Riot Games to establish new EMEA esports arena

The New Zealand games industry generated NZD $434.4 million ($270.9 million) in the financial year ended March 2023, according to a survey by the New Zealand Game Developers Association.

Details of Insomniac’s future games have been released onlin amidst a major data breach at the company, revealing further games based around Marvel characters, timing of the next Ratchet & Clank game, and when the studio will next look to build out a new IP.

Last month Path of Exile 2 was selected as the #9 Most Wanted game in PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted. The sequel to the long-running ARPG Path of Exile is coming soon, and with work on Path of Exile 2 now well underway, we flew to New Zealand to talk to developers at Grinding Gear Games about how they're approaching a game that needs to be firmly rooted in the original while offering both new players and veterans something fresh and different.

With the introduction of three entire new experiences – LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival – Epic’s unstoppable “everything” game Fortnite has taken a huge stride closer to becoming its own platform. But with so much new content available, the developer has to find ways to monetise it – and the latest microtransactions are attracting criticism for their obscene prices.

A year or two ago I interviewed an actual, practising witch, the wonderful Damien Crawford of Purgatory Dungeoneer fame, about how videogames represent magic. I badly need Crawford's thoughts on Emberstorm Entertainment's Reka, published by Fireshine Games, which has just been slapped with a Steam early access release window of Q2 2024.

On December 15th, viewers can stream 2 Days in New York, a romantic comedy film directed by Julie Delpy and starring herself and Chris Rock in a story revolving around a couple, Mingus Robinson and his French girlfriend Marion, who face mayhem when Marion’s parents visit New York. The film is a sequel to 2 Days in Paris, which was also directed by Delpy.

So, Grand Theft Auto 6's trailer came a little early—thanks to some unfortunate leaks that bungled its initial announcement timing. It pretty much set the internet on fire, crushing 60 million views in 12 hours. At the time of writing, that's up to 70 million. GTA's back, baby.

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.

Atari and developer Digital Eclipse announced on Friday that would receive a free content update next week.

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Some people think that story-driven games are dying. If that’s the case, then no one told the developers of these upcoming titles!