Weekend Highlights (December 6-7)

"Tiny Bunny" shattered its previous online record on Steam following the release of its final episode, the creators of the canceled POSTAL: Bullet Paradise decided to close their studio, and the sales of the Elden Ring Nightreign expansion, The Forsaken Hollows, surpassed 2 million copies in just two days. Here are the main events in the gaming industry from the past weekend.

On Friday evening, December 5th, the visual novel "Tiny Bunny" released its final episode and immediately launched in full version after being in early access since April 2021. As a result, the game's peak online presence on Steam quickly reached new record levels. According to SteamDB, at one point, 25,465 people were playing "Tiny Bunny" simultaneously. In comparison, the previous record set in May 2023 was 4.5 times smaller at 5,603 players.
The developers of "World of Tanks" also boasted a large online audience. The company Lesta Games reported that on December 6th, the number of concurrent players in the tank shooter exceeded 400,000 people. This is the best December figure for "World of Tanks" since 2021. The recent increase in players seems to be attributed to the newly launched holiday event featuring actor Sergey Burunov.
One of the creators of Fallout, Tim Cain, announced his return to Obsidian Entertainment. On his YouTube channel, Cain shared that he is once again a full-time employee and can now be found at the studio's office. He is currently working with colleagues on a new game, but details cannot be revealed yet due to a non-disclosure agreement. According to Cain, gamers would never guess what the game is about. It's worth noting that Cain previously worked at the studio from 2011 to 2020. He then retired but occasionally provided consulting for Obsidian Entertainment.
The American studio Goonswarm Games is soon to cease operations. The team stated on social media that they decided to close following the scandal surrounding POSTAL: Bullet Paradise—a shooter canceled by the publisher Running With Scissors just 48 hours after its announcement. According to Goonswarm Games, gamers noticed AI-generated content in the game's trailer, which led to heavy criticism and threats against their employees. Together with the project's cancellation, this demoralized the developers, leading them to believe that closing the studio would be the best course of action. Interestingly, in a subsequent message, Goonswarm Games admitted that AI-generated art did find its way into the promo materials for POSTAL: Bullet Paradise. This content was allegedly added by external contractors, unknown to Goonswarm Games. However, the studio claims that all in-game content was human-created. Before closing, Goonswarm Games intends to replace the controversial content, as they "feel responsible for the outcome."
FromSoftware announced that it took just two days for the Elden Ring Nightreign: The Forsaken Hollows expansion to sell over 2 million copies. Despite the impressive sales, Steam users have not given it the most favorable reviews, with the expansion currently holding a "mixed" 47% rating. Reviews indicate that gamers are primarily dissatisfied with the small amount of new content and increased difficulty.