Godot veteran laments ‘AI slop’ and a big doc for Big Hops

Let me tell you a secret. I’m actually penning this week’s Patch Notes on Thursday, so if there’s an omission so glaring it feels like a slap to your cranium then you can attribute it to me being so ahead of the curve I’ve inadvertently fallen behind. 

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk news. 

Generative AI is the questionable glue holding many of this week’s headlines together, whether it’s the AI-fuelled RAM crisis impacting the availability (and potentially cost) of video game hardware or a suited-and-booted exec once again hitching their six-legged horse to the careening bandwagon. You can practically hear the rallying cries of “for the investors!” from here. 

The good news? Another massive Mewgenics sales milestone and a proper good documentary that delves into the hopping mad world of video game development. All of that and more below. 

Related:Sony shutters Bluepoint Games

via Game Developer // Unity boss Matt Bromberg is pretty bullish about the capabilities of the company’s AI technology. In fact, he recently claimed Unity AI will be able to wrestle entire casual titles into existence using nothing but natural language prompts. Unity is expected to demo is latest AI tech at GDC Festival of Gaming in March.

via Dev Dive and Chris Wade // What goes into making a modern day 3D platformer when you’re an indie studio? Big Hops developer Luckshot Games charted its six-year development journey with help from Dev Dive in an effort to provide an honest answer. The doc traces the Big Hops story from the formation of the dev team right through to launch day. Trust us, this one is pretty ribbiting—ahem, I mean riveting.

via Game Developer // Toy and entertainment company, Hasbro, has shuttered Atomic Arcade around five years after opening the studio. The company confirmed the news in a statement to Game Developer but neglected to explain why the North Carolina studio was culled. 

via Game File // Wildlight Entertainment, the U.S. studio that recently laid off a bunch of employees shortly after the launch of its debut hero shooter Highguard, has apparently benefited from a significant chunk of Tencent funding. According to sources familiar with the matter, the Chinese conglomerate was the undisclosed lead financial backer behind Highguard, which you might also remember closed out The Game Awards in December. The title launched to over 100,000 concurrent users on Steam, but that didn’t prevent widespread layoffs just a few weeks later. 

Related:Ubisoft Toronto lays off 40 employees as part of major restructuring

via Game Developer // A live action Call of Duty advert has been banned by UK advertising regulator the ASA for framing sexual violence as an “entertaining scenario.” The advert was shown on YouTube and on-demand services operated by ITV and Channel 5. Activision Blizzard has been told to ensure its future adverts are “socially responsible.” 

via Reuters // TikTok owner ByteDance is apparently mulling over the sale of Mobile Legends Bang Bang developer Moonton. The prospective buyer? None other than Saudi state-backed investment vehicle, Savvy Games Group, which is owned by the region’s Public Investment Fund. Yes, that’s the same Public Investment Fund that is currently attempting to take EA private.

via Game Developer // AI data centers are swallowing the global RAM supply and that’s bad news for fans of playing neat video games on sweet hardware. This week, Valve explained memory and storage component shortages could “intermittently” impact the availability of the Steam Deck OLED in some regions. When is that bubble going to burst again?

Related:Todd Howard says Bethesda isn’t ‘fully ignoring’ AI

via Game Developer // Sticking with generative AI (derogatory), Godot veteran Rémi Verschelde this week explained a surge in pull requests being created using LLMs is preventing those maintaining the free, open-source engine from doing their best work. In a thread on Bluesky, Verschelde said a surge in “AI slop” has left the team drained and demoralized. Wonderful.

via Bluesky // Indie roguelike Mewgenics is having a right stormer. You might recall the title sold 500,000 copies in a 36 hours—and, well, that was just the tip of the iceberg. The game eventually managed to sell 1 million copies in around a week to continue exceeding expectations. Talk about cat power.