Weekend Highlights (August 31 — September 1)

The game director of Devil May Cry and Dragon's Dogma left Capcom, an analyst estimated Concord's sales at 25,000 copies, and the co-founder of miHoYo suggested game developers consider changing careers due to AI advancements. Here's what happened in the gaming industry over the weekend.

Concord

• After 30 years and five months at Capcom, Hideaki Itsuno left the company to work on "developing a new game in a new environment." Where the developer went and what his next project will be are still unknown, but Itsuno promised to share details later. Over the years at Capcom, he was involved in creating dozens of games. In particular, Itsuno directed several installments of Devil May Cry and both Dragon's Dogma titles.
• The multiplayer shooter Concord showed very weak initial sales, reported IGN, citing analysts' data. Simon Carless, founder of GameDiscoverCo, told the portal that in the first six days, the game was purchased only 10,000 times on Steam and 15,000 times on PlayStation. Circana analyst Mat Piscatella added that in the U.S., fewer than 0.2% of PlayStation 5 owners are actively playing Concord. Omdia's chief analyst Liam Deane did not disclose his figures but stated that the shooter is performing very poorly.
• One of the founders of miHoYo, Cai Haoyu, claimed that artificial intelligence will soon replace people in the gaming industry, suggesting that most developers should consider changing careers. In his opinion, in the AI era, only two types of people will be able to develop games: geniuses and hobbyists "who make games only to bring their own ideas to life." He noted that geniuses will make up only 0.0001%. Notably, in the fall of 2023, Cai transitioned from chairman of miHoYo to head of the advanced technology research department. He is currently also working for Anuttacon, a startup specializing in creating virtual worlds and other interactive products using AI.
• Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft's gaming division, revealed some of his "worst gaming decisions" at PAX West. One of these was passing on making Destiny an Xbox exclusive. Spencer explained that Bungie itself offered Microsoft an exclusive deal, but the corporation was not interested. Another decision was refusing to publish Guitar Hero. "I'm not one to regret, but I have missed out on so many games," Spencer concluded.