03.02.2025

Weekend Highlights (February 1-2)

According to media reports, BioWare now has fewer than one hundred employees, the lead writer of Fallout: New Vegas has returned to Obsidian Entertainment, and sales of Human Fall Flat have reached 55 million copies. Here's a rundown of the main events in the gaming industry over the past weekend.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

  • Compared to 2023, BioWare's staff has been halved, claims Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, citing his sources. Allegedly, fewer than a hundred people are currently working at the studio. Schreier found that downsizing began late last year shortly after the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, but it proceeded in an unusual format. Some specialists were temporarily transferred to other studios within Electronic Arts, explaining that the next Mass Effect installment is still in its early stages and BioWare doesn't need as many people. However, last week developers learned that they would permanently remain in the teams they were reassigned to, and to return to BioWare, they would need to wait for vacancies to open up and reapply. There were also standard layoffs. According to Schreier, around 20 people were recently laid off from BioWare.
  • Former vice president of Sony's gaming division for third-party studios, Adam Boyes, believes that Xbox's new strategy of gradually phasing out exclusives and focusing on cross-platform content benefits everyone. In an interview with Gamertag Radio, he stated that Xbox has become an "entertainment provider" instead of a "disc provider," aiming to introduce games to as many people as possible. "Does anyone suffer because Phil Spencer and his team place excellent content on more platforms? I've asked many if there are any victims of this decision. There aren't any. Except for those who say, 'I bought this device and want games to be exclusive to it,'" Boyes said. Nevertheless, Boyes acknowledged that it might become more challenging for Xbox to sell upcoming generations of their consoles.
  • Veteran of Obsidian Entertainment, John Gonzalez, announced his return to the studio 14 years after his departure. He was the lead writer for Fallout: New Vegas but left the team after finishing the game to join Monolith Productions, where he worked on the storyline for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor. Gonzalez later worked with Guerrilla Games, Smilegate, and Fantastic Pixel Castle. According to Gonzalez, he has now taken the position of creative director at Obsidian Entertainment. To avoid rumors, he immediately added that he hasn't returned for Fallout: New Vegas 2 but will be working on other projects.
  • The creators of the puzzle game Human Fall Flat announced that the game has sold 55 million copies on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. This took just under nine years — Human Fall Flat was released in July 2016. No Brakes Games is currently working on a sequel, but the release date is not yet known. It is expected that Human Fall Flat 2 will be released sometime in 2026.
  • Red Dead Redemption 2 set a new peak online record on Steam for the second consecutive weekend. According to SteamDB, on the evening of February 2nd, the maximum number of concurrent players reached 99,993. This surge can be attributed to a hefty discount, which varies from 75% to 80% depending on the region.
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