Deviation Games has announced that one of its founders, Jason Blundell, has departed from the company.
The studio released a statement on Twitter regarding the exit, his next opportunity is currently unknown.
"We appreciate the contributions Jason has made and we wish him the best in his future endeavors," the developer said.
An underlying trend can be seen this week across multiple social media platforms, and it's that games and social media platforms are struggling to find harmony.
The biggest example of this was unveiled by Snap; in a recent memo to investors, the platform confirmed approximately 1,300 layoffs and a sizable restructure of its core business that saw its games arm brought cleanly to a halt.
A similar thing also happened over at TikTok parent ByteDance; the Chinese firm is reportedly "aggressively downsizing" its gaming operations, laying off hundreds inside the division. Meta also announced this week that it would be shuttering its dedicated Facebook Gaming app in October, just two years after launching it.
Gamescom Asia organizers have announced that the consumer side of this year's event will shift to a digital only showcase.
The exhibition will include two virtual shows and a Steam event page.
It was said that the decision was made after organizers received feedback from industry players and consultation from stakeholders.
Garena is laying off hundreds of people in its Shanghai offices, sources have told Reuters.
The Free Fire developer is just one of a number of business units that parent company Sea Ltd. is making cuts to after it posted $931 million in quarterly losses last month.
The Garena cuts are said to represent 15% of the staff in Shanghai. Alongside the job losses, multiple new games have been shelved.
It was another strong month for PS5 in the UK, with stock levels up 56% in August compared with July (GfK data)
As a result, Sony’s machine is currently the UK’s best-selling console of the year (so far). The platform moves ahead of Nintendo Switch. Nintendo’s hybrid console also enjoyed a sales increase of 4% in August.
Xbox Series S and X sales remained steady last month, but was in third place overall. In total, nearly 125,000 consoles were sold in the UK during August, a rise of 20% over the month before.
For just a moment there, it felt like the bad old days all over again.
Striking Distance Studios CEO Glen Schofield's ill-judged tweet about the seemingly brutal crunch his employees are going through – boasting, rather than lamenting, about the 12-15 hour days and 6-7 day weeks they are doing, and insisting that it was being done out of passion rather than anyone forcing them to do so – could have fallen through a time warp from twenty years ago. It didn't, though; it was posted just last week, and that thankfully means that it met with a storm of criticism leading it to be swiftly deleted, retracted, and apologised for.
That, and I say this unironically, is progress. Masochistic attitudes to crunch, accompanied with sneering at the notion of work-life balance or a studio having any responsibility for its employees' physical and mental health, have not disappeared from the industry – far from it – but at least we've reached a place where they're unacceptable enough to get a negative backlash.
Ubisoft has given an update on how it is attempting to improve its company culture, following allegations of widespread abuse, discrimination and harassment two years ago.
In a blog post last week, chief people officer Anika Grant and vice president for global diversity, inclusion and accessibility Raashi Sikka detailed new initiatives the Assassin's Creed publisher will soon introduce to better support its 20,000 staff.
The first is a global self-identification program, which will invite employees to confidentially and voluntarily share more information about themselves, including gender identity, race, ethnicity and any disabilities.
Developers Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal have taken control of several gaming IPs from previous owner Square Enix, including the Tomb Raider franchise, Deus Ex and more.
Tomb Raider is now back in the hands of Crystal Dynamics, which made several games in the series between 2004 and 2016. The studio is also now in control of the Legacy of Kain series.
Crystal Dynamics said in a blog post that as a result of this change, it is "now the owner of these games and the controller of the gameplay and personal data related to them."
Speedrun charity marathon, Awesome Games Done Quick has announced that its next event, AGDQ 2023, will be an online only event.
The decision was explained via Twitter, the organization shifted away from an in-person in response to the state's recent slew of anti-trans legislation.
Going to a digital event was also attributed to Florida's safety protocols regarding COVID-19.
Meta has disbanded a team of experts it formed several years ago to help mitigate the negative impacts of its products, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The team of dozens of engineers, ethicists and others was intended to spot long-term problems with the company's products (including Facebook and its VR headsets), and to take action to keep potential harm from becoming actual harm.
A Meta spokesperson said Meta is still committed to the goals of the Responsible Innovation team, but believed it was better to devote teams to handle specific issues instead of having one team cover a wide array of issues.
EA has announced that long-time Battlefield developer Lars Gustavsson is departing from the company and developer DICE.
As reported by GameSpot, the creative director will be moving on to an unnamed new opportunity.
Gustavsson joined EA via its DICE subsidary in 2000 and for 20 years he's worked on the FPS franchise. During his time with the series he went on to be known as Mr. Battlefield.
CD Projekt is taking a one-and-done approach to Cyberpunk 2077 expansions.
In announcing its first-half financial results, the company said it would be launching the first and only expansion for the game next year.
The add-on, Phantom Liberty, will only release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC platforms, leaving PlayStation 4 and Xbox One Cyberpunk 2077 players behind.
Today, EA announced that it's launched Ridgeline Games, a new studio that will focus on the narrative development of the Battlefield franchise.
The newly established developer will be overseen by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto. He’s worked in the games industry for over 25 years.
Throughout Lehto's work history he's served in various positions such as art director, creative director, and president.
PlayStation London senior producer Justin Der Gregorian died over the weekend at the age of 44, the studio announced today.
"It's with great sadness that we are sharing our dear friend and Senior Producer, Justin Der Gregorian is no longer with us," the studio said on Twitter.
"Justin was hugely loved and his positivity has had a massive impact on our work at the studio as well as in our lives.
Esports is an increasingly ubiquitous business with tournaments taking place across multiple games and operations globally to run them. Despite being global, its presence isn't as established in the continent of Africa.
Eniola Edun, CEO of Gamr Africa, explains to GamesIndustry.biz how Gamr Africa is working to change that.
Gamr Africa is an esports platform for Africa that manages, tracks, organizes tournaments and provides an infrastructure for people to go pro.
Ever since its meme stock rally, GameStop's business has produced quarterly losses but growing sales.
The retailer yesterday released its earnings for the three months ended July 30, bringing the streak of quarterly losses to six, while also seeing the first year-over-year decline in sales since RC Ventures' Ryan Cohen and two of his allies were added to the board of directors in January of 2021, just days before the share price skyrocketed.
Net sales: Down 4% to $1.14 billion
I would love to have been a fly on the wall during the pitch meeting for 2017’s Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle.
I can only assume it went like this: "Our game combines the globally beloved Mario series with the significantly smaller (and somewhat irritating) Rabbids. It’ll be a turn-based squad strategy game like XCOM, oh and Mario has a gun."
The idea is as absurd now as it was in 2017. And it’s not really a surprise that fans were so furious when the game’s concept first leaked out.
A suit filed this week accuses GameStop of recording conversations via its support service without customer's content, and violating privacy laws in the US.
According to the case, as reported by Bloomberg, the retailer is accused of obtaining and sharing "the secret transcripts of those wiretaps with a third party that boasts of its ability to harvest personal data..." and claimed that said data is used "for marketing and other purposes."
It went on to allege that GameStop "neither informs visitors nor obtains their prior express consent to these intrusions."
Industry legend and head of PlayStation Indies Shuhei Yoshida will take part in a fireside chat at GI Live: London this month.
At the first live day of the event (Wednesday, September 21st), the development veteran will discuss all the things PlayStation is doing, and will do, to support the indie development community. You can book your tickets here.
He joins a bumper roster of speakers at 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.
Vodeo Games today announced on its Twitter account today that it is shutting down.
"The story is unfortunately a familiar one for small studios," the studio's post read. "Despite a year of avid efforts, we've been unable to secure funding for our next project from publishers and investors.
"As such, we've run out of funds and aren't able to keep the team together – and there is simply no Vodeo without our incredible team."
Content warning: The following story includes descriptions of ableist and misogynistic behavior
G Fuel fired five of its talent managers a day after they complained to HR about company founder and CEO Cliff Morgan using offensive language in a work meeting, according to Digiday.
Digiday spoke with 11 current or former G Fuel employees who described an assortment of inappropriate behavior by company management, in particular a video call where Morgan blamed declining sales on the talent management team, referring to previously laid off talent managers as "lazy motherfuckers" and calling the then-current staffers on the call "retards."
Microsoft has promised to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for three years beyond the current agreement between Activision and Sony, says PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan.
In a statement provided to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan says the offer was "inadequate on many levels."
The disagreement between the two companies follows Microsoft's offer to buy Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard in a deal worth nearly $69 billion. The deal is currently being scrutinised by competitions regulators, with the UK regulator (The Competition and Markets Authority) concerned over the possibility of Microsoft "withholding or degrading" Activision Blizzard's content from other consoles or subscription services.
Mike Fahey, senior editor of Kotaku, has passed away aged 49.
Current and former Kotaku staff eulogized Fahey in a piece published on the site Tuesday.
He was a veteran games journalist with a career that spanned 16 years.
Microsoft is shaking up its Xbox Elite Series 2 premium controller offering, as the company today announced that it will be releasing a less expensive Core version of the game pad.
While the existing black Xbox Elite Series 2 controller will continue to be available for $180, Microsoft is also releasing a white Core edition for $130 on September 21.
The big difference between the two pads is that the Core version will not come packed in with the charging dock, carrying case, and swappable parts (rear paddles, thumbsticks, and D-pad) of its pricier counterpart.
Twitch recently announced that its exclusivity rules which forbid Partnered creators from streaming on other platforms have been modified. This change in policy now allows these creators to use any of the other streaming services, including YouTube and Facebook Gaming, for creating live content. This is great news for the content creator community and brings with it both opportunities and challenges.
Throughout any given day, this generation consumes content all across social media, from streams on Twitch, to chatting on Discord, watching VODs on YouTube, enjoying pictures on Instagram, and bingeing on TikTok. Because audiences are constantly scouring different outlets to stay abreast of what is new, it means these services all offer opportunities to strengthen one's personal brand.
Even if a creator chooses to make one platform their primary destination, these other services can help attract and grow their communities on it by making them more well known.
UK-based developer Netspeak Games has completed a Series A investment round to the tune of $12 million.
The round was led by venture capital firms LakeStar and Project A, with contributions from Makers Fund and some notable individuals from the industry, including CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, Jagex CEO Phil Mansell and Kepler Interactive investment director Catherine Chew.
The remote-first studio will use the funding to accelerate development, ramp up recruitment and boost the launch of its debut game Sunshine Days, a free-to-play mobile village builder that's currently in Early Access.
Boxed copies of Nintendo Switch games are the biggest entertainment products of 2022 so far at UK retail, in terms of revenue generated.
A new report from the Entertainment Retailers Association shows that Switch game sales reached £88.7 million since January 1 – although this is 12.5% down when compared to this time last year.
PlayStation – combining physical games for both PS4 and PS5 – was the next highest games format at £79.6 million, up 6.5% year-on-year.
EA has brought in a new policy that will put a cap on the cash portion of executive severance packages, but not the amount of stock included in such.
As per a filing lodged last week spotted by Axios, EA will no longer enter an employment, severance or separation agreement with any executive officer that exceeds 2.99 times the sum of said employee's base salary, plus annual bonus targets.
The new structure is a partial recognition of a proposal that shareholders voted for earlier this year that aimed to combat the firm's "tendency to overpay management."
The PlayStation 5 received its own version of The Last of Us on Friday with The Last of Us Part 1, and was largely hailed by reviewers for providing a beloved original title with a PS5-powered facelift and making a handful of other adjustments around the margins that improve on aspects of the original game.
With more than 100 critic reviews cataloged by Metacritic, the game is sitting on an average review score of 89.
While some reviewers wrestled with whether or not the remake was really necessary, most were clearly impressed at the graphical overhaul the game was given.
The Canada edition of our Best Places To Work Awards will be revealed and presented at MEGAMIGS in 2022 and beyond.
GamesIndustry.biz has partnered with the show's organiser La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec to deliver our annual awards as part of the nation's biggest gaming show for both business and consumers.
The winners of the 2022 Best Places To Work Awards will be announced and presented with their prizes during the MEGAMIGS Awards gala in Montreal on October 22.
Developer Chucklefish has increased the pay of all its employees by £4k ($4,610), the wage raise was attributed to the rising cost of living in Europe.
The news for the London-based company was shared by community manager Alexis Trust on Twitter.
They added that the new pay increases followed after the company raised wages by 10% back in April.
Ubisoft today announced a partnership between Tencent and Guillemot Brothers Limited that will see the Chinese tech firm indirectly increase its stake in the publisher.
Tencent is investing €300 million ($297 million) into GBL for a 49.9% stake in the company, which owned almost 13% of Ubisoft shares before this deal.
It will also provide GBL with an long-term unsecured loan that could be used to buy a larger chunk of Ubisoft.
Today USC Games announced that Sony Interactive Entertainment has donated $3 million to its Gerald A. Lawson Endowment Fund.
The endowment, which was established in partnership with Take-Two, launched in 2021 and aims to increase the representation of Black and Indigenous people in the games and tech industries.
Sony's contribution will go on to fund over 60 student scholarships. USC Games and Sony also released an announcement video for the new donation.
Bed Bath & Beyond CFO Gustavo Arnal, who was named alongside GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen in a lawsuit alleging insider trading, was found dead on Friday, according to Business Insider.
Arnal was 52. He had joined Bed Bath & Beyond two years ago after stints at Avon, Walgreens, and Proctor & Gamble. In mourning his death, the retailer said he was instrumental in guiding the organization throughout the pandemic.
Bed Bath & Beyond shares spiked in March after Cohen revealed that he had acquired almost 10% of the company's shares through his firm RC Ventures. The retailer made an agreement with RC Ventures to put three of Cohen's choices on the board of directors, and soon after the board of directors ousted the company's CEO.
This past weekend Fortiche Production announced that Arcane, which is based on Riot Games' League of Legends title, won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
As reported by Eurogamer, it is the first streaming animated series to win in the category.
The Netflix production aired in November 2021 and shortly following its release went on to top the streaming service's watch list across multiple countries.
A product is defined as anything that has been made available for sale. In games, that can mean anything from the hardware to a physical retail game to digital or even services. Then of course, when it comes to a digital game, these can all differ in consumer base, whether it’s a free-to-play game or a hardcore genre title.
As such, being a product manager in games can mean different things depending on the product you’re working on.
Product manager is a relatively new role in the history of video games that can often be more associated specifically in the mobile live-service free-to-play space, where the product is constantly evolving and player growth and retention is paramount. However, product managers can also be found in game publishers, whether it’s for small boutique indies or larger established IP.
It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.
If you have new appointments or transitions in your company that belong here, please send the names of the appointees, new role and company, and prior role and company to newhires@gamesindustry.biz.
Microsoft veteran Aaron Greenberg has been promoted to vice president of Xbox Games marketing, moving up from his role as general manager of the same division.
Masayasu Ito is leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment and retiring at the end of September.
The platform holder confirmed Ito's upcoming departure to Bloomberg, before later posting a short announcement on its corporate site.
Ito will leave Sony on October 1, 2022, marking the end of a decades-long career at the company.
ByteDance has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees from its video games business.
The company behind TikTok is "aggressively downsizing" its gaming operations, according to the South China Morning Post, with sources telling the publication that hundreds of employees have been affected.
ByteDance is said to have removed most of the staff from its Shanghai-based developer Wushuang Studio, either through redundancies or by moving employees to other parts of the company.
Creative services firm Virtuos has opened a new co-development studio, Calypte.
Calypte is based in the Bay Area and is described as the firm's "first full-service studio in North America," offering art, design and engineering services.
The studio is led by director Kirsten Kennedy, a producer with over two decades of experience on franchises such as The Walking Dead, Sid Meier’s Civilization and Grand Theft Auto. The office will also host staff from other Virtuos studios.