Tag: Industry - Page 37
News Sony First-Party Studios Now Mostly Focused on PS5
The future's happening
It comes as no real surprise to hear, but most of Sony's first-party studios have now shifted their focus to the PS5. This is according to industry analyst Daniel Ahmad, also known as ZhugeEX. Ahmad's been a reliable source of inside information for years now, so we've got little reason to doubt his claims over on
News Quantic Dream Focusing on PS5 After Investment from NetEase
But going multiformat
Chinese giant NetEase has purchased a minority stake in French developer Quantic Dream, as the Detroit: Become Human maker turns its attention to the “development and creation of next-gen games”. The independent Parisian outfit has been a close partner of PlayStation for over a decade now, but
News EA Buckles Under Microtransaction Pressure in Belgium
Someone call Jim Sterling
Put the publisher under enough pressure and it seems that EA will buckle eventually. The company has announced that it plans to stop selling FIFA Points in Belgium, after the government declared loot boxes to be a form of gambling last year. For those of you who don’t know, FIFA Ultimate Team is an extremely popular mode...
News Cyberpunk 2077 Creative Director Leaves for Blizzard, Sparks Speculation
But of course
After spending six years working on Cyberpunk 2077 -- and almost 13 years at developer CD Projekt Red -- creative, narrative, and setting director Sebastian Stepien has moved on to pastures new. The veteran has left the company to join Blizzard in order to work on a currently unspecified project. It goes without saying that this...
News Sony's Not-So Secret Unannounced Studio Attracts More Talent
Team yet to be confirmed
Sony’s not-so secret San Diego studio – which is expected to be continuing the Uncharted series – has been bulking up for a good few months now, and Senior Game Designer Quentin Cobb tweeted about a new addition this week. James Martinchek is joining the team as Lead Animator, having previously worked on Uncharted 4: A...
News EA: 'We're Fully Committed to Making More Star Wars Games'
Just not that open world one
Yesterday, Kotaku reported that EA Vancouver's open world Star Wars title had been cancelled by the infamous publisher. Three sources claimed this to be true, and the project, codenamed Orca, has apparently been shelved in favour of something on a smaller scale. In response to these reports, EA has sent out a statement...
News Hitman Developer IO Interactive Opening New Studio in Malmö
Zlatan approves
Hitman 2 may not have set cash registers on fire, but Danish developer IO Interactive is expanding to Sweden with a new studio. Based in Malmö – the birthplace of LA Galaxy striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic – the fresh team will “strengthen IO Interactive’s commitment to deliver exceptional content to the Hitman franchise,...
News Indie Studio Behind Underrated Aer: Memories of Old Set to Shutdown
Old to new
Forgotten Key, the small indie developer behind 2017's Aer: Memories of Old is sadly shutting up shop in the very near future unless there's a "dramatic turn of events". "It’s with a heavy heart we have decided to prepare a shutdown of Forgotten Key, the place we have called home for the last 7 years," studio head Robin Hjelte writes...
News Rockstar and Real World Pinkerton Agency in Legal Dispute over Red Dead Redemption 2
Detective mode
In case you weren't aware, Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations is a real life detective agency, founded all the way back in 1850. Then known as Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the company was apparently very active in tracking down real outlaws at the time, and the name has become more or less synonymous with Western media...
News PS4 Has a Very High Software Attach Rate, Average Player Owns Around Ten Games
That's a lot
About a week ago, Sony posted a press release containing a whole bunch of impressive numbers. The PS4 has sold 91.6 million units as of 31st December 2018, while Marvel's Spider-Man has sold a staggering 9 million copies since its September launch. However, something that passed us by was the overall situ
Talking Point Could Sony Lease Out Its Dormant Franchises?
Want you back
Unlike its competitors, Sony reinvents itself with each subsequent generation. There are franchises that have stood the test of time, but generally we see the platform holder evolve as it transitions from console to console. Aloy, for example, will very likely be the poster child of the PlayStation 5 – a household name who only got...
News Destiny Devs 'Cheered and Popped Champagne' as Bungie Announced Break Up with Activision
Light without dark?
Bungie's broken up with Activision, if you haven't already heard. Coming to the conclusion that it was in the best interest of both parties not to continue their agreed contract over Destiny -- which saw Activision publish the property -- it's Bungie who now owns the sci-fi shooter. In other words, when it comes to Destiny,...
News Bungie Splits from Activision, Takes the Rights to Destiny
The light returns?
Destiny's ups and downs have been well documented, and judging from this breaking news, neither Activision nor Bungie were happy with how things were going. The publisher and developer have decided to put an end to their contract, with the rights to the Destiny property being transferred over to Bungie. Wow. "We have enjoyed a...
News THQ Nordic's Buying Spree Continues, Purchases Outcast IP
Not an outcast anymore
THQ Nordic spent a lot of time last year buying up studios and intellectual properties, and that trend looks set to continue in 2019. The latest purchase by the relentless publisher is Outcast, a cult hit adventure game that saw a PS4 remake a couple of years ago, named Outcast: Second Contact. The company acquired the...
News Gran Turismo Sport Shown at 8K on New Sony TV at CES 2019
4K is so 2018
Television manufacturers often play a demo reel on their brand new displays in order to best show off their products to the public. You know the ones -- there's usually footage of glitzy cityscapes, swimming polar bears, and fields of flowers, all of it beautifully crisp to entice shoppers. Well, Sony has been using Gran Turismo Sport...
News Sony Acquires Audio Engineering Firm Behind Multiformat Middleware Wwise
A Wwise decision?
Sony is purchasing Audiokinetic, the company behind the multiformat middleware technology Wwise. While you’re unlikely to have heard of this software, you will have seen its logo when booting up games before as it’s very popular. Despite the buyout – which will be completed by 31st January – the company will continue to...
News Sony: We'll Bring More Enhanced Experiences and Highly Anticipated Games in 2019
Company will continue to evolve
Sony’s plans for 2019 are pretty much shrouded in secrecy so far. We know that the company won’t be attending E3 2019 and we also know that it’s got Days Gone coming out in the near future, but beyond that – well, your guess is as good as ours. Among various pieces of corporate backslapping overnight, new...
News PSN's Monthly Active Users Increase to Eye Watering 90 Million
The biggest gaming network in the world
More people than ever are using the PlayStation Network, with monthly active users topping 90 million in November 2018 according to Sony. This means that almost 100 million accounts connected to the PSN at the tail-end of last year, and while the figure is bloated by multiple users from the same console or...
News Sony Wants Music, Gaming, and Movies to Collaborate
From consumer electronics to creative company
What kind of company is Sony? Historically, there was no debate over this question: the Japanese giant made consumer electronics. These days, with 47 per cent of its revenue driven by entertainment products, the answer is less obvious. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, chief...
News It Sounds Like Persona 5 Was a Bit of a Nightmare to Localise
Put your heart into it
Persona 5 has a lot of text, and obviously, all of it had to be translated from Japanese by a localisation team -- not the kind of job that we envy. The role-playing title was incredibly well received when it launched in 2017, but there were some criticisms made over its localisation, which is a little shaky in places. Again,...
News Square Enix Boss Says Game Streaming and Subscription Services Will Be Key to Future Growth
Here we go again
Square Enix boss Yosuke Matsuda has issued a New Year message, outlining what the company aims to achieve as we move into 2019. Most notably, Matsuda mentions "rapid adaptation of new platforms", specifically video game streaming and subscription services. "The current generation of game consoles has entered the late stage, and the...
News Evidence Mounts for Unannounced Uncharted Game
More recruitment at Visual Arts Services Group
Sony appears to be anchoring a new game development team to its Visual Arts Services Group division. For those of you who don’t know, the San Diego-based VASG has been leveraged by various first-party developers for motion capture work, but it’s been quietly recruiting talent from around the world...
News Japanese Developers Sure Do Love the PS4
Industry professionals big on PlayStation blockbusters
Look, there’s no question that the Nintendo Switch has brushed the PlayStation 4 aside in Japan, but Eastern developers still have a lot of love for Sony and its games. The latest issue of Famitsu magazine includes a poll voted on by 128 Japanese developers and industry professionals, and it...
News Player Numbers for Various PS4 Titles Crunched
Grand Theft Auto V the most played
Some smart statisticians have crunched the player numbers for a bunch of PlayStation 4 titles, using a combination of data from Sony’s popular My PS4 Life videos and Trophy completion percentages. It’s not a fool proof algorithm, as we don’t know the exact period of time that the aforementioned social videos...
News Spider-Man PS4 Dev Pushes Back Against Fan Criticisms Regarding DLC
Where's the Raimi suit?
For as long as we've known about Marvel's Spider-Man, one of the biggest conversations online was all about which suits would end up in the game. The PS4 exclusive wound up with a pretty large selection of costumes for Spidey to try on, covering outfits from the comics, the movies, and even some all-new creations. However, by...
News The Game Awards 2018 Attracted Almost as Many Viewers as The Oscars
F*** The Oscars, man
The Game Awards 2018 was another impressive event from creator Geoff Keighley, blending gongs with game reveals and a general celebration of gaming culture. There’s a ceiling for how good this kind of show can possibly be, and the former Bonus Round host is very close to achieving it. It’s only right, then, that he...
News Shawn Layden on Sony's Silence: See You in the New Year
What's the company cooking?
PlayStation chief Shawn Layden briefly appeared during The Game Awards 2018 last night to open the show alongside Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aime and Xbox overlord Phil Spencer – but while the latter two appeared later in the stream to chat about their respective platforms, Layden stayed out of the limelight. This...
Falling out
Good lord, is this ever going to end? First Bethesda releases a borderline broken game. Then it releases a gigantic patch that doesn't fix said game on PlayStation 4. Then it gets called out for shipping crap quality bags to people who bought the most expensive version of the game. Then it
News Former Dragon Age Creative Director Now Working at Ubisoft on Unannounced Project
Ubisoft RPG incoming?
Mike Laidlaw, one of the main creative minds behind much of the Dragon Age series, left BioWare around a year ago. Since then, he's been working as a consultant throughout the industry, but now he's back at a major studio. Today, Laidlaw's revealed that he's actually landed a job at Ubisoft Quebec as creative director on a...
News Sony Publishes Neat First-Party Puff Piece
Visual Arts Services Group listed among developers
Sony’s published a neat video touring its first-party studios in the United States, with the intention presumably to try and recruit talent to its teams. The video includes interviews from key personnel at Sony Santa Monica, Sony Bend, PixelOpus, and others. In the clip, the staffers talk about...
News Social Media Scuttlebutt Says Microsoft Is Sniffing After Sony Studio
Money talks
Microsoft has been snapping up mid-sized studios like corporate acquisitions are going out of fashion, and now the social media rumour mill is aflame with speculation that the team in green is about to snap up a studio that’s worked with PlayStation in the past. This opens the floor to a raft of possibilities, from Supermassive Games...
News Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata Reveals New Game Studio
JP Games is born
Hajime Tabata, former Square Enix employee and the man largely credited for "saving" Final Fantasy XV as its director, has revealed his newly formed studio on Facebook. Named JP Games, the development team will have more information to share in January next year, when the company launches officially. Tabata left Square Enix at the...
News Sony Patented a Cartridge and Everyone Went Mental Over It
But it's not for a new handheld
A patent filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment and published this week prompted many to believe that the Japanese giant may be working on a successor to the PlayStation Vita, but despite the documentation depicting a new cartridge-like product, it’s got absolutely nothing to do with a hypothetical handheld –...
News PSN Account Banned Over Cultural Mistake Reinstated by Sony
Account reportedly back online
Yesterday saw an interesting story blow up on Reddit, as a Mexican PS4 owner shared how his PSN account had been banned because of a misunderstanding regarding his username. The moniker includes the word "Kike", a racist term for Jewish people, but as the user explained to Sony, it's also a shortened version of his...
News Sony Reportedly Bans PSN Account Over Cultural Misunderstanding
No solution in sight
It’s a holiday in the United States, so that means there are no press releases to mull over and games industry drama gets a big fat spotlight shined in its eyes instead. To be fair, this is an unfortunate story that we hope will be resolved promptly. Over on Reddit, a Mexican gamer claims that his PlayStation Network account...
News Lack of Subtitles in Spyro: Reignited Trilogy Is a Result of 'No Industry Standard'
Activision fuels the fire
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy is out now, and it's a gorgeous remake of the beloved PSone platformers. While many are enjoying their time with Spyro and Sparx, some are left flabbergasted by the apparent lack of subtitles across the three games. Some minor characters in the games have them, but the main cutscenes don't, leaving...
News Let's Take a Moment to Remember Sony's Iconic E3 Moments
We're going to miss this
Sony may be skipping E3 2019, and there’s currently no word on whether it will ever return to the event, but we’ll forever have our memories of PlayStation press conferences and no one can take them away. Because we have a quota of headlines with “Sony” and “E3” in them to fill today, allow us to republish this...
News Cliff Bleszinski Says He'll Never Make Another Game
LawBreakers took its toll
LawBreakers really didn't do well. That much is obvious, but what isn't is that it took so much of a toll on developer Cliff Bleszinski that he was vowed to never make another video game ever again. A Twitter user reached out to the man himself yesterday requesting a refund for his purchase of LawBreakers. This was of...
News God of War Wins Big at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards
Multiple awards for Kratos
The Game Awards may still be a few weeks away, but that's not the only award show in town, with the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards taking place this evening. It was a big night for PlayStation, with the likes of God of War scooping up multiple prizes and Detroit: Become Human getting some recognition for its character...
News Expensive, Early Access Releases Are Big Business for Publishers
Dual release dates paying dividends
It’s the latest craze: games no longer have one single, defined release date – they have at least two of them. In the case of Battlefield V – which is available today for some people, was available last week for others, and will be available next week for any remaining peasants – they have four or more...
News After Five Years, PS4 Has Sold Over 86 Million Units Worldwide
Software no slouch either
Sony's celebrating the PS4's fifth birthday today, and it's throwing out some interesting stats regarding its wildly successful platform. Perhaps most worthy of note is that, as of September 2018, Sony has shifted 86.1 million consoles globally -- a staggering number, and as our very own Sammy Barker pointed out, it's...
News PQube Is Done with PS Vita, Says It's a Bird That Can't Fly
"Sony doesn't like the PS Vita games anymore"
Niche publisher PQube – the British company responsible for bringing a bunch of titles to market, including Cat Quest and Punch Line – has said that it’s ceased supporting the PlayStation Vita now. As part of a Twitch stream, the firm admitted that it wanted to continue releasing games for the...
News THQ Nordic Reports Dramatic Increase In Earnings Thanks to Series of Studio Acquisitions
55 games in development
Earlier today, we reported that THQ Nordic had purchased Bugbear Entertainment, developer of Wreckfest and the FlatOut games. This, along with Goat Simulator studio Coffee Stain, is the latest in an extremely aggressive phase of acquiring independent publishers and developers, and as it turns out, the strategy is paying off...
News THQ Nordic Acquires Bugbear Entertainment, Wreckfest Coming to PS4 Next Year
Smashing
THQ Nordic sure has a lot of stuff going on, doesn't it? The latest deal to be struck by the publisher is with Bugbear Entertainment, the Finnish developer perhaps best known for its FlatOut series. The studio is now part of THQ Nordic's collection, and all intellectual property now belongs to the publisher. This one isn't completely out...
News Obsidian, InXile Will No Longer Make PlayStation Games
Both join the Xbox family
Microsoft has added two more former multiformat developers to its first-party roster, meaning that both Obsidian Entertainment and InXile Entertainment will no longer make PlayStation games. The former is perhaps best known for Fallout: New Vegas, while the latter created Hunted: The Demon’s Forge. Both studios have...
Poll Do You Buy and Play Single Player Story DLC?
Extended adventures
Square Enix hosted a livestream this week in which the company shockingly cancelled multiple planned Final Fantasy XV expansion packs. While the decision was primarily motivated by the departure of director Hajime Tabata, it has raised an interesting conversation about the viability of story-based, single player DLC packs...
News PlayStation Now Is the Biggest Gaming Subscription Service
According to market research firm
PlayStation Now is generally given short shrift in gaming circles, with more attention placed on Microsoft’s heavily promoted Xbox Game Pass service. However, it seems Sony’s streaming and download subscription has been quietly bringing home the bacon, as new research from SuperData makes it the market leader by...
News Square Enix Reports Huge $33 Million Loss Thanks to Luminous Productions Change
Publisher takes a big hit in latest financials
Things aren't exactly smooth over at Square Enix these days. From the outside looking in, at times it's seemed as though the publisher is shockingly mismanaged -- especially on the Japanese side of things -- and now the company's reported a $33 million loss in its latest financial briefing. According...
News Square Enix Acquires Stake in The Turing Test Developer
Begins work on new IP
Square Enix has purchased a 20 per cent stake in The Turing Test developer Bulkhead Interactive, which will see it continue to collaborate with the Derby-based studio on upcoming shooter Battalion 1944 and also start work on a new intellectual property. More information, according to the publisher, will be announced at a later...
News Greg Miller to Host Kinda Funny Games Showcase in December
Nearly 50 games to be shown
If you were left disappointed by this year's lack of PlayStation Experience, you might be in luck. Where normally we'd have a presentation from Sony to close out the year, famed gaming personality Greg Miller has been organising an event to take its place. The Kinda Funny Games Showcase now has a date set in stone: 8th...
