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EA's Financial Nightmare Hits $500M 💸 #
Electronic Arts just shocked investors with their biggest miss in years. Their flagship Dragon Age: The Veilguard barely hit 1.5M players - that's 50% below expectations.
But it gets worse:
- Q3 bookings crashed to $2.22B (they promised $2.4B-$2.55B)
- Yearly revenue forecast slashed from $7.8B to just $7B
- EA Sports FC 2025 (their post-FIFA rebrand) flopped hard
- They're now betting everything on fiscal 2026 for recovery
The real shock? Both their major releases failed simultaneously. That hasn't happened to EA in decades.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Global PC Launch ⚔️ #
Square Enix is dropping their biggest game today with zero prep time:
- Launch time: January 23, 9 AM EST globally
- No preloading available (yes, really)
- Massive 153GB download required
- Launch times worldwide:
- Los Angeles: 6 AM PST
- London: 2 PM GMT
- Tokyo: 11 PM JST
- Sydney: 1 AM AEDT (Jan 24)
PC Gaming's Historic Dominance Revealed 🚀 #
The latest GDC survey just dropped mind-blowing numbers:
- 80% of developers now working on PC games
- Only 38% working on PS5
- Just 34% developing for Xbox Series X/S
- Huge jump from 66% PC focus in 2024
- Steam Deck attracting 44% of developers
- Nearly 19,000 new games hit Steam in 2024
- 58% of surveyed devs from US (Western market focus)
Celeste Studio's Heartbreaking Earthblade Cancellation 💔 #
Extremely OK Games just killed their most anticipated project:
- IP rights dispute between Maddy Thorson, Noel Berry & art director Pedro Medeiros
- Team admits pressure to beat Celeste's success affected development
- Currently prototyping new ideas
- Returning to original Celeste development approach
- Full project scrapped despite years of work
Phantom Blade Zero's Ambitious Evolution 🐍 #
Fresh details from their latest showcase:
- New trailer features Chief Disciple's Fallen Hope boss battle
- Unique snake-themed weapon system revealed
- Built on Unreal Engine 5
- Confirmed for PC and PS5 in 2025
- Recent budget increase enabling expanded features
- Focuses more on action than soulslike elements
- Still no exact release date announced
Google's Strategic $250M XR Move 🥽 #
Here's the full scope of Google's latest power play:
- Acquired key portion of HTC's XR division
- Deal includes:
- Transfer of VIVE engineering talent
- Non-exclusive IP rights access
- $250M total investment
- Second major HTC deal after 2017's smartphone unit purchase
- Aimed at accelerating Android XR platform
- Direct challenge to Apple and Meta's XR dominance
Games on!