Tag: Industry - Page 19
News Sony Acquires Guns Up Team Valkyrie Entertainment
Will make "invaluable contributions" to PS5 games
Sony has today acquired another studio: GUNS UP! developer Valkyrie Entertainment. The Seattle based team has worked as an outsourcing studio for much of its lifespan, lending a helping hand to the likes of God of War, Forza Motorsport, and titles out of Riot Games. Most recently, it was confirmed to...
News Ubisoft Announces In-Game, Playable NFTs Called Digits
Controversial business model coming to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
… And so it starts. Ubisoft has announced a new program called Quartz which will see it release limited edition in-game items as NFTs called Digits, beginning with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. As the trailer explains, this “is just the beginning” – and make no mistake,...
News Sony Showcases Prototype 4K OLED Microdisplay for Virtual Reality
Seeing clearly
Sony has showcased a 4K OLED microdisplay, which could be used in a future virtual reality headset. The prototype hardware was debuted during the organisation’s internal Technology Day, and was introduced by Sony’s R&D Center – not, it must be stressed, Sony Interactive Entertainment. In the video, engineers Yasuka Ishihara...
News Warzone QA Testers Staging Walkout Over Sudden Layoffs
Previously promised pay rises
The majority of QA testers at Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software will today stage a walkout in protest of sudden layoffs that have hit the studio. Previously promised wage increases as part of a new payment structure, Activision let go of "valuable members of the team" one after another. The protest...
News PlayStation Executive Fired After Unsavoury Allegations Emerge
Sony immediately terminates employment
Sony has “terminated” the employment of a PlayStation executive after he allegedly appeared as part of a paedophile sting operation this weekend. George Cacioppo, a senior vice president working on services like PSN and the PS Store, was reportedly caught on camera by a vigilante group aiming to expose...
News Publisher Take-Two Forces It Takes Two Dev Hazelight to Abandon Title Trademark
You've been tango'd
Hazelight, developer of It Takes Two, has had to abandon ownership of the game's title trademark in a dispute with publisher Take-Two. The studio was hit with a claim by the publisher shortly after the co-op title's release earlier this year, according to a report from Eurogamer. Obviously there are similarities between the two...
News PlayStation Partner Awards 2021 Celebrates Hit Games This Week
Sony's industry event returns
The annual PlayStation Partner Awards are happening this week in Japan, taking place on the 2nd and 3rd December. The event highlights hit games that released this year, with Sony handing out awards to the developers. To be clear, this has never been a consumer-focused show like The Game Awards. It's very much an...
News Rock Band Dev Harmonix to Create 'Musical Journeys' for Fortnite After Epic Games Acquisition
Working on the Metaverse
Rock Band developer Harmonix will “create musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite” after being acquired by Epic Games. The studio, which first made a name for itself with the Sony published PlayStation 2 rhythm games Frequency and Amplitude, became something of a titan in the industry during the PS3 era, owing to the...
News PlayStation Accused of Gender Discrimination in Lawsuit
Security analyst seeks unfair dismissal
A lawsuit filed in California is suing Sony for gender discrimination and unfair dismissal. First reported by newsletter Axios, the legal proceedings have been lobbied by former IT security analyst Emma Majo, who alleges that women at PlayStation were paid less than their male peers and were denied promotions...
News Kojima Productions Expands into TV, Film, and Music
Headed by former PlayStation face
Kojima Productions has today announced it is expanding its reach with a new division focused entirely on film, TV, and music. The new team will be based in Los Angeles and led by Riley Russell, formerly of PlayStation. He spent almost 28 years at the company, occupying positions such as chief legal officer and VP of...
News Tencent Acquires Minority Stake in Yooka-Laylee Dev Playtonic
Team retains IP control
The spending spree of Chinese company Tencent continues as Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic confirms it has sold a minority stake to the technology firm. The investment will be used to expand the studio from a single team to multiple, improve the developer's headquarters, and expand to new locations. Playtonic retains full...
News PlayStation's Jim Ryan Admonishes Activision in Internal Email to Employees
Amid ongoing allegations against juggernaut publisher
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan has reportedly criticised Activision in an internal email to employees, according to Bloomberg. The correspondence, read by journalist Jason Schreier, calls out the Call of Duty publisher for its inadequate response to allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment,
News Embracer Group Acquired 37 Studios This Year, and Wants to Match That in 2022
THQ Nordic, Koch Media parent company is still hungry
Embracer Group isn't a name many people are familiar with, but you will have heard of the publishers and developers that fall under its vast umbrella. THQ Nordic, Koch Media, and Deep Silver are all part of it, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. This is the company that pops up every couple...
News OlliOlli Dev Picked Up by Take-Two
In good company
OlliOlli developer Roll7 has been acquired by Take-Two, the company that also owns Rockstar Games and 2K. The team will now fall under the Private Division publishing label, which was already planning to put out its next game OlliOlli World prior to the purchase. That's now slated to launch early next year on PlayStation 5 and PS4 in...
News Japanese Publisher Implies PlayStation Audience Is Transitioning to PC
Gone for good
For decades now, PlayStation has been the home to Japanese games – particularly the countless smaller projects that come out of the country. However, in recent years, software sales have been dwindling domestically – and with the PlayStation 5 continuing to be supply constrained, one unnamed executive has insinuated that Sony’s...
News PS5 Stock Is Not Going to Get Any Easier to Find
Sold out
Sony is selling a lot of PlayStation 5 consoles, but it’s struggling to meet demand. Those of you who are trying to get your hands on the console will know that PS5 stock is sporadic and in short supply, and it sounds like the situation will not be resolved any time soon. In fact,
News EA Believes Blockchain Based Games May Be Industry's Future
Uh-oh
EA boss Andrew Wilson – the Australian executive who pioneered Ultimate Team, for the record – believes that blockchain-based “play-to-earn” games could be the future of the industry. However, he caveated that “it’s still early to figure out how that’s going to work”, so don’t expect this dystopian future to arrive any time...
News Sony Acquires Minority Stake in Publisher Devolver Digital
London Stock Exchange values indie label at nearly $1 billion
Update: Sony's investment in Devolver Digital has been made official. PlayStation tweeted recently to say it's "honored to be an investor" in the publisher: This follows reports earlier today that the deal was on the cards following Devolver's move to a publicly traded company on the...
News Take-Two Scraps Hangar 13 Game, Writes Off $53 Million
Like taking candy from a baby
A new project by Mafia developer Hangar 13 has been shelved by Take-Two, with the organisation writing off $53 million as a result. The release, codenamed Volt, has been in production since 2017, according to Bloomberg, and has apparently gone through “multiple iterations since it was first conceived”. According to...
News Insomniac Scaled Back Marvel's Spider-Man Boss to Cut Down on Crunch
And make it resonate harder
We often hear a lot about the crunch conditions at major developers like Naughty Dog and Rockstar, but we rarely learn about what they’re doing to reduce workload for their teams. Ted Price, the boss of Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games, shed a little light on that during a fireside chat at industry event...
News Shuhei Yoshida Shows a PlayStation Game Running on a Portable for the First Time Since PS Vita
Decked
This was the dramatic moment indies evangelist Shuhei Yoshida showed a PlayStation game running on a portable for the first time since the PS Vita. Sony dropped out of the handheld market when its PSP successor failed to find an audience, but Yoshida – formerly the boss of PlayStation Studios – was always a big believer in the device...
News Studio Led by Amy Hennig Making a Marvel Game
From Skydance New Media
Skydance New Media, the developer containing talent such as Uncharted creator Amy Hennig, has today announced it's developing an original Marvel game. The title will be a "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game, featuring a completely original story and take on the Marvel Universe". As a whole, Skydance New Media...
News PS Plus Subscribers Up Year-Over-Year, Nearing 50 Million
Plus 1.3 million
After a slight blip earlier in the year, PS Plus subscribers have rebounded in the quarter spanning July through September, with Sony retaining 47.2 million active members. This is a significant increase on the same period year-over-year, where Sony tallied 45.9 million members – a record at the time, during the height of the...
News Sony Establishes PlayStation PC Label to Spearhead Porting Push
Gee-pee-you
Sony’s push to PC is getting serious. Eagle-eyed Steam users noticed overnight that the platform holder had renamed the publisher of some of its PC ports from PlayStation Mobile to PlayStation PC LLC, and now VGC, via
News PS5 Console Sales Reach 13.4 Million After Strong Q2 Period
3.3 million units sold during quarter
Sony has recorded its strongest ever Q2 revenue stream as part of a new quarterly fiscal report, generating $5.86 billion in revenue and $0.751 billion of profit from July to September of this year. As for how this translates to PlayStation 5, the system sold 3.3 million units during Q2, bringing total sales up...
News Halo Co-Creator Building New EA Studio to Make First-Person Games
Taking aim
Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto has announced that he's joined publishing giant EA as a game director. Lehto will be part of a new Seattle-based studio, which will focus on creating first-person games. Said studio doesn't have a name yet, but we're sure that it'll be officially branded in the relatively near future. Most recently, Lehto...
News Sony Pictures Offloads Game Studio for $1 Billion
Jackpot
Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the Game Show Network in 2019, and part of the purchase included a subsidiary called GSN Games. This division was assigned the task of developing online and mobile gambling games, including slots inspired by Wheel of Fortune. But, perhaps recognising the studio no longer fits its portfolio, the Japanese...
News Sony Plotting Investment into Billion Dollar Chip Factory in Japan
Got a chip on its shoulder
Sony is allegedly mulling investment into a Japanese chip factory, which will see it partner with Taiwan’s TSMC to build a plant in Kumamoto. The workshop – expected to produce parts for automobiles, camera image sensors, and more – will allegedly cost billions to setup, with the Japanese government on deck to foot...
News Bloodborne Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa Teams Up with Team Ninja
A stranger of paradise
A top producer from Japan Studio – who left Sony when the team was disbanded earlier in the year – has joined Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin developer Team Ninja. Masaaki Yamagiwa – whose credits include Bloodborne, Déraciné, and Tokyo Jungle to name just a few – was
News Sony Pimps Perfect for PS5 Bravia XR TVs
Cognizant of your console
Sony has talked about the synergy between its divisions for well over a decade, but it’s finally delivering. You’ll no doubt be aware of the various collaborations between PlayStation and Sony Pictures, which will see the likes of The Last of Us adapted into a live action series. But point your peepers at the...
News Sony: The Pipeline of Games for PS5 Is Just Fantastic
"By far the strongest we've ever had"
Speaking as part of a candid interview with GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation boss Jim Ryan said that the business is defined by three key attributes: games, community, and the brand. According to the bigwig, Sony’s gaming division has always been “cool”, and when prompted to describe what makes the...
News PlayStation Boss Wants a Future Where Sony Games Aren't Gated from a Wider Audience
"To gate the audience frustrates me"
While we’re all very familiar with the console market as it is, we can comfortably assume that one day it will change. Brands like PlayStation and Xbox are, slowly but surely, becoming hardware agnostic – we’ve already seen a handful of first-party Sony exclusives release on PC, and the manufacturer has...
News Bandai Namco Reveals New Logo, Everyone Hates It
Welcome to the internet
Whenever a company reveals a new logo, it's common practice to then hate on that new logo until everyone gets tired and moves onto something else. The latest victim of this fruitless cycle is Bandai Namco, a games publisher that has had the same red/orange/yellow blob of a logo since the two entities merged in 2005. Now, the...
News Bluepoint Games Developing a Brand New Title, Not a Remake
"We're working on original content"
Bluepoint Games is now officially part of PlayStation Studios following today's announcement of Sony's acquisition, but the developer's next title won't be a remake like it has come to be known for. In fact, Bluepoint Games is now developing a brand new, original title. Talking during a new interview with IGN,...
News Sony Finally Confirms Acquisition of Demon's Souls PS5 Dev Bluepoint Games
Texas-based team joins PlayStation Studios
A little while back, Sony announced its acquisition of Housemarque, the studio behind the excellent PlayStation 5 exclusive, Returnal. However, on the same day, an image was inadvertently shared that appeared to confirm a second high-profile buyout — that of Bluepoint Games. Ever since, there's been no...
News Haven Studios' Jade Raymond to Discuss Setting Up Sony-Backed Developer During a Pandemic
Joins Jim Ryan at the event
Haven Studios, one of the developers Sony is collaborating with on a PlayStation exclusive title, will be in attendance at GI: Live London next weekend. Co-founder Jade Raymond will join Jim Ryan at the event, where she will discuss setting up a studio during a pandemic. She's also expected to touch on how PlayStation...
News Sony's Biggest UK Studio, Firesprite, Has Just Made an Acquisition of Its Own
Fabrik Games folded into Sony's largest UK team
PlayStation Studios has grown quite a lot this year, with some notable acquisitions bolstering Sony's first-party lineup of developers. The most recent of these is Firesprite, a Liverpool-based studio that's already bigger than Sony's other UK teams combined. It's set to get even bigger, though; the...
News Netflix Buys Oxenfree Developer Night School Studio
War never changes
A new challenger has entered the ring: Netflix has acquired Oxenfree developer Night School Studio. Don’t worry, though, work will continue on the sequel, set to release on the PlayStation 5 and PS4 next year. “Netflix gives film, TV, and now game makers an unprecedented canvas to create and deliver excellent entertainment to...
News PS5 Has Reached 1 Million UK Sales Faster Than Any Other PlayStation Console
Milestone reached in record time
The PlayStation 5 is now Sony's fastest selling console ever in the UK. That's according to GfK (thanks, GamesIndustry), the organisation that tracks game industry sales data in the country. It states that PS5 reached 1 million units sold in 39 weeks, three weeks faster than the previous record holder, PS4. The UK...
News Tomb Raider, Marvel's Avengers Maker Now Co-Developer on Xbox Exclusive
Really
Well, this is a bizarre and frankly unexpected announcement: Crystal Dynamics – one of the most prolific third-party developers, responsible for games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Marvel’s Avengers – has been announced as a co-develop
News New Sony Team Firesprite Continues Hiring for 'Dark, Narrative Adventure' Game
Project has "genre-defining goals"
Prior to Sony's acquisition of The Persistence and The Playroom developer Firesprite Games, the English studio was advertising open positions on two different projects: a "game-changing huge multiplayer shooter" and an "ambitious dark narrative blockbuster adventure". When Sony scooped the team up just recently,...
News Project EVE Dev Celebrates PS Showcase Trailer by Buying Entire Team a PS5
Found some stock
Hyung-Tae Kim, the boss of Shift Up – the Korean developer behind PlayStation 5 console exclusive Project EVE – celebrated the game’s successful PlayStation Showcase trailer by ordering his entire team a next-gen console. All 260 employees at the studio received a spangly new Sony system, so that they’ll be able to play the...
News What Is Going on with Sony's Supposed Acquisition of Bluepoint?
Blue balls
Since an employee at PlayStation Japan mistakenly “welcomed” Bluepoint to the platform holder’s first-party family, Sony has acquired two teams that very few expected: Nixxes and Firesprite. And yet, we’re still waiting for conf
News Spider-Man 2, God of War: Ragnarok Trailers Pull Enormous Numbers
Trending
Sony skipped all of the major conventions so far this year, deciding to host PlayStation Showcase 2021 on its own time – but did it make a difference to overall interest? Not a chance: the platform holder’s YouTube channel has been on fire since last night, with the livestream peaking at well over 600,000 concurrents and already...
News New Sony Team Firesprite Is Bigger Than Media Molecule, London Studio Combined
Liverpool studio is bigger than you think
Sony’s acquisition of The Persistence developer Firesprite this week certainly came as a surprise, but perhaps the even bigger shocker is the sheer scale of the team: totalling 250 employees, it’s actually larger in headcount than the platform holder’s two other UK-based first-party studios, Media...
News Sony Acquires Firesprite Games, Dev Behind The Persistence, Playroom
PlayStation's 14th first-party studio
Sony has announced its acquisition of Firesprite Games, the developer behind PlayStation 4 titles The Persistence, The Playroom, and The Playroom VR. It becomes the 14th developer part of PlayStation Studios, with many who work at the studio previously part of SIE Studio Liverpool. Speaking on the PlayStation...
News Focus Home Interactive, the Publisher of A Plague Tale, Is Now Focus Entertainment
A new Focus
Focus Home Interactive, the publisher of a variety of high-profile PlayStation titles – including A Plague Tale: Innocence and SnowRunner – is now Focus Entertainment. The rebranding solidifies a series of acquisitions from the firm, which saw it nab the likes of Deck 13 Interactive and DotEmu. “From now on, the Focus...
News Ex-PlayStation Exec Shawn Layden Is Concerned About the Rising Cost of AAA Games
The price is right?
During the latter stages of his tenure at PlayStation, former executive Shawn Layden oversaw some of the biggest first-party projects in his organisation’s history, including Horizon Zero Dawn and God of War. But the suit’s history in the gaming industry, as he’s eager to point out frequently, stretches back decades, to the...
News Shawn Layden Reveals Why He Left Sony PlayStation
Became burnt out
It's been almost two years since former Sony Worldwide Studios head Shawn Layden suddenly left the company, announced to the world with nothing more than a tweet. Fans have speculated the reasoning since time and time again, but now the man himself has broken his silence. Speaking to Bloomberg, Layden explains he was becoming bur
News Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi on the Cusp of SEGA Exit
Head hunted by Chinese firm NetEase
SEGA’s tanned industry icon, Toshihiro Nagoshi, is about to be poached by Chinese company NetEase. That’s according to Bloomberg, who are reporting that the Yakuza creator is in “final negotiations” to join the giant, following a 32-year career at the Japanese publisher. It’s speculated that Nagoshi will...
