Weekend Highlights (February 15-16)

Epic Games Store summarized 2024, France saw its first nationwide game developers strike, and the media discovered that the creators of Love and Deepspace and Infinity Nikki earned $850 million in 2024. We recap the main events in the gaming industry from the past weekend.

Love and Deepspace

• In 2024, PC users of the Epic Games Store spent $1.09 billion on the platform (+15%), with $255 million of that coming from third-party developers' games (-18%). These figures were shared by Epic Games in their traditional annual report. They also announced that the store's user count reached 295 million people last year (+9%). Throughout 2024, users claimed a total of 595 million free game copies.
• In France, the first nationwide game developers strike took place. It was organized under the aegis of the local union STJV. The strikers demanded game companies stop mass layoffs, improve working conditions, and increase financial transparency. According to STJV, over a thousand people participated in the protests.
• Last year, Chinese studio Papergames' revenue exceeded $850 million, reports Forbes, citing analysts. This was largely thanks to the popularity of the mobile dating simulator Love and Deepspace. The game currently has a monthly active audience of 6 million, with over 50 million people having played Love and Deepspace by the end of January. Papergames is now one of the most successful studios in China. According to Forbes, its market value is $2 billion, and the net worth of Papergames founder Yao Runhao is estimated at $1.3 billion. Besides Love and Deepspace, the studio's portfolio includes the Nikki series, the latest installment of which, Infinity Nikki, was released on December 5, 2024.
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VII set a new peak concurrent user record on Steam. According to SteamDB, 84,558 people were simultaneously playing the strategy game’s Steam version on Sunday. This is the fifth highest among Firaxis Games titles, with higher concurrent players previously recorded by Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth (86,892 people), Sid Meier’s Civilization V (91,363 people), XCOM 2 (133,022 people), and Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (162,657 people).
• Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2 and designer of Dishonored, has passed away at the age of 52. Antonov also contributed to Fallout 4, Doom, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Prey, and many other games. In recent years, he worked at the Cyprus-based studio Eschatology Entertainment, focusing on a AAA soul-like game in a post-apocalyptic setting.