Tencent raises its stake in Remedy to 14%

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

In 2020, director Karyn Kusama was tapped to direct a new version of Dracula for Blumhouse Productions. Like The Invisible Man before it, the Dracula movie was going to be set in the modern day: a chance for Universal to reboot its continually doomed Monsterverse.

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

To celebrate a year since the launch of , Dambuster Studios has announced new content is in the works. After nine years of troubled development in which the title bounced between different developers, Dambuster Studios finally released in April 2023. The title was well-received, with plenty of gory zombie-slaying antics making for a fun romp across an apocalyptic Los Angeles, and its expansion pass brought two new story chapters, , which revolved around a billionaire’s secret techno-death cult, and , which featured a zombified music festival.

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

Tencent and Remedy, the developer of Control and Alan Wake, have completely scrapped their joint gaming project codenamed Kestrel, which they have been working on since 2021. The companies were originally developing a free-to-play co-op shooter until they decided to go in a different direction in November last year. They went back to the drawing board, renamed their project from Vanguard to Kestrel and had planned to make a «premium game with a strong, cooperative multiplayer component» instead. Back then, they said their game will «lean more into Remedy's core strengths» and will use repurposed versions of the company's assets and themes. Clearly, though, their partnership wasn't meant to be.

Remedy have called it quits on the project codenamed Kestrel. The co-op multiplayer game was an original IP being made with the backing of Tencent, but now Remedy say they've cancelled it to allow them to focus on "other games in our portfolio", all of which are based on "existing franchises".

Acclaimed game developer Remedy Entertainment has announced the cancellation of its co-op multiplayer game, codenamed Kestrel. This decision comes amid Remedy prioritizing the allocation of resources towards other ongoing projects within its portfolio.

Today, Finnish developer Remedy Entertainment decided jointly with Tencent to cancel the cooperative multiplayer game they were developing.

Wizards of the Coast has released a new FAQ addressing the use of generative AI (GenAI)in Dungeons & Dragons and admitting it "made mistakes" in its lack of transparency regarding this use in its art.

Despite the love it received from core gamers and critics alike, Remedy's recent effort, Alan Wake 2, has yet to make back its development and marketing budget. This surprising situation has plenty of contributing factors, which we first covered in December, but the reality is that sales are soft. No doubt striking while the irons are hot, Chinese multinational holding company Tencent, the largest video game company in the world, has increased its stake in the Finnish developer from 5% to 15%, securing additional shares and voting rights.

Housemarque's critically acclaimed sci-fi game Returnal celebrates its third anniversary with an all-new graphic novel. While fans eagerly awaited news of potential DLC or a sequel for Returnal after yesterday's tease, it turns out the Finnish developer had something else in mind to commemorate the occasion.