Creating a character is one of the most significant moments of any Elden Ring playthrough. Sure, your character will probably wear a helmet that’s going to cover their faces for 90% of the game, but still, customization matters. One thing I didn’t remember about Elden Ring, however, is how disappointing its selection of hairstyles can be. Both males and females – sorry, Type A and Type B – have access to the same hair options, and they still manage to be lackluster. All that said, this hairy conundrum extends well beyond Elden Ring. For a while, hairstyles have been lacking in video games. From the rugged buzzcuts of every space marine in existence to that borderline stereotypical dreadlock fade developers are now giving to every black character, it’s time for video games to pay a visit to a stylist. Because not everyone can be as stylish as Agent 47.
Video game developers union membership in UK increases as layoffs continue across the industry
23.01.2024 - 14:59 / eurogamer.net / Victoria Kennedy
Union membership numbers in the UK have risen significantly, following a tumultuous period in the video game industry (which still continues today).
The Game Workers branch of the IWGB union — which aims to «end the institutionalised practice of excessive/unpaid overtime» among other goals — told The Observer it saw its membership numbers increase by almost 50 percent between December 2022 and the end of last year. In October 2023 specifically, the union saw membership rise by 12 percent. This was soon after Fortnite developer Epic announced a wave of job cuts.
«It's felt like a deluge of redundancies in the past five or six months. It just keeps coming and coming,» said Austin Kelmore, chair of the IWGB Game Workers branch. «And with this wave, I've seen people saying 'we need to join unions'. Our membership went through the roof. We had the largest growth of new members in any month in our five-year history at the end of last year.»
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Newscast: Did Microsoft's Developer Direct showcase a better year for Xbox?Watch on YouTubeUK video games industry body Ukie, meanwhile, suggests one in 30 of all UK gaming industry employees have lost their jobs.
«It has been difficult to hear of the job losses in the video games sector over the recent few months,» said its co-CEO Daniel Wood. The exec said Ukie's own analysis suggests these layoffs are a result of «rebalancing following successive years of significant growth» during the Covid-19 pandemic.
«We continue to work hard to ensure the UK remains a great place to start and scale up games businesses,» Wood continued, «and we urge the government to use the budget to create the conditions needed for games businesses to grow.»
Last week, GDC published its 2024 State of the Game Industry report. Here, it said 35 percent of game developers had been impacted by layoffs in the last 12 months. Additionally, half of those surveyed said they are concerned more job cuts are on the way.
This year has already seen multiple companies announce layoffs, with League of Legends developer Riot Games the latest. Last night, the company revealed it was laying off 530 employees, equating to roughly 11 percent of its total global workforce.
Others affected this year include Unity, Behaviour Interactive and Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games. Yesterday meanwhile, Embracer-owned studio Piranha Bytes acknowledged it's in «a difficult situation» as it faces potential closure.
How Mediatonic made the Takeshi's Castle of video games in Fall Guys
At this year's E3, Mediatonic's brand new title Fall Guys was unveiled during Devolver's press conference.
Discworld rerelease "may happen" but depends on "King Charles", developer says
A re-release of the 90s point-and-click Discworld game «may happen», designer Gregg Barnett has teased. However, the developer said because of the way intellectual property rights work in the UK, 50 percent of the game currently belongs to the crown, which complicates matters a tad.
GTA 6 release expected after April 2025 and will be "positive" for the industry, Ubisoft says
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes the launch of GTA 6 will be «positive for the market» and expects it to launch after April 2025.
The video game funding gap: How investors are failing marginalized developers
Investors and publishers spend billions of dollars on the video game industry each year, but just a small fraction of that money goes toward funding game companies led by women and those from other marginalized groups. Even as venture capitalist funding surged in 2021 as a response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, video game companies led by all-male founders brought in $4.1 billion in funding to the $1.2 million for companies with all-female founders, according to data provided to Polygon from investment research company PitchBook. (In 2021, gaming companies with mixed-gender founders — i.e., those including at least one woman — received $400.9 million in 62 deals, according to the data.)
"What counts as interaction in video games?" asks new PS5 experience, Interaction Isn't Explicit
Free «interactive study» Interaction Isn't Explicit is now available via the PlayStation Store.
Final Fantasy XIV won’t be the next video game TV series, as The Witcher producers' live-action project “dead”
A planned live-action adaptation of MMO Final Fantasy XIV is officially “dead”, according to the TV series’ producers. A combination of the pandemic and the “size and scale needed to do it right” are apparently to blame, with Amazon reportedly coming closest to making it a reality - but to no avail.
The Video Game Industry Has Already Lost 5000 Jobs In 2024
No matter what industry you work in, there is always a chance for layoffs. In many ways, it’s one of the biggest things people fear. After all, they could be happy and think they have a long-term solution to their money problems one day, and then the next day comes, and they’re told it’s their last day at work due to “corporate changes,” or “cost-saving moves” or some words of the like. One might feel that the Video Game Industry, with its various successful studios and titles, would be immune from this. But as the website Video Game Layoffs has noted, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Microsoft to lay off around 1,900 staff from across the Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax teams
Update: This story has now been updated with a response from a Microsoft spokesperson.
2025 could very well be the best year in video games sales to date | Opinion
It is beginning to look like 2025 is shaping up to be one of the biggest years in video games, if not the biggest.
Mortal Kombat 2 Movie Filming Wraps on Bloody Video Game Adaptation
Simon McQuoid’s has officially wrapped filming as we await a release date for the video game adaptation sequel.
UK games union membership up 'almost' 50% in 2023
Membership to the Game Workers branch of the IWGB union went up by 'almost half' between December 2022 and December 2023.