Tag: Industry
News Origins, Black Flag Creative Director Made Head of Assassin's Creed Franchise
History repeats
Following a significant shakeup of its overall business and production pipelines, Ubisoft has revealed that three franchise veterans will be responsible for Assassin's Creed going forward, under its new Vantage Studios umbrella. Given that this news has been broken by Variety magazine of all things (alongside Ubisoft's own
Gloves off
Sony has seemingly ceased all social media activities following the devastating news involving Bluepoint this week. In the immediate aftermath of the unfortunate news breaking about the Demon’s Souls remake dev, a scheduled post on Marathon was published across all of PlayStation’s accounts. While it’s likely the post had been...
News Incoming Xbox Boss Promises a 'Renewed Commitment to Console', and 'Hears' Fans on Skipping PS5
But Nadella says "we're a top publisher across all platforms"
Upper-brass Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are both out at Xbox with immediate effect, and new CEO Asha Sharma is in. This all raises interesting questions about the future of Microsoft’s gaming division under new leadership, as it’s spent the past 18 months or so pivoting to...
News Phil Spencer Stepping Down, Sarah Bond Leaving Microsoft in Huge Xbox Shake-Up
End of the line
Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft's gaming division, is retiring from the role. Additionally, Xbox president Sarah Bond is exiting the company. These two departures are part of a big shift in leadership at the top of Xbox, announced today via emails from those at the top. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has announced that Asha...
News Roblox Is Being Played More Than PlayStation and Steam Combined
Engagement figures are insane
You may have seen a recent report (from Matthew Ball) that reveals gaming is losing people to mobile apps and other sources of instant gratification entertainment. Even within just video games, though, PlayStation is up against crazy competition — not only from other platforms, but
News Saudi Arabia's Qiddiya Takes Full Control of Iconic Fighting Game Tournament Evo
We're not Qiddin'
In a muted announcement that’s perhaps not all that surprising considering the direction the wind’s been blowing, Saudi Arabia’s Qiddiya now owns all of the iconic fighting game tournament, Evo. You may recall Sony and RTS rescuing the esports event several years ago. The former sold its stake to India’s NODWIN Gami
News Splinter Cell's PS5 Remake Survives Significant Ubisoft Studio Cull
Around 40 employees let go
Splinter Cell’s long-awaited PS5 remake is allegedly still alive and kicking, despite layoffs at developer Ubisoft Toronto. The publisher has culled around 8% of the Canadian studio’s headcount, totalling around 40 full-time staffers. Despite this, work will continue in earnest on Sam Fisher’s return, while the...
Opinion Sony's Disgraceful Bluepoint Closure Should Concern Every PS Studios Fan
A sorry state of affairs
Sony disastrously and disgracefully shuttered Texas-based fan favourite Bluepoint yesterday. The long-time PS Studios partner never got a chance to ship a game under its new parent company. This news hit me particularly hard because I believe it reflects the erosion of once-great PlayStation management that I think we’ve...
News Memory Crisis Threatening to Delay PS6 Could Last 'Another 10 Years'
It's not looking good, folks
The memory component crisis threatening to delay the PS6 may not be resolved for another 10 years, according to Phison CEO Pua Khein-Seng. The Malaysian executive would know, of course: his company is responsible for various related products, including SSDs, flash drives, and so on. While much of the discussion has...
News Mobile App Addictions Are Quickly Becoming a Serious Threat to Video Games, Report Claims
Time isn't on your side
According to a frankly massive new report, video games are struggling to retain people's attention in an age that's becoming more and more obsessed with quickfire, increasingly easy to access entertainment. This has been a topic of debate for years now, but said report, which was put together by a gaming industry advisory...
News Sony Will Offset Soaring RAM Prices by Further Monetising PS5 Players
RAMping it up
As we all know by now, the tech industry is in a real bind. Demand from AI companies has disrupted the global supply chain of RAM, pushing prices sky high. It’s affecting everyone: from hobbyists shopping for PC components to giant consumer electronics companies like Sony. Last year we reported that the Japanese giant had obtained...
News Despite Big Multiformat Push, Square Enix's Acclaimed New Visual Novel Will Skip PS5
Consistently inconsistent
Square Enix is often eager to remind us it’s a multiformat publisher now. The firm, perhaps feeling burned by the Sony exclusivity deals it signed off on, is courting Nintendo and Xbox fanbases hard with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series. The third instalment will release on all platforms at once, presumably without...
News Tokyo Game Show Extended to Five Full Days for 30th Anniversary Event
"The longest five days of non-stop play"
Tokyo Game Show will be extended to a five-day event in 2026, as the convention celebrates its 30th anniversary. Scheduled to occupy the iconic Makuhari Messe in Chiba once again, the show will get underway from 17th September and will run through 21st September, which is a holiday in Japan. The first two...
News Another Key Assassin's Creed Dev Leaves Ubisoft
Leap of faith
Ubisoft has lost another veteran employee in Luc Couture, who had been at the company for roughly 24 years. Couture announced his departure on social media this week, having worked on numerous properties across his storied career at the publisher. Most notably, he had a huge influence on the structure of numerous Assassin's Creed...
News GDC Survey Reveals Developers Are Twice as Interested in Making Games for PS5 Than Xbox
PC is king, though
In this year's State of the Game Industry survey, held by the Game Developers Conference, developers were asked which platforms they prefer to make games for, and the results are quite interesting. Over 2,300 individuals were questioned in the survey, and were asked which platforms interest them most as a developer. Respondents...
He wants a Metacritic for critics
One day, the Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke will learn that, sometimes, the best thing to do is simply not say anything at all. After some controversial comments surrounding the use of generative AI at the Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity studio — which he later walked back — Vincke n
News Sony Set to Delay PS6 Release Date, Claims Financial Report
PS5's life could be extended
Buried in a new financial report, a senior analyst strongly suggests that Sony is planning to delay its PS6 release plans. Said analyst is David Gibson of MST Financial, who's reported on Sony's recent performance via a Japan-facing company
News Ubisoft May Have Put Watch Dogs Down for Good
Aiden know where we go from here
Don’t hold your breath for more Watch Dogs games, as rumour is French publisher Ubisoft is completely done with the franchise. The embattled organisation – which is going through a real period of turmoil as its stock prices have plunged – has apparently quietly killed the franchise behind closed doors,...
News The End of an Era: Sony Spins Off Iconic Television Business
Joint venture with TCL announced
Sony is historically best known for its consumer electronics, but truth be told it’s been an entertainment organisation for years now. PlayStation, along with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment, has spearheaded its transformation – and recently it’s talked at length about how it aims to...
News Razer Boss Lashes Out at Gen AI, But Says Gamers Would 'Love' AI to Streamline Dev Cycles
"Help game developers make great games"
Generative AI is being torn to shreds across the internet these days, and so it's starting to feel like corporate figureheads are choosing their words a little more carefully. Case in point, Razer co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan has been pushed to clarify his company's stance on all things AI after a recent...
News Ex-Assassin's Creed Boss Puts a Hidden Blade to Ubisoft in $1 Million Lawsuit
Stay sharp
Former Assassin's Creed lead Marc-Alexis Côté is reportedly suing Ubisoft, having departed the company in the latter half of last year. He had worked at the publisher for over 20 years. It all sounds a bit messy, if we're being honest. Word of Côté's departure arrived just a couple of weeks after the publisher's deal with Chinese...
News Sony Nukes Thousands of Shovelware Games from PS5, PS4
The jumping crackdown
Sony has seemingly taken action against one of the PS Store’s most prolific shovelware makers. ThiGames – the purveyor of fine titles like The Jumping Burrito – was one of the PS5 and PS4’s most prolific publishers, with more than 1,000 games available. Many of these were reskins of the same core idea, like The...
News Granblue Fantasy Dev Cygames Apologises for AI Studio Announcement Following Backlash
Cynicalgames
Having officially established 'Cygames AI Studio' just last week, Granblue Fantasy developer Cygames has now published an apology on social media. As you can imagine, the initial announcement went down incredibly poorly, given the heavy cynicism that currently surrounds generative AI use in video games. Without going into too much...
News Sony, Xbox, Nintendo Publish Shared Statement on Player Safety in Games
"Gaming is for everyone"
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have today uploaded a shared statement that provides an update on the commitment the three companies made back in 2020 to improve player safety when playing games. The statement is repeated across the Sony Interactive, Xbox Wire, and Nintendo websites. Touching on the co
News PS3's Sly Cooper Team Shut in Oculus Layoffs, Two Other Devs Closed
So that Meta can focus on AI smart glasses
Sanzaru Games, the studio behind Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on PS3 and The Sly Collection, has been shuttered as part of a round of layoffs at Oculus Studios. Following news that broke yesterday of Meta wishing to reduce its Reality Labs workforce by 10%, social media posts have appeared today from some...
News Former Naughty Dog Boss Evan Wells to Receive Highest Honour at DICE Awards
An AIAS Hall of Famer
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), an American organisation comprising games industry professionals, will induct Naughty Dog alumnus Evan Wells into its prestigious Hall of Fame at this year's D.I.C.E. Awards. Taking place on 12th February in Las Vegas, the award will be presented by the current head of Naughty...
News Microsoft CEO Really Wants You to Stop Calling Generative AI 'Slop'
That won't help sales
Apparently, “slop” was Merriam-Webster’s word of the year – as determined by the organisation’s “human editors”, it specified in a blog post prior to Christmas. While we feel the word has lost a lot of meaning due to its undeniable overuse throughout 2025, said fleshy beings defined it as “digital content of...
Rumour PS6 Could Be Delayed Due to RAM Price Chaos
RAMpage
Sony hasn’t even announced the PS6 yet, so there’s nothing for it to officially delay. However, the company has acknowledged its next console in tech roundtables with partner AMD, and all signs have been pointing to a late 2027 release. But Insider Gaming reports that
News Ex-PlayStation Boss Believes Exclusives Make Consoles 'Sing'
"Mario on PlayStation is the apocalypse"
As the lines between consoles continue to blur, popular ex-PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has weighed in on the debate. Speaking with podcast Pause for Thought, he pointed out that while he doesn’t believe every game needs to be console exclusive, he believes tying certain software to specific...
"Whenever there’s work to be done – boom, overtime"
A new Zenless Zone Zero clip touching on the topic of overtime has once again raised questions about the sustainability of crunch. While the video, taken from the latest behind-the-scenes ZTALK, is presented in a light-hearted fashion – with goofy music and jovial vibes – it flags the real...
News Vince Zampella, Call of Duty Co-Creator and Respawn Boss, Tragically Dies Aged 55
An industry legend
Gaming industry veteran Vince Zampella has died in a car accident. The crash took place on the 21st December at around 12:30pm in Los Angeles, according to news network NBC. Zampella was just 55 years old, and was killed alongside another person who was in the car at the time. Even if you don't know the name, you'll almost...
News Marathon Art Director Departs Bungie as the Game Enters Its Final Stretch
"I'll be enjoying playing the game as a fan"
Joseph Cross, the art director on Bungie's upcoming shooter Marathon, has announced his resignation from the company. Originally reported by Kotaku, Cross has now made this move official with a brief statement on social media: This comes just after Marathon's recent reintroduction following heavy...
News Sony Is Buying Snoopy for $457 Million in Surprise Acquisition
That'll cost more than Peanuts
Sony is buying Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and more characters from the Peanuts brand in a surprise deal worth $457 million. Charles M. Schulz’s iconic characters are particularly popular in Japan and Asia these days, where you’ll see all kinds of merchandise collaborations with retailers like Uniqlo and GU to name...
Sony review incoming
PlayStation Studios developer Naughty Dog has reportedly been enforcing mandatory overtime for its employees, as it attempts to get its next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, "back on track". This is according to Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who writes that the project has missed "several" deadlines up until this point...
News 'I Don't Think Prompting Is Art': The Last of Us Co-Creator Isn't a Fan of Generative AI
Bruce Straley has his say
Generative AI continues to be a very hot topic among the gaming community, and this week has seen some interesting swings on either side of the debate. CEO of Larian Studios, Swen Vincke, caused a lot of upset with his comments on how the team is utilising the controversial tools in the production of its next game,...
News Sucker Punch Enters a New Era as Co-Founder Brian Fleming Departs
New studio heads confirmed
In a move that seems to have been planned behind-the-scenes for quite some time, Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming has announced his departure from the Seattle-based studio after three decades of service. The bigwig has overseen the creation of legendary PlayStation series such as Sly Cooper, inFAMOUS, and most...
"The situation is what it is"
To a T, the latest slice of life game by Katamari Damacy maker Keita Takahashi, “did not sell well”. The title, which features a child stuck in a perpetual T-pose, deals with the subject of physical disability and “fitting in” when your appearance is different. But the idea failed to resonate with players, and...
Publisher denies considering studio mergers
While you should expect Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 to remain one of the better selling games of the year, all signs suggest it’s seriously underperformed by series standards. That prompted notorious franchise snoop The Ghost of Hope to make some startling revelations on social media this week. As part...
News Want a Three Minute Slot During The Game Awards? That'll Be $1 Million, Please
Reported costs are sky high
The Game Awards is arguably the biggest event in the gaming calendar nowadays, and it sounds like Geoff Keighley's glitzy Los Angeles awards show is enormously expensive to be a part of. In a report from Kotaku, anonymous sources "familiar with this year’s show" say that a one-minute trailer during the show costs up to...
News 'Deeply Concerning': GTA Dev's Alleged Union Busting Has Now Reached the UK Prime Minister
Rockstar to be officially investigated
Rockstar Games has been in the news lately, not just because it's working on the biggest game on the horizon, GTA 6, but also because it abruptly fired tens of staff members. It's a move that those affected are claiming is union busting, and it's led to protests and pleas in a bid to reinstate th
News Almost Killed by Xbox Layoffs, John Romero's Next Game Has 'Survived'
But it will be quite different now
Legendary game creator John Romero has confirmed his next project has "survived cancellation" after Microsoft cut its funding for the project as part of a wave of layoffs earlier this year. Speaking at a video game expo in Madrid, Spain (via Eurogamer), Romero announced during a panel that the game had been saved,...
News Netflix Says Warner Bros Games Doesn't Hold 'Any Value' in $82 Billion Acquisition
Game plan
In case you missed the big news, Netflix has entered into an agreement to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal worth a stonking $82 billion. While this primarily concerns the movie and TV business, the deal also includes Warner Bros. Games and all its subsidiaries and IPs, including NetherRealm Studios (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady...
Nobody can, by the sound of it
China has entered the video game space in a massive way over the last few years, and Shuhei Yoshida, formerly one of PlayStation's most beloved executives, reckons studios in the country have a big advantage over those in Japan. Speaking in an interview with 4Gamer (translated by Automaton),
News Key Square Enix Shareholder Publicly Criticises Weak Game Sales, Company Management
Square one
One of Square Enix's major shareholders has doubled down on its criticisms of the publisher, to the point where it's publicly released a 100-page presentation (yes, really) in an attempt to highlight its perceived problems. The shareholder in question is Singapore-based activist investment fund 3D Investment Partners, which as alluded,...
News Xbox Ruthlessly Cancelled Perfect Dark, But Take-Two Just Hired Its Directors
After trying to rescue the project earlier this year
For whatever reason, Take-Two loves the version of Perfect Dark that The Initiative had cooking. In fact, it’s just hired the shuttered studio’s boss Darrell Gallagher and the game’s director Brian Horton. So, some background to this story first. You may recall that Microsoft cancelled its...
Rumour Dead Space Is 'On Ice', Could Be Sold Off to Help Cover EA's Acquisition Debt
Despite remake's success
Even though 2023's Dead Space remake was a hit both critically and commercially, publisher EA apparently has "no plans" to develop another instalment in the series. And perhaps even more revealing, there's now talk of the company selling the horror IP off, in a bid to correct the debt that'll inevitably envelop EA when its...
News Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat Publisher Warner Bros Bought for $82 Billion by Netflix
Harry Potter, Game of Thrones IPs included
Netflix has entered into an agreement to acquire Warner Bros Discovery for $82.7 billion, which includes the publisher's video game developers and IPs. This means that, should the deal go through, the ownership of Mortal Kombat team NetherRealm Studios, the Hogwarts Legacy developer Avalanche, and other...
News This RAM Crisis Is Looking Like a Nightmare for the PS6
RAMpage
It’s not been an easy generation for console manufacturers like PlayStation. Sony has had to contend with the coronavirus pandemic and the impact that subsequently had on supply chains. Then it’s had to deal with rising component costs and US tariffs. And now it’s navigating a RAM crisis. While word is the platform holder has...
News Here Are All the Winners from This Year's PlayStation Partner Awards in Japan
Top picks
Earlier today, Sony held its annual PlayStation Partner Awards ceremony in Japan. The event is designed to recognise the output of third-parties and indies, with the platform holder handing out awards to recognise the titles which have contributed to the PS5’s success over the past year. This has actually been an annual tradition ever...
News Sounds Like Saudi Arabia Will Own Almost All of EA After Buyout
And the publisher will be saddled with debt
EA will be acquired by a consortium including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, alongside US-based investment firms Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. This much we already know. However, an exclusive report from the
