GamesIndustry News, Tips, Tricks, Ideas

Take-Two today released its financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter, covering the three months ended March 31, narrowing the Grand Theft Auto 6 release window while taking a massive loss thanks largely to goodwill impairment and restructuring charges.

GameSquare has unveiled Faze Media, a creator-focused IP and media firm.

Activision has formed a new internal studio, Elsewhere Entertainment, which is set to create a new narrative-based IP and franchise.

More than 190 million people in the US played video games for at least one hour a week in 2023, according to new data from the Entertainment Software Association.

We have details of the first speakers and contributors to next month's GI Sprint.

Remaking games is not easy. You have to consider how retro titles will play on modern consoles and for today's audiences. You also have to work on the finer details, such as the clarity of dialogue, balancing gameplay, and quality-of-life changes. The list goes on.

Rumour has it that the Vision Pro is finally getting ready to get shipped outside of the US. Three months after its American launch, Bloomberg reported that Apple's VR headset could be shipping in several territories worldwide as early as next month, off the back of the firm's Worldwide Developers Conference.

The nominees for the Develop:Star Awards 2024 have been announced, with Larian, Remedy, and Sony Interactive Entertainment tied for the most nominations.

Bandai Namco has announced the appointment of Adrien Guerra as country manager for the UK and Nordics.

Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft has released its 2023 fiscal year report, which says its sales grew by 27% to hit €2.3 billion ($2.5 billion).

In April, the Nintendo Switch moved 251,000 units across standard, Lite, and OLED models in Japan.

Lego has a storied history in the world of video games with a massive back catalogue that dwarfs even some of the biggest publishers in the world. From licenced classics like Lego Star Wars to more recent games based solely on the Lego brand like Lego 2K Drive, the variety is impressive and there have been far more hits than misses.

April PC and console game sales fell 6.2% year-on-year in Europe, with 10.5 million games sold.

Starbreeze has announced today that its CFO Mats Juhl will be appointed as its new interim CEO.

Hitman and Project 007 developer IO Interactive has hired Ulas Karademir as its new chief technical officer.

Ex-Bandai Namco employee Yoichi Toyosumi has been arrested on suspicion of embezzlement.

A public campaign to prevent publishers from pulling online support from video games in a way that makes them unplayable has prompted a response from the UK government.

Poland's Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) has launched a preliminary investigation into digital game platforms including Steam and the PlayStation Store for anti-competitive practices.

Through subsidiary Crystal Dynamics, Embracer Group has penned a new deal with Amazon MGM Studios to create new Tomb Raider media for streaming and film.

Distribution platform VaultN has raised $1.6 million in a seed funding round.

GameStop shares are trading up sharply this week after meme stock personality Keith Gill, also known as Roaring Kitty, made his first social media post on Twitter/X in almost three years Sunday night.

Two lawsuits that alleged Nintendo was aware of selling defective Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons have been dismissed.

Microsoft released its newest and fourth Xbox Transparency Report, providing details on how it is combating harassment conduct and content on its gaming platform.

New developer Studio Camelia is launching its Kickstarter campaign today for Alzara Radiant Echoes, a Mediterranean-inspired JRPG that features work from renowned Dark Souls composer Motoi Sakuraba and Genshin Impact artist Yoshiro Ambe.

Unity's chief product and technology officer Marc Whitten will resign from his role on June 1, and will leave the firm by the end of 2024.

Newzoo has recently published its PC and Console Gaming Report 2024, providing invaluable insight into the current trends and challenges of the games industry.

UK developer and insights firm Playmob has been acquired by Sphaira Innovation for an undisclosed sum.

After Jake Solomon left Firaxis Studios last year, the former creative director on the XCOM series could probably have found any number of publishers or venture capitalists to back a new turn-based strategy studio. It would have a sure thing, a lay-up, like a point blank shot with a 98% to-hit rate.

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets has fined Epic Games €1,125,000 for using "unfair commercial practices" aimed at children in Fortnite.

One need only take to their social media platform of choice to gauge the popularity of publishers among modern gamers. Some are bemoaned for crippling previously successful studios with the imposition of unwanted live service models, while others are lamented for implementing unpopular matchmaking algorithms that prioritise retention over connection quality or fair team composition. Certainly, while most big studios can boast of healthy fan support (look at the devotion enjoyed by From Software or Larian Studios, for instance), you don’t come across many vocal EA or Ubisoft fanboys.

Sony has released its full-year financial results, showing a solid twelve months for its PlayStation business ahead of a year in which it is forecasting declines.

The GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards are back for 2024. We're very excited about the whole thing.

Square Enix is reportedly preparing to lay off an unconfirmed number of workers as part of restructuring efforts.

For the past eight years, GamesIndustry.biz has been running a series of Best Places To Work Awards in the UK, US and Canada.

Games companies in the UK can now enter the GamesIndustry.biz Best Places To Work Awards 2023.

Hermen Hulst and Hideaki Nishino will jointly succeed Jim Ryan as the CEOs of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

NetEase, the publisher of Marvel Rivals, is retracting its no negativity clause for streamers previewing the game.

Plenty of GamesIndustry.biz readers are familiar with the concept of crowdfunding, with well over a decade of Kickstarter campaigns helping to bring many a game to market. Less common, however, is equity crowdfunding.

The latest episode of the GI Microcast is now available in podcast form, delivering your weekly dive into the biggest stories of the past week. The video will be available tomorrow.

Warner Bros. Discovery is returning ownership of some titles from Adult Swim Games back to developers.

Sheffield-based studio Steel City Interactive has raised over £15 million in a funding round led by Novator Ventures.

Australia-based developer Mighty Kingdom has laid off 28% of its workforce, affecting at least 14 people.

Square Enix has released its financials for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, with the results largely below what it had previously forecasted.

Despite the many difficulties the games industry faces around the world, Swedish developers are feeling somewhat optimistic as the local development scene continues to experience rapid growth.

Sony has reportedly formed a new studio made up of former Deviation Games employees.

Pentiment and We Are OFK were named among the 84th annual Peabody Awards winners.

Earlier this week, Steam became banned in the country of Vietnam.

Sega Sammy has released its financial report for the year ended March 31, 2023, and the company showed strong performances on a number of fronts.

Playtika has terminated the roles of chief revenue officer and chief operating officer.

WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the entertainment firm's Q1 financials took losses.

Xbox president Sarah Bond says that Microsoft's shuttering of four Bethesda studios is to ensure the firm's business is "healthy for the long term."

This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Check every Friday for a new entry.

CI Games is implementing one last round of layoffs as part of the restructuring it began in January.

Now that Sony releasing its first-party titles on PC as well as PlayStation has become relatively commonplace, it’s easy to lose sight of what a major change in strategy this represents.

Microsoft has announced that its Xbox mobile storefront will launch in July 2024.

Lightforge Games has announced it's cutting the "majority" of its staff by the end of the month, and is pausing development on its upcoming title Project ORCS.

Fallout 4 was comfortably the best-selling game of April in the UK, according to the latest GSD data.

Capcom has released its financial results for the fiscal year, reporting a record high profit for a seventh consecutive year driven by its digital contents business.

Unity has posted its first financial results for 2024, showing a loss of nearly $300 million for the first quarter.

Indie gaming in Japan is growing, while domestic investment in indie publishing and greater investment in independent and doujin creators is uprooting the Japanese games industry.

AI start-up Yellow has secured $5 million in a seed funding round.

The user-generated content marketplace Overwolf has snapped up Nitropay.

Finding a job can be stressful and daunting. Given the wave of layoffs in the games industry, including those from Microsoft this week, it's a tall task. It can also be time-consuming and difficult during this economic downturn.

Roblox has released its first quarter financial results for 2024, demonstrating a significant boost in the company's revenue and bookings.

Nintendo has suggested that the successor to the Switch will not arrive before March 31, 2025, indicating an April release at the very earliest.

Over 100,000 people attended the 9th edition of the London Games Festival.

A new study has found that YouTube is the most popular and trusted platform for discovering new games among players.

AI startup Altera has raised $9 million in a seed round, co-led by Patron and First Spark Ventures.

A ZeniMax executive has reportedly said Xbox's closure of four studios this week was due to a lack of staff and support.

Krafton released its Q1 financials report, which says it reached $488 million in consumer spending.

Mike Wilson, founder and co-CEO of DeepWell, has left the company.

The news that Xbox was going to buy Bethesda caught me by surprise. And not just because of the sheer size of the $7.5bn acquisition.

It's been a difficult stretch for the industry, so when we speak with Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie at the Game Developers Conference, our first question is fairly open-ended: What is happening?

Pole to Win has opened a new motion capture studio at SIDE London, an expansion of its partnership with Imaginarium Studios.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson spoke of how generative AI could make its development process "more efficient" and help give developers "more power."

Electronic Arts today released its earnings report for Q4 FY24 (the three months ended March 31, 2024), showing sales down during a quiet fourth quarter even as the bottom line improved year-over-year.

ByteDance and TikTok have filed a challenge to the bill banning the app in the US.

A jury has ruled that Activision Blizzard will pay tech incubator Acceleration Bay $23.4 million for patent infringement.

Microsoft is shutting down four of the studios it picked up as part of the 2020 Bethesda acquisition, as reported by IGN.