Gaming
Rovio’s Shares Crash 19% After Post-IPO Earnings

The good news just doesn’t stop raining on us, do they? Do you remember the days where one of Rovio’s executives talked about how Console Gaming is dead? I do so very fondly because today, the tables have turned against them and, plot twist: Rovio is dying and bleeding money. Strap yourselves in, folks, this one has a lot of mockery.
Almost two months after its IPO, Angry Birds maker, Rovio Entertainment today learned a painful lesson about life as a public company when investors battered its stock following an earnings report that failed to meet expectations.
The company that dared to call their asinine property the “Next Super Mario Bros.” missed on both profits and sales. Taking Rovio’s stock down 18.87 percent in mid-day trading on the Helsinki exchange, dipping below its IPO price.
The supposed cause of all of this according to Rovio is increased spending on users for denting profits for the three months ending in September.
“In line with our growth strategy, we significantly increased our investments in user acquisition, which predictably led to a decline in profitability,” said Rovio CEO Kati Levoranta, in a statement. “Rovio’s successful listing on the Helsinki stock exchange at the end of September was evidence of the strong interest in our growth strategy, also in the capital markets.”
This doesn’t mean the end of Rovio, though. They can still make a comeback from the dipping numbers according to VentureBeat. Since the revenues they have acquired rose by 41.2% in this quarter, although this is still less than analysts had projected before.
Let’s not forget, ladies and gentlemen, that Rovio had already sold their animation studio and book publishing business. The gaming division still aims to have good results, but hopefully, Rovio will learn a lesson in humility before being smug and declaring anything. If we’ve learned something from the game industry, it’s that its very, very unpredictable.
Gaming
As Disney Speedstorm Ends, Arendelle Hits PS5, PS4

Disney Speedstorm, Gameloft’s free-to-play kart racer, will enter its latest season with a wintery backdrop of Arendelle. Let It Go will add Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Hans as racers. As always, they’ll have unique moves and abilities.
Oaken and other musical movie crew members will be unlocked, along with a new Golden Pass. After fan feedback, the developer is rebalancing this aspect of the release so you can progress faster and unlock more rewards.
The developer also announced on Twitter that it’s lowering in-game shop prices starting today, and if you’ve paid for microtransactions, you’ll get a big payout. The French studio appears to be betting on this season’s success.
Adding non-Frozen characters Oswald, Ortensia, and WALL-E could also help. A comprehensive game update should bring back lapsed players and attract new ones. Will you challenge the kart racer?
Gaming
New Destiny 2 Microtransaction Is Bad Bungie Removed It from PS5, PS4

Bungie has pulled a contentious $15 starter pack from Season of the Wish, which launched yesterday. The pack had a poor selection and was marketed to new players, which the community strongly opposed.
The starter pack proudly stated that players could “experience the power of build-defining Exotic weapons by instantly unlocking three of Destiny 2’s finest: Traveler’s Chosen, Ruinous Effigy, and Sleeper Simulant.” An exotic ship, a sparrow, a ghost shell, 125,000 glimmer, 50 enhancement cores, five enhancement prisms, and one ascendant shard are also included.
This offering may seem harmless to a new player, but Forbes’ Paul Tassi says, “You sort of have to be a Destiny 2 player to understand what an outrageously bad deal this is.” The Forsaken Pack, another Bungie release, includes two dozen Exotics, a dungeon, and a raid. It cost $20 and is now $5. It looks bad, from what we can tell.
Guardians retaliated with negative Steam reviews. They orchestrated the DLC page to include “Capitalism,” “Crime,” and “Psychological Horror” user tags, which is funny.
After Bungie pulled the pack, Redditor Grizz3d summarized the community response: “I don’t get how that starter pack was approved. What part of stealing from new players wasn’t going to result in community outrage? Bungie’s disconnect with players is shocking. I’m glad you got rid of the pack, but it’s disappointing that Bungie thought it was a good idea.”
This follows the Witcher 3 crossover armour sets, which look great but are expensive. Sony’s independent live service outpost is in danger due to a delayed expansion and studio layoffs.
Gaming
PlayStation planted over 500,000 trees last year

Sony announced last year that it would plant trees for Horizon Forbidden West PlayStation fans who unlocked a simple trophy in the open-world game. This, in partnership with several charities, sought to protect the global environment and biodiversity.
Over a year later, it released a trailer showing its progress. The company has planted 600,000 trees worldwide, restoring 1,800 acres. More importantly, the gaming industry has planted 2.5 million trees worldwide.
Gaming is fun, but we must protect our world. Sony has taken steps to be more environmentally friendly, such as adding energy-saving features to the PS5 and shipping all its products in fully recyclable packaging.
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