Staff layoffs have hit media site Fanbyte today, the exact number of affected employees is currently unknown.
Among those laid off was editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau, head of media/editor-at-large John Warren, and features editor Elise Favis.
The layoffs were brought to public attention when Riendeau announced she was made redundant on Twitter.
The Game Devs of Color Expo returns today, and there's many talks throughout the multi-day event to tune into.
Originally established by Catt Small and Chris Algoo in 2016, the expo is now on its seventh run. You can read more about the conference's beginnings in our interview with the founders here.
This year's talks range from perspectives on studio funding, unionization, and understanding music copyright. Below are just a few of the sessions you might want to consider watching.
Over the last few years, developers have become more aware of how important representation is. More and more characters of diverse races, genders and sexualities have come to the forefront of mainstream games. But one minority seems to have been overlooked: neurodiversity, especially those of us on the autism spectrum.
The UKIE Games Industry Census 2022 stated that the sector has a higher proportion of neurodivergent people working within it than the working age population, with 18% of respondents stating they have at least one neurodevelopmental condition. While the video game industry has been open to accepting employees on the spectrum, there seems to be a lack of autistic characters featured within video games themselves.
Alice Cooper, a lead on Autistica's Autistica Play programme, is keen to see this change: "Not enough progress has been made in autistic game character representation and we still have a long way to go. A couple of characters that stand out as good examples are River in To The Moon and Overwatch's Symmetra, although it took a fan theory about Symmetra being autistic for the developers to confirm that indeed she is.
Adopt Me, one of the biggest titles on the Roblox platform, has shut down in two countries due to regulations around loot boxes.
As announced by the team, access to the game was disabled in The Netherlands and Belgium on September 13 as part of a "Roblox-led program to comply with this law," and it expects "other Roblox games to be making these changes in the following weeks."
The team is attempting to make changes that will see access to Adopt Me restored in the two territories, but added that "this process could take a long time as we don't want to compromise the quality of the game."
Games-centric TV and streaming broadcaster G4TV has reportedly laid off between 20 and 30 members of staff this week.
That's according to Kotaku, citing three sources familiar with the matter who say the redundancies came by surprise; some staff had even shown up on set to begin filming before being told their programming had been cancelled.
Affected staff are said to have been given between 16 weeks and six month severance pay, based on how long they've worked for G4TV parent company Comcast.
UK media outfit Future has announced a series of layoffs across its publications, despite the high profit margins forecast for the end of the month.
While the extent of the layoffs is uncertain, editorial staff across brands including TechRadar Gaming, Android Central, Windows Central and iMore have been affected.
"It is with regret that a very small number of colleagues were affected, following a structure change to one vertical of our extensive brands," Future said in a Twitter statement. "With the current climate and addressing these challenges, it was a very difficult decision for us to make."
Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is expected to be investigated extensively by both UK and EU regulators.
Earlier this month, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority recommended it begin a second-phase investigation into impact of the deal, concerned that Microsoft's ownership of Activision Blizzard would "result in a substantial lessening of competition within a market or markets in the United Kingdom."
Microsoft was given five business days to supply evidence that would allay these concerns, but the Financial Times reports it has opted not to do so.
All GI Live: London attendees are invited to a free drinks reception on Thursday, September 22nd.
Courtesy of Renaissance PR and Amiqus, the drinks will immediately follow the conclusion of the event and take place between 6pm and 8pm at the Novotel Excel at the Upper Deck Bar.
“We are really proud to support GI Live as a quintessential moment in the game industry calendar for learning new tendence and networking with the best opinion leaders in the business," says Renaissance boss Stefano Petrullo.
During this year's Roblox Developers Conference, it was announced that in-game ads will be rolled out next year in Roblox.
The advertisements will be 3D, easily identifiable, and they will be native on the platform.
"Brands and developers alike will be able to build never-before-seen ad experiences on Roblox, including portals that can seamlessly transport users back and forth between experiences," the platform said.
Gaming firm EA has announced that the Sims 4 will become a free-to-play game on October 18.
The base game will be available for free to new consumers across its PC and console versions.
"Our community has continued to inspire us with the billions of unique Sims they've created, the countless stories they've told, and the remarkable builds they've designed," the company said.
The upheaval in 343 Industries' senior ranks may be larger than previously thought, as Lords of Gaming is reporting that the studio's director of engineering David Berger is also leaving the company.
The outlet cited two sources who wish to remain anonymous with the news.
GamesIndustry.biz had received an anonymous tip about Berger's departure as well. When asked for comment, a Microsoft spokesperson only provided a generic statement on leadership changes at the studio that had already been confirmed with Monday's departure of 343 Industries studio head Bonnie Ross. The comment did not address Berger or his position in any way.
Original Story, Wednesday, September 14: Game Informer's Reiner announced that he will be departing the publication as he transitions to a career in game development.
Reiner has been with the magazine for nearly 30 years and in the past two years served as its editor-in-chief.
In his statement, he reflected upon his career in games media and experiences while working at Game Informer.
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Catt Small has been making games since 2011. During the early years of her career, she made friends with a number of people in Brooklyn, New York who were also interested in development and she soon came to notice something.
"New York is very diverse, there are a lot of people who want to make games there, but then when you start to actually network with people in the industry, things don't reflect the local scene," she tells GamesIndustry.biz. "As I started to go to games industry events across the United States, I was not seeing nearly as much diversity as I was seeing in New York in terms of the people who were excited about the idea of making games. I started to get pretty lonely, and my friend Chris Algoo and I met some folks who were starting to feel the same way."
Agloo and Small began running games events at the New York University Politechnical Institute (now the Tandon School of Engineering), starting with the formation of a group called Brooklyn Gamery. As this endeavour grew, Small and her colleague realised their passion was not only for making games, but drawing together communities of diverse individuals to "make games and really bring that New York vibe."
Electronic Arts has partnered with Japanese publisher Koei Tecmo and its Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force to develop a new AAA IP.
The title, which is currently unnamed, is described as "the next great hunting game," and is based in fantasy feudal Japan. More details about the project are expected later this month.
The partnership is a departure from EA Originals' usual strategy of partnering with independent studios. EA launched Originals in 2016, and said at the time that it was about "supporting small developers and helping them make the most of their games."
Solon Bucholtz and Dennis Molloy co-founded Vancouver-based LBC Studios in 2015 with a very clear goal in mind: to make games about marijuana "that spoke authentically to the community."
"We knew that everybody at the time – in Canada at least and globally in the cannabis culture – was looking for transitions as things became normal. Everybody in Canada was thinking about cannabis from the traditional production and distribution side. Myself and my partner, being part of that culture as well, recognized that gaming was a very exciting new vertical, and apps were growing," Bucholtz tells GamesIndustry.biz.
"We looked at the game space and realized that no one had really appealed to that culture and group of people in a meaningful and authentic way."
Activision has banned 500,000 Call of Duty accounts to date, following ramped up efforts to combat toxicity in the series' playerbase.
The firm has also renamed over 300,000 accounts since launching its automated filtering system, which targets and removes offensive usernames and clan tags.
As a result, Call of Duty: Warzone saw a 55% drop in reports of inappropriate names and tags last month.
At a glance:
Nintendo Switch Sports scored 1st place as the biggest selling boxed game in August 2022, and sold approximately 83,000 copies last month.
Earth Defense Force 6 is a fresh entry at No.2, the title launched exclusively in Japan in the last week of August and sold around 68,300 Switch copies in just a few days.
Yesterday’s Nintendo Direct was pretty good.
There were perhaps a few too many farming games and remasters, and it was a bit JRPG heavy (although that’s perhaps fair enough, considering the event’s proximity to Tokyo Game Show). But when it comes to the key headlines, I felt the show delivered. Pikmin 4 and Fire Emblem Engage are AAA Nintendo games, albeit from slightly smaller franchises. Goldeneye was there to delight oldies like me, and a release date and title for the next Zelda… you don’t get any bigger than that.
Yet when I took to social media to see the consensus, I noticed a bit of disappointment. Of course, these events can never please everyone, but the overriding reason for the disappointment seemed to centre on the absence of two games in particular: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.
The Walt Disney Company’s Sean Shoptaw, who is senior vice president for Global Games & Interactive Experiences, will open GI Live: London on the digital day.
Taking part in an online Q&A with GamesIndustry.biz, Shoptaw will discuss how Disney works with games companies of all sizes, including indie teams. The firm announced this weekend it was working with two indie developers in Bithell Games and Dlala on a new Tron title and Mickey Mouse adventure.
Disney joins a bumper line-up of major speakers, which also includes PlayStation, Valve, Xbox, Yogscast, Twitch, Rare and many more. You can book your tickets here.
This week's onslaught of digital games showcases continued last night with Sony's latest State of Play, debuting a number of new games – including Tekken 8.
Bandai Namco showed off the first trailer for the next entry in the long-running fighting series is now in development, later confirming that it will also be heading to Xbox Series X|S and PC. The series was last seen with 2015's Tekken 7 on the previous generation of consoles.
Sony also offered an update on its PlayStation Stars loyalty program. First it showed examples of the digital collectibles that users can earn, which are 3D models of classic characters and hardware and not, as the platform holder assured The Washington Post earlier this year, NFTs.
THQ Nordic unveiled its newest studio based of out Copenhagen, Denmark, Campfire Cabal.
The developer will prioritize the creation of story focused RPGs. It is currently working on an unannounced title.
Campfire Cabal was established by industry veterans who worked on games such as Expeditions: Rome, the Hitman-series, and Hunt: Showdown.
Nintendo has finally unveiled the name and set a date for the release of its follow-up to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.
During today's Nintendo Direct, the company revealed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will launch on the Switch on May 23, 2023.
Nintendo revealed that it was working on a sequel to Breath of the Wild during E3 2019, with aims to release in 2022. Earlier this year however, the game was pushed back to spring 2023.
Today, Square Enix announced that it will be ending MMORPG Babylon's Fall's service on February 27, 2023.
The gaming firm added that large previously planned updates for the game were shelved and sales of the title will also be coming to a halt.
"In terms of the plan moving forward, season 2 will run until Tuesday, November 29, 2022, as scheduled, and the final season will begin with the maintenance scheduled on the same day, the firm said.
Historically speaking, Nintendo had not really been a big believer in the early mover advantage.
The Super Nintendo trailed the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive into stores. The Nintendo 64 arrived fashionably late to the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn generation. The GameCube arrived a year after the PlayStation 2 and two years after Sega's Dreamcast. The Wii hit stores alongside the PlayStation 3, but a year after Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Nintendo's track record of releasing systems whenever it was good and ready rather than feeling rushed by the competition felt very in character for a company with a track record of doing its own thing, from sticking with cartridges after others switched to CD-ROMs to adding a second screen to a handheld to reinventing the fundamental user interface with the Wii Remote.
Applovin has reeled in its efforts to merge with Unity, following the latter's move to continue with an existing deal with IronSource.
Last month, the platform made an unsolicited offer to join forces with the engine maker that would see Unity shareholders receive 55% of shares of the combined company.
"AppLovin saw potential in combining its profitable business model and machine-learning capabilities with Unity’s Create platform," Applovin said in a statement. "The opportunity was even more interesting given the market headwinds facing the industry."
Update: After the publication of this article, an Activision representative reached out to point out that the company's annual report mentioned annual consumer spending on Call of Duty: Mobile was "well above" $1 billion in 2021 alone.
The $1 billion figure is what Activision and Tencent have earned from the game. AppMagic data is based on developer payout, it does not include the 30% cut from mobile platforms.
We regret the error.
Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was the biggest entry in the series to date – and not just in terms of the number of hours it took to complete; it was the first Assassin's Creed to reach $1 billion in revenue.
As such, the series has been cemented as a pillar of Ubisoft's future, one of three IP (alongside Far Cry and Tom Clancy) the publisher intends to turn into an "iconic media franchise," with the aim to have this trio delivering €2 billion in annual revenues within five years.
This lofty goal was revealed by CEO Yves Guillemot during last week's media event at Ubisoft's Paris headquarters, where attending publications – including GamesIndustry.biz – were given more insight into the future of Assassin's Creed. While consumers were given a glimpse during Saturday's Assassin's Creed Showcase, the series' executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté gave us more detail.
You have an Android game and it's working out fine on Google Play. But the same game can succeed on other app stores too and that's tempting. Huawei's App Gallery, the Amazon App Store, the Samsung Galaxy App Store, Xiaomi GetApps, and the One Store can bring you whole new audiences, users, you've heard, more likely to make in-game purchases. This is potentially a lucrative revenue stream… and it's for a game or games you have already developed.
Of course, life is never that easy. There are all sorts of pain points relating to moving to new app stores. However, the alternative app store space is big so if you do want to go it alone, here are a few tips for you that will hopefully make your journey smooth and successful.
There is always a checklist of things to consider. The first batch of pain comes from fragmentation driven by new commercial and technological requirements. Soon you will be publishing not just in one store, but in several.
Focus Entertainment has added another studio to its growing group with the acquisition of BlackMill Games, known for its WW1 Game Series first-person shooters.
The Netherlands-based studio previously sold a majority stake in its business to fellow Dutch developer M2H Games. Focus has now acquired this stake, making BlackMill the sixth studio purchased since June 2020.
Within the deal is the company WW1 Game Series B.V., named for BlackMill's flagship series of first-person shooters. Founder and creative director Jos Hoebe will continue to lead the studio and own the remaining 33.33% stake in the business.
Corporate vice president of Xbox Game Studios and head of 343 Industries Bonnie Ross has announced her departure from the two firms.
In a post shared to Twitter, Ross said she had "hoped to stay with Halo until we released the winter update," but added that she'll be leaving and "attended to a family medical issue."
Ross added: "It has been an honour to serve alongside the team for the last 14 years and to be a part of a universe that I love."
Games company Zynga has announced that it has completed its purchase of mobile platform Storemaven.
Established in 2015 and based out of Israel, Storemaven helps creators optimize an app's business performance.
It was founded by CEO Gad Maor, president Adam Rakib, and chief product officer Eldad Abel.
Ubisoft has said AO for Adults Only ratings appearing on Assassin's Creed Mirage store pages this weekend were a mistake.
The game was announced Saturday during Ubisoft's Forward showcase event, the livestream of which was prefaced by an ESRB AO for Adults Only logo.
An Xbox store listing for Mirage also carried an AO for Adults Only 18+ rating, with content descriptors for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual themes, partial nudity, and real gambling.
Major investor Makers Fund and publisher Yogscast Games are both set to speak to developers at GI Live: London next week.
Both companies will be meeting studios in one-to-one meetings, and both will be conducting group roundtables where they’ll offer insight and advice for developers. You can book your tickets here.
The duo are the latest to join a bustling line-up of speakers for the event, which takes place September 21st– 22nd at London Excel alongside the EGX consumer show. There will also be a digital-only meetings days on Tuesday, September 20th.
A leading SNK representative has stated the company remains unaffected after it was almost entirely acquired by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund last year.
The PIF is chaired by crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and has invested in a number of major games firms over the past few years. In April 2021, it upped its stake in King of Fighters developer SNK to 96%.
Saudi Arabia and Bin Salman currently face numerous controversies, including the country's poor human rights record, its war with Yemen, allegations that members of the Huwati tribe were forcibly removed or killed to make way for the construction of the Neom megacity project, and claims that the crown prince himself ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Square Enix's blockchain ambitions have ramped up as the publisher becomes part of a chain itself.
The company has partnered with Oasys to become a node validator on the upcoming blockchain of the same name. The company claims to be building an "environmentally friendly, proof of stake" blockchain.
A node validator stores a copy of the blockchain and performs other functions that aim to keep the system secure. Oasys is due to launch later this year with 21 node validators at first, with scope to add more over time.
Splatoon 3 shoots straight to the top of the UK boxed charts this week.
It’s the first game in the series to do so, with the 2015 original game (released on Wii U) and its 2017 sequel (on Nintendo Switch) missing out at No.2
The third game’s launch sales are slightly below (down 9%) compared with the second title, although this only factors in physical sales. Splatoon is a rare Nintendo game that focuses on online play, so it may have performed more strongly via the Nintendo eShop.
GamesIndustry.biz parent ReedPop has launched a new audience targeting platform that grants more user insights across the company's entire portfolio of events and publications.
Called ReedPop Engage, this allows advertisers to tailor their campaigns based around data from the attendees of major shows such as New York Comic Con, PAX, EGX and MCM, as well as websites such as Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, Dicebreaker, VG247, Digital Foundry and the recently launched Popverse.
It has been built in partnership with the privacy-forward infrastructure of Permutive, and draws on data around content consumption, user surveys, event ticket sales and interactions with physical stands and signage.
Ubisoft has offered a glimpse at the future of its flagship franchise with details on the next five games.
Tonight's Ubisoft Forward presentation, which explored the publisher's upcoming line-up, concluded with a special Assassin's Creed Showcase making the series' 15 anniversary.
While Ubisoft continues to try to turn it into a multimedia franchise, the future of the IP will remain centred around games, with multiple new titles shown off during the broadcast.
"We want to ensure an inclusive, rewarding and respectful workplace for all. Yes, we stumbled and we have acknowledged that. We learned a lot along the way and have made meaningful progress."
Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, is talking to journalists from around the world at the publisher's headquarters in Paris. His is the first of five presentations at this corporate event designed to paint a picture of the firm's goals for the years to come: improving its proprietary game engines, investing in cloud computing, better collaboration between its studios, growing its subscription service, and making Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy into billion-dollar multimedia franchises.
But for all the focus on its future, the company recognises its past also needs to be addressed.
Today saw the Disney and Marvel Games Showcase take place, hosted by Kinda Funny Games' Blessing Adeoye Jr.
The presentation was a mix of titles releasing on the back end of 2022, those launching in 2023, and those without a release schedule.
The new announcements that were made are collected below.