The main thing for the weekend (November 25-26)

Team17 fell in price by more than 40% in a day, Red Dead Redemption 2 updated the online record on Steam, there were rumors that Minecraft earns more than $ 100 million a year — we tell you what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Red Dead Redemption 2

• The Swedish holding company Thunderful Group may sell Headup Games, the publisher that released Bridge Constructor, Laika: Aged Through Blood and Lost At Sea. As explained in the Thunderful Group, the holding company thought about the sale after it revised its business priorities and decided to develop a clearer and more focused strategy. The Thunderful Group bought Headup Games in 2021. Under the terms of the deal, he immediately transferred €5 million to the company and promised to give another €6 million over three years if Headup Games reached the necessary financial goals during that time.
• In a report to investors, Team17 announced that it had revised down its financial forecast for 2023. According to the company, it is too slow to solve the problem of overspending on some projects. In addition, some of the games she published did not meet expectations. After the release of the report, the price of Team17 shares immediately fell by 43.5% to 180 pence apiece. As Bloomberg noted, against this background, the value of the share of the CEO and at the same time the largest shareholder of the company Debbie Bestwick (Debbie Bestwick) fell by £ 40 million. Recall that Bestwick will soon leave Team17. She will retire on December 31, 2023.
• Gabe Newell was ordered to personally appear in court in the Steam monopoly case. Earlier, the head of Valve stated that he had an increased risk of COVID-19 infection, and expected to speak via video link. The court denied him this, finding Newell's evidence inconclusive. Nevertheless, during the testimony, all participants in the hearings will have to wear medical masks. The lawsuit, which was filed by the studio Wolfire Games against Valve in 2021, will be examined during the trial. The developers claim that Valve is abusing its position in the PC games market: the company charges too high a commission and prohibits selling games on third-party sites at prices lower than on Steam.
• Minecraft can earn over $100 million a year. This figure was indicated in his LinkedIn profile by Jeff Yanick, one of the game's developers. Yanik also wrote that Minecraft's monthly active audience is more than 160 million people. Mojang Studio has not publicly disclosed these figures, but a month ago she said that Minecraft sales exceeded 300 million copies.
• Four years after the release on PC, Red Dead Redemption 2 managed to update the record for the number of Steam users who were in the game at the same time. According to SteamDB, on the evening of November 26, the peak online Red Dead Redemption 2 exceeded 77.6 thousand people. The Steam sale should be thanked for the growth of the online market: now the game can be bought 67% cheaper than usual.
• Studio 24 Entertainment has announced that 40 million people have played the Battle royale of Naraka: Bladepoint. It took the game a little over two years to reach this mark: its PC version was released on August 12, 2021, and later the game also reached the PlayStation and Xbox consoles.