Madfinger experimenting with monetisation, Contest of Champions players threaten boycott, and China blocks South Korean games
The games industry may sometimes seem like it exists in its own little world, but it's worth remembering sometimes that real-world events can have a major impact on our own ecosystem.
Take China for example, which is now blocking all new games developed in South Korea from being released in the country following a missile system deployment, a story that topped our Hot Five list last week by a large margin.
Second up is the planned boycott of Marvel: Contest of Champions by its top 1,000 alliances. It's been claimed that if they aren't satisfied with Kabam and Netmarble's intentions for the game's future following a controversial recent update, many could simply walk away from the game for good.
Sales, Shadowgun and soft launch
Third on the list is the news that Jinke, the Chinese chemical firm that was eyeing up Talking Tom developer Outfit7 in January 2017, is coming back for another shot at acquiring the studio.
And finally, Madfinger Games discusses the ways its rethinking monetisation for its upcoming shooter Shadowgun Legends and Space Ape Games soft-launches two games that are very different from the rest of its portfolio.
Click the link below to find out more about the stories that caught our readers' attention over the last week.
#5: Space Ape makes good on promise of "radically different" games with two new soft-launched titles
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Space Ape makes good on promise of "radically different" games with two new soft-launched titles »Space Ape Games is best known for its hardcore strategy titles, but it has stated in recent months that it is looking to do something "radically different" with future games.
It wasn't kidding either - both of its newly soft-launched titles are about as far from core strategy as one could get.
Fastlane: Road to Revenge is a shoot-em-up in a car, with you destroying enemies and upgrading your car with drones, weapons, and other such mayhem-inducing creations to rack up points.
Super Karts is a decidedly less violent affair, with players racing go-karts around colourful tracks using just one thump to accelerate and steer.
#4: Shadowgun Legends will do monetisation "completely differently", says Madfinger
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Shadowgun Legends will do monetisation "completely differently", says Madfinger »Madfinger Games likes to take a slightly different approach to mobile games, not least because it's always driving for hardcore action titles over casual games.
To that end, it's also trying to do new things with how games are monetised, particularly in its new multiplayer shooter Shadowgun Legends.
There will be no timers, waiting, energy limits, or the usual free-to-play fare - instead Madfinger CEO Marek Rabas wants players to be fully engaged before they start spending.
“We're trying something different for the monetisation, because we think that FPS games could monetise well,” he considers.
“You can see it from RPGs, or even in China where FPS games are making a lot of money.”
#3: Chinese chemical firm back in for $1 billion Talking Tom developer Outfit7 after missing out first time around
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Chinese chemical firm back in for $1 billion Talking Tom developer Outfit7 after missing out first time around »Remember back in January 2017 when we all thought a Chinese chemical firm was buying Talking Tom developer Outfit7? Well we were wrong - it was instead picked up a consortium of Asia-based investors.
Only now the chemical firm, Jinke, is coming back for a second shot at acquiring the developer, and has apparently signed a framework agreement to buy Outfit7 from the consortium that now owns it.
How much Jinke will now pay is unknown, though given it initially sold to the consortium for $1 billion, the final figure will probably be around that mark.
But was this all planned from the beginning? Did the consortium buy Outfit7 knowing it would then sell it to Jinke? We may never know.
#2: Why Marvel: Contest of Champions' top players are threatening to walk away
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Why Marvel: Contest of Champions' top players are threatening to walk away »Making huge changes to a game can mean one of two things - either you fix a huge problem and everyone loves you, or you mess everything up and the community turns on you.
It seems Kabam has ended up in the latter camp, as it's been claimed that its latest update to megahit Marvel: Contest of Champions rewrote the rule book so much that its top 30,000 players could now boycott the game.
The main issue is that core mechanics such as parrying and blocking have been vastly altered, and powerful heroes have received huge drops in power.
But it's not the only huge drop the game is facing - the top alliances' are said to make up a significant chunk of the game's overall revenue, and if they're not satisified by Kabam's promised fixes, they could well walk away from the game altogether.
#1: Updated: China bans all new games developed in South Korea from launching in the country
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Updated: China bans all new games developed in South Korea from launching in the country »The games industry does not exist in a bubble - social and political elements can have an effect not only on the content of the games, but how they are distributed.
The latest example of this is China's decision to ban all new games developed in South Korea from being released in the country, which is sure to cost developers a fair chunk of money.
The move is thought to be in response to the arrival of a new THAAD missile defence system in South Korea in partnership with the US, which China greatly opposes and is therefore blocking Korean imports.
It appears that the ban only affects games yet to be released, however - anything already available in the country will stay that way.