Gaming in Sweden. Reviews, Walkthroughs, News

The chief operating officer of Embracer Group, Egil Strunke, has left the company.

Embracer Group’s chief operating officer has confirmed his departure from the company.

It was always going to be safe to guess Gen V would end in a massacre. Much like The Boys, the Prime Video college-set spinoff has never shied away from violence, but it has been exceptionally creative in how it presents that violence. Case in point: the puppet massacre in episode 5, a season highlight that’s both one of the funniest moments on the series and the most horrifying.

Embracer Group has made layoffs at Neverwinter developer Cryptic Studios. Several current and former Cryptic employees confirmed there has been a "reduction in force" at the studio, although it's unclear how many people have been let go.

No solar storm strikes were seen on Halloween, thankfully. Most astronomy enthusiasts must remember the 2003 solar storm that struck on Halloween and resulted in NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory dropping altitude temporarily, and Sweden losing power for an hour. But trouble for the Earth is not over yet. A new coronal mass ejection (CME) was released as a result of a magnetic filament eruption on the region of the Sun known as the ‘canyon of fire'. NASA spotted it first, but its initial models predicted that it may miss the planet. But now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast has said that it will sideswipe us, triggering a solar storm.

Players of the upcoming multiplayer shooter The Finals made an unusual discovery during an open beta for the game over the weekend: that all of the voice lines in the game were produced using generative AI technology.

2023 has been a year of price increases in the games industry, and we’ve got another one of those cases on our hands. Microsoft has announced a price hike for the original Xbox Series S model in Brazil, and it’s quite a significant one.

The price of Fortnite V-Bucks and some other real money Fortnite content packs will be increasing today in some regions.

Hungary-based animation studio Digic has laid off 35 members of staff.

With just a touch of bravado, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (or Europol) has announced «a major blow» to the Ragnar Locker ransomware group. To you and me, that name is mostly familiar because of the organisation's 2020 attack on Capcom, which saw it demand $11 million and affect around 400,000 people's data. 

European police have «taken down» the gang of ransomware attackers responsible for 2020's high-profile Capcom hack, which saw confidential employee information and details on a swathe of upcoming games splashed across the internet.

The ransomware group responsible for a Capcom data breach in 2020 has been “taken down” in an international police operation, with its key member arrested.

15 years after the release of the original, the producer of the original Mamma Mia! movie confirms that despite delays, a third installment is well on the way.

Police across Europe may have dealt a major blow to the cybercriminal gang behind the ransomware strain Ragnar Locker. 

Telecom gear maker Nokia said Thursday that it is planning to cut up to 14,000 jobs worldwide, or 16% of its workforce, as part of a push to reduce costs following a plunge in third-quarter sales and profit.

Revenue generated by Swedish games companies in the country has grown 13% year-on-year, reaching €3.1 billion in 2022, according to the annual report from Sweden's games trade body Dataspelsbranschen.

Zen Studios, the team behind the Pinball FX series, is reportedly one of the latest companies to have been hit by layoffs this year.

Paradox Interactive and subsidiary Harebrained Schemes have announced plans to “part ways”.

Swedish games firm Paradox Interactive has said that the partnership it has with developer Harebrained Schemes is coming to an end.

By Nathan Edwards, a senior reviews editor who's been testing tech since 2007. Previously at Wirecutter and MaximumPC. Current fixations: keyboards, DIY tech, and the smart home.

The weekly NVIDIA DLSS update reveals that three games are getting Frame Generation support in the next couple of days. One of them is NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, the highly popular free-to-play melee Battle Royale game made by 24 Entertainment.

The EA FC 24 Amazon Prime Gaming Twitch packs are now rolling out, providing plenty of opportunities for Prime subscribers to take home some major goodies to help improve your Ultimate Team Squad.

Avalanche Studios Group has announced plans to open a new office in Montreal, Canada.

With the world having to get a second mortgage on a house just to buy a bag of potatoes these days, increases in the price for a relatively niche service won't be a surprise. But if you're a fan of Nvidia's GeForce Now and want to keep using it, you'll be paying anywhere between 10% and 40% more, depending on where you live.

The world's best gamers who can identify a location anywhere in the world after seeing an image in less than a second face off Saturday in a world championship in Stockholm. A picture of a sunny paved road appears on a computer screen, bordered by trees and bushes. A red dirt road crosses the paved road, in what appears to be a tropical landscape. "We're going to be in Indonesia because of the sticker on this pole," Trevor Rainbolt of the United States tells AFP.

Swedish publisher Fragbite Group has added indie developer Fall Damage to its portfolio. At an upfront purchase priced at SEK 20 million (or $1.818 million), Fragbite has acquired "all outstanding shares" of the studio, which is expected to complete within the next two weeks. 

Swedish games firm Paradox Interactive has said it will be writing down the development costs behind 2022's The Lamplighters League.

Today was another interesting day for artificial intelligence, where the troubles with AI were highlighted yet again in different areas. In the first incident, the US Space Force put up a temporary halt on using web-based generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Bard for employees due to data security issues. In other news, a new report has highlighted that by the year 2027, the electricity demands for all activities relating to AI could exceed the yearly demand of multiple countries. This and more in today's AI roundup. Let us take a closer look.

Just a week after the game’s release, Paradox Interactive has disclosed that they are writing down the development costs for The Lamplighters League after disappointing sales at launch. All of the game’s development will be noted down as costs in this quarter, meaning that there will be a hefty 248 million Swedish kronor—roughly $22.8 million – dent on profits for the quarter.

Fragbite is set to acquire Fall Damage, the Swedish-based studio behind the upcoming free-to-play competitive title Alara Prime.

Paradox Interactive has announced it will write down capitalised development costs for The Lamplighters League, and confirmed layoffs occurred at developer Harebrained Schemes earlier this year.

Between Cities Skylines 2, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and the upcoming Millennia, Paradox has a lot of reasons to be a happy publisher right now. But it’s not all good news. Lamplighters League, the XCOM-style, turn-based strategy game that recently launched on PC and Game Pass, has made a significant loss, with Paradox’s CEO admitting that response to the game has been “a big disappointment.”

The Lamplighters League has only been out for over a week, and Paradox Interactive already considers it a financial loss. On the company's website, the publisher said it would be writing down the game at 248 million Swedish Krona, or $22 million.

Paradox Interactive is taking a big financial hit on the turn-based tactics game The Lamplighters League, saying that sales of the game have been «a big disappointment.» Paradox also confirmed that significant layoffs had been made at developer Harebrained Schemes, but clarified that those layoffs occurred in the summer, a few months before The Lamplighters League was released.

The Lamplighters League is the latest project from developer Harebrained Schemes, which was released last week to a rather lukewarm critical and commercial reception. Now publisher Paradox Interactive has released a press statement detailing its stance on the game’s financials.

Sony has announced that PS5 cloud streaming for PlayStation Plus Premium goes live on October 17th in Japan, October 23rd in Europe and October 30th in North America. There will be several titles from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog to stream, with “hundreds” of PS5 titles to support the same later.

Two months after PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers began receiving invites to a PlayStation 5 cloud streaming beta, Sony has announced the feature will be getting its full launch on on 23rd October in Europe and 30th October in the US.

PlayStation 5 cloud streaming for PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers will launch on October 17 in Japan, October 23 in Europe, and October 30 in North America, allowing users to play PlayStation 5 games without having to download them, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced.

AI Roundup: Klarna, the Swedish fintech company, introduced a new AI-powered feature that enables users to take pictures of desired items, instantly locating them in the app. In a separate development, Google's employees have raised concerns about the Bard chatbot's effectiveness. Moreover, CCC, a cloud platform serving insurance and automotive industries, unveiled AI solutions for collision repairs, automating initial damage assessments and estimating processes, enhancing service to consumers.

Popular online payments service Klarna is tapping AI to let us "snap, search, and shop" for items identified in a photograph.

Ravensburger has announced it’ll be rolling out Disney Lorcana to ten more regions later this year, ahead a third set confirmed for early 2024.

Let's face it, survival games are hard at the best of times, and sometimes you just want to kick back and have fun with the world.

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is getting delayed to Spring 2024. Originally thought to have been slated for a November release, the game has seen a limited release in some countries so far, including Australia, Chile, Norway and Sweden.

Over 100 employees at Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios have unionised.

More than 100 developers at Sweden's Avalanche Studios are forming a union.

This week, the Swedish group Jumpgate AB announced that it had secured licensing to develop a PC/console game based on Paramount's Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager IPs. The development will be conducted at gameXcite, a wholly-owned subsidiary based in Hamburg, Germany.

Game developers from CD Projekt and other Polish studios have unionized through the Polish Gamedev Workers Union (PGWU).

Over 100 developers at Avalanche Studios Group, the studio behind the Just Cause franchise and upcoming Xbox-exclusive Contraband, have joined Swedish trade union Unionen. And now, they are bargaining with Avalanche management over their contract.

Like many sectors, game developers have been cutting headcount due to economic uncertainty through out 2023. According to Farhan Noor’s videogamelayoffs.com, game developers issued layoffs to over 6,100 employees in 2023 (so far).

Activision has delayed Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile’s launch window to 2024.

Codemasters is coming back to the world of rally racing with the upcoming EA Sports WRC, and it’s looking like it’s going to be quite an impressive return. In the lead up to its launch, publisher EA Sports has released a couple of deep dive trailers so far that have revealed extensive new details on the game’s many modes, as well as its rally courses, vehicles, and more. Now, another new video has been released, showcasing 10 minutes of gameplay footage.

A new month has begun, and that means the next batch of PS Plus Essential monthly games are incoming. October's lineup was announced last week, and will be available very soon, but there's still time to claim the previous games if you haven't yet.

Jetson made a splash unveiling its drone-like electric flying vehicle before and now the company has raised a $15 million seed round to help launch the Jetson One in 2024.

This morning, Starbreeze provided another update on PAYDAY 3, the highly anticipated third installment in the cooperative first-person heist shooter game. Firstly, the Swedish studio said the matchmaking issues that plagued the game's launch were fixed thanks to a two-stage process. The matchmaking software was updated, and the infrastructure was upgraded with more regional nodes, improving redundancy across online services and increasing matchmaking speed in PAYDAY 3.

After laying off almost 900 employees, Epic Games has announced an expansion to the Fortnite V-Buck «pricing alignment», citing vague financial factors like «inflation and currency fluctuations». The price of Fortnite's premium currency is set to rise in various international markets, including the world's largest.

Fortnite is to increase the price of its in-game currency V-Bucks in a number of countries, including the US and across Europe. While publisher Epic Games attributed the decision to economic factors - citing previous “pricing alignment” in countries including the UK over the summer - the move will follow hundreds of job losses at the company, partially as the result of lower than expected revenue for their immensely popular battle royale shooter.

Along with laying off almost 900 employees, Epic Games announced an increase to V-Bucks prices in Fortnite. Starting October 27th, the United States, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and more will be affected. The increase is due to “economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations, and follow similar pricing alignments recently completed in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Mexico.”

Epic is raising the price of V-Bucks in Fortnite for the second time this year, with the price changes now hitting Denmark, Japan, Sweden, and the United States on October 27.

Epic has revealed that they are raising the prices for Fortnite’s V-Bucks.

Over the past few years, Epic Games has been one of the biggest success stories in the industry. The massive popularity of Fortnite changed the entire gaming landscape, establishing the blueprint for a successful “live service” title. The profitability of Fortnite allowed Epic to do things like launch the Epic Games Store with better profit sharing for publishers, push a lot of cutting-edge new technology with Unreal Engine 5, and more. Unfortunately, it seems Epic’s run of unfettered success may have hit a speed bump.

We review Fika, a two player card game published by 25th Century Games. In Fika, players are trying to earn the most points to win a best two out of three round structure.

Fortnite V-Bucks will increase in price in the United States and several other countries on October 27, 2023, Epic Games has announced.

Fortnite is about to get more expensive for many players who like to indulge in the battle royale’s in-game purchases, as it’s been confirmed that a new pricing alignment will increase the cost of V-Bucks and real-money item packs from next month in several countries.

Epic Games has announced plans to increase the price of Fortnite V-Bucks and some real money content packs.

If you're interested in the human stories behind the evolution of the home console industry, then you might want to check out the latest project from award-winning publisher Lost in Cult and our fellow Hookshot Media site, Time Extension.

By Andrew Webster, an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

Activision Blizzard’s King division is celebrating 20 years of as a company, and it noted that Candy Crush Saga now has 15,000 levels for the match-3 game.

Starbreeze shared a press release update for PAYDAY 3 this morning. The Swedish company mentioned that the game peaked at 1.3 million daily active users (DAU) across all platforms during the launch weekend, with a concurrent peak of 218K users. This isn't surprising, given that PAYDAY 3 was hotly anticipated and is also available on Game Pass from day one.

Ubisoft has confirmed that Tom Clancy’s The Division 3 is in the works, with Massive Entertainment leading development. The French publisher also announced it tapped Julian Gerighty as the new executive producer for The Division brand. He will dive into the new role once his work as creative director on Star Wars Outlaws is wrapped up.

Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy's The Division 3 and Massive Entertainment, the Sweden-based company behind the first two Division games and the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, is developing it. The studio announced this in a new post on Twitter today, linking to a blog discussing the threequel. In it, Ubisoft reveals that Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty will take over as The Division brand's executive producer once Outlaws ships. 

Ubisoft has confirmed Tom Clancy’s The Division 3 is now in development at Massive Entertainment.

This spooky season A24 is giving fans the chance to see their favorite indie horror classics on the big screen once again. The independent studio is taking over AMC theaters every Wednesday in October with A24 Presents: October Thrills & Chills Film Series.

Embracer has made a new round of layoffs, this time at Mythforce developer Beamdog less than 18 months after its acquisition.

Embracer Group has made layoffs at Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition and Mythforce developer Beamdog less than two years after acquiring the studio.

Starfield was comfortably No.1 across Europe during its launch week, GSD data shows.

COPENHAGEN–One of the features that Polestar hopes will get the attention of potential car customers isn’t anywhere on the inside or outside of its luxury electric vehicles. Instead, its a series of data reports on its website. 

On Aug. 1 crowdfunding giant Kickstarter announced its new policy on generative artificial intelligence, which required creators to disclose its use in the description of their campaigns beginning Aug. 29. But one of the first tabletop teams to admit to using the controversial technology isn’t a bootstrapped start-up. Instead, it’s Indie Game Studios’ imprint Stronghold Games, the United States-based licensor of the wildly popular Terraforming Mars. The strategy game is an international bestseller that has sold more than 1.5 million copies in at least 16 languages, ranks among the best board games in the world, and is currently being shopped around Hollywood for a movie or TV deal.

After a couple of days of furious game developer reactions, game engine company Unity have backtracked a teensy bit on their plan to charge developers who meet certain revenue and copies-sold thresholds a "runtime fee" for every installation of their game.

A “critical flaw” in macOS Sonoma’s firewall system can break Mullvad VPN and potentially other software dependent on packet filtering, according to the VPN provider.