Tag: Industry - Page 6
News Sony to Showcase Big PS5, PS4 Indies at Kyoto Convention
BitSummit Let's Go!!
With Sony's most recent Showcase dividing fan opinion, to put things mildly, we could at least see some indie gems out of Kyoto, which would be nice. Japan's largest indie game festival is BitSummit, or "BitSummit Let's Go!!" if you prefer, and it is being held over the weekend, from 14th-16th July. Shuhei Yoshida, as Sony...
News Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells Announces His Retirement
Will leave the studio at the end of the year
Naughty Dog co-president Evan Wells has announced he will be retiring from the developer after 25 years. Confirmed in a statement, he leaves Neil Druckmann as the sole president of the company along with the Studio Leadership Team, who Wells believes will "steer the studio into a successful future". He'll...
Reaction What Happens to PlayStation if Microsoft Buys Activision Blizzard?
The question we're all pondering
Well, then – here we are. As perhaps even eternal optimists may have anticipated, US regulator the Federal Trade Commission has lost its case against Microsoft, meaning there’ll be no preliminary injunction to prevent its Activision Blizzard acquisition from closing before its 18th July deadline. And in dramatic...
News Microsoft Beats US Regulator FTC in Activision Blizzard Buyout Battle
Update: Xbox maker agrees to "stay of litigation" with UK regulator
Update: In a rapidly developing update in this snowballing story, Microsoft president Brad Smith has revealed that his company have agreed to a “stay of litigation” with UK regulator, the CMA. An appeal hearing with the CAT had been scheduled to get underway on 28th July, but it...
News AI-Generated Audio Row Leads to Persona 5 Voice Actor Deleting Twitter Account
Apathy's a tragedy
Computers are back at it again, easing our lives while creating moral quandaries quicker than we can (ironically) process. 2023, it seems, is the year in which we contend with the rise of AI, as evidenced by the ongoing Writer's Guild of America strike, and now the voice-acting community finds itself at something of a digital...
News SEGA Backtracks on Blockchain, Believes Play-to-Earn Games Are Boring
But never say never
SEGA, once intrigued by the power of the Blockchain, appears to have changed course, with the company's COO Shuji Utsumi declaring that "the action in play-to-earn games is boring. What’s the point if games are no fun?" Speaking to Bloomberg, Utsumi said that SEGA doesn't want to devalue the strength of its biggest IPs, like...
News Yuji Naka Faces $1.2 Million Fine and Suspended Prison Sentence for Insider Trading
Yuji knackered
Reports coming out from Japan contain the final sentence for Yuji Naka, best known for his contributions to the Sonic the Hedgehog series. After pleading guilty to charges of insider trading, Naka has been sentenced to a prison term of two and a half years, suspended for a period of four years. Additionally, he faces two fines...
News James Bond Title Sparks New Studio Opening for IO Interactive
Located in Brighton, UK
Hitman team IO Interactive has opened a fifth studio in Brighton, UK to help create its James Bond game, titled Project 007 right now. A core team is already said to be in place on England's south coast, and along with the developer's other four production houses, it'll "make significant contributions to the ambitious...
News PlayStation and Other Gaming Titans Flock to Twitter Rival Threads
In a flap
Gaming titans like PlayStation are spreading their wings and flocking to Threads, the new Twitter rival launched by Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta. The new text-based social media platform is seeking to swoop in on Twitter’s turf, after a series of controversial changes by new owner Elon Musk have seen the popularity of the...
News Even Microsoft Is Expecting a Revised PS5 Hardware Model This Year
Not like this
The portents appear to be aligning for a PS5 hardware revision coming this year. Earlier, we brought you word that a European price cut suggests that could be the case, and now even Microsoft is getting in on the action, claiming in court filings relating to
News This Year's Tokyo Game Show Will Be Its Largest Ever
Back on track
While Sony's presence at the event will be limited to the Indie Game Area, Tokyo Game Show 2023 will be the event's largest yet, utilising the entirety of the mammoth Makuhari Messe venue in which it takes place for the first time in four years. Last year saw the event return to an in-person occasion, but ongoing coronavirus concerns...
Random NieR Creator Yoko Taro Loses Nightmarish Emil Mask, Replacement Probably Haunted
Impossible to verify
Eccentric auteur Yoko Taro, the creator perhaps best known for philosophical android action game NieR: Automata, has lost his iconic Emil mask. If you live in the L.A. area and come across a freaky, grinning skeleton-like mask, maybe keep it? We're sure he's got plenty of others. As reported by Kotaku, the saga began when Taro...
News Hours of Unseen Video Game Footage Is Being Archived Online
Rescued before being sent to landfill
The video game industry is so focused on the future that it sometimes forgets about the past. Obviously, retro gaming is an increasingly important part of our pastime, but publishers and platform holders don’t always make it easy to archive the best releases of yesteryear. Recently, for example, Sony announced...
News Sony Wants More PS5 Exclusives from South Korea
Top talent
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is reportedly out shopping again, looking to secure PlayStation exclusives and third-party partnerships in the burgeoning developmental hotbed that is South Korea. With Sony's renewed focus on mobile, this makes some synergistic sense, but the news has some potentially interesting implications for...
News Like a Dragon Fandom Divided After Hearing Kiryu's New English Voice
Change can be difficult
It's never easy to fill another's shoes, let alone that of a fan-favourite character of the calibre of Kazuma Kiryu, the long-time protagonist of the Yakuza Like a Dragon franchise. That's precisely the difficult situation in which recently revealed YouTuber and professional voice actor
News Sony's First Smartphone Dev Loses Managing Director As He Looks for 'Equilibrium' in Life
"I'm eager to watch from the side"
A co-founder from Sony’s recently acquired smartphone developer Savage Game Studios has left the Helsinki and Berlin-based company as he looks for “equilibrium” in life. In a refreshingly candid post, Michail Katkoff – who co-founded the studio, having previously worked at developers like Rovio – said...
News Gollum Dev Daedalic Entertainment to Focus on Publishing After Disastrous Launch
Current Lord of the Rings project halted
Daedalic Entertainment will be shutting down its in-house development efforts in the wake of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum's rough launch. The German company, which has been both developing and publishing games since 2007, will be focusing solely on the latter half of its business moving forward. Internal...
News After Initial Concerns, Sony Now in Talks with Roblox for PlayStation Version
Jim Ryan explains why it hasn't happened yet
You can't yet play Roblox on PS5 or PS4, and thanks to some new revelations from the FTC / Microsoft hearing, we're learning why. New comments from PlayStation head Jim Ryan have surfaced, explaining the main reason the incredibly popular platform has yet to reach Sony's consoles, and it boils down to...
News Canada Joins UK, US in Questioning Microsoft's Activision Blizzard Buyout
Another blow
If you've not been keeping up, the FTC — the United States' antitrust regulator — is currently in a major legal battle with Microsoft regarding its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. This has dredged up all kinds of stories, not least of which the ridiculous budget of Sony's biggest games, Microsoft's plans to...
News SEGA Uninterested in Being Acquired by Sony, Microsoft
"No, not now."
SEGA isn't interested in being acquired by the likes of Sony or Microsoft at the moment according to co-chief operating officer Shuji Utsumi. When asked if the Japanese company is open to the idea of being bought out by another company, Utsumi responded to Bloomberg saying simply: "No, not now." SEGA holds the rights to game...
News Publishers Don't Like 'Value Destructive' Subs Like Xbox Game Pass, Says Sony Boss
"This is a very commonly held view over many years"
Sony has dipped its toe into the hypothetical subscription future with its revamped PS Plus tiers, but it’s resisted the temptation to include tentpole AAA titles in its service on day one, like Xbox Game Pass does. It’s argued since the beginning that this business model is unsustainable, and...
News Microsoft Planned to Conquer Japan with Square Enix Buyout, Eye-Opening Documents Reveal
Final Fantasy a key component
Wow, this just never ends! In its ongoing attempts to sate the FTC — which is currently scrutinising Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard — the tech giant has been forced to disclose internal documents and emails, placing a spotlight on the company's behind-the-scenes planning. Just days ago,...
News The Last of Us 2 Cost $220 Million to Make, Horizon Forbidden West Cost $212 Million
And that's without marketing
The budgets of two of Sony’s biggest ever games have been revealed due to some poorly redacted documents, submitted as part of the FTC’s ongoing lawsuit against Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. The US regulator is attempting to temporarily impede the trillion-dollar tech titan’s unfathomable $69 billion buyout of...
Coolest kids in school
In an apparent attempt to rewrite history, a CD Projekt Red executive has suggested that the famously rocky launch and ensuing debacle of long-in-development, yet
News Over Half of Season Dev Scavengers Studio Laid Off
Game didn't meet "commercial expectations"
More than half of all employees at Season: A Letter to the Future developer Scavengers Studio have been laid off as a result of the PS5, PS4 game not meeting "commercial expectations". A statement given to GamesIndustry.biz confirms the game — which released at the start of the year — has only sold...
News Microsoft's Potential Game Plan in 2020: 'Spend Sony Out of Business'
Money talks
Look, we're sick of hearing about the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard saga as you are, but you've got to admit, some of these details are just too juicy to ignore. In its ongoing attempts to appease the FTC, Microsoft has had to present a number of internal emails before the courts — and boy are they eye-opening. One such email saw...
News SEGA and Bungie Were On Microsoft's Shopping List in 2020, Xbox Emails Show
All to "accelerate" Game Pass
Microsoft's ongoing attempts to buy Activision Blizzard for an absurd $69 billion (we still struggle to comprehend that number) have forced the company to divulge all kinds of weird details on how Xbox operates behind the scenes. Case in point: Microsoft has just been forced to share internal emails, in which Xbox bo
News Lance Reddick Remembered in Touching Horizon Forbidden West Tribute
RIP
Developer Guerilla Games has added a touching tribute to the late great Lance Reddick, who sadly passed away earlier this year, in the latest update for Horizon Forbidden West. Reddick portrayed the complicated, morally grey character of Sylens across both Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, and the memorial, as captured by MdeavorVP on...
News No Final Decisions on E3 2024 or Beyond Have Been Made
After LA Tourism Department said it was cancelled
Update: Well, then – a twist! After the Los Angeles Tourism Department listed E3 as cancelled in 2024 and 2025, a representative for the ESA has said that no decision has been made. A representative told Axios’ Stephen Totilo: “ESA is currently in conversation with ESA members and other...
News Indiana Jones Game Deal Amended to Exclude PS5, PS4
Was originally planned for multiple platforms
An Indiana Jones game, previously announced by Bethesda subsidiary MachineGames, was planned for multiple platforms – but the contract with Disney was amended following Microsoft’s buyout of the publisher. Confirmation comes as part of the Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing court c
News "We've Lost the Console Wars," Says Trillion Dollar Underdog Xbox
Incentive to spend $69 billion
One consistent theme throughout the entire sorry Activision Blizzard buyout saga has been how both Sony and Microsoft have utterly dismantled their own businesses in attempt to convince regulators to get their own way. The latest effort comes courtesy of the US Federal Trade Commission’s ongoing court case, where...
News Sony 'Can't Risk' Sharing PS6 Details with a Microsoft-Owned Activision
Conveniently ignores Bungie and San Diego Studio
PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan has said that Sony would not risk sharing PS6 details with a Microsoft-owned Activision Blizzard, as it claims this would hand its direct competitor highly sensitive information. Innovations like the DualSense and hardware specifications are crucially important to new...
News Sonic Central Broadcast to Begin Transmission on 23rd June
A sneak peek at upcoming Sonic projects
Fans itching to get their latest fix of the Blue Blur don't have much longer to wait. A Sonic Central broadcast is being transmitted by SEGA tomorrow, 23rd June, at 8 am PST/ 4 pm BST, where we've been promised a glimpse of some upcoming projects, partnerships, and events still to come in 2023. Sonic Central...
News Starfield, Redfall Exclusivity 'Powerful Evidence' Against Xbox's Activision Buyout, Claims FTC
PlayStation's Jim Ryan to be a witness in case
We’re on the cusp of peak corporate pettiness, so batten down the hatches and brace yourselves, because the Federal Trade Commission’s attempt to temporarily halt Microsoft’s unfathomable $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard is about to get underway. A number of high-profile witnesses...
News EA Games to Become EA Entertainment in Major Corporate Reshuffle
Maximum synergy
Electronic Arts is shaking things up, initiating a major corporate reshuffle in an effort to "empower our creative teams" and make "faster and more insightful decisions around development", according to CEO Andrew Wilson. But don't go dumping your dividends just yet; the move won't have much of an impact on the casual enjoyer of EA...
News Sony Replaces PlayStation's Mobile Gaming Division Boss with Meta, Kabam Talent
Platform holder ain't phoning it in
Update: Two is better than one – or so the saying goes. Sony has replaced the leadership at the top of its fledgling mobile gaming division with two co-heads, as spotted by infamous LinkedIn snoop Zuby Tech. Ex-Meta product manager Olivier Courtemanche will be joined by former Kabam bigwig Kris Davis in the...
News GTA Writer and Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser Unveils New Company Absurd Ventures
Storytelling. Philanthropy. Ultraviolence
Dan Houser, chief writer for the vast majority of the Grand Theft Auto franchise (not to mention both Red Dead Redemption games), has officially unveiled his new outfit, Absurd Ventures, and with it, Houser intends to create original IP for "all platforms and formats". We got an at-times distressing...
News Mass Effect's Dead Shepard Statue Pulled from Sale, BioWare Admits Communication Error
Shepard's most iconic moment
If you're particularly sensitive to minor spoilers for what is, at this point, a retro game, consider yourself warned. During the prologue of Mass Effect 2 (literally the first ten minutes), a convenient McGuffin is contrived as a way to reset any skills Commander Shepard might have picked up during the original game,...
News Sorry, But Games Are Probably Going to Take Longer Than Ever to Make on PS5
A single project could take up to six years now
If you’ve been wondering what the likes of Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch are up to, then here’s a worrying observation from Microsoft’s Matt Booty: tentpole titles may take four to six years to develop on new-gen consoles, as opposed to the two to three years that was common previously. While the...
News Record-Setting Summer Game Fest Will Return in 2024 with Live Showcase
Here we go again
The curtain hasn’t completely closed on not-E3 2023 yet, but we’ve basically reached the encore and we’re not convinced the crowd is yearning for more. Nevertheless, in an unsurprising twist, organiser Geoff Keighley has confirmed that Summer Game Fest will return in 2024, with a live showcase and more. Obviously, the event...
News Layoffs, Closures, and Cancellations as Embracer Group Undergoes Huge Restructure
Cost cutting
Embracer Group, the enormous holding company notorious for buying up studios and IP, is preparing for a significant restructure. In order to "realize untapped potential in Embracer Group and better optimize the use of our resources", the conglomerate is set to make some sweeping changes which, sadly, include layoffs, studio closures,...
News Microsoft Welcomes FTC's Injunction on Xbox's Activision Blizzard Buyout
Star-spangled lawsuits
Update: So, yes, the FTC has filed an injunction in an attempt to temporarily halt Microsoft's $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard — and the trillion dollar titan has welcomed it. The thinking here, allegedly, is that the Redmond firm is playing 4D chess, and it believes that by taking this to court earlier than...
News Sony's Partnership with Square Enix Has Never Been Stronger, Says Jim Ryan
He values "everything we do together"
PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan made a surprise appearance during Final Fantasy 16’s pre-launch livestream overnight, where he said that his company’s relationship with publisher Square Enix has “never been stronger”. In the brief speech, he mentioned that Sony’s collaboration with the company “goes back...
Microsoft sometimes embargoes platforms
Today is the day of Microsoft’s annual not-E3 Xbox Showcase, and by all accounts it’s going to be a big one. Of course, in addition to the usual selection of first-party games, you should probably anticipate a handful of third-party inclusions, as is customary for these kind of events. But one thing you...
News Sony Will Not Attend Giant German Convention Gamescom This Year
Of course it won't
In what is now becoming a consistent trend, Sony will not attend Gamescom again this year. News comes via German industry website Gamesmarkt, which reports the Japanese giant has no plans to attend Cologne and exhibit on the show floor. This doesn’t mean it’ll have zero presence, of course: third-parties will likely demo games...
News PS Plus, Game Pass Subscription Growth Has Totally Stalled in USA
Graph has levelled off
At the beginning of the generation, gaming subscriptions were considered by most to be an enormous disruptor to the status quo, however as time progresses it’s becoming more apparent that consumers maybe don’t see the same value in them that enthusiasts do. A lot of the discussion about the benefits of the business model...
News PS Studios, Kojima Productions Announce Hideo Kojima Documentary Film
Connecting worlds
Well, we suppose this was inevitable, wasn’t it? PS Studios and Kojima Productions have announced a documentary film named Hideo Kojima: Connecting Worlds, which promises to take you “on a journey into the creative mind of the most iconic video game creator in the world”. The film appears to revolve around the establishment...
Random Thought PSVR2 Was Expensive? Apple's Vision Pro Is Here to Hold Your Beer
"The most advanced personal electronics device ever"
If you've been near anything remotely capable of an internet connection today, you've no doubt seen Apple's ludicrous-looking foray into the world of expensive, wearable tech. It's called the Vision Pro, and at least according to Tom's Guide, it's pretty awesome. And incredibly pricey, too,...
News E3 Killed Itself, Says Summer Game Fest's Geoff Keighley
Self-inflicted
Geoff Keighley is perhaps best known as the face of The Game Awards, but he's been hosting the Summer Game Fest showcase for the past few years (in addition to becoming the subject of some of our most transcendent art work). With this year's show only a few days away,
News Microsoft Bigwig Hoping to Voice Frustration to UK Politicians Over $69 Billion Buyout Block
Channel crossing
Having been frustrated in its $69 billion dollar bid to acquire Activision Blizzard in the UK, Microsoft's president, Brad Smith, is scheduled to meet with UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt this week to plead the company's case in person. This follows the EU's acquiescence to the deal, a matter to which the UK's regulator, the Competition...