News release (Tuesday - 13.09.2016)

Today is a day of sad news. Marmalad will no longer develop its engine, Blizzard’s senior vice president of creative development is retiring, Pokemon GO has lost 79% of paying players in a month.

The first – and the saddest – news about Marmalad . The game development platform (read, the engine) has been living out its last months. The company announced that it is going to focus on game development, the latest update of the platform will be released in March 2017.

No less sad is that Chris Metzen, senior vice president of creative development at Blizzard, announced his retirement. He is 45, and he has worked in the company for 22 years. He announced his departure on the same day that Rob Pardo, the former creative director of Blizzard, announced the launch of his gaming startup Bonfire. However, Metsen assures that he is retiring. He is not going to work in any other company.

You can also sympathize with the iosoftware team, known for stylized Heroes of Might & Magic ½ games (Royal Bounty, Palm Kingdom). Their account has been removed by Apple from the App Store. The official reason is a violation of clause 3.2 (f) of the standard agreement (buying paid reviews, choosing a name that may be similar to another to confuse users, and so on). The developers are shocked and assure that they have not violated the rules in any way. In the iosoftware store since 2009.

Who hurried to the mobile AR – also drop a tear. In the US, Pokemon GO lost 79% of paying players by August 30 compared to July 15, when their number was at its peak. However, despite this, according to the results of the last month of summer, the game earned in America 28% of all gaming revenue in the country (Clash Royale, for comparison, “only” 2.2%).

Quite a bit of positivity (and a drop of hope) you may receive news about the launch of Razer investment fund zVentures. Its volume is $30 million. The Fund is ready to invest in AR/VR, esports, software, analytics and the Internet of Things.

That’s it for today! Good mood and good night to everyone.