I’d tut tut on the infinite, rapacious pursuit of wealth for its personal sake that defines our society, however on the finish of the day, I nonetheless wish to know who’s making the large bucks and picture what I would do with them, child. Fortunately, The Sunday Occasions has simply come out with its Wealthy Checklist of the 30 wealthiest figures within the UK video games business.
On the prime of the listing are Igor and Dmitry Bukhman, whose names, video games, and studio I had by no means heard of earlier than beholding this very listing. The brothers based and personal Playrix, a 4,000 person-strong developer of free-to-play cellular video games, with their most notable releases being Township, Fishdom, Homescapes, and Gardenscapes. I assume I am completely happy for them and their eye-watering £12.5 billion fortune.
Previous a metaverse man and the founding father of Sweet Crush developer King, now the oft-forgotten third pillar of Activision Blizzard King, you may run into some wealthy guys extra PC avid gamers will acknowledge: Dan and Sam Houser, who lay declare to an estimated £350 million fortune. Co-founders of the area of interest indie developer, Rockstar Video games, their fortune was constructed on income from Rockstar’s breakout hits: The Warriors in 2005 and Bully in 2006. These video games’ runaway success have allowed Rockstar to take pleasure in much less profitable ardour initiatives like Grand Theft Auto and Crimson Useless Redemption.
The most important shock, no less than for me, is #6 on the listing: Garry’s Mod’s titular creator, Garry Newman. I assume it should not be a shocker. Garry’s Mod is a ubiquitous presence in PC gaming, and regardless of the title, it is a $10 standalone recreation. Newman’s Facepunch Studios can also be behind the extremely profitable Rust, and his deep pockets have me a lot much less nervous about Newman’s imminent Skibidi Bathroom-related authorized battles.
There’s loads to dig into with the 30-person listing: PewDiePie remains to be wealthy as hell, imagine it or not, and I positively felt my coronary heart heat on the sight of Luca Galante, founding father of poncle and creator of Vampire Survivors, at #26. It’s kind of of a bummer and never precisely shocking that there are solely three ladies on the listing, however I do not know if “extra ladies within the UK video games business 1%” ought to turn out to be our subsequent rallying cry for gender equality within the passion. One factor we will all agree on although: The individuals I actually like and admire on the listing like Galante and Newman are simply cool guys with expertise who additionally acquired fortunate, and the remainder of them ought to be paying extra taxes.
