Vampire Survivors developer Poncle has big plans for the future, according to an interview The Game Business conducted with the company's chief strategy officer Matteo Sapio. It's opening two new studios in Japan and Italy and has over 15 games in active development. That's a lot of action for a company primarily known for one franchise. Sapio says the company is developing three basic types of games. There are spinoffs to Vampire Survivors , like this week's deckbuilder Vampire Crawlers . Poncle is also making original IPs and says there are two games set in new universes coming down the pike. Finally, it's working on some roguelites with similar mechanics to Vampire Survivors , but using other IPs. We already know about one of these, a roguelite set in the Warhammer 40K universe called Warhammer Survivors . It's set to land on Steam sometime this year. To assist with these plans, Poncle has developed an engine that can turn pre-existing IPs into games that play like Vampire Survivors . If you're wondering if there are enough fans for multiple top-down roguelites with simple controls and bullet hell mechanics, let me point you to Halls of Torment , Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and Soulstone Survivors , among many others. This has become a popular genre in recent years, likely due to the continued success of Vampire Survivors . To that end, the original game has surpassed 27 million players . Poncle has, however, paused all of its third-party publishing plans after releasing a couple of games last year. "It was a learning experience," Sapio said. "But we found that we weren’t able to give the right support." The company could revisit third-party publishing in the future. This is great news for Poncle and fans of the Vampire Survivors franchise, but there's always risk when a company tries to grow like this. Remember Embracer Group? It went on a massive buying spree beginning in 2019, before having to sell off and close a number of studios . However, this isn't a AAA game development studio. Poncle makes indie titles and the new studios will be lean operations, with "little teams of people." Sapio said this organizational structure will help keep the company "agile and flexible." I personally have high hopes for this endeavor. This is because the just-released spinoff Vampire Crawlers is so very good, which proves to me that Poncle isn't a one-trick pony. It plays like a mix of Slay the Spire with a first-person dungeon crawler like Etrian Odyssey, all while successfully capturing the vibe of Vampire Survivors . If Poncle can keep up this level of quality, gamers could be in for a long-term treat. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/vampire-survivors-developer-poncle-is-opening-more-studios-and-has-over-15-games-in-the-works-174022348.html?src=rss
Meta has introduced a new "live chats" feature to Threads, enabling people on the platform to participate in real-time conversations about live events they’re interested in. Live chats can be hosted within Threads communities, the topic-specific social spaces that Meta introduced last year. The new feature sounds a bit like Threads’ take on Instagram’s broadcast channels, but the latter only allows for one-way messaging. Live chats can be hosted by select creators, including Community Champions — users highly engaged within specific communities — and media personalities. Once a chat is launched or scheduled, the host chooses who is invited to contribute and can then share the link publicly. You can post photos, videos, links and emoji reactions as well as text-based messages. If you’re unable to send messages in a live chat that is at capacity, you can still watch it, react to others messages and vote in polls. Live chats remain open to view after they’ve ended, and you don’t need to be part of a community to join. Meta is debuting its new social feature in the NBAThreads Community during the Playoffs, with Malika Andrews, Rachel Nichols, Trysta Krick, David Rushing and Lexis Mickens named as hosts. Live chats will appear at the top of the NBAThreads Community feed, and can also be shared in a post that might appear on your main feed in Threads. You’ll also see a red ring around a host’s profile photo when they’re live. Meta says live chats will gradually be rolled out to more communities on Threads, with features like co-hosting, lock screen widgets and the ability to quote and share messages from a chat on your feed coming soon. Meta has been steadily expanding its X rival’s features since it launched in 2023. It started small with searchable topics (note: not hashtags) and custom feeds , before rolling out communities last year. It also started testing long-form text posts and just this week gave Threads a long-overdue facelift on web. Back in October, the company announced that its text-based social media platform now has 150 million daily users. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/threads-introduces-live-chats-for-following-live-events-170007658.html?src=rss
A former employee of Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has filed a lawsuit alleging that she faced "intentional infliction of emotional distress" from harassment at the YouTuber's production company, was asked to work during maternity leave, and was wrongfully fired just a few weeks after returning from leave. According to the lawsuit, plaintiff Lorrayne Mavromatis and other […]
