Development News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

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Unity has announced another round of layoffs as part of its restructuring efforts, resulting in the loss of 1,800 jobs.

Netflix is reportedly considering different avenues to generate income from their games division.

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The early stages of running a new business is difficult, and this is no less true for game developers. Fortunately, there are programs and initiatives out there that can help give you and your new studio a leg up when it comes to overcoming the initial hurdles.

UK developer Bossa Studios has laid off around one third of its staff, GamesIndustry.biz has learned.

Glu's mobile game Kim Kardashian: Hollywood is shutting down on April 8, 2024.

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Every year, we turn to a panel of trusted analysts to ask them what they see coming down the road, and ask them to assess their predictions from the previous year.

Tech startup Unicorn Factory Lisboa has launched a new coworking space in Portugal's capital, in partnership with Fortis Games.

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley and CTO Chris Kingsley have been made 'Commanders of the Order of the British Empire' in the King's New Year's Honours List.

Square Enix will be actively pushing into the generative AI field, exploring how it can be used in the company's internal games development.

«Bobby [Kotick]'s decisions made our games worse,» a former Call of Duty programmer said on social media the same day Kotick completed his final day as CEO at Activision Blizzard.

First Contact Entertainment has announced its closure.

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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.

Trade body UKIE has maintained a lovely tradition for several years now: celebrating a UK Game of the Show at Gamescom.

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2023 has been a difficult year for the industry, one marred by layoffs and studio closures affecting thousands of developers globally.

Netflix is producing a video game set in the universe of Squid Game.

Hideo Kojima says that when he parted ways with Konami, he was «opposed» by peers, colleagues, and relatives" who told him that going independent would «never work».

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Naughty Dog has stopped development on The Last of Us Online.

House Flipper was a surprising Steam hit of 2018. While not necessarily enthusing the critics straight from launch, the simulation title found a large and faithful community that ensured its long-term success.

Guildford.Games Ltd – a not-for-profit initiative introduced to «showcase the local industry and bring the concentrated, creative talent within Guildford to the attention of the world» – has confirmed its 2024 event will kick off on 16th February 2024.

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You can still sign up to this week's free webinar exploring ways video games companies can detect and prevent harms against children in online games.

Saber Interactive subsidiary New World Interactive has experienced layoffs, affected by Embracer's ongoing restructuring program.

Hearst Newspapers has acquired puzzle games hub Puzzmo.

In the past decade, video games have gotten visibly more diverse than titles with just straight white men as the player character or on the box art. But more diverse-looking games doesn't always mean that narratives have necessarily gotten richer or less problematic, especially when many major studios still consist of predominantly white teams.

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Today in Cape Town, as part of Africa Games Week, a panel discussed and debunked common myths around the games industry on the continent, from the measure of success to what authentic African stories can look like.

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Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Atari has been considered a retro brand for decades now, but it hasn't always leaned into that designation. While licensed T-shirts and plug-and-play consoles have been a fairly consistent offering, the company's growth plans focused less on its own games and more on branching out to wearables, movies, gambling, blockchain, and hotels.

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Players expect more from their games, now more than ever before. Over the past twenty years, the scope, budget and audience expectations of games have inflated, and smaller studios are left seemingly locked in a cycle of diminishing returns on increasingly ambitious productions.

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TikTok owner ByteDance is reportedly leaving the games industry following a restructure.

UK games trade body Ukie's diversity initiative, #RaisetheGame, has partnered with recruitment agency Amiqus to launch Empower Up, a «comprehensive platform to equip game companies of all sizes with the knowledge, frameworks, guidance, and resources they need to establish, improve, or grow their equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies».

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.

Toge Productions has acquired Mojiken Studio, developers of A Space for the Unbound.

"It’s crazy to make your own engine" "The cost is too much" "We haven’t released a game yet, is custom tech a smart way to spend our time and money right now?"

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For developers just starting in the industry, the task of choosing the best game engine can be daunting. Here, we'll try to address many of the issues concerning one of the most popular game engines, Unreal Engine, so you can see if it's the right game engine for your project.

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Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward just opened a new studio in Austin, Texas.

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Stardew Valley is often credited for kickstarting an entire movement of wholesome games that truly exploded with Animal Crossing: New Horizons' release in 2020. While the cosy trend feels recent, there were lots of developers working on non-violent games before then.

It was one of 2021's indie hits: Unpacking.

Back in March, Osama Dorias was part of an industry panel on burnout at the Game Developers' Conference, sharing his own personal story of burning out in the industry and the toll it took on his mental health.

Persona developer Atlus will raise the average annual salary of its employees by 15% in April 2024.

League of Geeks has a special place in the Australian games industry. A pioneer of the indie scene with Armello back in the early 2010s, the Melbourne-based studio has followed a successful path for over a decade, always lending a helping hand to other Australian indies along the way.

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Remedy has changed its previously free-to-play multiplayer title into a paid game.

No More Rainbows developer Squido Studio has secured CA$1.5 million in funding.

Cult of the Lamb, Unpacking, Heavenly Bodies, The Artful Escape, Moving Out, Untitled Goose Game, Hollow Knight. Standout indie games made in Australia have been abundant in the past few years. And Stray Gods is very much following in these footsteps this year.

PlaySide won Studio of the Year at the Australian Game Developer Awards last month, an achievement crowning over a decade in game development.

Samwise Didier, senior art director at Blizzard Entertainment, has announced his retirement from the firm.

It can be difficult keeping track of the various comings and goings in the games industry, which is why we compile them in semi-regular round-ups.

A free webinar exploring ways video games companies can detect and prevent harms against children in online games will take place next month.

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

We already knew that the original director for Super Mario RPG on the SNES, Chihiro Fujioka, wasn't returning for the forthcoming Switch remake, but now we know which development studio did lead development: ArtePiazza.

Konami is hiring for «large-scale projects» associated with its Silent Hill franchise.

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Warframe developer Digital Extremes has laid off an unknown number of staff and has closed its publishing division.

Sony will only release six live titles by the end of March 2026 instead of the 12 initially announced.

UK games companies can now download the free Salary Survey summary.

Crafting a robust game economy is no small feat; it's a multifaceted challenge that demands careful consideration. The goal of game economy design is to maintain the vitality of your game in the long run. Economic problems can cause entire projects to collapse.

The Glory Society has announced the cancellation of Night in the Woods spiritual successor Revenant Hill.

At the GamesIndustry.biz HR Summit in September, organisational psychologist Graham McAllister presented a talk entitled 'Game vision alignment: Its role in team effectiveness,' exploring how studios can improve their games by maintaining a clear vision of what they're creating.