Publishing News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

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

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.

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

Microsoft has released its third Xbox Transparency Report, highlighting the improvements made to its internal processes to protect players from toxicity and harassment.

Crunchyroll is the latest streaming service to add mobile games to its offering.

Kirsty Rigden will be taking over as the sole CEO of FuturLab following the retirement of founder James Marsden.

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

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

Physics-based games are catnip to influencers.

Elden Ring was by far and away one of the most prolific games of last year. It won itself scores of praise and accolades following its release in February 2022, including topping Eurogamer's own Game of the Year list.

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

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has reaffirmed that the company will continue to produce and publish games. In an interview with Business Insider, Nadella talks about the company’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Answering a question about the acquisition, Nadella states that it is an important one, because gaming is an important part of Microsoft’s business.

With Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard finally complete, the company controls a larger than ever share of the game industry. According to CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft now plans to double down on game publishing and development.

Pete Hines, head of publishing at Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Starfield studio Bethesda, is retiring. One of the most public faces at the developer behind perhaps only Toddy H himself, Hines has played a prominent role in the release of their biggest games for close to the last quarter-of-a-century - but says that the “time is right” to move on to “an exciting new chapter of my life”.

Bethesda's head of publishing Pete Hines has announced his retirement.

By Emma Roth, a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

Bethesda Softworks senior vice president and head of publishing has announced his decision to retire after 24 years at the company.

Bethesda’s head of publishing, Pete Hines, is leaving the company after nearly 25 years of employment, he’s announced.

Studio Wildcard, known to gamers for the hit survival game ARK: Survival Evolved, was a key component of the surprising resolution of the Myth of Empires legal dispute. The sandbox multiplayer game was removed from Steam following a copyright infringement claim.

Lockwood Publishing, the British metaverse game company behind Avakin Life, is sponsoring the New Codes digital fashion summit. That comes just after Lockwood‘s support for PlanetPlay, which in turn is supporting projects such as eco-friendly stoves for the developing world.

After a 16-year run, developer Puny Human revealed it'll be closing its doors. 

Epic Games' head of publishing strategy Sergiy Galyonkin has announced that he is leaving the company after eight years.

Epic Games‘ director of publishing strategy, Sergiy Galyonkin, is leaving the company.

Steam Spy creator Sergiy Galyonkin, who has also spent the past six years serving as Epic Games' head of publishing strategy, has announced that he has left company. Galyonkin's departure comes just days after Epic confirmed significant layoffs at the company that put more than 800 people—16% of Epic's total headcount—out of work.

Sergiy Galyonkin, the director of publishing strategy for Epic Games, is leaving the company after eight years. 

Sergiy Galyonkin has announced via Twitter today that he has resigned from his role as Director of Publishing Strategy at Epic Games. He had been with the company for over eight years.

There have been some major changes behind the scenes at Epic Games in recent weeks. Recently, it was announced that chief creative officer Donald Mustard was leaving the company, to be replaced by Charlie Wen, a former Marvel and God of War vet. Now, another key figure at the company has announced his departure.

To prevent AI-written novels from flooding Amazon, the company is placing a cap on the number of self-published books an author can release per day. 

Blue Protocol has been a long-awaited title for quite some time now. With closed beta tests and gameplay videos showcased, the hype was steadily increasing amongst fans of MMORPGs and anime. And now, a mobile version of the game has been announced – and it’s being published by Tencent.

Bandai Namco’s eagerly awaited free-to-play action RPG Blue Protocol still isn’t out in the West, but a mobile version is reportedly already in development. Speaking to “people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg reports that Tencent will publish and develop the same.

Baldur’s Gate 3 will eventually be getting PC and console crossplay, Larian Studios’ director of publishing, Michael Douse, has confirmed.

Unpacking and Stray Gods publisher Humble Games is wary of the potential legal issues posed by developers who choose to leverage generative AI tools like ChatGPT during production.

Pete Hines, publishing head at Bethesda Softworks, has stated that the company has no plans to give up on Redfall, and that the game will become good down the line with updates bringing in improvements. The company hopes to raise the quality of the game to the same extent as it has other titles like The Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76.

We're thrilled to announce the return of GamesBeat Next, hosted in San Francisco this October, where we will explore the theme of «Playing the Edge.» Apply to speak here and learn more about sponsorship opportunities here. At the event, we will also announce 25 top game startups as the 2024 Game Changers. Apply or nominate today!

European giant Embracer Group has closed down its Volition Games studio.

A series of layoffs have reportedly been conducted by Embracer at subsidiary Gearbox Publishing.

Larian Studios' Director of Publishing, Michael Douse, has taken to Twitter to comment on a recent article about weaker subscription deals hitting indie devs.

Bethesda head of publishing Pete Hines has spoken out in response to remarks made by ex-Blizzard developer Mark Kern, who had previously leaked an image of Starfield’s start screen and criticized its design as "hasty" or the work of a team "that didn't care".

Bethesda's Head of Publishing Pete Hines hit back at criticism that labelled Starfield's start screen as being designed by «a passionate team overworked or a team that didn't care».

The critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate 3 – seriously, have you seen those reviews! – will release later this year in Japan, courtesy of publisher Spike Chunsoft. The firm has snagged the rights to the ridiculously popular PS5 version, and domestic retailers have already started making product pages for digital and physical releases. It should be noted, in the west, the game is only available from the PS Store right now.

Sea of Stars is almost here, and to build excitement, The Escapist has released a new documentary about the upcoming JPRG with the developers. In it, we get some insight into the game’s creation and the team’s philosophies, as well as some interesting tidbits about the game’s development, including their decision to self-publish their newest title.

For anyone with an eye on video game news, it’s been hard to ignore the recent rise of names like Annapurna Interactive, Devolver Digital, Private Division, Humble, Epic Games and Netflix tied to independent projects. The distribution process for indie developers has shifted over the past few years from a self-publishing-first model, to one that prioritizes deal-making and acquisitions. For the moment, this shift is powering a small but highly visible boom in the world of indie games.

A group on the World of Warcraft subreddit have managed to successfully troll an AI- ‘news’ scraper site into publishing a fake article in just hours.