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113-413: Garena is a Singaporean game developer and publisher of free online games. It is the digital entertainment arm of parent company Sea Ltd , which formerly used Garena as the parent company name. The company distributes game titles on Garena+ in various countries across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, including the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth ,

226-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

339-701: A bodiless member of the Devil race who utilizes rare anti-magic. Afterward, he and Yuno each join a Magic Knight squad as the first step to fulfill their ambitions. Asta joins the Black Bulls under Yami Sukehiro alongside Noelle Silva , while Yuno becomes a member of the Golden Dawn. They embark on various adventures while contending with an extremist group called the Eye of the Midnight Sun, whose leadership

452-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

565-498: A diverse cast of archetypical characters with opposing attributes. He modeled the characters Asta and Charmy Pappitson after himself and his wife respectively. He admitted in the manga's fourth volume that Charmy was his favorite character to draw. He chose names for characters by looking up words he found interesting in dictionaries of various languages. He found that an important aspect of character design in Black Clover

678-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

791-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

904-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1017-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

1130-769: A more realistic map and exclusive content not available in the original version. The connectivity between Free Fire and Free Fire Max is facilitated by Garena’s proprietary technology, Firelink, which ensures full interoperability between both game versions. By 2023, Sea reported it had stabilized the Garena's business performance and maintained steady demand for Free Fire , which achieved a peak of over 100 million daily active users in February 2024. In 2023, Garena announced plans to publish Undawn , an open-world zombie survival game, across Southeast Asia. The company also began releasing another mobile game, Black Clover Mobile , based on

1243-591: A partnership with the Esports World Cup (EWC) Foundation, leading to Free Fire's inclusion as a competition title at the inaugural EWC, scheduled to occur in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in July 2024. On February 3, 2015, Garena eSports announced restrictions on the participation of gay and transgender individuals in an all-female League of Legends tournament, citing concerns about an "unfair advantage." This decision

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1356-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

1469-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

1582-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

1695-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

1808-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

1921-609: A women's League of Legends tournament in the Philippines . It is a monthly event organized in the second half of each month. It aims to encourage participation by under-represented groups and is open to all those who self-identify as female. Besides competitive tournaments, Garena also organizes events to cater to users to meet and connect offline. This includes the annual Garena Carnival held in Singapore and Malaysia. In 2019, Garena held its largest esports event for Free Fire,

2034-406: A young orphan who is left to be raised in an orphanage alongside his fellow orphan, Yuno. While everyone is born with the ability to utilize mana in the form of magical power, Asta, who has no mana and thus no way to use magic, instead focuses on physical strength. Conversely, Yuno was born as a prodigy with immense magical power and the talent to control wind magic. Motivated by a desire to become

2147-449: Is a League of Legends competition which comprises six professional teams. The teams are Bangkok Titans (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur Hunters (Malaysia), Manila Eagles (Philippines), Saigon Jokers (Vietnam), Taipei Assassins (Taiwan) and Singapore Sentinels (Singapore), which represent top players from respective countries. GPL matches are captured and broadcast online along with commentaries, which are available for viewers to watch on

2260-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

2373-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

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2486-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

2599-855: Is manipulated by a Devil in avenging an injustice committed against the Elves by the Clover Kingdom at the time of its founding. The Magic Knights then face the Dark Triad of the Spade Kingdom, with Asta and Yuno learning of their Devils' influence on their lives and of the Dark Triad's plan to fully manifest the Devils into their world. Then the Magic Knights face the Dark Triad's eldest sibling, Lucius Zogratis, who wants to create his own perfect world. Manga author Yūki Tabata started in

2712-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

2825-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

2938-469: The shōnen fighting manga Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama . Tabata recounted he was inspired to become a manga artist after seeing the Dragon Ball Z anime series as a child then learning it was an adaptation of Toriyama's work. He stated that he was also a fan of other shōnen series, such as YuYu Hakusho by Yoshihiro Togashi and Bleach by Tite Kubo . Tabata wished to create

3051-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

3164-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

3277-562: The Jump J-Books imprint. The first, Black Clover: Abareushi no Sho ( ブラッククローバー 暴牛の書 , Burakku Kurōbā Bōgyū no Sho , "Black Clover: Stubborn Bull Book") , was released on August 4, 2016; the second, Black Clover: Kishidan no Sho ( ブラッククローバー 騎士団の書 , Burakku Kurōbā Kishidan no Sho , "Black Clover: Order of Knights Book") , was released on October 4, 2017; and the third, Black Clover: Yuno no Sho ( ブラッククローバー ユノの書 , Burakku Kurōbā Yuno no Sho , "Black Clover: Book of Yuno") ,

3390-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

3503-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

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3616-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

3729-449: The first-person shooter game Point Blank , the mobile MOBA game Arena of Valor and the mobile racing game Speed Drifters . Garena also used to distribute the football simulation game EA Sports FC Online , until Garena and EA Sports decided to retire the game. In 2017, it released Free Fire , which had over 150 million daily active users globally by May 2021. As of February 2024, Free Fire had 100 million active users. Garena

3842-696: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Black Clover Black Clover ( Japanese : ブラッククローバー , Hepburn : Burakku Kurōbā ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata . It started in Shueisha 's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump in February 2015. The series ran in

3955-400: The "perfect encapsulation of the strengths and weaknesses of the shonen genre as a whole." However, not all critics were positive, with a board of comic book writers at San Diego Comic-Con listing the manga as one of the worst from 2016. In November 2019, Crunchyroll listed Black Clover in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s". In January 2021, it was revealed that Black Clover was

4068-451: The Clover Kingdom, and lays the groundwork for what will hopefully be an empowering story about the importance of never giving up." Writing for Anime News Network , Rachel Trujillo praised the anime for "the grand lessons that one can take away from the story" and ambitious animation efforts from the staff. In his review of Episode 170, Shawn Hacaga of The Fandom Post complimented the anime's improvement since its beginning, saying that he

4181-612: The Free Fire World Series finals in Singapore achieved a new milestone for mobile esports by attracting over 5.4 million peak concurrent online viewers, the highest recorded for any mobile esports event. In December 2023, Garena announced plans to consolidate all local Free Fire leagues under the FFWS (Free Fire World Series) brand starting in 2024. This initiative aims to standardize the game's esports framework and enhance its global identity. Additionally, Garena entered into

4294-593: The Free Fire World Series in Rio de Janeiro, which drew a peak of more than 2 million concurrent viewers. The following year, Garena's tournament, the Free Fire Continental Series (FFCS), was conducted across three regions: the Americas, Asia, and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). The Asia Series broke records with over 2.5 million peak concurrent viewers, according to Esports Charts. In 2021,

4407-563: The GPL official website. In January 2013, Garena announced the second season of the Garena Premier League, which would start on 4 January 2013. Garena Premier League 2013 includes two new teams from Taiwan and Vietnam, bringing the total number of teams to eight. The teams are: AHQ , Saigon Fantastic Five, Bangkok Titans, Kuala Lumpur Hunters, Manila Eagles, Saigon Jokers, Taipei Assassins and Singapore Sentinels. In November 2014,

4520-701: The Garena e-Sports Stadium, a dedicated venue for esports, opened in Neihu District , Taipei . The studio was built partially to accommodate the beginning of the League of Legends Masters Series , the top-level Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau LoL league that was spin-off of the GPL. The Garena e-Sports Stadium officially closed in 2019, and future Garena events will be held at the Logitech G Esports Arena in Taipei. In January 2015, Garena launched Iron Solari League,

4633-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

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4746-484: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

4859-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

4972-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

5085-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

5198-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

5311-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

5424-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

5537-412: The developers of Dauntless . The acquisition aimed to expand Garena's international presence and enhance its capabilities in game development globally. Operations at Phoenix Labs and the development of Dauntless continued without disruption following the acquisition. By 2023, Phoenix Labs had transitioned back to operating as an independent studio following a management buyout supported by investors. By

5650-584: The digital entertainment segment retained the Garena name, maintaining its brand identity in the gaming industry. In 2017, Garena launched its first self-developed mobile game, Free Fire. Since its release, Free Fire has gained a substantial user base in Southeast Asia and Latin America and expanded its reach, being available in more than 130 countries. As of February 2024, Free Fire has over 100 million daily active users worldwide. According to data.ai, it

5763-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

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5876-450: The few fantasy movies he did watch as reference material. To give Black Clover 's world a European look, Tabata researched photograph books for sets and locations and documented various weapons, clothing, and buildings. Tabata stated he enjoyed both writing the manga's script and illustrating its battle scenes, particularly in magnifying his characters' movements and making the action more dynamic. For this latter aspect, he took ideas from

5989-614: The first ever downturn in Garena's business. One contributing factor to this decline was the ban on its "Free Fire" title in India, affecting its availability on both Google Play and Apple app stores. In September 2021, Garena announced the global launch of Free Fire Max, an enhanced version of its flagship game, Free Fire. Designed as a standalone application, Free Fire Max retains the core gameplay of Free Fire but incorporates several upgrades, including enhanced graphics and an in-app customizable map for increased player immersion. It also features

6102-445: The first few days on the thumbnails of the chapter then spending the remaining days composing the actual art. Tabata credited himself for coming up with a rough outline and ending for the chapter while Katayama aided him in filling in its content and making corrections. Early in the series the artist claimed to only sleep an average of three hours per night due to stress, but after the anime adaptation of Black Clover began airing he

6215-476: The first half of 2022. Black Clover: Quartet Knights had over 300,000 copies in circulation by October 2020. In the United States, the manga sold 204,620 copies in 2021, and 223,163 copies in 2022, while on NPD BookScan 's top-selling authors in the country for each year, manga author Yūki Tabata ranked 45th and 39th, respectively. In France, the manga had sold over 300,000 copies by July 2018, and over 2 million copies by December 2023. When reviewing

6328-574: The first part of the series for release in Australia and New Zealand, on behalf of Funimation, with Madman Entertainment releasing subsequent parts. The first of Black Clover became available on Netflix India with Japanese audio and English subtitles on February 23, 2021. A short original net animation titled Squishy! Black Clover ( むぎゅっと！ブラッククローバー , Mugyutto! Burakku Kurōbā ) , produced by DLE and directed by Tsukasa Nishiyama, began airing on dTV on July 1, 2019. The opening theme song for

6441-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

6554-540: The game from all iOS and Android mobile app stores worldwide. Asta is featured as a playable character in the Weekly Shōnen Jump crossover game Jump Force . On December 19, 2021, during Jump Festa 2022, a mobile game was announced. Titled Black Clover Mobile: Rise of the Wizard King ( ブラッククローバーモバイル 魔法帝への道 , Burakku Kurōbā Mobairu Mahōtei e no Michi ) and developed by Vic Game Studios, it

6667-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

6780-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

6893-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

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7006-433: The latter was "very nice" and was similar to Fairy Tail . Danica Davidson of Otaku USA noted that the first volume showed promise and recommended it for fans of action/adventure shonen manga. Matthew Warner from The Fandom Post , in his review of Volume 1, stated "With a likable enough main cast and a seemingly solid world, this volume gets the series off to a nice start." Leroy Douresseaux of Comic Book Bin said that

7119-436: The magazine until August 2023, and moved to Jump Giga in December of the same year. Its chapters have been collected in 36 tankōbon volumes as of February 2024. Set in a world where people are born with the ability to use magic, the story follows Asta , a young boy without any magic power who is given a rare grimoire that grants him anti-magic abilities. With his fellow mages from the Black Bulls, Asta plans to become

7232-406: The manga industry at the age of 20 and worked as an assistant for seven years before his science fiction one-shot Hungry Joker was briefly serialized in the Shueisha magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump for 24 chapters from November 12, 2012, to May 13, 2013, before being canceled. Tabata considered this manga a failure which he attributed largely to its quiet and dark-natured main character, who

7345-529: The manga, which was released on May 2, 2017. A second original video animation was shown at the 2018 Jump Festa. It was later released on DVD releases alongside My Hero Academia and Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma bundled with the future volumes of their respective manga, as it was announced on Jump Special Anime Festa event. At the Black Clover Jump Festa event on December 18, 2016, an anime television series adaptation by Pierrot

7458-401: The most-watched anime series on Crunchyroll in 2020, being watched in 87 countries and territories all over the world. Asta and Yami ' s fight against Dante was also listed as the sixth best anime fight from 2021 by Crunchyroll. Alex Osborn of IGN , in his review of the first episode, mentioned that its premise is not novel but concludes that it is "ultimately a solid introduction to

7571-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

7684-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

7797-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

7910-404: The next Wizard King, an authority figure second to the king of Clover Kingdom, the two youths developed a friendly rivalry. Yuno obtains a legendary four-leaf grimoire held by the kingdom's first Wizard King. The four-leaf grimoire is a rare grimoire, only given to the most immense mages. Asta, despite his lack of magic, obtained an enigmatic five-leaf grimoire that contains mysterious elf swords and

8023-500: The next Wizard King. The manga was first adapted into an original video animation (OVA) by Xebec Zwei , released in 2017. A 170-episode anime television series adaptation produced by Pierrot aired on TV Tokyo from October 2017 to March 2021. An anime film, titled Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King , premiered simultaneously in Japanese theaters and internationally on Netflix in June 2023. The series focuses on Asta ,

8136-558: The plot. Written and illustrated by Yūki Tabata , Black Clover has been serialized in Shueisha 's shōnen manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump from February 16, 2015, to August 21, 2023. In April 2022, it was announced that the series would enter on a three-month hiatus to prepare it for its final arc. The series finished its run in Weekly Shōnen Jump on August 21, 2023, and resumed in Jump Giga on December 25 of

8249-593: The popular 3D martial arts game, Duke of Mount Deer , in Taiwan. The game was the first MMORPG game available through Garena+. The game combines a classic Chinese story with the latest 3D rendering technology and cinematic quality graphics. Duke of Mount Deer was created by several top online-gaming experts from China and South Korea and has gained much popularity in China. The same month, the "Dominion" game mode for Garena's League of Legends players in Singapore and Malaysia

8362-511: The popular manga series Black Clover . In 2010, Garena launched its first product, Garena+, an online game and social platform for people to meet, chat and play games with one another. Other online products of the company include BeeTalk and TalkTalk. In May 2012, Garena launched the Garena Premier League (GPL), a six-month-long online professional gaming league with more than 100 matches to be played. The first season of GPL

8475-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

8588-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

8701-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

8814-467: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

8927-688: The region. Garena-published games: Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

9040-528: The same year due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting its production. Treasure performed the theme song "Here I Stand". At Jump Festa 2017, a video game, titled Black Clover: Quartet Knights , was announced for a 2018 release on PlayStation 4 and PC . It was developed by Ilinx and published by Bandai Namco . It was released in Japan on September 13, 2018, while the western release was on September 14 of

9153-408: The same year. On April 22, 2018, a mobile game called Black Clover: Phantom Knights ( ブラッククローバー 夢幻の騎士団 , Burakku Kurōbā: Mugen no Kishidan ) was announced. It was released in Japan on November 14, 2018. On December 6, 2019, Bandai Namco Entertainment announced that the game would be released on January 16, 2020. On December 9, 2020, Bandai Namco Entertainment closed its servers and removed

9266-516: The same year. Shueisha has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on June 4, 2015. As of February 2, 2024, 36 volumes have been released. On February 9, 2015, Viz Media announced that they would publish the first three chapters of the series in their Weekly Shonen Jump digital magazine as part of their " Jump Start " program in North America. On March 30, 2015, they announced that

9379-610: The second Next Manga Award , presented by Kadokawa Corporation 's Da Vinci magazine and Niconico streaming website; in the same year, the series ranked third on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics" by the Honya Club website in 2016. Tokyo-based dispatched labor company Staff Service  [ ja ] included the series on a list of three manga series about protagonists who struggle to overcome their own weakness and self-doubt, recommended for low self-confidence people. Volume 1 reached 23rd place on

9492-447: The second quarter of 2021, Garena reported having 725 million active users, 45% more than the year prior, while the number of paid users grew 85% year-on-year, reaching 92 million. However, the outlook for Garena appeared less optimistic in 2022. Reports from March indicated that Garena was projected to achieve US$ 2.9 billion to US$ 3.1 billion in bookings for the year, a decrease from US$ 4.6 billion in 2021. This forecasted decline would mark

9605-405: The series for ComicsAlliance , Tom Speelman described the premise as "what if Harry Potter was a knight and also kinda dumb?" He recommended it for fans of Naruto and Fairy Tail , noting its similarities to the former series as well as to Bleach . He praised the author's ability to invigorate stock characters. Henry Ma of Ka Leo O Hawaii praised the series' humor and art, noting that

9718-590: The series would join their weekly lineup, beginning with the fourth chapter on April 6, and publishing at an accelerated rate until the chapters were current with Japan. Plans to release the series in print were announced during their panel at New York Comic Con on October 9, 2015. Shueisha began to simulpublish the series in English on the app and website Manga Plus in February 2019. A gag manga spin-off by Setta Kobayashi, titled Asta-kun Mahōtei e no Michi ( アスタくん魔法帝への道 , "Asta's Journey to Wizard King") ,

9831-568: The series, while Funimation produced an English dub as part of its SimulDub program as it aired. Adult Swim 's Toonami programming block premiered the English dub on December 2, 2017. The series was added to the Hulu streaming service. Sony Pictures UK and Funimation released the first part of the series on home video in the United Kingdom and Ireland, with subsequent parts released by Manga Entertainment . Universal Sony classified

9944-465: The short is "Possible" by Gakuto Kajiwara and Nobunaga Shimazaki , under the name "Clover×Clover". Crunchyroll made the short available internationally on December 31, 2019. On March 28, 2021, it was announced that the series would be receiving an anime film, with details to be revealed at a later date. It was later announced that the film's title is Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King ( ブラッククローバー 魔法帝の剣 , Burakku Kurōbā: Mahōtei no Ken ) . It

10057-426: The story reminds him of some of his favorite shonen manga and has an intriguing backstory and internal mythology, calling it "one of the best new series of the year for young readers" and giving it an "A" rating. Dale Bashir of IGN Southeast Asia praised the series for its fast and engaging pacing, action sequences, and presentation of female characters on equal grounds compared to their male counterparts, calling it

10170-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

10283-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

10396-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

10509-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

10622-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

10735-1013: The weekly Oricon manga charts, with 38,128 copies sold; volume 2 reached seventeenth place, with 61,918 copies; volume 3 also reached seventeenth place, with 80,462 copies; volume 4 reached thirteenth place, with 93,866 copies; volume 5 reached fifteenth place, with 108,503 copies; and volume 6 reached eleventh place, with 118,783 copies. By December 2017, the manga had over 4.8 million copies in circulation; it had over 5.5 million copies in circulation by February 2018; over 7 million copies in circulation by January 2019; over 12 million copies in circulation by March 2021; over 15 million copies in circulation by May 2021; over 16 million copies in circulation by December 2021; over 17 million copies in circulation by June 2022; over 18 million copies in circulation by November 2022; and over 19 million copies in circulation by June 2023. The series ranked 48th on Rakuten 's Top 100 Best Selling Digital Manga of 2019; it ranked 47th in 2020; 50th in 2021; and 47th in

10848-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

10961-499: Was "glad that Black Clover was able to turn it around." Ivy Rose from Anime Feminist praised the way the story handles its female characters, giving them narrative importance and letting them partake in battles. Rose wrote: " Black Clover has truly raised the bar for depictions of female leaders in shounen anime, and female characters in general, as these solid portrayals are not just limited to women in leadership positions." Jeremy Looney of Common Sense Media , in his review about

11074-463: Was a heavy influence on Tabata. He wanted to craft a shōnen equivalent of Berserk while also taking inspiration from other fantasy properties such as Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai , The Lord of the Rings , Harry Potter , and the films of Guillermo del Toro . Tabata professed to not be a big fan of fantasy role-playing video games like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy and used

11187-527: Was able to increase this to six hours per night. As of at least the seventh volume of Black Clover , he did not utilize digital tools in his drafting, opting for traditional "analog" inking and toning by hand. Tabata stayed motivated during the manga's long run due to his readers looking forward to each week's chapter. Despite the fast pace of most chapters, the author expressed a desire to occasionally create slower yet still satisfying stories. The dark fantasy seinen series Berserk by Kentaro Miura

11300-401: Was announced that future episodes would be postponed based on studio production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic . The broadcasting and distribution of episode 133 onward were delayed and in its place, the first episode of the series was rebroadcast on May 5, 2020; the series resumed on July 7 of the same year, and finished at episode 170 on March 30, 2021. Crunchyroll has simulcast

11413-426: Was announced. It was directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, with Kazuyuki Fudeyasu writing scripts, Itsuko Takeda doing character designs, and Minako Seki composing the music. The series premiered on TV Tokyo on October 3, 2017. with the first two seasons each consisting of 51 episodes. The third seasons premiered on October 1, 2019. The series was broadcast without any major interruption until late April 2020, when it

11526-668: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

11639-401: Was directed by Ayataka Tanemura, with the screenplay written by Johnny Onda and Ai Orii, character designs by Itsuko Takeda, and music by Minako Seki. Tabata also supervised the film and provide the original character designs. The film was originally set to premiere simultaneously in Japanese theaters and internationally on Netflix on March 31, 2023; however, it was later delayed to June 16 of

11752-444: Was established by Forrest Li in Singapore in 2009. In 2010, Riot Games awarded the publishing rights of League of Legends (LoL) to Garena, for the game’s first launch in Southeast Asia. In November 2011, Garena announced its publishing rights for the team-based shooter game, Firefall , in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. In December 2011, Garena announced their collaboration with online games developer, Changyou, to publish and operate

11865-420: Was giving them traits that make them easy to remember for the reader. He also wanted to "feel good" drawing them, would revise the characters if he was getting frustrated, and strived to improve on balancing the attention each one gets during the course of the story. Once the characters were made, Tabata decided on their magic abilities based on their personalities and whatever magic would fit the current events of

11978-489: Was launched. Upon its establishment in 2009, the entire company operated under the name Garena. In March 2015, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the largest pension funds in the world, invested in the company, valuing it at over US$ 2.5 billion. In May 2017, a corporate rebranding took place, and the parent company adopted the name Sea Ltd. after raising US$ 550 million in a funding round . However,

12091-597: Was met with criticism from the gaming community and a statement from League of Legends developer Riot Games affirming that "LGBT players are welcome at official LoL tournaments." On February 4, 2015, Garena issued an apology and rescinded the restrictions. Garena provides a platform for game titles such as Defense of the Ancients and Age of Empires , and also publishes games, like multiplayer online battle arena games League of Legends , Heroes of Newerth , Free Fire , Call of Duty and Black Shot for players in

12204-462: Was originally announced to be released sometime in 2022; however, it was later announced that it would be released in worldwide in the first half of 2023. The band Glay contributed two songs to the game; "Genkai Toppa" ( 限界突破 , "Limit Break" ) and "Pianista". Another mobile game, Black Clover: The Road to the Wizard King – The Opening of Fate ( ブラッククローバーモバイル 魔法帝への道 The Opening of Fate ) , developed by South Korean company Vic Game Studios,

12317-538: Was released on May 25, 2023. The game has made roughly $ 2 million on iOS devices, and $ 800,000 on Android devices, across both Japanese and Korean servers. A stage play adaptation was announced in June 2023. It starred Keisuke Ueda as Asta , Naoki Takeshi as Yuno, and Arisa Komiya as Noelle Silva . The stage play ran through September 14–18, 2023, at Theatre 1010 in Tokyo and through September 22–24 at Kanagawa Arts Theatre. In 2016, Black Clover ranked ninth on

12430-417: Was released on October 4, 2019. A novel adaptation of the film Black Clover: Sword of the Wizard King , authored by Atarō Kuma with Johnny Onda in charge of the scenario, was released on June 9, 2023. An original video animation (OVA) produced by Xebec Zwei that is based on the series was shown at the 2016 Jump Festa between November 27 and December 18, 2016. It was bundled with the 11th volume of

12543-694: Was serialized in Shueisha's Saikyō Jump from February 2, 2018, to April 1, 2021. Shueisha collected its chapters in three tankōbon volume, released from January 4, 2019, to July 2, 2021. On September 30, 2018, a manga based on the video game Black Clover: Quartet Knights , illustrated by Yumiya Tashiro, launched on the Shōnen Jump+ app on October 7, 2018, and finished on April 12, 2020. Its chapters were collected in six tankōbon volumes, released from January 4, 2019, to October 2, 2020. Three novels written by Johnny Onda have been released under

12656-586: Was the most downloaded mobile game worldwide from 2019 to 2021 and continued to lead as the most-downloaded mobile battle royale game in 2022 and 2023. Free Fire's popularity extends into the esports arena. The Free Fire World Series 2021 Singapore (FFWS 2021 SG), held in May 2021, achieved a record of 5.4 million concurrent viewers, excluding Chinese platforms. This marked the highest peak viewership for any esports match in history, as reported by Esports Charts. In January 2021, Garena acquired Vancouver-based Phoenix Labs,

12769-475: Was very unlike the author himself. After its cancellation his friends advised him to develop an energetic, happy-go-lucky protagonist that more closely resembled Tabata and he began working on the fantasy-themed one-shot for Black Clover . After its publication, he was assigned a new editor (Tatsuhiko Katayama) and Shueisha picked up the series for full serialization. The weekly production process for Black Clover involved Tabata consulting with Katayama for

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