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- Xbox Axes Critically Acclaimed Studio, Creator Royale 2 Update, Switch 2 Announcement?!
Xbox Axes Critically Acclaimed Studio, Creator Royale 2 Update, Switch 2 Announcement?!
Curated news for streamers and content creators
DimTheLights
May 14, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 15 minutes
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Any typos in this email are on purpose actually.
Happy Tuesday Streamers!
How was your weekend?
I spent mine with my wife and mother-in-law enjoying some delicious meals in celebration of Mother’s Day (2x for the U.S. and Mexico dates). It was a lovely time and I was thankful to have the means to gift my amazing wife something for the occasion.
Sadly, life isn’t without its surprises.
The weekend took a turn for the worst when I got some troubling news.
My mom was in the hospital.
That text message made my stomach twist into knots.
I, obviously, did what most men would do in this situation and immediately shut down my emotions and pressed on with my day. I just acknowledged the text, asked for updates, and shot my mom a little message making sure she knew I was thinking of her.
I know, I know. It probably wasn’t the best way to handle things…I’m still working through that.
You see, we’re living in two different states and I last saw her seven months ago when my daughter was born, which had its own challenges and trauma.
It wasn’t easy to receive that news knowing I was so far away and had no immediate means of traveling in the event of an emergency. The situation was out of my control and the only thing I could do was focus on the present and hope that the situation was minor.
Thankfully, it was and she was discharged that same day.
Occasions like Mother’s Day are weird like that. They bring so much joy and can also bring so much pain. Every person’s relationship with their mother is different, but I think we all can relate to the dichotomy of that experience.
To all the incredible moms in our streaming community, I hope your Mother's Day weekend was filled with moments of joy and relaxation.
Whether you're celebrating recent achievements, navigating your own challenges, or reflecting on past memories, remember that your well-being is essential. I hope you took some time for self-care, surrounded by friends and family to uplift and support you.
Keep shining, and know that I’m here cheering you on every step of the way!
Enjoy the rest of the newsletter!
Dim
P.S. I decided to setup a custom domain for the newsletter. I can now be found at news.dimthelights.live!!!
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In This Edition
Just pulled up with the goods
✅Tuesday To-Dos
Every week I bring you🖐️ actionable tasks to help you improve your content. See what’s new this week 👇
🤏🏽Grab - Streamers Connected is taking key requests for Sunny Side, a cozy farming sim set in the Japanese countryside. Request Key
📫Mail - Playtonic Games teased some upcoming news in June. Now is a great time to jump on their Content Creator mailing list to be notified of opportunities. Get On List
🔴Co-Stream - The Wholesome Direct will be broadcast on June 8th. Save the date and sign up to become an official co-streamer. Sign Up
💰Grant - The 1,000 Dreams Fund has opened up the 2024 #BroadcastHER grant intended to financially assist women and femme creators. See Criteria
🤼Feud- Stream Feud, a family feud parody competition hosted by Skeps, is looking for its next contestants! Sign Up
🥇This Week’s Top Stories
Microsoft Shuts Down Multi-Award Winning Studio Behind Hi-Fi Rush
The trend of abrupt studio closures continues, this time affecting Arkane Austin (Dishonored, PREY) and Tango Gameworks (Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within).
Arkane is coming off a less than stellar release in Redfall which promised a lot and did not deliver. Now, I’m not saying Arkane’s closure is justified, but when you take a huge hit like Redfall did, atleast there is some semblance of reasoning. Contrast this with Tango Gameworks who hot dropped Hi-Fi Rush in early 2023 garnering several awards and acclaim despite being a completely original IP.
The closures had the gaming industry as a whole asking, “Why?!”.
Well, according to Head of Xbox Game Studio Matt Booty, Xbox “need(s) smaller games that give us prestige and awards…”. Funny, because…I’m pretty sure that is what Tango Gameworks just accomplished. See Matt’s full statement here.
The rhythm hack-and-slash platformer has a solid 87 on Metacritic and is Overwhelmingly Positive with 23K reviews on Steam. Even Tango Gameworks’ project manager took a dig at Xbox heads decision with a mic drop of a tweet showing off a row of awards with the caption, “Not Enough?”.
via KazuakiEgashira
President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, didn’t offer a better answer. During a recent interview with Bloomberg Tech, her response to why the critically-acclaimed Tango Gameworks is getting shelved felt more like a rambling deflection than a sincere explanation.
Sarah believes the last year in industry growth plateaued and the cost of gaming has continued to skyrocket. These factors, according to Sarah, has resulted in a lack of overall growth for Xbox and other studios / platforms. She’s not wrong here, but it doesn’t quite explain why an award-winning studio pays the price for a stagnant industry. You can watch the full interview.
Just to clarify, my goal here isn’t to hate on Sarah. I was very excited to hear when she was announced as President of Xbox. You can’t possibly blame her for industry wide problems that existed before her tenure.
However, her answers-sorry, her lack of answers indicate that large platforms like Xbox have no plan in place to protect and support smaller game studios EVEN when they manage to hit a homerun.
For now, you can still enjoy Hi-Fi Rush on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Limited Run is also planning to release physical editions.
This is getting depressing y’all.
Nintendo Head Confirms Huge News For The Switch 2
In some lighter news, Nintendo President Furukawa confirms that the Nintendo Switch successor will be announced later in 2024.
He also indicated that he feels very positive about meeting customer demand for the new system referencing a much healthier semi-conductor market than in recent years. The original Switch, Switch Lite, and Switch OLED sold a combined 140 million units. We can safely assume that each Switch owner will be looking to make the upgrade whenever the new console is released.
Despite the fact that we don’t have much more information about this new console, rumors have already sprouted about the hardware specs and the potential of a Breath of the Wild sequel launching with the console. We may get a little teaser in the planned Nintendo Direct presentation slated for June 2024.
Until then, I’ll just be daydreaming about the successor to the Nintendo Switch.
Applications for Unity Guild Leader positions are now open. While this is a paid role, it does not constitute employment. Guild Application Form
Twitchcon San Diego content submissions have officially closed.
Twitch Community Meetups in New York and Raleigh are coming up on the 18th. See Tweet
YouTube CEO, Neal Mohan, makes the case for creators to be considered for Emmy awards in a guest post on the Hollywood Reporter. Read Article
This year’s YouTube Brandcast will be live on May 15th 6pm EST/3pm PST featuring new performers, creators and content you really don’t want to miss. Go To Site
🎙️ Creator News
The Asian American Drug Abuse Program (AADAP) is partnering with streamers in the month of May to raise funds and awareness about drug abuse and mental health in the AAPI community. The event will feature jericojplays, Stephabues, AsanmoTTV, amanduhhconda, Vincent25275874, banh_mami, _uwujenny, and fortun__cookie
Katliente’s Creator Royale 2 is in full swing. In a recent VOD, she states that she received 559 entries which is over 100 more than last year. She plans on reviewing all submissions over a three-day period. See Day 1 Entries | See Day 2 Entries
Free2Luv and MTV are teaming up with several prominent creators from several Twitch Guilds including Positiff, Jupieverse, Nikkigames11, AlasElizabeth, QueenManda, Thormungandr, and Andrea Brogunier to foster mental health wellness. See Announcement
By the time you read this, Kai Cenat should be hitting the 90-hour mark in his Elden Ring marathon. He has an average of 80K viewers and is close to reaching 100K subscribers during the event. See the announcement trailer here
Creators for Palestine has raised +400K for Palestine Children’s Relief Fund with the support of Hasanabi, Stanzi, Eddy Burbank, and over 100 other creators. See Donation Page
After amassing over 7 million followers on YouTube and deleting all his content to pivot toward more religious content, JiDion gets unbanned on Twitch. See Announcement
🔴Streaming News
Creators can sign up for the TikTok LIVE Gaming Club Program to earn a Gaming Live Pro Badge. Sign Up
Substack is looking for 10 video creators to join its new Creator Studio program in a bid to attract more creators to its platform. Read FAQs and Apply
AniLive a mobile streaming app exclusive to the anime and vtuber communities is in Open Alpha. Learn more and Sign Up
Critical Role announced the launch of its new streaming service, Beacon, last Thursday with a new video. See Video
NetChoice, an advocacy group that has backed TikTok in various legal challenges, has dropped the platform from its member list following criticism from Congressional leaders. Read Article
🎮 Gaming News
Legendary is bringing Poppy Playtime to the big screen. See Announcement
If you’re itching to play Dragon Ball Sparking Zero, this Roblox Dragon Ball fighter is getting lots of buzz. Watch Goku v Vegeta Gameplay
Someone made a custom Helldivers 2 cape cosmetic representing the sharp increase in positive Steam reviews after Sony backed down on their decision to force players to link a PSN account. See Cosmetic 😂
The Dead By Daylight Twitter account pays respects to Zoey Alexandria, the voice actress for The Unknown, who recently passed away at age 29 due to autoimmune disease complications. See Message
Screenbound is an innovative platformer challenging players to complete levels in 2D and 3D space simultaneously. See Video
The next Assassin’s Creed game, now confirmed to be subtitled Shadows, will premiere a cinematic trailer on May 15th. See Announcement
🥳You Made It To The End!🥳
Have A Cookie
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Thank you so much for reading and I hope to see you next week!
-Dim
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