Sports Gamers Online reports that Yuke staffer Bryan Williams has decided to drop the ongoing AEW: Fight Forever project in favor of a move to WWE 2K.

Williams was previously senior game designer for THQ when they had a working relationship with Yuke’s and managed WWE video games. Now, the designer has chosen to leave Yuke behind and return to the WWE fold as part of the 2K team.

It’s worth noting that Williams helped redevelop the authoring suite that 2K currently uses in its games. This, of course, has expanded to become “Community Creations”, and it’s one of the most popular aspects of the entire WWE 2K franchise.

Bryan would start working for 2K later this month.

WWE 2K22 was touted as a major hit for the much-maligned 2K. Their previous effort, WWE 2K20, received scathing reviews and was derided for game-breaking bugs. In contrast, 2K22’s release was silky smooth.

AEW’s own game, subtitled “Fight Forever”, still doesn’t have a specific release date. Recent footage from the game, however, showed some improvements to character models, live mobs, and mid-match animations.

The latest entry to a crowded market is being shipped to customers and retailers.

HyperX, the gaming peripherals team of HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced delivery of the HyperX Clutch Wireless Gamepad. The HyperX Clutch Wireless Controller features a familiar standard full-size controller layout, comfortable ergonomic design, and textured controller grips to provide enhanced controls for mobile gaming. HyperX Clutch is compatible with controller games on Android mobile devices and PC.

The HyperX Clutch Controller delivers a comfortable gaming experience with textured controller grips and an ergonomic design that feels more comfortable than holding a phone. The HyperX Clutch Wireless Gamepad allows users to switch between PC and Android mobile devices with wireless support for Android mobile devices via Bluetooth1 4.2 or PC 2.4GHz wireless receiver. A USB-C to USB-A cable is included as a wired PC connection for gaming, allowing users to fully enjoy cloud gaming through multiple devices.

“We strive to make durable and affordable products that enhance the gaming experience,” said Bianca Walter, HyperX EMEA Sales Manager. “The new HyperX Clutch Wireless Controller features an ergonomic design that improves gaming comfort for gamers playing on multiple platforms.”

The HyperX Clutch Wireless Controller uses a standard controller layout and provides additional Turbo and Clear buttons for a competitive edge. It includes a convertible phone clip that can function either as a tabletop tool for tablets and phones, or to securely fit phones from 41mm to 86mm. It has a built-in 600mAh rechargeable battery that provides up to 19 hours of playtime2 on a single charge for longer gaming sessions.

Availablity

The HyperX Clutch Wireless Gamepad is now available in EMEA for $59.99/£49.99 MSRP. For more information, please visit the HyperX Clutch Wireless Gamepad product page.

Due to the current COVID-19 situation, HyperX may experience shipment and delivery delays. HyperX takes every possible step to work with partners to minimize the impact on its customers and to ensure product availability and prompt delivery.

HyperX Clutch Wireless Gamepad Specifications:

Part number 516L8AA

Controller Specifications

Connection type 2.4 GHz wireless / Bluetooth / wired

Android, PC compatibility

Battery Specifications

Battery life Up to 19 hours2

Battery capacity 600mAh

Physical specifications

Length 110.3mm3

Height 75.1mm3

Width 155.6mm

Movable clip dimensions 41mm – 86mm

Weight (without cable) 270g3

Cable type and length Detachable USB-C cable, 2.95 m

1 Bluetooth is a registered trademark owned by its proprietor and used by HP Inc. licensed

2 Actual battery life varies with use and naturally decreases with time and use.

3 With the phone clip installed

About HyperX

For 19 years, HyperX’s mission has been to develop gaming solutions for every type of gamer and the company is consistently recognized for providing products that provide superior comfort, aesthetics, performance and reliability. Under the slogan “WE ARE ALL GAMERS”, HyperX gaming headsets, keyboards, mice, USB microphones and console accessories are the choice of everyday gamers as well as celebrity ambassadors, pro gamers, tech enthusiasts and overclockers around the world because they meet the toughest product specifications and are built with best-in-class components. For more information, visit www.hyperxgaming.com.

On HP Inc.

HP Inc. is a technology company that believes that a thoughtful idea has the power to change the world. Its product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions helps bring these ideas to life. Visit http://www.hp.com.

HyperX can be found at:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/hyperx

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hyperxcommunity

Twitter: http://twitter.com/hyperx

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hyperx

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperx

BITKRAFT Venturesinteractive galaxy, Lilith Games and Gaingels join the development of a cloud-native technology MMO and sandbox game, led by Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg.

Playable worlds

Playable Worlds announced today that it has obtained over $25 million in a Series B funding, led by a Korean video game publisher Kakao Games Corp.a subsidiary of Kakao, and with the participation of returning investors BITKRAFT Ventures and Galaxy Interactive. New investors Lilith Games and Gaingels also joined the tour, which follows a $10 million Series A in 2020. This strategic investment will be used to boost Playable Worlds’ talent recruitment and fund its cloud-native sandbox MMO game currently in development.

“We have proven the fundamental technology and continue to work on our game production, with the goal of revealing our IP soon,” said Raph Koster, CEO and co-founder of Playable Worlds. “While we’re not ready to lift the curtains yet, this funding round will help us get closer to sharing with potential players, with a focus on delivering a more meaningful experience comprised of rich simulations, fully persistent online worlds and deeper social mechanics.

Playable Worlds was co-founded by industry veterans Raph Koster, repeat entrepreneur and designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies; and Eric Goldberg, four-time entrepreneur and designer of MadMaze, the first online game to attract one million players. The company is actively recruiting to join its high-calibre team, and various positions are currently open for applications at: playableworlds.com/jobs

“Cloud-native online games lead to multiverses of online worlds,” explained the president and co-founder, Eric Goldberg. “And these lead to metaverses when they are finally connected to the real world.” Cloud computing now allows us to create both more powerful sandboxed MMO games and multiverses of connected experiences.

“We are making investments that will fuel innovations in MMO games and bring new concepts to life,” said Kakao Games CEO, Kyehyun Cho. “The technology stack that Playable Worlds has implemented and proven so far has significantly influenced investment and will certainly play a role in the development of the metaverse.” The caliber of the team behind Raph and Eric finally sealed the deal, and we’re confident in their ability to execute.

Lilith Games is a global mobile game developer and publisher that has been actively growing into the metaverse since 2018. Gaingels is a syndicate of private investors dedicated to supporting diversity and inclusion in the venture capital ecosystem.

You can find resources for playable worlds here.

To learn more about the playability of these worlds and if this is truly an MMO game for the rest of us*, visit www.playableworlds.com and follow us on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn.

*We can neither confirm nor deny the rumor that we are building a game for the rest of us. We’re not sure about Elon. And maybe not Mark.

About playable worlds

Playable Worlds, Inc. is a multiverse company creating immersive worlds with diverse player experiences, social integration and higher retention, based on San Marcos, California. Founded in 2018 by online gaming veterans Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg, Playable Worlds creates cloud-native online worlds by combining proprietary technology with expertise in service operations, community building and online game design. For more information, visit playableworlds.com.

On Kakao Games Corp.

Founded in 2016, Kakao Games is a leading publisher of online and mobile games, responsible for releasing titles such as Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert Online (served in North America and Europe until early 2021), from Krafton PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (maintained in Korea), Kong Studios’ Guardian Tales (served in North America, Europe, Latin America and Oceania), Moonlight Sculptor (maintained in North America and Europe) MMORPG Elyon (maintained in North America, Europe and Oceania) and ArcheAge (served in North America and Europe).

Media Contact

press@playableworlds.com

TriplePoint, on behalf of Playable Worlds

playableworlds@triplepointpr.com

Reading time: 5 minutes

• At the top of the rich list is Borderland chairman ‘Handsome Jack’ with an equally handsome salary of £333,043 a year.
• Super Mario ranks among the lowest paid, earning £32,895 a year on a typical plumber’s salary in Italy.
• Pac-Man earns the lowest salary of any character as a security guard in Japan, bringing in just £15,916 a year.

From Super Mario to Lara Croft, have you ever wondered where your favorite video game protagonists and villains would rank in the real job market?

Online gaming platform Solitaired took a look at some of the world’s most iconic video game characters and calculated how much each would earn if they landed their dream job in the real world. They based character earnings on data from salary comparison sites as well as publicly available pay brackets to find an average annual salary for more than 50 video game characters.

Top earnings from video games

1. Handsome Jack, Borderlands 2

At the forefront is Borderland’s narcissistic villain Handsome Jack, who would take home £333,043 a year as CEO of a company. While Hyperion Corp has thankfully not been founded yet, it seems only fitting that as the fictional president of an intergalactic weapons manufacturer and supplier, Jack walks away with such a huge salary.

2. Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid

In second place is Metal Gear Solid’s eye patch wearing Solid Snake, who would earn an impressive £107,517 a year as a US Army Special Forces soldier. Snake, who boasts an impressive military career, was first inducted into the Green Berets during his teenage years before later joining Big Boss’s special forces unit, FOXHOUND, meaning he would be paid substantially for his specialized skills acquired.

3. Albert Wesker, Resident Evil

In third place is Resident Evil’s Albert Wesker, who reportedly earns a salary of £90,519 a year as a virologist. Graduating at age 17 with a doctorate in virology, Wesker began his training at Umbrella Pharmaceuticals and was later transferred to the Arklay laboratory as a senior researcher working on the t-Virus project, following the dissolution of his training school.

4. Alex Mason, Call of Duty

In fourth place is Call of Duty veteran and fan favorite Alex Mason. Mason is unlikely to struggle to remember those numbers, as he racks up an impressive £82,317 a year as an intelligence analyst for the CIA. Mason, who makes his first appearance as a main playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops, joined the CIA’s Operation 40 team in 1958 and continued to perform several missions for the CIA despite his imprisonment and his brainwashing in Vorkuta.

5. Max Payne, Max Payne

In fifth place is titular action avenger Max Payne, who reportedly earns £75,922 a year as a police detective in New York. Payne began his law enforcement career in the 1990s, working for the NYPD as a detective before joining fellow DEA Alex Balder in the Valkyr drug case, following the brutal murder of his wife and of his daughter in 1998.

The 20 highest earning video game characters

Rank	video game character	Video game	Job/Occupation	Annual salary (£)	Annual salary ($)
1.	Handsome Jack	Borderlands 2	CEO	£333,043	$432,524
2.	solid snake	Solid metal gear	special forces soldier	£107,517	$139,632
3.	Albert Wester	resident Evil	Virologist	£90,519	$117,557
4.	Alexander Mason	Call of Duty	CIA officer	£82,317	$106,905
5.	Max Payne	Max Payne	NYPD detective	£75,922	$98,600
6.	Cole Phelps	The black	LAPD Detective	£71,846	$93,306
7.	Gordon Freeman	half-life	Research associate scientist	£70,145	$91,097
8.	Arthur Morgan	Red Dead Redemption 2	Bounty hunter	£69,750	$90,585
9.	gothic mortimer	The Sims	Scientific	£69,076	$89,709
ten.	isaac clark	dead space	Engineer	£64,859	$84,232
11.	Duke Nukem	Duke Nukem	CIA Special Agent	£62,837	$81,607
12.	CJ Johnson	grand theft auto san andreas	Entrepreneur	£59,626	$77,436
13.	bella gothic	The Sims	intelligence researcher	£58,363	$75,796
14.	Michael DeSanta	Grand Theft Auto V	Film producer	£54,563	$70,861
15.	Leon Kennedy	resident Evil	Police officer	£54,113	$70,276
16.	homer simpson	Simpson Hit and Run	Nuclear Technician	£53,629	$69,648
17.	master chef	Halo	Master Chief Petty Officer	£53,491	$69,469
18.	doom killer	Loss	Marine Artillery Master Sergeant	£53,490	$69,468
19.	Sam Fisher	Burst cell	Navy Seal	£48,729	$63,284
20.	Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine	resident Evil	SWAT team member	£48,158	$62,543

Lowest earning video games

1. Pac-Man, Pac-Man

At the bottom of the list, Pac-Man takes the lowest earning spot, earning just £15,916 a year as a security guard in Japan – where the character got his start. While the creators don’t make it clear that Pac-Man has a job on its own, the role seems fitting given that Namco’s classic shows the yellow sprite navigating mazes trying to get rid of unwanted ghostly intruders.

2. Link, The Legend of Zelda

Second from bottom is Legend of Zelda hero and protagonist Link, who would earn just £19,661 a year as a knight – if the job were to still exist. A knight was paid an average of two shillings a day during the 1200s, meaning Link would take home just over £19,000 when factoring in currency conversions and rising inflation.

3. Cloud Strife, Final Fantasy VII

The third lowest earner is Cloud Strife from the Final Fantasy series who is said to earn £19,964 a year as a Private First Class in the US Army. Cloud failed to join SOLDIER, becoming a Shinra infantryman instead, thus justifying our sword fighter’s lower pay bracket.

4. Desmond Miles, Assassin’s Creed

As the fourth-lowest earner on the list, Assassin’s Creed main character Desmond Miles is said to earn just £21,408 a year as a bartender in New York. Desmond, who is descended from a long line of assassins, used his training to hitchhike to New York, where he worked as a bartender at Bad Weather before his eventual capture.

5. Ryu, street fighter

Fifth from the bottom is the main character of the Street Fighter series, Ryu, who would make just £21,723 as a martial arts instructor in Japan. Ryu made his first appearance in Capcom’s original Street Fighter game in 1987, and while his name roughly translates to “abundant” in Japanese, the same can’t be said for his expected salary.

The 20 lowest paid video game characters

Rank	video game character	Video game	Job/Occupation	Annual salary (£)	Annual salary ($)
1	Pac man	Pac man	Security guard	£15,916	$20,670
2	Link	The Legend of Zelda	Knight	£19,661	$25,533
3	cloud conflict	Final Fantasy	private first class	£19,964	$25,927
4	Miles Desmond	Assassin’s Creed	Bartender	£21,408	$27,802
5	Ryu	street fighter	martial arts instructor	£21,723	$28,212
6	Marcus Fenix	armament of war	army sergeant	£24,119	$31,324
7	Don Lothaire	The Sims	Medical intern	£24,784	$32,187
8	Geralt of Rivia	the witcher	pest controller	£24,906	$32,345
9	Niko Bellic	Grand Theft Auto IV	Taxi driver	£25,521	$33,144
ten	Flash	Final Fantasy	Security guard	£29,084	$37,771
11	Crash Bandicoot	Crash Bandicoot	Bodyguard	£29,670	$38,533
12	John Marston	Red Dead Redemption	Rancher	£32,770	$42,559
13	mario	Super Mario Bros.	Plumber	£32,895	$42,721
14	Tom Nook	animal crossing	Real estate agent	£33,812	$43,912
15	Isabella	animal crossing	secretary	£34,071	$44,248
16	Freddy Fazbear	Five nights at Freddy’s	Mascot	£35,078	$45,556
17	Captain John ‘Soap’ MacTavish	Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare	army sergeant	£35,953	$46,692
18	Booker DeWitt	Bioshock Infinite	Private detective	£36,000	$46,753
19	spyro	Spyro the Dragon	Jeweler	£36,516	$47,424
20	sonic the hedgehog	sonic the hedgehog	professional athlete	£36,592	$47,522

Honorable mentions

Some character wins meant they ranked elsewhere on the list, but some are so iconic it would be a shame to miss them altogether.

Given Super Mario’s Of Italian descent, he is said to earn a salary of £32,895 working as a plumber in Italy, ranking him 41^st in the list. Elsewhere in Europe, the female lead of Tomb Raider Lara Croft rows 27^andearning a salary of £41,998 as a British archaeologist.

While sonic the hedgehog is not currently looking for a job, due to his ability to run at supersonic speeds it is only fitting that he earns a salary of £36,592 as a professional athlete. Though he might have to wait a few years before he can win, as the creators suggest he’s only 15.

Pokemon Pikachu would be perfectly suited for detective work given his latest film role, earning him £37,282 a year – although given his elemental type he would also make an excellent electrician. His trainer and best friend, Ash Ketchumwould only top Pikachu’s earnings, earning £41,327 as a researcher for Professor Cherry.

Related

Fortis, a new global developer and publisher of video games 100% owned by the American casino operator Las Vegas Sands, has acquired the Romanian studio Metagame. The transaction is part of Fortis’ strategy to strengthen its team through acquisitions and hires globally.

The company announced that it had recently acquired three development teams: Doppio Games (Portugal), Oktagon Games (Brazil) and Metagame (Romania). He did not disclose the value of these transactions.

Metagame was founded in 2016 by Dan Teodorescu and Daniel Nay, together with artist Radu Pop and recorded a turnover of nearly 500,000 euros in 2020, according to the latest public data available.

“Our view is that we are at the start of a massive new opportunity for games to have their greatest and most positive impact on global culture and the human experience,” said Steven Chiang, co- founder and chairman of Fortis.

“Fortis’ mission is to create worlds that matter, that are deeply social, across different platforms and genres, and to help build meaningful relationships and healthy communities through games. We have the financial support and l long-term commitment, an experienced management team and the talent of a rapidly growing global team to achieve our vision.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the company)