Tag: Industry - Page 39
News PS3 Owners, It's Time to Upgrade to the PS4
Ubisoft's moving on
There are still lots of people clinging to the fact that the PlayStation 3 has a much larger install base than the PlayStation 4, but the reality is that there are many, many more active users on Sony's super machine. Ubisoft thinks so anyway, as it's ditching development on last-gen systems – well, aside from the odd casual...
News Sucker Punch Powers Up with Motion Capture Studio
Watching your every move
Sony first-party Sucker Punch has taken another step towards PlayStation production powerhouse status, as it's just added the finishing touches to its own internal motion capture studio. Billy Harper, who's the Character and Cinematic Supervisor at the company, revealed the tidbit on Twitter, after taking photographs of the...
News Good Lord, Activision Made $1.28 Billion in 2015's First Quarter
Time to buy another yacht
We're used to seeing plenty of big numbers when it comes to the games industry these days, but this latest figure from mega publisher Activision Blizzard will likely have rival companies turning green with envy. The firm's reported that it earned $1.28 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2015, ending 31st March...
News Lost Planet 3 and Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z Developer Spark Unlimited Closes its Doors
Studio survived for over a decade
It's another rather sad story of studio closure today, as Spark Unlimited, the developer behind the uninspired but solid Lost Planet 3 and the critically panned Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, has shut up shop. The studio told Polygon that some of its team "have decided to move on to other things". Spark Unlimited was...
News PS4 Sales Push Past 22.3 Million as Sony Plans Profits
Holding out for a Hirai
Hacking scandals and closures caused Sony to sink to yet another $1.1 billion loss for the fiscal year that ended on 31st March, but the organisation is finally planning a profit for the 12 months ahead. The company expects to make a cool $1.2 billion for the coming business term, and while iPhone cameras take centre stage, i
News Ubisoft's Donating $100,000 to Nepal After Quake
"Far Cry 4 was heavily inspired by Nepal and its people"
So often we report on shady business practices here on Push Square, but it's nice to know that companies like Ubisoft still have a heart. Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal at the weekend, Far Cry 4 developer Ubisoft Montreal has pledged a whopping $100,000 to aid with support in...
Soapbox You Should Stop Pre-Ordering Games
Sammy Barker's against this scary trend
We've got a problem, readers – and it pertains to pre-ordering games. I never used to be opposed to this practice: I'd regularly drop a fiver at my local GAME on titles that I was looking forward to, and would waltz home happily with a receipt and a pre-order pack – the DVD that came with Metal Gear Solid...
News Not Everyone Thinks Sony's Resting on Its Laurels with PS4
"Sony is working non-stop"
We suppose that it was inevitable: the PlayStation 4 is the undisputed market leader right now, so of course cynics are heralding the return of the evil Sony of old. To be fair, the organisation's not perfect – Shovel Knight couldn't even release on time, for starters. But, as far as we're concerned, there's absolutely...
News Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Developer Shuts Up Shop
Caught in a Claptrap
Ah, the brutal realities of AAA game development: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was a generally well received entry in Gearbox's lootin', shootin' series – but the developer no longer exists. Kotaku broke the news courtesy of an anonymous source, but publisher 2K Games has since confirmed the closure. "We can confirm that we...
Feature Meet the Man Who's Helping Students Publish PS4, Vita Games
"I want my students to be the next big indie developers"
With the emphasis on exclusives, marketing deals, and services, we rarely take the time to think about gaming at a grass roots level. Trailers and reviews command the majority of our traffic here at Push Square, so it's perhaps easy to overlook all of the effort that goes into schools and...
News Metal Gear Solid Voice Actress Backs Away from Kojima Comments
Burke's feeling like a burk
Hideo Kojima has been fired – at least, that was Metal Gear Solid voice actress Donna Burke's read of the situation last week. Konami has since said that her comments were inaccurate, and, writing on Facebook, the Ground Zeroes performer agreed. "I should be more accurate," she said, no doubt with a drawn
News Konami Fired Hideo Kojima, According to Voice Actress
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Veteran video game visionary Hideo Kojima was fired by Konami, according to Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes actress Donna Burke. Reports earlier in the year revealed that the legendary developer would leave the Japanese publisher once Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was finished – but there was still the slightest possibility that his...
News This Teacher Makes a Great Argument About Children Playing Mature Games
"Younger teachers like me grew up with games"
Last week, you may have seen that there was a bit of a kerfuffle after an alliance of teachers were reportedly cracking down on children playing mature rated games. In a bid to get their stance across, they pointed out that they could potentially contact the police or child social care specialists, and...
News Some UK Schools Are Cracking Down on Children Playing More Mature Games
No more GTA for little Timmy
In an effort to crack down on children playing games that aren't suitable, a group of head teachers in the UK are warning parents that they're entitled to contact the police or child social care if they're found to have access to inappropriate titles. The Nantwich Education Partnership covers numerous schools in...
News DriveClub Developer Evolution Studios to Lose Around Half of Workforce
Dark days
Evolution Studios will lose around 55 team members, sources have told Eurogamer.net. It was announced last week that the Runcorn-based outfit would be struck by layoffs, but now we have an idea of just how hard. The developer, which is currently supporting PlayStation 4 exclusive DriveClub, is roughly 100 staffers strong, so this will...
Soapbox Has It Just Been a Bad Week for Games, Or Is This Simply a Sign of the Times?
Sammy Barker reckons that the industry’s in one big scrap
You've got to take the rough with the smooth – but these past few days have been more rugged than Vin Diesel's right-angled jaw. It's not been a vintage week for the games industry, with Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima seemingly being pushed out of Konami, first-party developer...
News Konami's Recruiting a New Team to Build a Fresh Metal Gear Series
Not like this
Read between the corporate double speak and it's becoming increasingly clear that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has been targeted by a tranquiliser gun, bundled into a cardboard box, and put out with the trash. Following yesterday's rumours regarding an internal power struggle, publisher Konami has now revealed its intention t
Feature The Seven Deadly Sins of Game Design
You should know better
Frustration is an emotion that none of us want to feel, especially when we're playing video games. The problem is, of course, that frustration is always lurking just around the corner, unless you're like the gaming equivalent of the most meditative monk in the world – in which case, we salute your patience and understanding...
News DriveClub Developer Waylaid by Layoffs
Studio to focus on Season Pass and PlayStation Plus Edition
As has been rumoured for the past couple of days, DriveClub developer Evolution Studios has been struck by a round of layoffs. The studio best known for the MotorStorm series was purchased by Sony in 2007, but has had to weather some nasty storms in recent years. Long-term readers will...
Rumour Konami Power Struggle Leads to Hideo Kojima Craziness
War never changes
Just as we were going to press with our report on suggestions that Hideo Kojima has parted company with Konami, our friends at GameSpot posted a slightly more speculative article regarding the inner-happenings at the Japanese publisher. According to the site – via an anonymous source – a power struggle between the organisat
News Has Metal Gear Solid Maker Hideo Kojima Quit Konami?
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The web has gone utterly bonkers today – and not just because Push Square has been offline for the majority of it. While we were playing office charades waiting for our server rack to be fixed, Konami was busy removing references to acclaimed video game veteran Hideo Kojima from virtually every asset under its umbrella. Seriously, it's almost as...
News Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo Are Working Together to Stop DDoS Attacks
Console camaraderie
We may all have different gaming preferences, but we can probably all agree that DDoS attacks suck. Whether it's the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live that goes down, seeing services get targeted by code junkies for their own selfish entertainment is never nice; at the end of the day, we all just want to enjoy our games –...
News Sony: Free-to-Play Will Become a Big Chunk of Our Revenues in the Future
On the rise
For many, free-to-play is a dirty word – but not for Sony, who's seeing significant success from the controversial business model. Speaking as part of a panel at the Game Developers Conference overnight, SCEA employee Sarah Thompson – who's in charge of the platform holder's free-to-play business – said that the organisation's seen...
News You Can Now Make Your Own PS4 Games for Free with Unreal Engine 4
Open the floodgates
Epic Games' game creation suite Unreal Engine was enormously successful in the previous generation, but it's found its grip on the industry loosening of late. With the uber-popular Unity providing a gateway for fledgling developers, and most big publishers like EA Games, Konami, and Capcom building proprietary technology, the...
News PlayStation's Winning the Digital Games Revenue War
And by quite some margin, it seems
When looking at console sales, people often overlook the network impact. Indeed, we're so focused on hardware numbers that we tend to forget that every PlayStation 4 sold means a potential PlayStation Plus subscription and various PlayStation Network purchases as well. It would appear that Sony's quietly lapping up...
News The Hunger Games' Lionsgate Makes a Large Investment in Telltale
Studio planning 'super show'
Lionsgate, the film studio behind The Hunger Games, has announced that it's made a significant financial investment in The Walking Dead developer Telltale Games. While no new titles have been announced, it has been confirmed that the movie company's boss Jon Feltheimer will join the studio's board of directors. Former...
News PS4 Takes Centre Stage in Sony's Big New Three Year Strategy
Growth driver
It's been obvious for a while, but Sony will continue to bet on the PlayStation 4 to put it back in the black. As part of a corporate strategy meeting earlier this week, the Japanese giant labelled its gaming business as a "growth driver", and recognised it as pivotal in its ambition of raising ¥500 billion ($4.2 billion) in earnings...
News Resogun Developer's Making Something 'Explosive' with the Creator of Defender
Smashin'
In many ways, Resogun is the modern day equivalent of Defender, so we're stoked to learn that developer Housemarque has teamed up with the creator of the 1981 arcade classic, Eugene Jarvis, to make something "explosive". The aforementioned industry veteran has a stunning track record, with Robotron and Smash TV also created under his...
Talking Point Do Review Scores Have a Future?
Number games
After an incredible 15 years – and more 8/10 jokes than we care to count – Eurogamer.net has dropped review scores. It's not the first site to do so – both Kotaku and Joystiq (RIP) ditched numbers and stars a while ago – but the news seems significant this time because our buddies from Brighton operate a more traditional...
News EA: Games Are Still Too Hard to Learn
Don't pull that face
A top executive from EA Games has suggested that most video games are still too difficult for the average person to learn. We suspect that this statement is going to go down like a lead balloon, but we reckon that chief creative officer Richard Hilleman, who was speaking at the 2015 DICE Summit, may actually have a point. "The...
News Colossal PS4 Sales Propel Struggling Sony to Profitability
Job done
If you wondered why Sony was doubling down on PlayStation across the board, then its financial report for the quarter ending 31st December should give you some idea. According to data released by the Japanese giant overnight, the company turned a rare profit over Christmas – aided significantly by staggering PlayStation 4 sales numbers...
News Sony Online Entertainment Drops PlayStation Exclusivity as Part of Acquisition
Now named Daybreak Game Company
Who wants a bombshell to shake them out of their Monday slumber? Sony Online Entertainment, the company behind EverQuest, has announced that it has been acquired by a New York-based investment company named Columbus Nova, meaning that the internally founded outfit will be going multiplatform in the future. The...
News SEGA Downsizing as It Turns Its Attention to Digital Games
American division relocating
SEGA's sadly been on a downward decline ever since it ditched the Dreamcast, and the company will continue to shrink over the coming months as it offers "voluntary retirement" to around 300 employees. It's not yet clear where the firm will be hit the hardest, but SEGA of America has announced plans to relocate from San...
News Attackers Behind PS4's Christmas Outage Hit by Heavy Hack
What goes around, comes around
Behave badly and your actions will catch up with you eventually, as some members of the so-called Lizard Squad may be realising right now. After attaining plenty of mainstream media coverage following the PlayStation Network outage which it apparently initiated over Christmas, the group launched a DDoS service,...
News PS4 Shooter Human Element on Hiatus as Robotoki Winds Down
Out of its element
It's been almost three years since we penned our first article on Robert Bowling's independent venture Robotoki, but fresh from revealing its console debut at The Game Awards last month, the studio has now officially closed up shop. The former Call of Duty creative strategist told
News Final Fantasy XIII-2 Songstress Origa Passes Away
Lost to the Historia Crux
Renowned for unique and mystifying vocals, Russian born singer Origa passed away from cancer during the weekend at the age of 44. She spent most of her life working in Japan and contributed to the games industry by providing vocals to Final Fantasy XIII-2. Anyone who has played it will have undoubtedly heard her, as she not...
News Starbreeze Studios Sells Off Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons to 505 Games
A new chapter
Ask anyone who has played Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and they'll tell you that it's a fascinating adventure that culminates with an emotional punch to the gut. Future sequels were hardly implied by this standalone indie title, however, but developer Starbreeze Studios has announced that it has handed the property over to publisher...
News Life Is Strange Almost Looked a Lot More Masculine
Publishers will be publishers
Sigh. Considering the current climate, we did consider whether we should post this story in the first place – but then we figured that we'd be behaving just as badly as the publishers in question. During its recent developer diary, DONTNOD has hinted that some companies wanted it to make Life Is Strange's lead...
News DiRT 4 Stuck in the Mud as Codemasters Cuts Staff
Hoon's going to scratch our gymkhana itch now?
Codemasters' extended emphasis on the PlayStation 3 may be starting to catch up with it, as Eurogamer.net reports that layoffs have hit the legendary British outfit. According to the site, around 50 jobs are being reviewed, with approximately 30 to be made redundant as part of a 30 day consultation...
News Oops, Sony Has Delayed the PS4's Impending Chinese Launch
Raucous red tape
After nearly 14 years of waiting, Sony has delayed the PlayStation 4's impending Chinese launch. The super system was originally planned to release on 11th January, but the firm has cancelled this date, and has yet to announce a new one. Speaking to Reuters, the Japanese giant confirmed that the delay was due to "various factors"...
Rumour Sony's About to Get Really Aggressive in China
Business development
Considering that PlayStation is already enormous in Japan and most of Asia, it was strange to see Sony allow the Xbox One to deploy in China first. Microsoft’s machine launched in the potentially lucrative region earlier in the year, and there’s been very little word from its rival when the PlayStation 4 will follow in its...
News Sony Pegs the PlayStation 4 as Pivotal to Its Future Success
Cuts television and mobile lines
Sony’s doubling down on the PlayStation 4, as it tries desperately to return to profitability. The manufacturer revealed as part of its Investors Day that it will be cutting its television and mobile lines, while focusing on its next-gen platform to pick up the slack. The company also has high hopes for its...
News Blood Sport Is Probably the Worst Kickstarter Idea Ever
Bloody hell
It takes a special kind of Kickstarter campaign to make this author feel squeamish, but as your humble host taps out this story, let it be known that his skin has turned a subtle shade of green. Blood Sport is quite possibly the most mind bogglingly terrible idea in the history of crowd funding – and it’s no surprise that the drive...
News Sony to Enrich PS4 with Fresh Experiences, Functions, and Usability
Organisation outlines business strategy
We all know that the PlayStation 4 is doing incredibly well – after all, this scribe feels like he writes that sentence at least twice every day. The big question, then, is: what’s next for the system? As part of a presentation intended for investors, the platform holder has outlined its strategy for the...
Talking Point Is This Gaming's Most Disappointing Ever Year?
Down for the count
If this is next-gen, then we wished that greatness would have waited until it was ready. We were going to pen this article a little later in the month – the release schedule is still stacked with several other blockbuster titles – but with the Assassin’s Creed Unity saga still a sour taste on the industry’s lips, we’ve...
Talking Point Do You Ever Stump Up for Season Passes?
Chump change
The so-called Season Pass has become the latest way for publishers to extract even more money from cash strapped gamers. What started life as L.A. Noire’s largely innocuous Rockstar Pass – a pre-purchase for several additional cases in the sandbox detective game – has, much like the Online Pass that preceded it, evolved into an...
News Jade Raymond Departs Ubisoft After a Decade in the Job
Will pursue new opportunities
Jade Raymond, one of Ubisoft’s highest profile employees, has decided to depart the French firm after a decade of service. The luminary is perhaps best known for her role as a producer on Assassin’s Creed, but has held multiple positions throughout the company, and was most recently responsible for the formation of...
News Despite PS4's Success, Sony Expects to Lose a Lot of Money Again
Just a few billion
Just when things were starting to look up for Sony chief Kaz Hirai, the sky has come crashing down again. The company has quadrupled the amount of cash that it expects to lose for the current financial year, this time blaming its smartphone business on the issue. It described the problem as “the impairment of goodwill in the...
News Naughty Dog Looks Back on 30 Successful Years in Promo
Fawn over firm's iconic paw print
Naughty Dog is arguably the greatest developer in games today. While the Californian company has fairly humble origins as JAM Software, it exploded in popularity during the mid-90s when it released a little PSone exclusive named Crash Bandicoot. Since then, the company has gone from strength-to-strength, building...
Talking Point Is Indie Becoming a Defunct, Dirty Word?
Term worm
Indie is the video game equivalent of Marmite: a sector of the medium so divisive that it’s simultaneously culpable of both dismay and delight. The very website that you’re reading is evidence of that, but we’re not alone: scuffles and skirmishes more heated than the format wars themselves can be attributed to the increasingly taboo...
