law
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as if the US Federal Trade Commission has read the suggested writing on the wall: The government body has officially withdrawn...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...
Lawful Neutral: How might the so-called AI revolution affect the MMO genre?
This article has been rolling around in my head since ChatGPT rocketed into the public awareness a few months ago, and just in the...
Microsoft is hit with $20M fine for collecting the personal information of children on Xbox
Microsoft has earned the ire of the US Federal Trade Commission and has been slapped with a $20M fine by the government agency for...
Microsoft is reportedly considering pulling Activision out of the UK market over regulatory block
The locking of horns between Microsoft and the UK's Competition and Markets Authority over Microsoft's billion-dollar acquisition of Activision-Blizzard appears to be reaching a...
MMO Business Roundup: SEGA’s layoffs, Diablo Immortal’s fines, and MY.GAMES’ Middle East ambitions
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent gaming industry news!
SEGA: Sega's issued yet another round of layoffs this week, slashing 121...
The EU is apparently set to approve Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard buyout after all
When the UK's Competition and Markets Authority put the brakes on Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard at the end of April, we saw multiple pundits...
Riot Games’ $100M discrimination settlement payouts officially claimed by over 1500 affected people
This could be considered an epilogue or the final chapter of a long and sordid ordeal for affected employees of Riot Games. Back in...
Lawful Neutral: What if Activision-Blizzard just… sold Blizzard?
Last week, Activision-Blizzard and Bobby Kotick got a bad surprise: The UK moved to block the acquisition of ABK by Microsoft, citing concerns over...
Appellate court reaffirms Apple’s store is not monopolist but must still allow third-party purchasing options
The three year-long legal fight between Apple and Epic finally made another step forward yesterday, but since it has been that long, allow us...
Red Cross launches an initiative that challenges FPS players to follow real-world humanitarian laws of war
It can often look like the opposite is true, but in wartime, many countries theoretically follow a set of laws known as the International...
Nexon formally files a copyright infringement lawsuit against Dark and Darker studio Ironmace
Considering the very public back-and-forth between Nexon and Dark and Darker developer Ironmace, this development seems like a foregone conclusion, but it is now...
