Business News Xbox Plans to 2028, Unity Apologizes, Average Video Game Salary Revealed: Business News of the Week
Published on September 24th, 2023 at 4:00 p.m
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This week in video game business news: Microsoft’s setbacks that plunged into a huge leak, Unity’s shallow apologies to the badbuzz, a rundown of average European salaries in video games… and lots of other interesting information to delve into can put into it.
Summary
- Unity affair: a shallow apology from the CEO
- What are European salaries in the video game industry worth in 2023?
- Average annual salary of the EU region:
- Average annual salary outside the EU region:
- Xbox is facing the biggest leaks in its history
- Coming soon to the business news of the week
Unity affair: a shallow apology from the CEO
If there’s one topic that’s been talked about in the video game industry for days, it’s Unity. As a reminder, this is an engine that is very popular among video game developers, including small independent studios. The problem is, that Unity Technologies, the company behind the IT tool, surprisingly announced the introduction of a painful tax from 2024 : Every time a player installs a game running on Unity, 20 cents are collected from the developer behind that title. This is true even if the same player uninstalls a game and then reinstalls it.
The outcry from the developers was so violent that the affair quickly assumed gigantic and international proportions. With a system like this, many studios say they have to change engines, cancel their current project, or even think about going out of business. Unity offices in the US even had to close due to death threats.
Out of, Unity announced new conditions to find common ground. For example, the tax is only charged on the first installation of the video game, and the affected developers must choose between the tax and a percentage of 2.5% on sales.
But there’s still a way for developers to get back on track with Unity. Many people’s trust has been broken and thousands of those affected distrust the company despite the announced withdrawal. Unity Create President Marc Whitten said in an official press release on September 22nd:
I want to start with this: I’m sorry. We should have discussed this with more of you and incorporated more feedback before announcing our new shipping fee policy. » He adds: “We have heard your concerns and are making changes to the policy we announced.
Be continued.
What are European salaries in the video game industry worth in 2023?
Making a living from video games isn’t always easy: studio closures, layoffs, or simply the difficulty of finding a job, making a living from this passion is no easy task. In addition, the recruitment agency Values Value and the job platform InGame Job carried out a study of the average salary in this industry, according to different salary ranges.
The survey was conducted among 1,184 people, divided into two categories: those from the European Union region, which includes the 27 EU countries, and those from non-EU countries, which include Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.
Here are the results :
Average annual salary of the EU region:
- Highest paid young profession: game design – €25,000
- Worst paid junior profession: art design – €20,000
- Highest paid mid-level job: Analytics – €37,000
- Worst-paid medium-sized job: Quality assurance – €16,100
- Highest paid senior job: C-Suite/Executive – €84,000
- Worst paid senior job: Marketing/User Acquisition – €46,000
Average annual salary outside the EU region:
- Highest paid young profession: art design – €12,000
- Worst paid young profession: game design – €7,700
- Highest paid mid-level job: Analytics – €29,000
- Worst-paid medium-sized job: Human Resources/Recruitment – €15,000
- Highest paid senior job: C-Suite/Executive – €66,000
- Worst paid senior job: Audio design – €30,000
There is therefore a significant salary difference between developers from the European Union and those from non-EU countries.
Over and beyond, A large salary gap between men and women must be identified The report states: “A grim trend that needs to be highlighted: female respondents tend to report lower salary expectations than their male counterparts.”
Photo credit: Gamesindustry.biz
Xbox is facing the biggest leaks in its history
As part of the lawsuit filed with the FTC Microsoft faced a massive leak with documents he published but not censored that reveal much of his future plans. While we at JV have covered this news extensively, a quick summary is in order for potential latecomers:
- Xbox has no plans to release a new, more powerful Xbox Series, but will offer one in 2024 a new version of its Xbox Series X. This will feature a new cylindrical design, no hard drive and a 2TB SSD. It will have a USB-C port, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Electricity consumption would also decrease by 15%. The idea, of course, would be to have a machine that is perfect for Game Pass.
- A new Xbox Series S would also be suggested, this time with a 1TB SSD.
- A new universal Xbox controller is also planned. This can be connected directly to the cloud to improve latency, the keys will be quieter, there will be a removable and rechargeable battery and hip vibrations will be integrated. The launch is planned to coincide with the new Xbox Series X and S.
- The next generation of Xbox is planned for 2028. Microsoft would have a unique concept for now: a physical console that combines native video games and cloud gaming video games. Thanks to the cloud, Microsoft could then improve video games over time while providing an ideal platform for Xbox Game Pass.
- Comments from Phil Spencer were also leaked: If Game Pass doesn’t reach 100 million subscribers in 2030, Microsoft’s Xbox division could simply be abandoned.
- In 2020, Phil Spencer said that he was still very interested in it the takeover of Nintendothat he wanted to make a sweet treat.
Coming soon to the business news of the week
- The British CMA has given preliminary approval to Microsoft’s takeover of Activision-BlizzardThe latter is getting closer to his goal than ever before.
- Steam Deck 2 is not expected to be released until the end of 2025 at the earliestsaid Pierre-Loup Griffais from Valve.
- Crew Motorfest has the best franchise start everalthough Ubisoft didn’t give exact numbers.
- The Division 3 was announced by Ubisoft in a simple press release, without any artifice. Notably, Julian Gerighty is named executive producer of the franchise.
- Marvel’s Avengers will simply be removed from all digital stores starting September 30th. For many, a final admission of failure.
- While he had to take care of the entire future of the Need for Speed saga, A large portion of Criterion Games’ studio workforce is ultimately tied to the Battlefield licenseunder the direction of Vince Zampella.
- Saber Interactive Studio announced the end of the sequel to Evil Dead: The Gamepublished in 2022. The Switch version was also canceled : The whole thing probably results from the crisis of the Embracer group, which owns the studio.
- Starfield has passed the 10 million player mark on PC and Xbox Series.
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