GamesIndustry

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Embracer Group is keen to move on from the collapse of a partnership worth at least $2 billion, claiming the deal is now "history" and the company has "taken control in our own hands."

That's according to CEO Lars Wingefors, who was quizzed by investors during the company's latest earnings call (transcribed by Seeking Alpha) about the potential collaboration with an unnamed partner that was revealed back in May.

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Sega has completed its purchase of Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment.

The gaming firm announced the acquisition's finalization on social media.

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A class action lawsuit has been filed against Roblox Corporation, accusing the developer of facilitating "an illegal gambling ecosystem" and violating a federal law.

The complaint was filed in the Northern District of California on August 15 by parents who claimed their children lost money by using the platform's digital currency (Robux) on third-party gambling websites, Bloomberg Law reported.

The complaint accused the developer of unfair competition, negligence, unjust enrichment, and civil conspiracy.

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This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check back every Friday for a new entry.

Remember blockchain gaming? It's been almost exactly a year since we last focused on it in this space.

I hope you enjoyed that time off, because it's time to talk about it again as Zynga finally gave us the first peek at what its blockchain division has been doing for the past two years.

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In the final episode of this series of the Playable Futures Podcast, Will Freeman chats to Mitu Khandaker, CEO and Co-Founder of mobile studio Glow Up Games, about the impact of AI on games and what they mean for the future of play.

Whatever your views are on AI, it’s very much here to stay. But what does it mean for video games - and is it quite as terrifying as some might have us believe?

As the former Creative Partnerships Director at Spirit AI, an artificial intelligence company that aims to foster safer online communities by using language detection technology in online spaces, Mitu Khandaker knows a thing or two about where AI might be taking us.

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If there's one topic that's remained resolutely evergreen in the games business for the past couple of decades, it's the topic of online anti-social behaviour and how best to police it.

Since the earliest days of online gaming, there have been a minority of players who ruin the experience for other people, and a discussion about how best to tackle that problem.

In the early days, that discussion was often somewhat philosophical in nature – questions of how to balance some high-minded ideas about freedom of expression against creating a welcoming environment for all players were debated by the operators of Quakeworld servers and gaming IRC channels at a length that would have given the founders of actual nations pause.

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Take-Two has enforced a shutdown of a Grand Theft Auto 5 mod relying on generative AI, its creator has claimed.

As reported by Eurogamer, the publisher issued a DMCA takedown which led to the removal of the Sentient Streets mod from modding platform Nexus Mods as well as a video showcasing its gameplay on YouTube.

In a statement published to YouTube, the mod's creator, known under the name Bloc, claimed that "no-one from Take-Two Interactive contacted and asked [them] anything prior to this" adding that the firm "just took down the video out of nowhere." They said the publisher decided to take a "non-communicative approach."

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Savvy Games Studios, owned by Savvy Games Group, has rebranded to Steer Studios.

The company's new name was attributed to aligning with its goal of growing its global market presence.

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Next week, the global games industry will be heading to Cologne, Germany for a week of conferences and trade show, and it all kicks off with the Devcom Developer Conference.

Returning once again to the usual venue of Koelnmesse, the event will see more than 200 speakers spread across over 130 sessions, discussing every aspect of development, publishing and growing the games industry.

We've scoured the program and picked out some of the best sessions, and you can also browse the full program here.

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Remedy Entertainment has announced that Alan Wake 2's release date has moved to October 27, giving it more space in a month of multiple new AAA title launches.

The studio originally planned an October 17 date for the horror sequel.

"October is an amazing month for game launches, and we hope this date shift gives more space for everyone to enjoy their favorite games," said Remedy.

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In today's Microcast, we discuss two of the biggest stories of the week.

First, we debate Microsoft's newly announced Xbox enforcement system, which will issue 'strikes' to players for violations of its code of conduct ranging from cheating and profanity to harassment and hate speech. Eight strikes earns a one-year suspension, but is the system too lenient? And how effective do we think it will be at addressing the issue of toxicity in multiplayer games?

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Microsoft has announced that it will be closing the digital Xbox 360 Store on July 29, 2024.

Consumers will not be able to purchase games, DLC, and content from the store on 360 consoles and the Xbox 360 Marketplace.

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Kowloon Nights, London Venture Partners and Hiro Capital complete the speaker schedule for the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit in Seattle.

The event takes place the day before PAX at the Seattle Convention Center, and also features talks from Xbox, Valve, Shawn Layden, Square Enix Collective and TinyBuild. Tickets are on sale here starting from $50 (+ booking fee) for developers.

The speakers will be joined by over 65 game developers and more than 25 publishers and investors, who have already signed up to the show.

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Today's reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will cement the all-important Q4 line-up that may prove crucial in boosting console sales this Christmas.

Xbox sales have been slow this year, dropping 13% in the most recent quarter, and while PlayStation's sales are good, Sony has said they were below expectations.

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NetEase Games has announced the creation of a new development studio in Austin, Texas.

Called T-Minus Zero Entertainment, the studio will be led by industry veteran Rich Vogel, of Ultima Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic fame. Vogel had most recently been working at Certain Affinity as VP of production and online services.

Joining him as game director is Mark Tucker, former design director at Bethesda and game designer for the past 22 years.

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In recent years, mental health in the games industry has become a major point of discussion. The growing conversation around it has started to destigmatise talking about mental health in the workplace and organisations are now becoming better equipped to help their staff.

Back in May, BAFTA and Safe In Our World held their first-ever Games Mental Health Summit. This was the first time I really noticed the conversation around mental health in games start to move from a reactive approach – one where games companies develop initiatives to help employees after the fact – to a proactive approach, one that looks deeper into the 'why' of the industry's mental health concerns.

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Prytania Media has announced the opening of two new AAA development studios: Fang & Claw and Dawon Entertainment.

The latest additions to Prytania Media will join sister studios Possibility Space and Crop Circle Games.

Fang & Claw will be led by studio head Jeremy Gaffney, co-founder of Turbine Entertainment and former senior director at Blizzard. This studio will focus on fantasy combat sports.

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If you say the name Portal to most people in the games industry, what will jump to mind is Valve's classic first-person puzzle series.

But for some of the leading developers and publishers in Sweden, they might think of the UK-based marketing creative agency led by Josh Heaton.

Heaton is a familiar face to the team here at GamesIndustry.biz. He ran Gamer Creative, which was the multi award nominated in-house creative agency of our parent company and produced many impressive ad campaigns for publishers such as Sega, Creative Assembly and more… some you might have seen on our sister site, Eurogamer.

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Electronic Arts and Sony have been ordered to pay €10,800 ($11,800) to gamers who bought FIFA Ultimate Team packs in Austria.

The order comes from Landesgericht für Zivilrechtssachen Wien, which is a regional court in Vienna. The court ruled that these loot boxes violate gambling laws. However, this is a standalone decision, and has no wider impact on the country's legal position on loot boxes.

In Austria, civil cases are taken on a case-by-case basis, and the courts are not bound by previous decisions.

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It's rare to be given an insight into the development of an AAA game like Cyberpunk 2077. But Max Pears, former senior level designer at developer CD Projekt Red, discussed the inner workings of the studio and its philosophies during his talk at Develop Brighton last month.

Pears' talk, entitled 'Johnny Silverhand's Porsche: Designing levels for Cyberpunk 2077,' was explicitly targeting level designers, but also touched upon CD Projekt Red's workplace environment, sharing his experience working with the level design team on Cyberpunk 2077 and its upcoming DLC, Phantom Liberty (due to release on September 26).

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We typically publish our review roundups within a couple of days of a title's release. But things have been a bit different with Baldur's Gate 3.

Developer Larian cut it pretty close to its PC launch date of August 3 when it came to sending review codes, plus Baldur's Gate 3 is a game of epic proportions – which means most publications have either waited to publish their thoughts, or published reviews in progress.

For the past ten days, the industry has almost been holding its breath to see whether Baldur's Gate 3's near perfect Metacritic score would drop down as more reviews were starting to appear. And as the dust is starting to settle, it's fair to say the verdict is unanimous: with a metascore of 97 at the time of writing, Baldur's Gate 3 is currently the best-rated game of the year.

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A record number of 1,220 exhibitors from 63 countries have registered to attend this year's Gamescom, according to its organisers.

That's a 7% increase from last year, which saw 1,135 exhibitors from 53 countries visit the event following a two-year hiatus. The foreign share of exhibitors increased to 76% compared to 75% last year.

The exhibition space for Gamescom 2023 has increased by 4.5% to approximately 230,000 square metres to accommodate the influx of exhibitors, with the event returning to Koelnmesse next week, from August 23 to 27.

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Microsoft has unveiled a new strike-based enforcement system for Xbox.

In an interview with The Verge, corporate vice president of Xbox player services Dave McCarthy says that the decision was attributed to making community standards more straightforward to users.

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Kotaku editor-in-chief Patricia Hernandez has reportedly been fired following a personnel disagreement.

That's according to journalist Shannon Liao, who spoke to Hernandez after she announced via social media that yesterday was her last day at the site.

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When we first heard from Treehouse Games, it was 2020 and the startup of six people was just getting started with a vision of creating cooperative social connection-building games for an audience that sees gaming as a venue to hang out with friends, the way others might go to get a coffee or dinner.

Since then, we've seen the advent and decline of the metaverse, with major companies chasing that dream as a driver of future growth for a while before shifting the marketing message to Generative AI as the next big thing.

With the bloom off the metaverse rose, Treehouse last month looked up from its work to release a teaser for its first project, the strictly cooperative survival crafting game tentatively known as Codename: Islands.

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Creating a more inclusive games industry requires a lot of work and longevity. Such efforts across the business sector have gained traction over the years. Recent years have seen a number of organizations and platforms created to help overlooked communities find a place in the industry, among them Black Voices in Gaming.

Since its establishment in 2020, Black Voices in Gaming has tried to stay the course with its mission statement: to uplift and showcase the contributions of Black game developers and has become a staple at media showcases.

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Black Voices in Gaming has announced the first class of developers for the Xperience Excellence Accelerator.

In partnership with Netflix Games, the mobile games-focused initiative will provide the game creators with networking and industry education.

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Valve will be attending the GI Investment Summit at PAX in Seattle this month to discuss Steam Visibility.

The firm's Erik Peterson will be sharing insight into how video games actually get serviced on the hugely popular PC digital store.

He joins big name speakers at the event including Shawn Layden, the former head of PlayStation's studios and current advisor to companies such as Tencent. And Xbox's general manager of game creator partnerships Jen MacLean. We will announce the full speaker schedule tomorrow.

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Zynga yesterday announced its first blockchain game, Sugartown, as reported by VentureBeat.

The game is built on the Ethereum network, and requires players to use ERC-721 Ora tokens to play minigames and earn in-game currency.

It is the first announced Web3 project for the company since it jumped into the space with the appointment of VP of blockchain Matt Wolf nearly two years ago, shortly before the company was acquired by Take-Two Interactive.

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Netflix has launched a limited beta to test its cloud gaming service.

Starting today, a small number of subscribers in Canada and the UK will be able to play games on their TV using the Netflix Game Controller app.

The beta aims to "test [its] game streaming technology and controller, and to improve the member experience over time," said Mike Verdu, VP of Netflix Gaming, in a post on the firm's website.

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PS5 games were once again in control of the UK boxed charts this week, thanks to summer sales and price bundling.

GfK's report showed that four of the Top Ten best-selling boxed games saw sales comfortably led by their PS5 edition, plus PlayStation exclusive Gran Turismo rounded off the charts at No.10.

The top three remain the same as last week, with Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga leading the charts, despite a 32% drop in sales. The PS5 edition sold almost double that of the next biggest SKU, which was the Nintendo Switch.

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One of this year's breakout indie hits has been Dave The Diver.

Developed by MINTROCKET, The game challenges players to collect fish to supply a sushi restaurant, which involves collecting resources, crafting new items, fighting giant underwater creatures, perform quests for people and managing a restaurant. It's certainly different.

"I got the idea from a Japanese-style pub on the Jeju Island seaside that only opens at night," explains Jaeho Hwang, who is the director on Dave the Diver at developer MINTROCKET.

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Activision Blizzard has withdrawn its legal complaint against a TikTok user that had threatened to sue the publisher for using one of their audio clips without consent.

Last month, Activision filed a suit against music critic Anthony 'The Needle Drop' Fantano, accusing him of demanding an "extortionate amount of money" to use a soundbite the company claimed could be legally used for promotional content.

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Savvy Games Group has been revealed as the strategic partner that backed out of the $2 billion deal with Embracer Group.

As reported by Axios, sources familiar with the matter revealed the involvement of the Saudi Arabia government-backed gaming firm. They did not have details as to why the deal collapsed.

While the $2 billion partnership fell through, the two companies are still linked to each other. Last year, Savvy Gaming Group bought a $1 billion stake in Embracer, taking about 8% of the firm's shares.

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Ubisoft has announced that Assassin's Creed Mirage's launch date has moved to October 5, putting more space between it and a stacked lineup of new releases later in the month.

The firm initially planned an October 12 launch for the adventure title.

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During July in Japan, the Nintendo Switch reached a lifetime sales total of 30 million consoles.

Famitsu's monthly retail sales data from June 26 to July 30 shows that the console sold 407,000 units across its standard, Lite, and OLED systems.

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More huge platform holders, investors and publishers have signed-up to the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit at PAX this month.

Nintendo, Limited Run, Kowloon Nights, Kepler, Hooded Horse, Retrovibe and Serenity Forge have all signed-up to meet indie developers and their games at the event.

The Investment Summit at PAX will take place at the Seattle Convention Center on Thursday, August 31st. Tickets are on sale now and start from $50 + booking fee.

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