Tag: Industry - Page 13
News Sony: Acquisition of Bungie Represents a Major Step Forward in Becoming More Multiplatform
Breaking down barriers
Sony has hinted a number of times in recent years that it feels restricted by PlayStation hardware. In an interview late last year, group president Jim Ryan said that he’s “frustrated” that the company’s first-party games reach a relatively small audience. “I think some of the art our studios are making is some of...
News As Silent Hill Rumours Swirl, Bloober Team's Keeping Quiet
Pyramid Head scheme
Anyone else bored of the Silent Hill saga? Make no mistake, we have a long history with this franchise and love it to bits, but the rumours have been rumbling for years now. There was the Japan Studio chatter, before the entire department was shuttered – and there was even the Abandoned nonsense, which
News Bungie Boss Suggests Studio Won't Be Muzzled Following Sony Acquisition
As the fallout from Jim Ryan email continues
Bungie has been one of the most outspoken studios in the industry when it comes to abortion rights in the United States. This, of course, puts an even bigger beacon on an internal email sent by Sony CEO Jim Ryan, in which he urged employees to “respect the differences of opinion” on the matter...
News Insomniac Sends 60-Page Dossier to Sony Following Jim Ryan Abortion Email
Pledges $50,000 donation, which manufacturer will match
The fallout from PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan’s misjudged email on women’s reproductive rights looks set to continue, as first-party developer Insomniac Games has compiled a “near 60-page” dossier from staff and sent it to PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst, demanding leadership “do...
News PS Plus Could Be About to Land Bloober Team's Catalogue
Polish dev signs significant license and distribution agreement with Sony
A document dating back to 18th April, 2022 suggests select games from Bloober Team’s catalogue could be coming to PS Plus in the future. The paperwork, which describes a “significant license and distribution agreement with Sony Interactive Entertainment” alludes to...
News Final Fantasy 14 Is the Saviour of Square Enix's Latest Financial Report
Endwalkin'
Square Enix has published its financial report for fiscal year 2021, and although the publisher is still reasonably healthy overall, its net sales were down almost ten percent on fiscal year 2020 — and it could have been worse if not for the continued success of Final Fantasy XIV. The MMORPG really is the company's biggest money maker...
News SEGA Says Loads of New Games Are Coming This Year, Including Remakes and Remasters
Gotta go fast
SEGA's just had its fiscal year briefing, and the company's doing quite well for itself. The Japanese firm recorded increased profits over fiscal year 2021, mostly thanks to strong software sales. Good stuff, but it's the publisher's promise of even more games that has us interested. Over the next 12 months or so, SEGA has plans to...
News Sony Is Still Gaming's Second Biggest Money Maker, But Looks Set to Be Overtaken
Microsoft's deep pockets will make a difference
Sony held onto its position as gaming’s second biggest money maker for the financial year ending 31st March, but it looks set to fall a position once Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is finalised. PlayStation pulled in $18.2 billion in revenue for the previous fiscal term, which was...
News PlayStation Staff Angry About Jim Ryan Email on Abortion Rights
Executive urges respect for differences of opinion
According to Bloomberg, a number of PlayStation staff are “seething” about an email sent by CEO Jim Ryan today, in which he urged employees to “respect the differences of opinion” when it comes to abortion rights. A recent leak from the US Supreme Court put the issue into sharp focus, after...
News Konami Just Had Its Most Profitable Year Ever
Profit to surpass Metal Gear
With all of the negative press that Konami tends to get in the gaming sphere, it's easy to overlook the fact that it's actually doing well for itself these days. Okay, so maybe eFootball was a bit of a disaster, but have you seen this latest company-wide financial report? Konami just had its most profitable year ever,...
News Criterion Games and Codemasters Cheshire Merge into One Need for Speed Studio
Ex-Evolution team to join Criterion
The next Need for Speed is still shrouded in mystery, but we do know one thing for certain: Criterion Games is leading development on the project. Rumoured to be current-gen only, the upcoming racer will be yet another refresh for the series, which has struggled to align itself properly for years. Hopefully this...
News Despite FTC Investigation, Sony Expects Bungie Acquisition to Close This Year
And that'll be that
Here’s your weekly reminder that, yes, Sony is still buying Destiny developer Bungie. While the iconic studio will remain largely independent, the platform holder hopes that the purchase will help inform its output on numerous upcoming live service games. And while the billion dollar buyout is
News FIFA Announces Plans to Release EA Sports FC Rival and More
President claims FIFA games will still be the best
Following the news that EA Sports will ditch the FIFA branding for its football simulation games after the release of FIFA 23, the organisation has confirmed its plans to create a rival to EA Sports FC. FIFA says it is currently "engaging with leading game publishers, media companies and investors...
News PS Plus Subscriber Count Slightly Down Year-on-Year to 47.4 Million
New PS Plus just around the corner, though
According to Sony's latest financial report, PS Plus is still going strong, though the number of subscribers has been fluctuating. Year-on-year, the current figure sits at 47.4 million users, which is a small decrease from 47.6 million in the same period of FY 2020. Of course, that's not the full story...
News 19.3 Million PS5 Consoles Have Been Shipped So Far
Forecast missed thanks to supply issues
Sony has released its financial report for its 2021 fiscal year, of course including a rundown of how things are going in the land of PlayStation. Within the last 12 months, the company has shipped 11.5 million PS5 units. Added to the figure from FY 2020, that brings lifetime shipments to 19.3 million units...
News PS5 Fans Hope Mind Blowing Unreal Engine 5 Demo Is a Glimpse of the Future
Viral clip gives a taste
Epic Games’ outstanding Matrix Awakens tech demo has already given us a taste of what to expect from Unreal Engine 5 on the PS5, but this viral video has pulses racing all over social media. The clip, which is based on a real-life Japanese train station, was uploaded to Art Station earlier in the week, and has been shared...
News 'Multiple Sources' Said Sony Is Buying Square Enix, Allegedly
But who knows, huh?
Remember when there was big chatter about a Sony acquisition, specifically from industry veterans Jeff Grubb and Greg Miller? Both were talking about Square Enix. “When I talked about the three rumours I’d heard, and one was an acquisition, this is the one I’d heard,” Miller finally revealed on an episode of his
News Sony's Bungie Buyout to Be Investigated by the FTC
Investigation could push acquisition back by six months
As is typically the case for billion dollar acquisitions, Sony’s mammoth $3.6 billion buyout of Bungie will be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC for short. While you could be forgiven for forgetting that PlayStation had dug deep to purchase the Destiny developer, this is a...
News Sony Dumps Funds into Live Service Software Firm
PlayStation splurges on tech startup
Sony loves live service games. We’re yet to see the fruits of its labour, but apparently it has ten Fortnite-esque ongoing online multiplayer games in production – and it just spent billions buying Bungie and investing into Epic Games. Now the platform holder’s put its hand in its pocket once more, invest
News PS5 Stock Issues Could Last Into 2024 as Chip Shortages Continue
Chippin' out
Sony's PS5 production woes look set to continue for quite some time yet, based on what Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has said about the ongoing chip shortages. Speaking to CNBC, Gelsinger warns that the aforementioned ship shortage could last into 2024 — a scenario that would no doubt force companies like Sony and Microsoft into once again...
News Sony Buying Square Enix Was the Big Acquisition Rumour, Apparently
Here we are again
Remember back in March when PlayStation was rumoured to have a huge week of news? And then nothing much happened, aside from the official reveal of the new PS Plus tiers? Well, one of the most prominent rumours was that Sony was preparing an industry-shaking b
News Square Enix Retains Just Cause, Life Is Strange, Outriders IPs
Embracer Group scoops up the rest
Western production of Square Enix games isn't closing up shop entirely despite the publisher selling the vast majority of its studios outside of Japan to the Embracer Group this morning. It has been confirmed the Japanese firm will retain the rights to the Just Cause, Life Is Strange, and Outr
News As Bargain Bin Tomb Raider Goes to Embracer, PlayStation Seeks Acquisition Expert
Responsible for driving long-term value for firm
Is anyone else surprised Sony seemingly wasn’t in the market for Square Enix’s western studios, specifically Crystal Dynamics and the Tomb Raider franchise? The company may have Uncharted these days, but Lara Croft is still a top ten globally recognised gaming icon, and the character would fit...
News Embracer Group to Buy Multiple Square Enix Studios and IPs in Huge Acquisition
Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, much more
Embracer Group, the enormous company that's always scooping up studios and franchises, is set to close its latest big deal, and it's a doozy. The conglomerate is about to acquire several developers and IPs from Square Enix. The acquisition will include studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and...
News Sony's Game Preservation Team May Not Be Quite as Exciting as It Sounds
New engineer explains
Update (27/4/22): This story has of course done the rounds this week, with many PlayStation fans excited about the prospect of game preservation meaning more legacy games hitting PS Plus Premium. In response, Garrett Fredley has made attempts to clarify his new role at the company. The senior build engineer has provided a...
News British Gas Blasted for Advising Customers to Turn Off Consoles Like PS5, PS4
Quoted numbers don't add up
Whether you live in the UK or anywhere else in the world, energy prices are rising at an unprecedented rate. The costs – which have skyrocketed in recent weeks – threaten to plunge millions of families into poverty, and energy firms like British Gas have been releasing “advice” to help soften the squeeze on...
News Microsoft Bigwig Implies PS5 Is Losing Marketshare to Xbox
Naa-naa-na-naa-Nadella
As the latest round of NPD results in the United States already underlined, Sony has a serious headache when it comes to PS5 stock – or the lack thereof. While, ironically, things have started to improve in the past few days, the dream of transitioning PS4 players at “
News Ubisoft Shuts Down Online Servers for Dozens of Old Games
Including PS3 and PS4 titles
Ubisoft has announced the termination of online services for nearly a hundred of its older games. The publisher is clearly doing a bit of housekeeping, shutting down online multiplayer servers for software that's, let's be honest, well past its sell-by date. Among the list of 90 games are 40 that appear on PlayStation,...
News Sony Experimenting with Ads in Free-to-Play PS5, PS4 Games
Kiss my ads
Advertising is relatively rare in video games, outside the obvious inclusions like hoardings in sports titles and crossovers like the kind you see in Fortnite. But it appears Sony is cooking up technology to add a unified advertising system to free-to-play games, perhaps similar to what you see in many mobile releases right now...
News Kojima Productions Not Being Bought by Sony, Says Hideo Kojima
Will remain "an independent studio"
Yesterday's online speculation of Sony potentially buying Kojima Productions picked up enough attention overnight that Hideo Kojima himself felt the need to comment on the rumours. On Twitter, the Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator put a
News PS Plus Deal Devastates Oddworld: Soulstorm Developer
Negative effect
As platform holders intensify the importance of subscription services, Oddworld Inhabitants bigwig Lorne Lanning has described his company’s PS Plus deal as “devastating”. The industry veteran – whose company launched Oddworld: Soulstorm into Sony’s sub on the PS5 – was speaking candidly as part of an Xbox podcast, and...
News Crash Trilogy, Tony Hawk Remake Dev Now Officially Merged with Blizzard
Caught in the storm
Vicarious Visions, the clearly talented development team behind Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, is now officially a part of Blizzard Entertainment. This merger was announced over a year ago — not long before we learned that Vicarious Visions would be developing Diablo 2 Resurrected. So
News Sony Invests a Further $1 Billion into Fortnite Maker Epic Games
Funding for the metaverse
Sony has invested another $1 billion into Fortnite developer Epic Games in order to deepen its relationship with the firm "in the metaverse field". This increases the funding provided by the PlayStation 5 manufacturer to a total of $1.45 billion, as Sony made two other payments of $250 million in July 2020 and then
News Unfortunately, Ubisoft Isn't Also Abandoning NFTs
"Future drops coming with other games"
Ubisoft might be scrapping Ghost Recon: Breakpoint support moving forward, but that doesn't mean its criticised NFT initiative is dying with it. The French publisher has confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that NFTs will still be part of future games. The full statement reads: "Stay tuned for more update
News PS3 Emulation Allegedly in Production for PS5
It only does everything
Sony “might be” working on hardware level PlayStation 3 emulation for the PS5, according to talkative Games Beat scribe Jeff Grubb. The industry observer – who’s proven to be well-connected – cited sources who’ve indicated that the platform holder is exploring support for its last-last-gen console, although it...
News PlayStation Boss Promises More Acquisitions Are Planned
Corporate consolidation to continue
In a rare podcast appearance, PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan has promised that more acquisitions are planned. This follows heavy rumours earlier in the week from industry pundits Greg Miller and Jeff Grubb, in which they alluded to a “really big” buyout. Ever since Microsoft purchased Bethesda a couple
News E3 2022 Has Been Completely Cancelled
Another nail in the coffin
There will be no E3 2022 at all. The show’s organisers, the ESA, had already ruled out a physical event, but was floating the idea of a digital broadcast similar to last year. However, according to IGN – who corroborated a tweet sent out by Razer’s PR lead Will Powers – the plug has been pulled on that as well. It...
News Rumour Mill Points to 'Really Big' Sony Acquisition, But It's Just Speculation
"Very difficult to pin down"
The huge week of PlayStation news that everyone on the Internet was teasing? Eh, it wasn’t so big, right? Obviously we got official confirmation of PS Plus’ revamp, but many of the details had already leaked, and Sony failed to elaborate
News Game Devs More Excited for PSVR2 Than Any Other Headset
Level up
The promotional rollout for PSVR2 has been a bit bizarre. We’ve seen the headset and controllers now, but we know very little about its software lineup, and we’re still waiting to go eyes-on with the device. Sony has been shipping a lot of development kits, however, and the word on the street is that game makers are extremely...
News Wattam Studio Funomena Forced to Close if Funding Isn't Secured
Following People Make Games exposé
Funomena, the Californian studio behind Wattam, will be forced to close if it fails to secure a round of investment in the short term. Talks were up and running prior to GDC, but the deal in question has not closed at the time of writing. "Last week we let everyone know that if we do not successfully finish the...
News PlayStation Suspends All Operations in Russia, Including PS Store
Sony pledges $2 million donation to support victims
PlayStation has suspended all ongoing operations in Russia, following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. In a statement posted on social media, the gaming giant stated that it “joins the global community calling for peace in Ukraine”. This follows similar announcements from a number of other...
News Gravity Rush's Kat Cropped Out of International Women's Day Promo on PS5
We'll never forget her
Poor ol’ Kat. The Gravity Rush protagonist and PlayStation faithful’s favourite appears to have been cropped out of a piece of repurposed International Women’s Day artwork in a promo on the PS Store. To mark the occasion, Sony is celebrating games with female protagonists, like Horizon Forbidden West and Uncharted: The...
News NIS America Has a Cool New Logo
Applies to Europe, too
Nippon Ichi Software — or NIS for short — has revealed a new company logo (as seen above). Here in the West, the Japanese publisher is best know through its US-based arm, NIS America — which this new logo applies to, as well as its European counterpart. NIS is most widely known for role-playing games like Disgaea. It...
News EA Sports Hints FIFA Has Been an Impediment As It Looks Set to Break Ties
"It's four letters on the front of the box"
A future where FIFA games have a different name is looking likelier. Reports have been swirling for some time that EA Sports is considering abandoning the brand, and now a frank appraisal from CEO Andrew Wilson, as reported by VGC, makes it seem even more likely. In a speech allegedly giv
News PlayStation Liverpool's New Luxury City Digs Look Lovely
This means more
As we reported earlier in the month, PlayStation is relocating its office in Liverpool. The company’s new 65,000-square-foot digs will bring it into the bosom of the city, after a stint at Wavertree Technology Park dating all the way back to the PS1. Sony’s Dave Parkinson shared some swish new photos of the campus on
News Former Witcher 3 Devs Working on 'AAA RPG Saga' at New Rebel Wolves Studio
For "next-gen consoles"
Veteran developers who worked on The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and "many others" have opened a new studio named Rebel Wolves. As you might expect, it'll focus on role-playing games. Its first mission is to develop a new "dark fantasy, AAA RPG saga for PCs and next-gen consoles". We assume that means PlayStation 5 — but we...
News Sony to Open Bumper New Office in Liverpool, UK
You'll never walk alone, etc
Liverpool, UK: the city of The Beatles, Cilla Black, and meaning more. It’s also the home to some of Sony’s central operations, including its XDEV division which works with external developers on PlayStation Studios projects. But now it’s moving to a new office, having been situated at Wavertree Technology Park...
News Gran Turismo Sophy Is an AI Quicker Than Pro Drivers
To be implemented into future games
As teased at the start of this week, Sony AI and Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital have announced their joint "breakthrough project" of an AI that beats the lap times of professional drivers. Named Gran Turismo Sophy, the team is working out how to implement it into future entries of the GT series. It...
News Sony More Likely Than Microsoft to Acquire a Japanese Game Company, Analyst Explains
Believes Sony may be planning a move in Japan
If Microsoft's planned $68 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard has you wondering who's next, and whether the tech giant could scoop up your favourite Japanese publisher at any moment, then we've got good news: it probably, maybe, might not happen. Video game consultant and writer Nathan Brown has...
News Sony AI and Gran Turismo 7 Dev Polyphony Digital to Announce Breakthrough Project
Don't get too excited
Sony AI and Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital will announce a “breakthrough project in AI” on 9th February. The teaser trailer is far too ambiguous to draw any conclusions from, but we’re going to assume this is all related to a study that was published last year, in which the companies accurately taught an...