industry news
NetEase opens LA studio Bulletfarm, working on a new game emphasizing ‘co-operative gameplay’
"NetEase opens new studio" might elicit a lot of different reactions depending on whom you ask, but around here it's news that perks up...
Activision faces $680M lawsuit from Call of Duty esports pros over allegedly monopolist tourney terms
The way in which Activision has been managing its esports tournaments for Call of Duty is now undergoing legal scrutiny, as last week saw...
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...
Microsoft prepares to talk about Xbox’s future in a podcast as multi-platform game rumors swirl
The past several weeks have been some apparently nervous ones for those whose online personas are devoted to Microsoft in general and Xbox in...
Disney invests $1.5B into Epic Games with plans to create a ‘huge Disney universe’ in Fortnite
Seeing Disney's various IPs in Fortnite isn't exactly news by this point, but it appears as if there will be a whole lot more...
Jeff Strain’s indie studio Crop Circle Games lays staff, reportedly without severance
Back in 2022 we saw former ArenaNet and Undead Labs co-founder Jeff Strain open his own indie studio called Crop Circle Games with the...
Tencent buys up majority stake of Swords of Legends developer and gains access to the IP
Tencent has walked over to another games studio and smacked it with its wallet, only this time it's a bit of a surprise purchase...
Former devs of The Day Before recount a workplace of employee fines, shifting whims, and ‘pure megalomaniacal chaos’
However badly managed The Day Before may have looked upon its disastrous early access release, the reality was reportedly much worse than anyone could...
Hasbro is selling the Dungeons & Dragons IP – and Tencent is the potential buyer
There's a potentially big business deal happening in both the world of tabletop gaming and video gaming: Insider sources reporting to Chinese news site...
Nexon’s preliminary injunction against Dark and Darker was dismissed, but the lawsuit presses on
One of last year's more distinct stories was related to the medieval fantasy PvPvE extraction RPG Dark and Darker and megacorp Nexon: Readers may...
Former Bungie legal exec: ‘The company will never love you back, but if you let it, it’ll kill you’
Among the workers affected by Bungie's round of layoffs last October was former chief legal officer Don McGowan, who was the man heading the...
Microsoft lays off 1900 workers: Blizzard sheds Mike Ybarra, its survival game, and its customer support in one day
We've updated this story at the bottom with some of the latest news that has come forth about the scope of the layoffs and...
Baldur’s Gate 3 boss pushes back against the industry’s renewed ambition over games subscription models
This week offered another example of executive foot-in-mouth disorder when Ubisoft director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay suggested in an interview that games subscription business...
Discord is shedding 17 percent of its staff as part of the company’s attempt to turn a profit this year
The month of January continues to prove itself to be a brutal one for those in the gaming and tech industries. This time around...
Amazon’s Twitch lays off 500 workers over cost-cutting efforts and executive exits
Hot on the heels of yesterday's news of more layoffs at Unity comes the revelation that Amazon is the next to fire staff. As...
Marvel Snap studio secures $100M investment that assures independence and new game creation
Second Dinner, the studio headed by former Hearthstone dev Ben Brode that managed to nail down the Marvel IP to launch its digital CCG...
Unity sheds another 1800 workers from all of its departments in latest layoff round
The contraction of Unity that occurred through last January, May, and November looks to be continuing into this year, as the game engine developer...
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...
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...
Korea’s FTC fines Nexon $8.9M over MapleStory’s deceptive gear upgrade probabilities
Care for a little smile to start off this first week of 2024? Then feast your eyes on a hefty $8.9M (₩11.6M) fine levied...
