game industry news
Fortnite has refunded $72M to gamers so far thanks to ‘dark patterns’ settlements
Last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hit Epic Games with a $245M fine as the government body found that the company was...
Deceive Inc. developer dissolves after hitting a ‘breaking point,’ but the game will stay online for now
We've got some disheartening news for anyone who was enjoying the spy vs. spy team shooter Deceive Inc.: Developer Sweet Bandits announced on its...
Nexon America lays off an unspecified ‘small number’ of employees as part of a ‘hyperlocalization’ strategy
It's hard to know exactly how many a "small number of employees" is when layoffs are announced by a massive company, but in any...
Layoffs have once again impacted workers at Ubisoft and Microsoft
We have the unfortunate duty to report that layoffs in the gaming industry don't appear to be abating anytime soon, as there are new...
World of Warcraft general manager John Hight leaves Blizzard ‘to explore new opportunities and challenges’
The World of Warcraft team and Blizzard at large has seen another one of its long-standing senior devs leave the company. After 12 years,...
Activision opens a new studio in Poland for work on ‘narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise’
Apparently Microsoft subsidiary Activision thinks now is a good time to open a new studio and put together a team to develop an entirely...
Square-Enix confirms that layoffs are coming to US and EU employees in June
Yesterday we reported on Square-Enix's first quarter outlook for 2024, in which it announced among other things that it plans to "rebuild its ...
Lightforge Games halts social RPG production, downsizes to a skeleton crew
Over the past few years we've been reporting on Lightforge Games, a development studio that entered our general genre radar for snapping up former...
Game devs are concerned about the sustainability of live-service titles
It certainly feels like live service is being tacked on to many recent game releases (whether it makes sense or not), which of course...
Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive lays off 600 employees and axes game projects
The wave of job cuts flooding the games industry doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon, as this time around Grand Theft Auto...
Former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra thinks players should be able to tip developers for their work
Now that former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has free time on his hands, he's apparently spending some of it pondering how to make our...
Ubisoft inists its AI-powered NPC tech will be used only if valuable to creatives
When Ubisoft debuted new generative AI NPC tech at GDC this year, it made a lot of promises that it would gather industry feedback...
Jeff Strain shuts down Possibility Space studio via email, blaming internal leaks to the press
Jeff Strain, the owner of Prytania Media, has elected to shut down another of his company's sub-studios. This time it's Possibility Space that has...
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer claims massive layoffs were due in part to gaming’s ‘lack of growth’
Ever since Microsoft announced a wave of layoffs that would affect 1,900 people - over 800 of whom work for Activision-Blizzard - the officially...
Jeff Strain’s Crop Circle Games studio shuts down abruptly following employee furloughs
Over the past couple of years we've been keeping a general eye on the opening of Crop Circle Games, a new indie studio formed...
Ubisoft debuts AI NPC prototypes at GDC, and it went about as well as you’d expect
Ubisoft looks to be once more chasing the latest buzzword-scented tech trend. After the studio tried and failed to make NFTs work, it's now...
Blizzard is laying off over 126 people from its support center in Ireland
The massive culling of 1,900 workers by Microsoft looks to have had a significant global impact, as Ireland's minister for foreign affairs Michéal Martin...
Study finds social media game ads don’t properly disclose the existence of lockboxes and in-game purchases
A recent study conducted by legal expert and lockbox researcher Leon Y. Xiao has been completed and it finds that lockbox disclosures in social...
Former Activision-Blizzard exec files lawsuit that alleges the studio fired him for being old and white
Discrimination can certainly take a wide assortment of forms, but the culture that has been fostered within Activision-Blizzard has mostly been one that threatens...
Chinese government fires media official over announced gaming rules proposal that battered the market
The last few weeks saw the Chinese games industry turn into a tinderbox thanks to an announced draft of new restrictions on gaming in...
