industry
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 ...
MMO Business Roundup: Krafton and Roblox post Q1 2024 gains while Unity bleeds nearly $300M
Welcome back to another quick roundup of some MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! And this time around, it's the Oops! All Q1 Reports edition!...
Square-Enix Q1 2024: Profits plummet as it promises to ‘reboot and awaken’
The opening quarter of the 2024 fiscal year indeed isn't a good one for Square-Enix. Shortly after the company warned investors of "extraordinary losses"...
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...
IGDA survey casts a light on game devs’ impressions of industry diversity, job satisfaction, and crunch culture
The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has put together the 2023 version of its game developer satisfaction survey, which continues to take the temperature...
‘Evergreen titles and robust content pipelines reign supreme,’ says games industry firm Newzoo
We conveniently had a community discussion on the meaning of old-school when it comes to MMOs earlier this week, so consider that required reading...
Walmart now has a digital storefront for real-world goods operating from inside of Roblox
Buying things online from Walmart's website? Like some kind of boomer? That's so last decade. If you want to take your digital Walmart shopping...
Square-Enix tells investors to expect $140M in ‘extraordinary losses’ this quarter
We're about to start getting Q1 financial reports across the games industry, but the teaser from Square-Enix isn't exactly exuding confidence that it'll be...
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...
Former Prytania CEO blames economic downturn and lack of investor interest for Crop Circle Games closure
At the tail end of March, we finally received word that earlier furloughs of staff at Jeff Strain's Crop Circle Games transformed into a...
MMO Business Roundup: Embracer finishes restructure, Riot settles lawsuit, Ubisoft continues layoffs
Welcome back to another brief roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. Business business business!
Embracer: Embracer has been a dumpster fire of epic proportions...
MMO Business Roundup: The Gearbox sale, GDC 2024, and layoffs for SEGA and Smilegate
Welcome back to another quick roundup of some MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news!
Embracer - The ailing games giant announced this morning that the rumored...
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer admits 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...
Playable World’s Raph Koster refutes claim that his book Theory of Fun espouses a regressive agenda
Reading comprehension is an important skill that one could argue is being lost to the flood of hot takes and those who absorb only...
MMO Business Roundup: Jagex dinged by UK government, Roblox AI tools, and Epic v Apple plods on
Do you hear that? It's the rhythmic tinkling bells of Business Cat's collar as she merrily skips forth with another round of industry stories...
