Happy Belated Canada Day!!!

Image by starline on Freepik

 

We at Chalgyr Games Room hope that your Canada Day celebrations were as awesome as our Canadian reviewers and news editor's were. So much so, that we were late in posting our Happy Canada Day wishes!

With that in mind, we thought we'd do something different this year. Below is a small collection of some great Canadian Video Games and Studios to check out. Starting with a couple of indie companies, we went looking for titles that might interest our audience. Of course, this is not a complete list, but it has awesome games to play if you haven't dipped your toes into the great white north!

Indie Studios

- Max Inferno studios is based out of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is comprised of two people Annie Macmillan and Lukas Steinman who wanted to make unique games from GMTKJam 2020. While they only have one title to their name, A Little to the Left, I'm sure we'll see more interesting and creative works moving forwards. https://www.maxinferno.com

- One of our favourite game studios is called Capybara Games. An award winning studio based in Toronto, Canada, they are known for some unique titles that can be played on a variety of platforms like PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo. Some of these titles include Battle Vision Network, Grindstone, Don't Starve: Shipwrecked, and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes!  

- Based in Toronto Ontario is Massive Damage Games who has a motto of "Indie Spirit with Big Vision." The team consists of indie all stars and AAA veterans alike to build innovative games. Currently, the team has three titles beginning with an upcoming RPG titled Fera: The Sundered Tribes. If you're looking for a different style of RPG, look no further than a tactical roguelite one called Star Renegades, or perhaps a strategy RPG with base building elements is more your speed. If so, check out Halcyon6. All three titles are available on Steam! 

- This list wouldn't be complete without Phoenix Labs, who has studios in both Vancouver, British Columbia and Montreal, Quebec. This company may be a familiar name because it has a couple of titles that we personally have played. Those titles are Faefarm and Dauntless! While Faefarm is a cozy farming sim that can be played solo or cooperatively (up to four players), Dauntless is a monster hunter style of game that is completely free to play. 

Larger Studios

- BeHaviour Interactive was founded in 1992 and has become one of Canada's largest independent game developer/publisher. Their studios are located in a variety of locations but the ones in Canada are in Montreal, Quebec and Toronto, Ontario. You may know them because of their hit game Dead by Daylight which has more than 60 million players across all platforms. Take a look at their website here to see what else they have to play. 

- Vancouver, British Columbia has another large studio that goes by the name of Klei Entertainment. Sound familiar? It should! They are the developers responsible for titles like Don't Starve, Griftlands, and Oxygen Not Included. These hit games are well received in the indie gaming scene. I, for one, love Oxygen Not Included even if I'm terrible at it. Check them out on Steam since Klei is having an epic Publisher Sale RIGHT NOW! 

- The final studio on this short list of Canadian Developers is none other than Digital Extremes based out of London, Ontario. You may know them because they are the ones responsible for the hit free to play looter shooter Warframe. It is a game that persisted over many years and it keeps improving as time continues. I'm personally a Volt Prime main, but there are lots of other frames to try and places to explore. Don't miss out on all the epic content. Besides, you can't lose given that the game is free to play! Check out Warframe on Steam today. 

Article by Susan N. and Valerie.

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Jaggy's Corner - January 31st, 2020

Welcome back to Jaggy's Corner which is my weekly post about the gaming industry for both its good and bad things. I know that a lot of gamers will agree that 2019 was abysmal at best, with multiple issues like the President of the United States blaming video games for violence, Blizzard banning a couple of people because of anti-Chinese statements made during a tournament broadcast, and the train wreck launch of Anthem. Let's not forget about the giant expose done on Riot Games and sexism in the industry (which went to court. This led to women workers receiving a payout that seemed too low, in my opinion. Recently, new information has come to light about that court case against Riot and I'll address it in another article.)

This week I'd like to talk about something that crossed my purview a couple of days ago. On January 29th, Phoenix Labs was acquired by Garena, a Singapore based company that is known for League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Free Fire, and PUBG Lite. Their specialty is mobile gaming.

The question on everyone's mind is: why did it happen? Especially considering that Dauntless, the free to play Monster Hunter game, is distributed by Epic Games. But, when I looked further into the topic, I discovered that this business deal makes a lot of sense.

Let's first start with Phoenix Labs, the Canadian developers of Dauntless. Based on a public statement made by the CEO, Jesse Houston wanted to bring their game into the hands of every player. Presumably, this is part of the reason they made a deal with Epic Games in the first place. In fact, that isn't speculation, what I just said is a fact. Right from the horses' mouth, Jesse Houston talked to gameindustry.biz at GDC last year about their partnership with Epic.

"I've had this vision for Dauntless since the get-go, of One Dauntless [the game's single account system across all platforms]," he says. "Wherever you are, whoever you want to play with, whatever device you want to play on, you can. This was even before Epic started doing the cross-platform play stuff. So Epic said they were doing cross-platform play and offered to teach us the ropes."

Another point to consider is that in early 2019 Phoenix Labs acquired Bot School Inc. This was done to help Dauntless get into the hands of as many players since they have experience with social networking (near as I can find). So far, Phoenix Labs have stayed true to their vision. As a result of the deals with Bot School Inc. and Epic Games, Dauntless has reached over 15 million players.

The logical next step for Phoenix Labs would be to expand into mobile gaming like other companies before. (Notably, Blizzard and ArenaNet in recent memory.) The mobile market is exactly the area that Phoenix Labs wants to expand into and Garena can provide their expertise. Plus, Garena has worked with Phoenix Labs before this partnership ever took place so, it was a no-brainer.

Garena is a digital entertainment company and one of the largest forces for gaming in Southeast Asia. More importantly, they are one of our longest-running investors – one that we’ve considered a close partner for years. - Source: Jesse Houston

Now, for those of us that have done some digging into Garena, another reason for this partnership might spring into focus. It's not just an investment and marketing deal, it also has to do with Tencent. (I know, I know, but it makes a lot of sense in the long run. Just stick with me here...)

In November of 2018, Tencent entered a partnership with Garena. Part of the reason this was done was most likely because China imposed restrictions on video games because of the rise in myopia. For those unaware, myopia is the medical term for near-sightedness in people under the age of 40. In China, more than half of the population is affected by this condition. Because the numbers have risen so high, the Chinese government had to do something. So, they imposed massive restrictions (like requiring players to enter their age so that the game would begin a time limit) that were high enough to stop many companies from being granted videogame licenses.

Up until that point, Tencent was making huge profits and when the restrictions were imposed sometime in 2018, Tencent for the first time in years was losing out. (There were other reasons for this, but no need to get into that right now.) The only way they could continue to be successful was to distribute their games in other countries without these restrictions. Thus, Garena and Tencent entered a partnership in November of 2018 like I previously mentioned.

Now, China has since lifted some of its restrictions on game licenses, so it stands to reason that Tencent is will be fine. But, what I can say is that Garena will be able to put Dauntless in the hands of a larger customer base because of its proven track record.

Remember the statement above where Jesse Houston said that he wanted to bring the game to everyone? Well, this is exactly how his goal will be achieved.

I remain optimistic that Garena and Phoenix Labs will continue to bring the free to play monster hunter game the best player experience. Though players might discover more free to play business models, like the relatively recent addition of a season pass and microtransactions. So long as the developers keep away from highly predatory practices like loot boxes, then I am not worried about the current future of Dauntless.

I'm sure many people aren't going to be happy with the news with Phoenix Labs and Garena, but hopefully, this article has put things into perspective.

As a slight sidestep, if I could offer up another piece of information that might help to ease the minds of what sort of company Tencent is, they have donated $432 million USD to the Hubei and Wuhan provinces to aid in the current chaos surrounding the coronavirus. But ultimately, you guys decide for yourselves how you feel about the acquisition of Phoenix Labs by Garena.

Article by: Susan N.

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