The main thing for the weekend (April 13-14)

Larian Studios was one of the largest sponsors of Blasphemous on Kickstarter, the former president of Blizzard offered to tip game developers, sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth turned out to be half as much as the first part — we tell you what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Blasphemous 

• The lead level designer of Blasphemous, Enrique Colinet, wrote in X that Larian Studios participated in the Kickstarter campaign of the game in 2017. According to him, the studio transferred a four-figure sum to the creation of Blasphemous, becoming one of the largest sponsors. Special awards were provided for such sponsors (a meeting with the authors of Blasphemous, a limited console, a disc with the game and much more), but Larian Studios did not request them.
• Analyst Daniel Ahmad estimated that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth sold half as many copies as Final Fantasy VII Remake in the same period since its release. He suggested that the sales tail of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth would also be weaker. The analyst did not name the number of copies of the games sold.
• Landfall Games Studio has announced that Content Warning sales have exceeded 1 million copies. She also clarified that on the day of release, 6.6 million people took the game for free — previously, the developers had talked about 6.2 million owners of free copies of Content Warning.
• The authors of The Outlast Trials also revealed the circulation of their game. The Red Barrels studio boasted that more than 2 million people played cooperative horror. This number takes into account the audience during the early access period. Recall that The Outlast Trials has been in early access on PC since May 18, 2023, it reached full release on PC, PlayStation and Xbox on March 5, 2024.
• Jeff Strain, the former founder of ArenaNet and Undead Labs, has closed the Possibility Space studio. According to a letter to employees reviewed by Polygon journalists, the studio was decided to close after information about the unannounced debut game Possibility Space was leaked. In the letter, Strain explained that he was recently contacted by Kotaku journalist Ethan Gach, who asked specific questions about the game, as well as about the financial relationship between Possibility Space and the publisher of the project. Strain was shocked that studio staff could leak such information to the media. He immediately turned to the publisher, who, as a result of the conversation, refused to finance the game. Strain himself has also decided to leave the gaming industry — he now wants to pay more attention to his family. It is noteworthy that less than a month ago, another Strain studio, Crop Circle Games, closed.
• The former president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, suggested adding an option to games that allows you to tip developers. "After playing the game, I often think, "I wish I could give these guys another $10 or $20… Their game costs more than the $70 I originally paid, and they didn't try to shake a few more cents out of me every second," Ibarra wrote in X. He admitted that most people would not like his idea. However, in his opinion, she is not so bad. At least, if the developers do not openly force you to leave a tip. Ibarra himself would like to tip the creators of Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring.