Zenless Zone Zero voice actors quietly recast following SAG-AFTRA action
Two Zenless Zone Zero voice actors claim they have been replaced for participating in the SAG-AFTRA strikes. As spotted by Eurogamer, Emeri Chase and Nicholas Thurkettle – playing Soldier 11 and Lycaon, respectively – claim they found out their voices had been replaced by reading the patch notes at the same time players did. As […]
Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop to shutter just six months post-launch
Spectre Divide developer Mountaintop Studios is shuttering just six months after launch. In a blog post, CEO Nate Mitchell told players the free-to-play shooter “hasn’t achieved the level of success [it] needed to sustain the game and keep Mountaintop afloat.” It’s unclear how many people have been impacted by the closure, but LinkedIn states the […]
SAG-AFTRA remains “frustratingly far apart” from major game companies
SAG-AFTRA – the union that represents 160,000 actors, voiceover artists, and other media professionals – has issued an update about the video game strike, saying it remains “frustratingly far apart” from video game studios and publishers. In a statement, the union said it was working to address “alarming loopholes” in a proposal prepared by the […]
Netflix Games confirms departure of former president and VP of GenAI Mike Verdu
Netflix Games’ VP of generative AI, Mike Verdu, has left the streaming giant. Although Netflix confirmed Verdu’s departure in a statement to Game File, the company did not comment on why the VP left after just five months in the role, nor revealed who has replaced him. Verdu joined Netflix in 2021 to launch its […]
Leaked video appears to show Sony director conversing with an AI Aloy prototype
PlayStation is reportedly using characters from its biggest franchises in an AI prototype. A leaked video appeared to show PlayStation’s director of software engineering, Sharwin Raghoebardajal, conversing with an early AI Aloy prototype. The video – sent to The Verge but since taken offline following a copyright claim from Sony – showed Raghoebardajal give a […]
Indie developer Welevel raises $5.7m in funding
Munich-based indie developer Welevel has raised $5.7 million in a funding round led by Bitkraft Ventures. The studio said it will use the investment to support the development of its in-house AI platform, and to expand its core team “twofold” in preparation for its upcoming AAA sandbox survival game. The untitled project has been in […]
French Supreme Court rules in favour of Nintendo against site hosting pirated copies of its games
Nintendo has won a long-running legal battle against French sharehosting operator Dstorage. Following a decision dated February 26, 2025, the French Supreme Court found Dstorage “liable for failing to remove access to unauthorised copies of Nintendo games stored on its platform” – referring to the filehosting site 1fichier.com. This decision means other European-based filesharing sites […]
Shocking success: Understanding a new era of horror with Blumhouse Games | Playable Futures
This series of Playable Futures articles considers how the design, technology, people, and theory of video games are informing and influencing the wider world. Horror as a theme has a storied history in video games. From early releases like 1986’s unexpectedly eerie point-and-click Uninvited: Entering the Mansion to the disturbing setting of The Last of […]
Sony announces PlayStation 5 rental scheme in UK
Sony has partnered with tech leasing service Raylo to offer a rental scheme for PlayStation 5 hardware in the UK via its Flex program. Customers will have the ability to lease PS5 consoles and other accessories for no upfront cost with either a flexible monthly rolling plan that can be cancelled at any time, or […]
Hidden Variable sues Skullgirls publisher Autumn Games for $1.2m in unpaid payments
Hidden Variable has announced that as of January 21, 2025, it was “no longer involved in the development on Skullgirls Mobile, 2nd Encore” due to a “dispute with Autumn Games.” In a statement, Hidden Variable said the dispute had now been formally lodged with the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Court papers intimated Hidden Variables […]
20-year-old browser game to shut down as result of UK’s new online safety law
Free-to-play text MMO browser game, Urban Dead, will close just shy of its 20th anniversary because of the introduction of the UK’s Online Safety Act. In a statement spotted by GameDeveloper, developer Kevan Davis said that as the law applies to “all social and gaming websites where users interact” and “heavy corporate-sized fines [apply] even […]
Match-3 devs blasted for “incredibly harmful” stereotypes and gender-based violence in advertisements
Mobile game developers Microfun, Nanobit, and Magic Tavern have been accused of reinforcing harmful stereotypes and gender-based violence in a new report about mobile game advertising. In a Sky News report, Project Makeover (Magic Tavern), Gossip Harbor (Microfun), and Hollywood Story (Nanobit) were singled out for perpetuating “incredibly harmful” misogynistic tropes to sell their match-3 […]
Capcom promotes Monster Hunter producer to chief product officer in charge of all development
Capcom’s current executive corporate officer and chief product officer, Yoichi Egawa, will step down on April 1, with Monster Hunter producer Ryozo Tsujimoto assuming the latter role from that same date. President and COO Haruhiro Tsujimoto will take over Egawa’s role of overseeing Capcom’s Pachinko and Pachislo business divisions. Ryozo Tsujimoto – who currently serves […]
Warner Bros games revenue dropped 29% during Q4 2024
Warner Bros. has released its financials for Q4 and FY2024, reporting that revenue for its games segment dropped 29% year-on-year for the three months ended December 31, 2024. Detailed figures are not provided for games revenue (which falls under the Studios segment). However, the firm said that while games revenue decreased in Q4, it experienced […]
4A Games Ukraine rebrands to Reburn, announces new IP
4A Games Ukraine has rebranded to Reburn, and has announced its new IP La Quimera. As reported by Polygon, La Quimera was co-created by Reburn alongside filmmaker Nicolas Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) and writer E.J.A. Warren. Currently in development, La Quimera is a first-person shooter set in a fictional Latin American metropolis. It is […]
Pokémon TCG Pocket reaches 100m downloads | News-in-brief
StreamElements brings “performance-based sponsorships” directly to Twitch dashboards
StreamElements has partnered with Twitch to bring StreamElements’ “performance-based sponsorships from marquee brands” directly to streamer dashboards. The firm states this will expand the monetization opportunities for creators of all sizes and “expand the broader creator community’s awareness of StreamElements’ best-in-class tools and sponsorship opportunities while illustrating Twitch’s ongoing commitment to providing its users with […]
Konami partners with Bloober Team for another “joint project” based on unspecified Konami IP
Konami has partnered with Silent Hill 2 Remake developer Bloober Team for “a joint project.” In a statement, neither party clarified the details of the project, but confirmed it was a game based on Konami’s intellectual property, and Konami will retain its publisher rights. Bloober’s “horror and atmospheric storytelling” expertise made it a fitting collaborator […]
The Pokémon Company settles lawsuit against copyright-infringing mobile game for “a huge sum”
The Pokémon Company has settled its lawsuit against Pocket Monster: Remake. As spotted by Automaton, the settlement – which followed a court case in September that upheld The Pokémon Company’s copyright claim – comes after the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court ordered the defendants to pay The Pokémon Company $15 million. Whilst the two companies – […]
Dovetail Games appoints Gemma Brown and Rob O’Farrell as Co-CEOs
Dovetail Games has appointed Gemma Brown and Rob O’Farrell as Co-CEOs. Dovetail said Brown – formerly the company’s COO with 12 years of experience at the company – and O’Farrell – CDO with 11 years – have “demonstrated strong leadership and a deep understanding of the organization.” “It is a true honor for us to […]
Unity Q4 revenue drops 25% to $457m
Unity has released its financial results for Q4 and the full fiscal year, experiencing a decrease in revenue during the fourth quarter which exceeded previous guidance of between $422 million to $427 million. The engine maker also exceeded its guidance for the full year, which was estimated to be between $1.7 billion and $1.71 billion. […]
Marvel Rivals maintains top spot on PC engagement charts for January 2025 | Newzoo Charts
Marvel Rivals made it into the Top Five of Newzoo’s overall revenue chart for January 2025, moving up one spot following its release on December 6, 2024. NetEase’s hero shooter maintained the top spot for player engagement on PC and rose from No.6 to No.2 on the platform’s revenue chart. The game also made it […]
How Kepler Interactive balances artistic vision with gaming innovation
Kepler Interactive already boasts one of the more eclectic portfolio of games, from the New Caledonia inspired blue seas of Tchia to the survival horror adventure game lauded for its nightmare fuel visuals, and maintains a creative studio that allows the company to collaborate with different mediums in art and culture. As we interview CEO […]
Sony dismisses claims it destroyed former director’s reputation, alleging he engaged in “consistent misconduct”
Sony has hit back at claims it maligned the reputation of former Marathon reboot director Chris Barrett, purporting its investigations had uncovered “consistent” misconduct wherein he would target a “lower-level, female employee he wasn’t working with directly, initially engaged in friendly conversation, and progressively pushed boundaries”, “often referenc[ing] his wealth and his ability to advance […]
Niantic reportedly in talks to sell video game business in $3.5bn deal with Scopely
Pokémon Go developer Niantic is reportedly considering selling its video game portfolio to Savvy Games Group subsidiary, Scopely. Whilst the deal has yet to be confirmed and neither Niantic nor Scopely have talked publicly about the deals, Bloomberg claims the sale may include Niantic’s tentpole augmented reality game, Pokémon Go. If completed, it’s thought the […]
Aptoide fully launches to iOS consumers across EU
Alternative app store Aptoide has fully launched its service on iOS in the European Union. As part of its launch, an App Versions feature has been introduced which enables users to install older versions of apps. This was previously only avaliable on Android. Aptoide first opened with a beta in June 2024, which saw a […]
Kingdom Come Deliverance tops 2m copies sold in less than two weeks | News-in-brief
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Thunderful Gothenberg rebrands as Stormteller Games
Thunderful Gothenberg has now rebranded as Stormteller Games. Thunderful Gothenburg was formed when Image & Form and Zoink! Games merged in 2017, but has now been renamed to “make sure it represents everyone in the studio.” The first on the new brand’s slate is Lost in Random: The Eternal Die, which is due to release […]
Ubisoft revenues decline 31.4% to €990m
Ubisoft has released its financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, reporting significant declines in revenues and net bookings. The firm remains optimistic, however, with the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Pre-sales of the title are reported to be “tracking solidly” and on par with the franchise’s second-highest earner, Odyssey. Here’s […]
Embracer sales drop 22% to $1.5bn, $298m debt remains
Embracer Group has published its financial results for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, reporting declines across its PC/console and mobile segments. However, it experienced a net profit during its third quarter following the completed spin-off of tabletop publisher Asmodee. Here’s what you need to know: The numbers: For the three months ending December […]
Unions slam Bobby Kotick’s claims that Activision Blizzard harassment reports were “fake”
The Communication Workers Of America (CWA) has slammed former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s claims that the numerous reports of harassment that allegedly took place when he was led the firm were “fake.” “Bobby Kotick’s comments on a podcast uplifting billionaires are both insulting to the Activision workers who spoke out about the harassment they […]
Microsoft Gaming VP Kayleen Walters appointed head of Mojang
Microsoft Gaming VP Kayleen Walters has been appointed head of Mojang Studios. Walters – who will assume the position on top of her role as vice president and head of franchise development Microsoft Gaming – will being work immediately as current Mojang boss, Åsa Bredin, steps down to “focus on personal goals outside of work.” […]
Krafton reports “all-time highs” in sales and operating profits in 2024
Krafton has reported “record-breaking earnings” in 2024, with full-year revenue jumping 41.8% year-on-year to $1.85bn. Operating profit also increased, this time by 54% YoY to $825.7m, attributed to the “continued expansion and sustainability of the PUBG IP” and a 35.7% year-on-year boost in revenue from Battlegrounds Mobile India. Yearly net profits were similarly up 119% […]
Sony apologises for global outage that took PlayStation Network offline for nearly 24 hours
Sony has apologised to players after PlayStation Network was taken offline for almost a full 24 hours over the weekend. Whilst Sony has not revealed the cause of the problem – it only cited “an operational issue” when confirming the issue was resolved yesterday, February 10 – the global outage impacted almost all areas of […]
Take-Two Interactive reports strong Q3 FY2025 Results, prepares for blockbuster 2025 lineup
Take-Two Interactive announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2025, reporting net bookings of $1.37 billion, a 3% increase from the previous year and within the company’s projected guidance. The company also reaffirmed its full-year net bookings outlook of $5.55 billion to $5.65 billion, citing strong performance from its core franchises […]
Sega revenues drop 8% to $2.1bn
Sega Sammy has published its financial results for the nine months ended December 31, 2024, during which it announced the cancellation of Football Manager 2025. The Sports Interactive title was delayed last October, with Sega reaching the decision due to difficulties in “ensuring significant product quality expected by the March release.” Overall, Sega experienced a […]
Capcom shuts down Resident Evil multiplayer spin-off
Capcom is shutting down its survival multiplayer Resident Evil Re:Verse. From March 3, 2025, the game and its DLC will be removed from online stores and will no longer be bundled with Resident Evil Village. Customers that acquired a download code for the title before this date or have already used a code to acquire […]
Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick on tariffs, AI and GTA 6
As Take-Two Interactive reported strong results for Q3 FY 2025 and readied investors for a blockbuster year that includes the release of Rockstar’s long anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6, Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two Interactive, took the time to talk to GamesIndustry.biz about the results and some of the biggest issues facing the […]
Iron Galaxy lays off 66 to protect “long-term survival”
Iron Galaxy has laid off 66 developers. In a statement posted to LinkedIn, the studio said that although it had made “sacrifices to keep teams intact”, it had “run out of room to manoeuvre amidst this slow recovery”. “Today, Iron Galaxy is parting ways with some of our developers and support staff. In total, we […]
Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero tops 5m global sales | News-in-brief
ESA warns Trump tariffs will bring “significant harm” to US developers and players
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has warned that any tariffs levied by Donald Trump’s administration will cause “significant harm” to the video game industry – and players – in the US. In a statement to Kotaku, the organisation – which represents video game companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo – initially asked for the Trump […]
MultiVersus will shutdown on May 30
The Warner Bros. platform fighting game, MultiVersus, will shutdown on May 30, according to a statement by developer Player First Games.The game was released on May 28, 2024. “We have an important update to share regarding MultiVersus. After careful consideration, our next Season will serve as the final seasonal content update for the game,” said […]
Retailer Newegg sold out of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs “within minutes”
Online hardware retailer Newegg has reported that it sold out of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs “within minutes” and broke down the surge of customer activity around the RTX 5080 and RTX 5090. “The response to the NVIDIA RTX 50 Series has been extraordinary,” said Jim Tseng, VP of Product Management in a […]
Fallout: New Vegas lead story writer is back at Obsidian Entertainment
John Gonzalez confirms its not for Fallout: New Vegas 2 Image credit: Obsidian Entertainment John Gonzalez, best known for his work as lead writer on Fallout: New Vegas and as Narrative Director on Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West at Guerrilla Games, is back at Obsidian Entertainment after 13 years.
In his LinkedIn […]
Kukouri Mobile “moves away from game development”
Kukouri Mobile Entertainment is “moving away from game development”. As reported by PocketGamer.biz, Kukouri has sold its IPs Pixel Worlds and Tiny Troopers to Social First, with CEO Petri Piipari acknowledging that Pixel Worlds has not been a commercially viable product for some time”. “With the only active Tiny Troopers game being licensed to an […]
BioWare’s “agile, focused” approach sees jobs cut and others redeployed across “EA teams”
BioWare is “reimagining” how it works, saying that the team behind the next Mass Effect game “do[es]n’t require support from the full studio.” Consequently – and without clarifying the number of people impacted by the changes – general manager Gary McKay said the studio had “worked diligently” to redeploy BioWare staff “with other teams at […]
Humble launches new bundles to support LA fire relief efforts
Humble has launched a collection of new Humble Bundles to support those affected by the recent devastating fires that hit Los Angeles earlier this month. As well as the bundles, the company is also pledging $200,000 from its Humble Forward Fund – in partnership with Direct Relief – in order to support work to provide […]
Japanese ratings board demands changes to Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be censored in Japan when it releases in March 2025. As detailed by developer/publisher Ubisoft in a statement, there will be “differences in content” between the Japanese edition and the versions available overseas despite the game securing a CERO Z rating, the equivalent of a mature/18+ classification. Japan’s rating board, CERO, […]
Pocketpair launches publishing arm, partners with Surgent Studios for first title
Palworld developer Pocketpair has launched a publishing division, and has partnered with Surgent Studios to produce its upcoming horror title. The untitled game is set for release in late 2025, and is not set in the Tales of Kenzera universe. Surgent Studios clarified that it is continuing conversations with potential partners centered on games set […]
Annapurna appoints ex-Netflix exec Leanne Loombe as head of games
Annapurna Interactive has appointed former Netflix Games exec Leanne Loombe as head of games. As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Loombe will oversee the firm’s publishing, development, and creative segments. She will report to Annapurna’s president of interactive and new media Hector Sanchez, who rejoined the firm last June after spending five years at Epic […]
