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AI-assisted game studio Harmony Games has closed a $3 million seed funding round.
With the investment, the company aims to grow its mobile market presence and workforce.
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Nintendo will issue new community tournament guidelines that impose age, revenue, and hardware regulations.
Among the changes, tournaments may include up to 200 in-person and 300 online competitors.
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Nintendo is positioning itself to crack down on online content that it considers to infringe upon its copyright.
This is according to the firm's newly updated content guidelines.
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Among the presentations in last month's Game Devs of Color Expo was Achimostawinan Games' talk on Growing Indigenous Worlds in Games, which explored the themes of reappropriation and combating stereotypes of creative works for Indigenous people.
Creative leads Meagan Byrne and Sadekaronhes Esquivel also spoke about their game design inspirations for the March release Hill Agency: Purity Decay, as well as some of their frustrations.
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The number of available roles in the UK games industry declined further this month, with just 1,324 positions currently being advertised.
That's according to the latest Games Jobs Live report, which offers insight into how ongoing uncertainty is affecting recruitment in the games industry.
Artisan Studios is setting up a development studio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Canadian-based company plans to employ over 200 developers in its new offices, collaborating with local artists across the MENA region to develop new IPs.
The developer will expand into publishing its titles, in addition to developing what it says will be "the first AAA titles in the GCC region."
Microsoft has released the results for the first quarter of its financial year, showing a strong start for its gaming business thanks to the launch of Starfield and the inherent impact on Xbox Game Pass.
For the three months ended September 30, 2023, the company reported total revenues of $57 billion (up 13% year-on-year), including $13.7 billion (up 3%) from the More Personal Computing division, which includes Xbox.
Xbox content and services revenue rose 13% year-on-year, driven in part by the launch of Starfield, although hardware sales were down 7%.
Managing and leading people is an essential part of every healthy studio. It's what leads people to stick around and enjoy their work, get the support they need, and it can make or break a development team.
It is also a very challenging and complex role. You are no longer just aiming to deliver the best possible work on the game, but also helping others and the overall team maintain a healthy environment where everyone can do their job effectively.
This is the first question that anyone that is considering the role should be asking themselves. The answer might very well surprise you, so make sure to consider all of this before taking your next step.
Nintendo has removed Need for Spirit: Drink and Drive Simulator from the eShop following an investigation by PEGI.
As reported by Eurogamer, the game was allegedly assigned a PEGI 3+ rating through the International Age Rating Coalition, which "is a free, self-submitted process."
This would suggest that the game is suitable for all ages despite including alcohol and tobacco.
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Warframe maker Digital Extremes has announced that James Schmalz is no longer CEO.
Schmalz will remain on the company's board of directors. Steve Sinclair, previously as creative director, will step into the role.
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Dreams and LittleBigPlanet maker Media Molecule is reportedly looking to cut nearly 20 staffers from the studio.
According to a report by Sports Illustrated, employees were informed about the layoffs via an internal meeting today.
Roll7 has been a remote working studio for seven years now, and as such the OlliOlli and Rollerdome developer might have a little more experience than most in how to make the set-up work.
In a presentation at last month's GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit, Roll7 head of people and operations Nisha Minhas shared some of the studio's learnings on how to embrace remote work for the long haul. While Minhas has 15 years of experience in HR, she got her first taste of remote work during the pandemic, and it made sense for her personal situation.
"For more and more people, remote working is very much becoming a secondary event of the day," Minhas said. "So as HR professionals, I think it's important that we have an awareness of that shift to one in every fourth person, and push ways to create a successful working model that works for us."
The number of game studios in France reporting annual sales above €10 million was up 14.4% year-on-year in 2022, according to a new report from French trade body SNJV.
Over 12% of French studios did reach that €10 million threshold last year. Around 8.3% of them even surpassed €20 million in revenue. The majority was much lower though, with over half of all French studios having an annual revenue below €300,000 in 2022.
The French games industry consisted of 1,000 companies last year, including 577 game development studios. Independent studios made up 39% of the industry.
Roblox China has been hit with layoffs, affecting employees at its headquarters in Shenzhen and teams working in the US.
A spokesperson confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that 15 people were let go due to an "evaluation of the operational structure" of the company, also known as LuoBu.
"Those employees whose roles were impacted have been informed," the spokesperson said. "These actions are specific to LuoBu and its unique business and operational needs. No other teams within LuoBu or Roblox are impacted."
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For the first time in three years, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's pay targets did not include a specific growth milestone for Xbox Game Pass.
A Microsoft SEC filing, spotted by Axios, instead shows Nadella's only games-related performance-based incentive for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023 was to grow Xbox Content and Services revenue by 4.4%.
Amazon Studios' Fallout TV series will premiere on April 12, 2024.
The release date was revealed on social media by the show's official account, featuring Pip-Boy graphics from the franchise.
A teaser was shown earlier this year at Gamescom following a Starfield presentation. Shortly after, Prime Video revealed on X that the series will take place in Los Angeles, focusing on Vault 33.
Staff at video game services firm Experis Game Solutions are seeking to unionize.
Experis Game Solutions was founded in 2009 and offers its services to various publishers and developers.
As reported by Urban Milwaukee, employees filed for union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) last week. The game testers are organizing with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).
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Among Netflix's 247.15 million subscribers, less than 1% of those users play games daily.
As reported by CBNC, this is according to data from market analyst firm Apptopia, which also said that a projected average of 2.2 million users played one or more titles per day as of September.
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Original story, Monday, October 23: Insomniac Games will correct a flag error in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in a future patch.
Shortly after the game's launch, social media posts noted that one of its main characters, Miles Morales' in-game residence features a Cuban flag. The young superhero and his family are Puerto Rican.
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Among Us studio, InnerSloth has announced that it has donated to the relief efforts for Palestinian families.
The company's donation went to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund, which provides medical aid and humanitarian support to children in the Middle East.
Updated: Due to some double counting on Spider-Man 2, we've updated the story with the correct % figures. Previously, we stated Spider-Man 2 is the biggest PS5 launch of the year (it's now Hogwarts Legacy), and that sales were 3% lower than God of War Ragnarok (it was 27% lower).
Spider-Man 2 beat out competition from Super Mario to claim No.1 in the UK boxed retail charts, GfK data reveals.
The PlayStation 5 exclusive had a strong launch. It is the second biggest PS5 boxed launch of the year, just behind the PS5 lauch of Hogwarts Legacy back in February.
PlayStation support studio Visual Arts has been hit with another round of layoffs, with several former employees sharing on social media last week that they have been let go.
"Unfortunately, following a wave of layoffs, last week was my last at PlayStation," former senior level designer at Visual Arts Daniel Bellemare wrote on LinkedIn.
Senior technical recruiter Matt Barney shared a similar update on LinkedIn, adding that he "knew this layoff was coming" and wished those impacted "the best of luck" in their future endeavours.
If you haven't already, please do say hallo to our two new guidesers, Jeremy and Kiera. They've joined us just in time for Halloween and certainly won't be sacrificed in any form of ritual, no, they'll absolutely be around this time next week. In fact, they'll be more than around, they'll be... all over the place. And everything will be peaceful and prosperous for another year for all of us. But Halloween is next week, so what are you playing this weekend? Here's what we're clicking on!
Spider-Man games are skateboarding games, at least in spirit. As you make your way through the concrete jungle of New York, moving from mission to mission, you're forced to recontextualize the mundane. A flagpole becomes a shining launch point, a skyscraper flips onto its side to become a flat surface used to reach up higher and higher. In many ways, skateboarding also encourages this new way of seeing the world around you. Out of the drab and often grey environments of modern cities suddenly spring playgrounds— ultimate assault courses, made up of railings, flatland and make-shift ramps. The thread that runs from Spider-Man to skateboarding is as evident as ever in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, and with the addition of the Web-Wings, there's even a direct analogue to the most game-changing mechanic added to a skating game: the revert from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.
While the first volume of the manga The Summer Hikaru Died dealt with grief, it feels like much of the second is based on the idea of acceptance. From Yoshiki accepting “Hikaru,” learning about “Hikaru” accepting his new life, and even the people in the village accepting things are starting to go wrong after what happened to the real Hikaru. Everyone is learning to deal with life as it is now and, in turn, reacting to it, and Mokumokuren does a fantastic job of showing the results of this.
The introduction of this volume picks up right where the first left off. Yoshiki got a better idea of exactly what “Hikaru” is, and Hikaru is coming to terms with letting go like that in front of the person he’s most connected to. Both of them are still reeling from the experience and information. However, even with Yoshiki knowing getting involved with whatever Hikaru is could lead to bad things not only for him, but the village, he’s willing to do so. The two make up, and we see an opportunity for them to engage in normal activities. Yoshiki helps Hikaru attempt to befriend a cat that didn’t even really care for the real Hikaru. The two of them take Yoshiki’s sister Kaoru to a festival. We even learn more about the death that set every event in motion.
Finnish clothing company Makia has teamed with Remedy to release a line of high-end unisex streetwear inspired by Alan Wake 2.
To celebrate the release of Remedy's highly-anticipated sequel, the "Cult Collection" of clothing "tells stories from darkness" and features jackets, sweatshirts, tees, and a cap.
"The unisex streetwear collection draws inspiration from the nightmarish world of Alan Wake and the enigmatic Cult of Tree featured in the sequel," the team explains on the official website. "Characterised by the cult’s emblems and deer masks worn by the cultists, the collection evokes the eerie and unsettling feel of a small town with a big secret."
Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has issued a tongue-in-cheek correction to South Park after its latest episode featured a joke about the critically acclaimed RPG.
The episode, called "South Park: Joining the Panderverse", sees Cartman live in an alternate reality wherein he curses the fact he can't cross-save the 50 hours he's invested into Baldur's Gate 3 across multiple universes.
Cartman – played by Janeisha Adams-Ginyard, just to sprinkle in a little extra confusion – asks, "do save games not cross multiple universes?", to which Stan confirms: "Save games don't even cross between PCs and PS5s – why would they cross between multiple universes?"
Capcom is teasing a "major unannounced title" for 2024.
Although the developer/publisher has yet to even announce what the game is, according to Capcom's recent investor's report, a "major title" will be available on console and be released in the second half of this financial year – which ends in March 2024, of course.
As posted to Reddit's Gaming Leaks and Rumours community, the report – which is currently only available in Japanese – makes two mentions of the mysterious title, including one that intimates that its release will help the megacorp realise its lofty goal of selling 45 million units on console.
Unreal Engine 5 was announced more than three years ago and we're only now seeing the first wave of third-party UE5 games on PC and consoles. For the audience on PC, these launches are both exciting and terrifying - we're finally seeing all of the eye candy promised by Epic with Lumen, Nanite and Virtual Shadow Maps, but we've also had an array of UE4 titles that have exhibited poor CPU utilisation and instrusive stutters.
With these conflicting emotions in mind, I thought it would be interesting to round up the first generation of UE5 releases to identify the good, great and not-so-great aspects of these titles - an early barometer if you will of how developers are getting to grips with the engine on PC and what it means for the future of UE5 on the platform.
The goal here isn't to cover any one game in exhaustive detail, but rather to give a potpourri of impressions after testing a variety of games including demos of Jusant, Robocop: Rogue City and The Talos Principle 2, and the full releases of Remnant 2, Immortals of Aveum, Lords of the Fallen, Desordre, Fort Solis and Layers of Fear.
Red Barrels has dropped a terrifying new update for The Outlast Trials just in time for Halloween.
The update – which is available now – ushers in the new trial program Geister, as well as a brand new map based in, and around, someone's deliciously sick vision of a courthouse. And blood – lots and lots of blood:
The Outlast Trials is out now in early access on both Steam and Epic Games Store. Set in the height of the Cold War era, players take on the role of test subjects abducted by the shady Murkoff Corporation, where they'll be "thrust into a series of physical and mental ordeals, tormented by iconic characters, and challenged alone or in teams to survive with their sanity intact".
I received some of the most vicious beatdowns ever in a fighting game during the Tekken 8 Closed Beta Test. The element of danger – a back and forth where any mistake meant a vicious turnaround – made matches thrum with energy.
The Tekken 8 Closed Beta Test was the kind of experience where I was always leaning forward in my seat. Always on edge. I am utterly terrible at it. Yet I crave more. I got in quite a few matches during the play period over the weekend. For starters, and most importantly, every match played perfectly smoothly with no hiccups. If I was concerned about whether someone’s connections speed was going to be a hassle, I could look at an indicator to check. The game tells you how fast your opponent’s internet is. Not only this, but it’ll also tell you if it’s a wired or wi-fi connection, if that’s a big issue for you. Heck, it even shows how much processing power it’s taking up on the PC version, so you can see if someone’s computer is having a hard time running it. So, you’re always in the know about your opponent’s connection.
Spirit of the North followed in the wake of indie darlings like Journey and Abzu as a quietly meditative single-player adventure through nature that laid out its moving story without a word of dialogue. Four years on from its release - and three years after it came to PC - developers Infuse Studio have revealed a full sequel.
Gangs of Sherwood, the co-op PvE game inspired by the English folk hero but set in a gritty neo-medieval future closer to the grimdark world of Warhammer, has seen its release date pushed back by almost a month.
Dungeons of Hinterberg popped up during Xbox’s not-E3 showcase over the summer, revealing a beautifully cel-shaded blend of dungeon-crawling, puzzle-solving and relationship-building. Having had a bit more of a look at the game’s social sim aspects via this week’s Xbox Partner Preview - yep, it still looks gorgeous and sounds fantastic.
Mortal Kombat 1 players have hit back at a new Halloween-themed DLC fatality that has a horrifying price tag: $10.
Players can pick up the gruesome jack-o-lantern animation for the princely sum of 1200 Dragon Krystals, a premium in-game currency that sports a current exchange rate of 1250 krystals for $10 USD.
To put that into context, Mortal Kombat 11's Kombat Pack, whilst the preceding title in the series, featured several full DLC characters for just $20. But Mortal Kombat 1 wants the equivalent of $10 for that one fatality, even though it's a premium game that costs at best £60 – or £85 if you forked out for the premium edition.
I’m not sure any of my Lego constructions would hold up to anything more aggressive than an accidental bump or the over-excited nose of a dog, let alone wave after wave of ghastly monsters. Soon I’ll be able to put that hypothesis to the test, as the next game from the creators of shopkeeping-sim-turned-dungeon-diver Moonlighter looks to throw endless horrors at your custom-made grand design.
