Weekly Roundup: Ethical Game Publishing, Iron Lung Decimation, Roblox Growth, and More
It’s been a bumper week for industry news so here’s an overview of some of the top stories, including disappointing Nintendo Direct reveals and the future for the Wolfenstein series. Let’s dig in!
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Pixel Doors Opens up “Ethical Publishing”
Pixel Doors opened its, well, doors to game devs this week with a mission statement focused on “Sustainable, Ethical and Transparent publishing.” In short: Pixel Doors doesn’t make any money unless a game it’s publishing does.
It’s a new venture by Jacek Pudlik and Nic van ‘t Schip; these names might not ring any bells for readers, but the companies they used to work for will. Pudlik was the Associate Publishing Producer for Wargaming (World of Tanks, World of Warships), and van ‘t Schip was the Senior EMEA Marketing Manager for Twitch. Both also most recently worked for My.Games, a leading studio/publisher of mobile games, including Rush Royale, Tacticool, and War Robots.
Van ‘t Schip announced the new company via his LinkedIn this week: “In our previous lives, Jacek and I reviewed thousands of pitches. We saw so many incredible teams with solid games get rejected not because the game wasn’t fun, but because the P&L [profit and loss] didn’t look like a ‘unicorn’ in a corporate spreadsheet. We got tired of watching the industry trade magic for (presumed) predictability. So, we asked ourselves: ‘What would a publisher look like if it was actually designed to help these studios survive?’. The answer is Pixel Doors.”
Van ‘t Schip and Pudlik promise that developers won’t have to pay them anything until the game hits a “stability threshold,” meaning that there’s as much emphasis on the studio to work hard to promote the game as there is on Pixel Doors.
The publisher also already has a launch title: Mad King Redemption, by three-man studio Secret Mission. It’s being billed as a “Dark Fantasy Roguelite Beat’em Up” that’s also “a love letter to the 16-bit era.” It’s set for launch into Early Access soon.
Iron Lung Destroys the Box Office
Noted gaming YouTuber Markiplier (Mark Fischbach) self-financed and distributed an adaptation of 2022 indie horror game Iron Lung, which was released in 3,015 theatres on Jan. 30 and made over $23 million earlier this week (internationally). For comparison, Sam Raimi’s new movie, Send Help, made over $28 million globally and the much-touted Melania documentary scraped through its opening weekend with just over $8 million (although this number only accounts for the US box office).
Based on David Szymanski’s (DUSK) video game, the film is set after an event called the Quiet Rapture caused every habitable star and planet (and their populations) to vanish. Those left behind on space stations and orbital outposts have banded together to try and rebuild society, with Fischbach playing a convict sent beneath a blood ocean in a tiny submersible to look for natural resources.
Both versions of Iron Lung feature a lurking horror and cosmic dread, and both were well-received at launch. However, Iron Lung (the movie) was pulled from box office charts this week as it was only in theatres for a short time. Luckily, Fischbach has managed to get a second release scheduled for today (Feb. 6) through this weekend, and has also confirmed that the movie will come to digital streaming, with a release date for this TBC.
Roblox Experiences Growth Despite Controversy
Last year was not good for Roblox as a company, following YouTuber Schlep’s very public evidence that the gaming platform is a hotbed for sexual predators. He teamed up with Chris Hansen, and together they brought in two major law firms to go after Roblox for multiple child endangerment issues.
As various state attorney generals also piled on Roblox, the CEO David Baszucki made a fool of himself on a New York Times podcast and pressed forward with plans to incorporate dating app functionality into Roblox. This week, ABC News reported that 800 parents, many of whom are currently involved in lawsuits against the company, sent a letter to the board of directors demanding that the company stop trying to keep lawsuits out of the public eye.
Roblox is facing over 100 lawsuits that were recently consolidated, and include thousands of child sexual exploitation and abuse claims. Even so, Baszucki announced yesterday in a shareholders financial report that Roblox now has an average 144 million daily active users (DAUs), which is up by 69% on last year, and a revenue of $1.4 billion (up by 43%).
The report also said “We seek to make Roblox a safe place for kids on the Internet and believe there is significant value to be captured by super-serving this audience.” In other words, that’s where the real money is. The report also notes that, following recent AI-powered age verification tools, Roblox has suffered short-term issues in relation to less people joining than expected. Even so, current data has shown that “Of DAUs who have age-checked to date, 35% are U13, 38% are between the ages of 13 and 17, and 27% are O18.”
Unsurprisingly, users on X have been quick to call-out Baszucki on his continued reluctance to actively engage with the Roblox community in a way that better counters the continued child safety issues, outside of implementing new (not entirely reliable) AI measures.
Other News This Week
Nintendo ran a Switch 2 Direct last night and the reveals were underwhelming, in terms of being predominantly previously-released games that are being ported to Switch 2, rather than many brand new titles. There were a few, though: co-op sci-fi adventure Orbitals, Paranormasight: The Mermaid’s Curse, and winner of the WTF Trailer Award that I just invented, Tokyo Scramble, were highlights.
Otherwise, gamers can expect ports of Valheim, Hollow Knight, Pragmata, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to appear this year on the console. Regarding the latter game, developer MachineGames has received renewed interest regarding its movement on a third Wolfenstein title.
In a recent interview, the Studio Director, Jerk Gustafsson, said: “Our intention has always been to go back to Wolfenstein. We wanted to finish the trilogy. And when we do that, that is something that I don’t want to comment on. It can be now, it can be later, but we’re not done with it. That’s what I can say.”
Lastly, last night also saw PlayStation reveal a brand new Horizon game: Horizon Hunters Gathering. It’s a co-op action game that allows up to three players to team up and take down the series’ trademark machine-beasts. As an online multiplayer title, it’ll feature multiple modes including Machine Incursion,where waves of machines and a boss creature pour out from underground gateways; and Cauldron Descent, a longer, multi-stage trial set in ever-changing rooms.
A closed beta playtest will be run on PS5 and PC at the end of February, both accessible via the PlayStation Beta Program.
