The main thing for the weekend (January 14-15)

Korean analysts lowered their sales forecasts for The Callisto Protocol, artists sued the creators of the Midjourney and Stable Diffusion neural networks, and the Chinese authorities, according to rumors, decided to acquire a stake in one of Tencent’s “daughters” — we tell you what happened in the gaming industry this weekend.

The Financial Times, citing sources, reported that the Chinese government plans to buy “golden shares” of one of the “main” subsidiaries of Tencent. This will allow the authorities to take a seat on the board of directors and get the right to veto business decisions. According to the publication, in early January, the Chinese government made a similar purchase in Alibaba.

The horror The Callisto Protocol is not selling as well as expected. Recently, analysts from Samsung Securities lowered the forecast for sales of the project from 5 million to 2 million copies, and analysts from Korea Investment & Securities — from 4 million to 2.1 million copies. It is assumed that the production of The Callisto Protocol cost Krafton and Striking Distance Studios about $162 million.

The authors of the Midjourney and Stable Diffusion neural networks, as well as the owners of the DeviantArt portal, faced a class action lawsuit. It was submitted in California by a group of artists. In their statement, the plaintiffs called neural networks “a tool for creating collages of the XXI century”, which violates the copyrights of millions of creators. The artists demanded compensation for the damage caused and called for an injunction to be issued to the companies.

▪️NPD Group has published a list of the best-selling games in the United States for 2022. The first place in it was taken by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, released on October 27. The top five bestsellers also included Elden Ring, Madden NFL 23, God of War: Ragnarök and LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.