law
Police use a World of Warcraft account to track down and arrest a man allegedly hiding a minor
We have our first Florida Man story of 2024 on our corner of the internet, primarily because tracking down and finding him involved using...
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...
British police open investigation into an in-game sexual assault in a virtual reality metaverse
Virtual reality games are intensely immersive, putting their players into their worlds and surrounding them in the experience rather convincingly. Unfortunately, that immersion has...
MMO Business Roundup: Lockboxes, Twitch Korea, and the FTC’s latest MS/ABK merger appeal
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news.
The FTC vs. Microsoft and ABK - Surely you didn't think that "signing the...
The Epic Games Store is apparently still not profitable for Epic Games
It's now been five years since Epic Games launched the Epic Games store with an eye toward dethroning Steam, as epitomized by the fact...
Remember that report about cops fired for playing Pokemon Go on duty? There’s video now, and it’s worse
Way back in 2016 and 2017, it was rare to see a month go by without some sort of dreadful story about Pokemon Go...
Myth of Empires resolves ARK Survival Evolved copyright lawsuit, paving the way for its return
Who here had "Myth of Empires resolves its legal woes to the point it gets to re-release" on their 2023 bingo card? We certainly...
Lawful Neutral: Reverse engineering World of Warcraft’s subscriber numbers
Do you know what time it is? It's almost quarterly financial report time! We probably won't see a full quarterly report from Activision-Blizzard as...
Former Ubisoft execs and employees were detained by French police over sexual misconduct allegations
It looks as if the French authorities are moving against Ubisoft employees who were among those accused in the studio's wide-reaching sexual misconduct exposé....
MMO Business Roundup: MY.GAMES’ CEO, Valve’s antitrust fine, and research on China’s gaming regulations
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent business news. Numbers numbers numbers. In fact, this edition has the whole trifecta: business,...
Unity begins backtracking on new runtime fees, but it hasn’t addressed indies
Yesterday, we covered Unity's surprise announcement that it was instituting a "runtime fee" that would charge developers as much as 20 cents per download...
Roblox conference cut short after police arrested an allegedly armed community developer
A seemingly benign Roblox developer conference abruptly turned frightening last weekend when an unruly developer in the crowd was arrested.
Games Industry reports that a...
Roblox faces class action lawsuit that accuses the game of turning a blind eye to third-party gambling rings
Roblox is once more back in the headlines for all of the wrong reasons, as the company that runs the player-generated games platform is...
Lawful Neutral: Assessing the privacy policies governing World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV
It never fails to surprise me just what some people will say in general chat in an MMO. They'll say things they would never...
Here’s how the UK gaming industry says it’ll self-regulate lockboxes
Remember a few years ago before NFT scams took over, when politicians realized they could score some press coverage and campaign donations for talking...
The FTC suspends its administrative challenge of the Microsoft Activision-Blizzard merger
It would seem as if the US Federal Trade Commission has read the suggested writing on the wall: The government body has officially withdrawn...
Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard file a legal request for the FTC to drop its August hearing
Now that the US Federal Trade Commission has been handed two big losses in its challenge of the $69B merger between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard,...
Former Elder Scrolls Online dev takes ZeniMax to court over allegations of transphobia and forced resignation
A series of alarming allegations and legal action have sprung forth from a former developer of The Elder Scrolls Online. Leona Faren, a trans...
Pokemon Go studio Niantic stands accused of sexual discrimination and retaliation in new lawsuit
Pokemon Go's Niantic has fast become one of the more problematic companies we cover, and now the studio's outlook just got even shadier as...
Lawful Neutral: Freedom of speech in MMOs
I don't think a day goes by without gamers ranting on Reddit or Twitter or forums or comment sections about how their freedom of...
