagnating for years.

DaVinci Resolve allows better video editing for free and even more impressive in paid tier. All in one app.

Blender advanced significantly in 2D animation and 3D compositing, Affinity now has free tier too, GIMP 3 is finally usable, and we can continue: https://github.com/KenneyNL/Adobe-Alternatives

#Adobe@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Since Nacon has no budget to burn, they moved the planned presentation two months forward. And promise to fix the budgeting issue.

They are the company behind Spiders, Daedalic, and dozens of other studios around the world. They unified over the years to be more resilient but it kinda didn't work out.

#Business@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV
#Nacon@GameDEV

The creators of Crimson Desert lost about 30% of their market cap due to "negative reception from critics". Investors wanted to see The Witcher 3 and got Dragon's Dogma II.

#Finance@GameDEV

After their parent company Nacon admited they are out of money, their subordinates followed with the same legal request.

Paris-based studio Spiders is perhaps best known for working on the Greedfall franchise. Kylotonn has spent recent years overseeing the World Rally Championship series, while Cyanide has worked on franchises such as Styx and Blood Bowl (via).

#Nacon@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV
#Legal@GameDEV

Warhorse/KCD/Mafia creator Daniel Vavra has Ubisoft shares in his stack. And with his usual attitude to everything and everyone, he's bitching about it.

#Ubisoft@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Investors: one ex developer said the game is bad, reviewers were unable to defeat the boss, whoa, drop the shares price!

The game actually sells, investors: whoa, raise the price! Congrats, that was the real traders strategy guide in 20 seconds.

#meme@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

Since Nacon publishing has no more money and so are its studios, the company just secretly placed Spiders (Greedfall, Steelrising) on sale. If you're interested, here's the lot where you can buy the studio.

Nacon previously acquired Spiders in 2019 after the success of the original Greedfall. Now they forced the team to "make another game to raise their own price before sale". Something is in early development but sources say that the team is rather broken with all that, not inspired by the new chance.

In addition, according to Origami, Nacon Tech (motion capture studio) is also going to be sold. And all physical releases of Nacon games are canceled in North America.

#Nacon@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV
#Business@GameDEV

If you were curious about financial issues of literally every game and IT company out there: they all gambled on AI and got wrecked by it this specific quarter.

Microsoft is currently aiming for the worst quarter since 2008 and these results are not even caused by the war. And it's not the end of this downfall. NVIDIA is also in decline (as we mentioned before).

The craziest part is that even AI-fans among investors are selling Microsoft shares. They believe that the whole SaaS market will be pointless if AI Microsoft bet on will get more advanced. So Microsoft is ruining it's real business by betting on the virtual one.

#AI@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV

FTC warned payment processing entities that if they will ever again apply unlawful regulations to payments, FTC will launch investigations. The same warnings were sent in several other regions too and Europe is building independent payment systems to counter it even as possibility.

Visa and MasterCard effectively dig it's own grave by joining the fight on the side of Aussie Mums (aka Collective Shout). Last year they forced Steam and ItchIO to stop selling tens of thousands of adult games and threatened to stop all payments for game stores if they will not comply.

#Laws@GameDEV
#Finance@GameDEV