Tag: Industry - Page 5
News Sony's Shuhei Yoshida, Greg Rice Will Deliver Opening Keynote at Brighton Dev Expo
Indie experts take the stage
PlayStation's Shuhei Yoshida and Greg Rice will present the opening keynote at the Develop: Brighton gaming expo in July, it's been confirmed. A conference designed for game developers, the two indie experts will host the "Supporting Indies and Creativity in Game Development" keynote in Brighton, UK on 11th July 2024...
News Horizon: Call of the Mountain PSVR2 Director Made Redundant by Dev Firesprite
"Its been a tough time over the past few months"
After almost seven years at the studio, Alex Barnes, director of PSVR2 spinoff Horizon: Call of the Mountain, has been made redundant by Liverpoool-based developer Firesprite. In March, a report from Eurogamer alleged that a toxic work culture had been allowed to develop at the PlayStation f
News Encouraged by Baldur's Gate 3, Hasbro Bets $1 Billion on Internal Game Development
"In a lot of ways, it makes sense for Hasbro to be in this space"
Revolutionary RPG Baldur's Gate 3 was the surpise hit of 2023; a confluence of contributing factors that led to Larian's creating a once-in-a-generation level experience. But Larian has left the building, moving onwards and upwar
News OlliOlli, Kerbal Space Program Teams Shut Down by GTA Publisher
Roll7 and Intercept Games shuttered
Take-Two will shut down OlliOlli World and Rollerdrome studio Roll7 as well as Kerbal Space Program team Intercept Games as it looks to cut five per cent of its workforce. The news was revealed by
News Deliver Us Mars Dev Lays Off Team Due to Lack of Publishing Options
Publisher's purse strings pulled tight
Deliver Us the Moon, Deliver Us Mars developer KeokeN Interactive has laid off its entire team due to a lack of publishing options — a worrying sign of things to come. Co-founder and CEO Koen Deetman warned last month that this might be the case following the frosty reception many smaller studios seeking...
Revised approach to HD game development formed
Square Enix appears to have cancelled or at least rescoped the size of multiple unannounced games as a result of an internal review into its development process, with a "content disposal" loss totalling 22.1 billion yen, or $141 million. As a result of the investigation, the publisher shall "revise the...
News Embracer CEO Admits Mistakes Were Made: 'I Could Take a Lot of That Blame Myself'
Wingefors comments on mass layoffs
Following the collapse of a "verbal agreement" reportedly worth $2 billion with the Saudi-funded Savvy Games, Embracer Group entered into a brutal nine-month restructuring programme that resulted in the loss of some 1,400 employees and the cancellation of dozens of unannounced games. CEO Lars Wingefors, whose...
News Atari Revives Classic Video Game Brand Infogrames
What's old is new again
The name Infogrames will ring a bell for many gamers out there; the name appeared on many popular titles on pretty much every platform. Now, the brand is making a comeback. Atari has announced the revival of Infogrames as a new publishing label. It'll publish and distribute games "that fall outside the core portfolio of IP...
News Long-Time SMT Series 'Demon Artist', Kazuma Kaneko, Departs Atlus
After 35 years with the legendary developer
Kazuma Kaneko, whose career as a character designer at legendary JRPG studio Atlus has spanned almost four decades, has officially left the company. Kaneko has joined COLOPL, a developer and publisher headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, where he will work on a new IP. News comes to us through a creator...
News Embracer Group Is Now Splitting into Three Separate Companies
Embrace the chaos
Embracer Group, the company best known for acquiring an obscene number of studios, publishers, and intellectual property and then laying off thousands when that didn't work out, is set to split into three separate entities. Following its massive restructuring plan, the business is dividing into a trio of companies, each with their...
News Sony Reportedly in Talks to Team Up for Paramount Bid
Sony Pictures Entertainment on the prowl
News has been quiet on the acquisition front in recent days, at least when it comes to video game IP. However, according to a new report, Sony is currently in talks with a monied ally to acquire storied picture-house Paramount and all the cross-media potential such an addition would bring. That's according...
News GTA Publisher Laying Off 5% of Workforce and Cancelling 'Several' Games
Around 600 people will lose their jobs
Grand Theft Auto owner Take-Two has announced it's laying off around five per cent of its more than 11,500-employee-strong workforce in an effort to save $165 million annually. Around 600 full-time workers will be affected by the layoffs, and some unannounced games within the publisher are to be cancelled as a...
News UK Studio Kwalee Announces Layoffs to Make Room for New Hires
Saying the quiet part out loud
UK studio and publisher Kwalee has revealed recent staff cuts were made to "reshape" the company's business around "significant growth opportunities." The company has layed off approximately 10% of its workforce, around 40 people, in recent months. Despite that, Kwalee stressed it expects to grow its headcount...
News Stellar Blade Director Emphasises Importance of 'Single-Player Games with an Ending'
Variety key to market health
The video game landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade or so, with live, online, evolving experiences becoming more and more commonplace. While there are still plenty of meaty single-player titles being conjured up for players each year, there's definitely been an industry-wide pull, rightly or wrongly,...
News Saber Interactive CEO Defends Embracer Group's Controversial Acquisition Strategy
"Give Lars a break"
Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch has defended Embracer's controversial mass acquisition strategy, which, last we checked, had resulted in the loss of some 1,400 jobs and the cancellation of 29 unannounced games. Karch made the comments in a new interview with IGN (thanks,
News $70 Games Are Just a Phase, Believes Saber Interactive CEO
They will "go the way of the dodo"
Video games retailing at £70 / $70 is just a temporary thing, Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch believes. Speaking to IGN following the company's split from the Embracer Group, he reckons the price point is not sustainable as production costs continue to increase, so a middle ground needs to be found where...
News Yuji Naka Surfaces to Accuse Recently Ousted Dragon Quest Producer of 'Lying in Court'
Drama alert
Convicted white-collar criminal Yuji Naka, Sonic creator and director of the ill-fated Balan Wonderworld, has broken his self-imposed silence for the first time in almost 16 months. He used the opportunity to accuse Square Enix's recently re-tasked Dragon Quest XII: Flames of Fate producer Yu Miyake of "lying in court”. On
News Games Industry Mass Layoffs an 'Avoidable F*ck Up', Says Larian Studios Publishing Director
Based Larian
The developers behind last year's breakout RPG Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios, have since used the platform allowed by their success to rail against the many ills currently plaguing the video game industry (where possible). CEO and founder Swen Vincke recently called out publishers' greed as being to blame, saying that "they've been...
News Older Live Service Titles Take Up Over 60% of Overall Playtime, Report Says
Fortnite, GTA 5, Call of Duty the most played PS5, PS4 games
Older live service games like Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft make up more than 60 per cent of the gaming community's overall playtime, a new report from Newzoo reveals. Based on data collected throughout last year, it is said the amount of time people play games is trending down and those...
Random Vladimir Putin Considers Creation of Russian Gaming Console
In an effort to develop Russia's native games industry
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly instructed his government to begin exploring the creation of a Russian games console in an apparent attempt to reboot the Russian gaming industry. That's according to the Russian-controlled state media apparatus RT (thanks, VGC), which details a...
News New PlayStation CEO Hiroki Totoki Starts Temporary Role Today
Will aid search for Jim Ryan's successor
Sony president Hiroki Totoki will today step into his new role as PlayStation CEO following Jim Ryan's retirement after a more than 30-year tenure at the company. While retaining his duties across the wider business, Totoki's main objective will be to aid the search for a true successor to Jim Ryan while...
News Microtransactions Don't Belong in a Single Player Game, Says The Witcher Dev
But they have a place in multiplayer
CD Projekt RED has essentially committed to none of its future single player games featuring microtransactions as the Polish developer states it doesn't "see a place for microtransactions in the case of single player games". The studio's CFO Piotr Nielubowicz said as such in an investor's chat via StockWatch.pl,...
News Game Pass Woes for Indie Devs as Microsoft, Epic Funding Reportedly Drying Up
"The gold rush is over"
It looks as though the plump pockets of big corporations like Epic and Microsoft are beginning to empty, and it's putting some smaller studios in an awkward position. After offering funds in exchange for exclusivity or availability on Game Pass, many indie devs have come to rely on these deals to finance their projects...
News Layoffs Hit Gearbox Staff Hours After Embracer Sale
Like clockwork
Less than a day after the news that Take-Two Interactive would acquire Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment from the embattled Embracer Group, layoffs have already begun. In the hours since former Gearbox employees were made redundant, they've taken to Twitter, and while the total number of staff impacted remains hard to...
News SEGA Drops Relic Entertainment and Cuts Back Across the UK
Around 240 jobs lost
SEGA has sold off primarily PC-based strategy game developer Relic Entertainment, and is in the process of cutting up to 240 jobs across its various UK studios. Relic, which makes the Company of War games, will become an independent studio moving forwards, and said in a short statement that it remains on good terms with its...
News Take-Two Will Acquire Borderlands Dev Gearbox Entertainment
$460 million deal makes sense
Take-Two has announced plans to acquire Gearbox Entertainment from the embattled Embracer Group, in a deal reported to be worth $460 million. The buyout makes logical sense, as Gearbox Entertainment will operate under the framework of 2K Games, which has long been the publisher of the popular Borderlands series. It’ll...
News Judge Rules in Sony's Favour in $500m Controller Comms Lawsuit
Communication is key
A US judge has ruled that Sony did not infringe on another company's patented technology with its PlayStation hardware, specifically in regard to how consoles and controllers communicate. As detailed by GamesIndustry.biz, Genuine Enabling Technology (GET) first filed a complaint against Sony back in 2017, claiming that the...
News Don't Nod Has Seven Games in the Works, Four of Them Unannounced
Reorganizing around RPGs, narrative adventure, action adventure branches
Don't Nod, once the developer best known for the quirky adventure game Life is Strange, has seven games in development, four of which remain unannounced. With releases like Vampyr and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden under its belt (and more on the way), it's clear that the...
Random Neuralink Brain Implant Patient Pulls All-Nighter Playing Civilisation 6
"It was awesome”
The first human recipient of a Neuralink brain implant has put the futuristic tech to work, which, amongst some truly incredible other things, includes staying up all night playing Sid Meier's Civilization VI, which is something we can certainly get behind. Back in January, billionaire Neuralink co-founder Elon Musk announced on...
News Devs Allegedly Pondering the Point of Sony's PS5 Pro Upgrade
"Many feel they're not making the most out of PS5 yet"
There have been two big stories on the ground at GDC this year: Xbox’s flatlining brand and the purpose of the PS5 Pro. Speaking as part of a podcast, GamesIndustry.biz’s well-connected reporter Christopher Dring noted that he didn’t meet a “single person” at the show that understood...
News Development of Santa Monica Studios' Next PS5 Game Appears to Be Going Swimmingly
Judging by Barlog's general demenour
Sony's first-party Santa Monica Studio is currently working on a new PS5 game, that much is known, having wrapped development on God of War Ragnarok with the release of the essential Valhalla DLC. If we had to bet, it will be quite some time before we hear anything more concrete, but one thing's for sure:...
News Xbox Planning to Release the 'Majority' of Its Exclusives on PS5
Third-parties apparently unsure whether to support Microsoft's system
Xbox will apparently release the “majority” of its tentpole first-party titles on PS5 in the future, as its multiformat strategy gathers pace. Earlier in the year, the Redmond firm broadcast a strategic business meeting, where it announced four console exclusive titles –...
News Celebrate Jim Ryan's Legacy with Iconic Digital Bobblehead
"Happy retirement, Jim!"
A stunning digital tribute to outgoing PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan is now available for those who wish to celebrate the suit's legacy - in style. Players can pick up the collectable, posed like a modern-day Napoleon, through the digital platform PlayStation Stars; all you have to do is play a game Ryan "championed" during...
News Larian Studios' Swen Vincke Blames Mass Layoffs on Publisher Greed
"They've been fu**ing this whole thing up for so long"
Swen Vincke, director of Baldur's Gate 3 and founder of developer Larian Studios, used the opportunity afforded by winning big at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) to blame the industry's current state on rampant corporate greed, a sentiment we can get behind. Plenty of developers made their...
News Ubisoft's NEO NPC Prototype Offers a Glimpse at a Generative AI Future for Games
You talking to me?
Ubisoft has never been one to shy away from new and upcoming technology, and as you'd expect, it's been experimenting with implementation of generative AI in video games. The publisher unveiled its NEO NPC project at GDC, an early prototype that aims to explore how AI tech can make in-game characters and experiences more...
News Legendary PlayStation First-Party Architect Connie Booth Joins EA
Whipping Dragon Age, Mass Effect into shape for starters
Veteran Sony executive Connie Booth exited PlayStation after a 30-year career at the firm, a surprising move that caused some confusion late last year after outspoken God of War creator David Jaffe let the cat out of the bag on social media. We still don't have the full details on her...
News Sony Reportedly Undertaking Internal Investigation Following Leaked PS5 Pro Specs
Alright, which one of you jokers was it?
Sony is reportedly undertaking an internal investigation to determine how exactly the specs for Trinity, the codename by which the colloquially-named PS5 Pro is internally known, leaked so entirely over the weekend. The incident occurred during a third-party developer rollout, and while we may never learn the...
News Sony Allegedly Pausing PSVR2 Production Due to Surplus of Unsold Stock
VRy concerning
Sony has allegedly paused production of its PSVR2 headset while it works to clear a surplus of stock, according to an article by Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki, who has had his stories corrected by the manufacturer in the past. The article, citing unnamed sources “familiar” with the firm’s plans, claims the p
News KOTOR Remake Still Sounds Like It's Far, Far Away from Releasing on PS5
Development began a long time ago
It feels like the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake has been frozen in carbonite forever. And yet, somehow, the unfortunate project is still quite a while away from being ready for launch. Announced in 2021 with Aspyr at the helm, the project has been in Saber Interactive's hands since at least August...
News Saber Interactive Will Split from Embracer Group in Complicated But Amicable Divestment
Described as a win-win for both
The collapse of the utterly reckless Embracer Group continues to occur publicly, as juggernaut development unit Saber Interactive has announced plans to split from the embattled Swedish organisation. The division will be purchased by Beacon Interactive, a new holding firm controlled by Saber Interactive’s co-founder...
News E3's Spirit Lives on with Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest on 7th June
Back for more
E3 is comfortably six feet under at this point, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be bereft of video game shenanigans this summer. Host Geoff Keighley has announced that his Summer Game Fest event will return on Friday, 7th June at 5PM PT/5PM ET/10PM BST. It’ll be broadcast live from the YouTube Theatre in glitzy Los Angeles...
News Stellar Blade Dev Shift Up to Secure the Bag As It Plots Public Shares
Made it
Shift Up may be about to make its console debut with PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade, but the developer already has a behemoth gacha in its back pocket in the form of the saucy third-person shooter, NIKKE: Goddess of Victory. Unsurprisingly, then, it’s about to be rolling in cash as it plans to take its company public via the Korean Stock...
News God of War Legend Stig Asmussen Opens New Studio, Plans AAA Single-Player Action Game
Another one
Stig Asmussen, the ex-Sony Santa Monica Studio veteran who directed God of War 3 — and went on to direct Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor at Respawn Entertainment — has just established his own studio. Named Giant Skull, the developer's first project is a "AAA single-player focused action adventure". Sounds...
News Sony Partner Deviation Games Shuttered Before Shipping Its First PS5 Project
And that's the end of that
It’s been said countless times, but it’s worth repeating: shipping games is hard. It’s especially difficult to cultivate new studios, regardless of whether they’re founded by veterans with insane talent, like ex-Treyarch veterans Jason Blundell and Dave Anthony in this instance. There was a lot of excitement around...
News Exclusivity Is the Achilles' Heel of Huge Blockbusters, Says Former PlayStation Exec
Well-liked suit Shawn Layden chimes in on industry trends
There’s a huge amount of chatter about exclusivity in the aftermath of Microsoft’s decision to port select titles to PlayStation and choppy waters in the industry at large. This year alone has seen thousands of game developers laid off, as the industry
Touching stuff
Manga icon Akira Toriyama’s untimely passing has led to an outpouring of emotion across the entire Internet, with tributes being paid all over social media. But one particularly poignant post that caught our attention is this clip of Dragon Ball XenoVerse 2, where fans all gathered in a lobby to pay their respects to the legendary...
News Dragon Ball Manga Icon Akira Toriyama Passes Aged 68
Created characters for Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger, and more
Akira Toriyama, the artist behind iconic manga like Dragon Ball, has passed away aged 68. His death was confirmed by the official Dragon Ball website, which noted that he still had “several works in the middle of creation”. A statement added: “He has left many manga titles and works...
News Capcom Increases Starting Salary of Employees in Japan by Around 25%
Existing employees will get a bump, too
Resurgent developer and publisher Capcom has announced that it will increase the salary of starting employees in Japan by more than 25%, beginning at the start of its fiscal year 2025. In addition, current employees will receive a pay rise and a bonus as the company seeks to further invest in its most valuable...
News Helldivers 2 Dev Pours Cold Water on PlayStation Acquisition Rumours
"This is fake"
Earlier today, rumours started swirling that PlayStation was moments away from announcing its acquisition of Arrowhead Game Studios, the Swedish team behind the wildly successful Helldivers 2. While the two parties already have a strong relationship – Sony has published both of the Helldivers titles – founder Johan Pilestedt was...
Reaction What Is Happening to the Video Games Industry and Why Are There So Many Layoffs?
The state of play
You could be forgiven for thinking the video game industry is collapsing, and you may be wondering why. Last week, PlayStation announced it was laying off over 900 employees and shutting its long-running London Studio, and it’s not alone. There have been thousands upon thousands of jobs cut across the entire industry, and...
