Pixel P&L: Can Mayhem Studios’ UGW Bridge the Gap Between Culture and Gaming?

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, 15th October. As India’s gaming industry expands, Mayhem Studios is making a bold move with Underworld Gang Wars (UGW), aiming to challenge leading battle royale titles. With eight million pre-registrations, UGW fuses Indian themes with competitive gameplay. In today’s feature, CEO Ojas Vipat discusses the game’s development and ambitions.

We also cover the surprising exit of the newly crowned Rocket League World Champions from the competitive scene, IEM Rio 2024’s impressive viewership growth, and more.

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As India’s gaming industry shifts from a niche interest to a mainstream phenomenon, Mayhem Studios is placing a bold bet on Underworld Gang Wars (UGW), a battle royale game with Indian themes. Backed by Mobile Premier League (MPL) and investors including Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia India), Steadview Capital, Truecaller, Hashed Emergent, and Lumikai, the studio is entering a competitive field long dominated by global heavyweights. With more than eight million pre-registrations, UGW has generated early interest as it prepares to challenge established titles such as Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI).

In an exclusive interview, Mayhem Studios CEO Ojas Vipat shares the challenges of developing UGW over two years and the importance of feedback from closed beta testing. Vipat also highlights the studio’s focus on blending innovation with cultural relevance.

Competing with BGMI, which reportedly boasts between 100 million and 500 million downloads, will be no small feat. Our feature explores whether UGW’s cultural approach can not only capture local interest but also set a precedent for India’s gaming future.

Team BDS, fresh off its victory at the 2024 Rocket League World Championship, announced it is withdrawing from the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), the game’s premier esports competition. The decision, revealed in a statement to fans, reflects the organization’s reassessment of its resources and priorities, citing the economic challenges of sustaining long-term involvement.

"Rocket League, while rich in emotions and supported by an exceptional community, has not proven sufficiently profitable under current market conditions," the organization said. The statement emphasized that the departures of key players were planned well before the recent transfer window opened, underscoring that the shift was part of a broader strategic pivot.

Although Team BDS is exiting RLCS, the organization remains committed to the game. It announced plans to continue supporting Rocket League by hosting its own tournament, Take the Throne, on November 23, 2024, in Geneva. The event will feature top global talent and offer Swiss players a chance to qualify and compete at the highest level.

Epic and Disney Team Up to Build “Persistent World” Linked with Fortnite

Epic Games and Disney are partnering to build a “persistent world” connected to Fortnite, allowing players to move seamlessly between Disney content and Fortnite experiences, Epic executive vice president Saxs Persson told The Verge. While emphasizing the importance of “interoperability,” Persson noted that brands will maintain distinct boundaries—“A [Lego] minifig doesn’t hold a gun”—to align with their identities and audience expectations. Despite these limits, Persson described the collaboration as an ambitious, “all-in” effort from both companies, aiming to create a digital ecosystem that brings Disney’s vast universe into a unified, interactive space for fans.

IEM Rio 2024 Sees Boost in Counter-Strike 2 Viewership

IEM Rio 2024, a Brazil-based Counter-Strike 2 tournament, saw a significant rise in viewership, peaking at 709,317—around 150,000 more than the 2023 edition, according to Esports Charts. The event averaged 289,111 viewers over nearly 50 hours of broadcast, up by 40,000 from last year’s tournament, which was held in April. Ukrainian team Natus Vincere (NAVI) secured the title by defeating German team MOUZ in a best-of-five Grand Final, with both teams dominating viewership—NAVI totaling 5.8 million hours watched and MOUZ 5.6 million. Brazilian team FURIA ranked third with 2.4 million hours watched.

PGL Confirms Return of Wallachia Dota 2 Tournament in 2025

PGL has announced the return of its Wallachia Dota 2 tournament series in 2025, following the success of its inaugural events in May and October 2024. The series will feature three seasons, with tournaments scheduled for March, April, and November, and qualifiers taking place in January, February, and September. Each event will host 16 teams—10 invited and six from qualifiers—competing for a $1 million prize pool. PGL will provide $450,000 in hospitality support per event, covering flights, four-star accommodations, meals, and practice facilities for eight team members, ensuring top-tier conditions for participants throughout the competition.

Xbox Game Studios Head Alan Hartman to Retire, Rare’s Craig Duncan Named Successor

Alan Hartman, head of Xbox Game Studios, will retire at the end of November, with Rare’s Craig Duncan taking over the role. Hartman, who joined Microsoft in 1988, is best known for leading Turn 10 Studios and building the Forza franchise into a global racing powerhouse. Duncan, who has guided Rare for nearly 14 years and oversaw the success of Sea of Thieves with over 40 million players, will now manage key Xbox teams, including Playground Games, Obsidian, and Halo Studios. Reporting to Matt Booty, Duncan’s focus will be on delivering high-quality games and developing new franchises for Xbox.

In 2005, a glitch in World of Warcraft gave rise to an unexpected virtual pandemic that mirrored real-world disease outbreaks. Known as the “Corrupted Blood” incident, the event began when a high-level dungeon boss infected players with a temporary plague. However, due to a coding oversight, the infection spread beyond the dungeon, as players and their pets carried it into cities and towns across the game’s world.

The plague spread rapidly, killing low-level characters instantly, causing mass panic. Healthy players fled urban hubs, abandoning the cities to avoid infection, while infected players faced impromptu quarantines. Despite efforts from the game’s developers to contain the outbreak, the plague spread unpredictably, with some players deliberately spreading the infection for fun.

Epidemiologists later took notice of the incident, using it as a case study to analyze how people might react in real-world pandemics. Unlike simulations where human behavior is often difficult to predict, the World of Warcraft outbreak provided valuable insight into panic-driven behavior, quarantine compliance, and even deliberate rule-breaking.

The incident underscored the complexities of managing disease outbreaks, revealing patterns of human behavior that mirrored real-world responses to pandemics like COVID-19 years later. What began as a glitch ended up as a fascinating model for public health research.