Episode 98: Fighting For the Little Guy… By Stealing Their Ideas (News Show)

Epic Games is under fire for wholesale copying Innersloth’s Among Us for a new Fortnite Mode. Also: the latest on Activision Blizzard, earnings updates (Starbreeze, Remedy, Paradox, Unity, Roblox, Embracer Group), NPD, and more. You can support Virtual Economy’s growth via our Ko-Fi and also purchase Virtual Economy merchandise! TIME STAMPS [00:00:58] - Krafton’s IPO Woes [00:03:31] - App Annie and Sensor Tower Mobile Gaming Reports [00:07:11] - US Senate moves to take on Apple, Google with Open App Markets Act [00:13:13] - Epic Games Store self-publishing enters closed beta [00:13:49] - Fortnite shamelessly rips off Among Us [00:20:26] - People Can Fly has not yet received revenue from Outriders [00:34:46] - Investment Interlude [00:51:07] - Quick Hits [01:09:12] - Activision Blizzard Update [01:18:53] - California DFEH takes aim at Riot Games [01:21:10] - Ubisoft Singapore under investigation for harassment and toxic workplace allegations [01:22:10] - Starbreeze Earnings [01:25:39] - Remedy Earnings [01:28:23] - Unity Earnings [01:31:51] - Paradox Earnings [01:39:51] - Roblox Earnings [01:46:39] - Embracer Group Earnings [01:49:50] - No More Robots celebrates four year anniversary [01:50:58] - NPD report for July 2021 SOURCES Beijing’s tech crackdown casts long shadow over South Korea’s biggest IPO in a decade (South China Morning Post) 2021 Mobile Gaming Tear Down (App Annie) Senators want to rein in Apple and Google’s app store dominance TRUST NOBODY: INTRODUCING FORTNITE IMPOSTORS No entitlement to royalties on the sale of the “Outriders” game for PCF Group S.A. Jesse McCree, Diablo 4 Director No Longer At Activision Blizzard (Kotaku) Activision Blizzard’s contract workers say they’re ‘crushed’ by toxic culture (Polygon) SOC Investment Group takes aim at Activision Blizzard DFEH Files Request for Enforcement of Court Order Compelling Riot Games, Inc. to Send Notice to Workers about their Right to Speak with the Government Ubisoft S'pore under probe over workplace complaints (The Straits Times) Starbreeze Interim Report First Half 2021 Remedy Half-Year Review (January 1 - June 30 2021) Paradox Interim report January - June 2021 Unity FY21 Q2 Roblox FY21 Q2 Investigation: How Roblox is Exploiting Young Game Developers (People Make Games) Roblox "exploiting" young game developers, new investigation reports (Eurogamer) Embracer Group First Quarter FY2022 INVESTMENT INTERLUDE Unity Enters Into Agreement to Acquire Parsec Embracer Group Snaps Up Three More ROBLOX ACQUIRES GUILDED, A PLATFORM TO CONNECT GAMING COMMUNITIES Thunderful Group acquires To The Sky and Tussilago TinyBuild acquires Animal (GamesIndustry) Rovio Entertainment to acquire hyper-casual game studio Ruby Games Sony Pictures Entertainment Announces the Completion of Acquisition of Ellation Holdings, Inc., Operator of the Anime Business Crunchyroll Rolocule Games acquired by Dream Sports Keywords Studios plc Acquisition of AMC RO STUDIO Roblox acqui-hires Jim Greer’s Bash Video platform (GamesBeat) NACON ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF CREA-TURE STUDIOS, MONTREAL BASED VIDEO GAME STUDIO, BEHIND THE SUCCESS OF « SESSION » VR dev XR Games nets $2.1 million to expand team and create new franchises (Gamasutra) Mountaintop raises $30M Series A Israeli startup raises $2m to develop the next-gen academy platform for Esports teams (EuropeanGaming.eu) Kalam Labs raises $450K for its livestreaming platform for educational games (GamesBeat) Seattle-based Starform raises $5 million to scale up ahead of game reveal (Gamasutra) AviaGames raises $40M to diversify gaming Hero Concept received investment from WePlay Ventures with a valuation of 3 Million Dollars