Portal's Month in Games - March 2024

Shut the front door! It’s time for another Month in Games; our monthly (duh) look at some of the big stories and new releases that have hit the industry over the last, er, month (double duh). Let’s go.

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Larian leaves Baldur’s Gate behind

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Baldur’s Gate 3 might be one of the most successful RPGs of all time, but its developer, Larian Studios, has revealed that it is walking away from the franchise altogether. Not only will the Belgium-based studio not be working on a sequel, but it will also not be producing any expansions for BG3.

During a GDC talk, studio boss Swen Vincke revealed that the company would ‘move on’ from the series to work on ‘something new.’ Vincke cited previous failed attempts at producing DLC for Larian’s older games to explain the decision and said on the prospect of additional BG content, ‘life is too short. Our ambitions are very large.’

It remains to be seen what happens next with Baldur’s Gate. IP holders Wizards of the Coast will surely want to capitalise on BG3’s wild success, but following in Larian’s footsteps will be a daunting challenge for any developer.

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GTA 6 delayed?

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GTA 6 will hit like a freight train when it arrives, but it looks like we’ll be waiting longer than first expected. That’s according to a new report in Kotaku, which suggests that development has ‘fallen behind’ and that Rockstar’s epic may not see the light of day until 2026 after initially targeting a Q3 2025 release.

Kotaku’s piece follows an earlier story covering Rockstar management’s insistence that workers return to the office full-time. Employees were none too pleased with the decision, calling it ‘reckless’ and setting up an online petition to express their feelings.

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Sony pauses PlayStation VR2 production

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According to Bloomberg, Sony has paused production of its PSVR2 headset to clear a backlog of the devices. The surplus of headsets is ‘throughout Sony’s supply chain’ and comes amid reports that the VR market is set for a difficult few years.

Factors blamed include the steep cost to consumers during a period of high inflation and the post-COVID contraction that has also hit the wider games industry.

Finally, high-profile releases like Meta Quest 3, Pico 4, and the PSVR2 failed to find an audience primarily because they didn’t offer a compelling reason for users to upgrade.

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Capcom is 2023’s ‘best’ publisher 

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Metacritic, the game review aggregation site, has revealed that Capcom enjoyed the best year of any publisher in 2023 when ranked by review scores.

The Japanese publisher’s 2023 portfolio achieved an average score of 84.5, with Resident Evil 4 Remake, its leading game, scoring 93 overall from reviewers.

Elsewhere, congratulations to a couple of Portal partners. Raw Fury took second spot, a terrific achievement, and Thunderful came in tenth. Here’s the complete list; you can find more info on Metacritic’s website.

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1. Capcom
2. Raw Fury
3. Chorus Worldwide
4. Dangen Entertainment
5. Annapurna Interactive
6. Nintendo
7. Aksys Games
8. Bethesda Softworks
9. Sega
10. Thunderful

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Take-Two acquires Gearbox

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Embracer Group, the Swedish company that enjoys (well, enjoyed) an acquisition or two, sold Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive for $460 million this month. The sale is the latest move by the megacorp to reduce losses following a rapid expansion strategy that has so far failed to pay off.

Embracer’s other recent cost-cutting measures have included layoffs, project cancellations, divestments and studio closures.

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Sega sells Relic, lays off 240 staff

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Sega also indulged in some cost cutting this month. The Japanese publisher announced plans to divest Relic Entertainment, the makers of Company of Heroes, which will become an independent studio.

Sadly, these cost-cutting measures also include 240 job losses across the wider Sega group. Most of these layoffs will affect our neighbours at Creative Assembly and the Sega Europe office.

Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post said the changes were necessary in order to “secure the future of our games business and to ensure that we are well placed to deliver the best possible experiences to our players going forward.”

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Cloud streaming reviewed

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Streaming games over the internet rather than playing them on a big clunky box is likely to be the future of gaming. But how well does it work right now? The boffins at Digital Foundry took a look recently, comparing PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming with Xbox Cloud Gaming.

You should check out the full article, but the tl;dr is: Sony’s service is comfortably ahead of Microsoft’s, coming out on top in terms of resolution, bitrate, image quality and selection of games. However, Xbox does have the edge when it comes to latency.

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Timberborn marketing case study

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Here’s one for all you game marketers out there. It’s a deep dive into the marketing strategy behind Timberborn, the beaver-based city builder which has sold one million copies in two years of Early Access and is the proud owner of an Overwhelmingly Positive badge for its user reviews on Steam.

Michal Amielanczyk’s case study is a comprehensive look into Timberborn’s marketing, from the game’s alpha release in 2019 to the present day. It’s fascinating. Have a read here.

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Out this month

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March served up a selection of tasty gaming treats.

‍Dragon’s Dogma 2 led the way, the long-awaited follow-up to Capcom’s 2012 open-world RPG. The original game had a reputation for being janky and a bit weird, but that only cemented its appeal amongst its fans.

Happily, the sequel is no less weird, making a virtue of its flaws and wowing the critics in the process.

‍Rise of the Rōnin, Team Ninja’s PS5 exclusive open-world slasher, arrived on the same day as DD2. The consensus is that this is a solid attempt to meld brutal Souls-like combat with Assassin’s Creed-style exploration. 

On the more sedate side of things, we have Princess Peach: Showtime! It’s just the second time that Peach has appeared as the main character in a Nintendo game, after 2005’s Super Princess Peach. Reviews have been good, with critics praising its joyful whimsy.

Speaking of joyful whimsy, a special mention this month goes to Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, which was released on 7 March. It’s warmed the hearts of both critics and fans, who have praised its calm and cosy vibe. We had the great pleasure of producing a video piece for Snufkin featuring composer Oda Tilset and Kjartan Sveinsson from the band Sigur Rós.

The video combined interview and gameplay footage and was shown at the SAVE&SOUND online music festival. We’ve uploaded the whole thing to our LinkedIn page; have a look here.

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Signing off

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And that’s a wrap for this month. Thanks for joining us. We’ll be back in early May (Spring, finally!) with the next edition of MiG. While you wait, why not join us over on X, Instagram or LinkedIn and let us know what caught your eye from the world of gaming this month.