Tag: Industry - Page 38
News Sony Boosts Forecasts as PS4 Closes on 100 Million Milestone
Company in extremely good health
Sony has revised its fiscal year forecast for PlayStation 4 hardware sales up from 17 million to 17.5 million, as the console has reached 86.1 million units shipped. The staggering statistic means that the Japanese giant’s current console is in roughly the same ballpark as the PlayStation 3’s lifetime total –...
News EA Motive Founder Jade Raymond Departs Montreal Studio
'We wish her all the best'
In a surprise move, former Ubisoft executive and EA Motive founder Jade Raymond has left the behemoth publisher. Games Beat reports that Samantha Ryan – who’s currently in charge of Maxis, BioWare, and EA’s mobile studios – will take over, fronting all of the company’s North American sub-units apart from Respawn...
News Alien: Isolation Devs Making a New Tactical Shooter
What will it be?
Creative Assembly, the studio behind the highly regarded horror title Alien: Isolation, is recruiting for a new project. It's not entirely clear what exactly the new game will look like, but from the job description, we can glean a couple of details. The listing asks for a programmer to join the team to work on "a brand-new and...
News Legendary UK Magazine GamesMaster to End After 25 Years
Multiformat publication GamesTM also axed
It’s been a rough decade for games magazines, and two more casualties have been claimed. Legendary publication GamesMaster, which has been running for a whopping 25 years, will end on 1st November, as will its multiformat accomplice GamesTM. Staff from both magazines will be redeployed throughout Future,...
News PS4 Downloads Account for 2.7 Per Cent of Global Internet Traffic
Analyst dissects the data
With PS4, digital downloads are incredibly common. Users are able to download games, of course, but if you also think about streaming via PlayStation Now, patches, firmware updates, and other bits and pieces, the amount of total data must be pretty staggering. Well, according to a new report from Sandvine, 2.7 per cent of...
News Sony Wants 100 Per Cent of Its US Operations to Be Powered by Renewable Energy
And it's aiming for 2030
We all need to be thinking about conserving energy, but it’s especially crucial that companies run their operations responsibly and in a more environmentally friendly manner. Sony was recently given a very poor D-rating by Greenpeace in a tech report, after it relied on just five per cent renewable energy to power its...
News Bandai Namco to Distribute Cyberpunk 2077 in Europe
Partners with CD Projekt Red once more
As we know, CD Projekt Red has partnered with Warner Bros to distribute its highly anticipated RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, in North America. Now, it's been announced that Bandai Namco will cover the same duties in 24 European countries. This was a fairly safe bet, as the Polish developer made the same moves for The...
And apparently it was their choice
So a big stink was raised early this week when news came out about Rockstar employees working 100 hours a week in order to finish Red Dead Redemption 2. As is always the case here on the world wide web, everyone immediately lost their minds over a small quote that, according to the developer, didn't necessarily...
News Rockstar Worked 100 Hour Weeks to Get Red Dead Redemption 2 Done
Life on Marston
Ever wondered what it takes to get a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 finished? According to Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser, it’s a lot of hard work. The company, infamous for its extended periods of crunch, was working “100 hour weeks” multiple times in 2018 in order to get the Spaghetti Western out of the door. That...
News Sony Hiring for Next Generation Marketing Campaign
High PS5
Sony basically confirmed the PlayStation 5 last week, and now it’s recruiting a Senior Product Manager to help plot out the roadmap for its next generation console. The role – spotted by ResetEra on career focused website
News SEGA Wants Simultaneous Worldwide Release Dates for Its Games
About time
Over the last few years Japanese publishers in general have gotten a lot better at localising their games in a more timely manner. It's still far from perfect, with recent titles like Dragon Quest XI coming to mind, but advancements have certainly been made this generation. That said, SEGA seems to know that there's room for further...
News Sony Looking to Crank Up Communication with Fans
Time for talk
If there’s any criticism of Sony at the moment, it’s that the company is far too quiet. The manufacturer was very vocal at the beginning of the generation, but it has let its products do the talking in recent months. While it’s hard to complain about the quality of the PlayStation 4 – especially with both cross-play and name...
News Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Is More Anticipated than Red Dead Redemption 2, Says Report
Blackout
Analytical data company Nielsen has published a list of the year's most anticipated holiday games. The list is based on a survey completed by around 6000 people, but takes into account a number of factors, such as general awareness, purchase interest, and consumer rating. Brand recognition and a few other things also feed into the results...
News Obsidian Entertainment Likely to Leave PlayStation Behind
Microsoft's sniffing
Obsidian Entertainment, the studio perhaps best known for Fallout: New Vegas, looks like it will be leaving PlayStation behind, as reports suggest that it’s about to be acquired by Microsoft – although nothing, as yet, has been signed. Ironically, the developer’s been in financial trouble for a fair few years, after...
News European Commission Reveals New Games from Tequila Works, Zoink
Brexit means Brexit
You may have seen the European Commission’s logo during the loading screen of several games, and that’s because it makes contributions to various indie developers in order to help get their projects off the ground. As part of a new document which details the dozens of releases it will be co-financing in the future, the...
News Guerrilla's Recruiting Rainbow Six: Siege Talent for a Secret Project
Online shooter on the way?
Guerrilla Games has been quietly hiring some of the top talent behind Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege for a super-secret project. Simon Larouche – who previously spent three years at the Dutch developer working on Killzone 2 – served as the game director on Ubisoft’s smash tactical shooter, and has been working on...
News Retained Telltale Staffers Now Also Made Redundant
Skeleton crew axed
There were reports today that Telltale Games was looking for a new company to re-hire former staff in order to finish up the final two episodes of The Walking Dead, which was wild in its own rights. However, this is a story that keeps escalating by the day, and now it’s emerged that
News Media Molecule Doesn't Crunch, Reckons It's Too 90s
Work hard, play hard
We’ve been made to wait for Media Molecule’s Dreams, which the gaming community revels in pointing out at any given opportunity. To be fair to the Guildford-based developer, there’s no blueprint for what it’s doing here: its PlayStation 4 exclusive is truly unique, and while its roots can be traced back to...
News This RUSSIA 2055 Trailer Shared by Hideo Kojima Is Suspicious
Created by Joakim Mogren?
Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima shared a trailer for a game called RUSSIA 2055 on social media today, and it’s being developed by a studio that we’ve never heard of before. Ordinarily we’d shrug and move on with our lives, but this is the same guy who created a f
News Cyberpunk 2077 Will Be Distributed by Warner Bros in North America
Pledged for PS4 once again
Much like The Witcher III: Wild Hunt before it, Warner Bros will be responsible for the distribution and promotion of Cyberpunk 2077 in North America. Obviously getting games into store shelves takes a lot of effort and manpower, and Polish developer CD Projekt Red will be entrusting that task to the experts at the...
Soapbox Publishers Want You to Pay to Play Early, And It's a Worry
Sammy on the dangers of double release dates
If you’ve ever lived in Europe, you’ll know the pain: the eternal wait for release dates, while the rest of the world gads about in the next great game. It wasn’t so bad during the PSone era: the Internet was less established in those hazy mid-nineties days, and so magazines were the main source of...
News Player Data Paints Damning Picture of Telltale's Efforts
Downward spiral
Telltale Games’ effective closure came as a shock to us all last week, but data shows that it’s been on a big decline since breakout hit The Walking Dead: Season One all the way back in 2012. The creators of True Trophies and True Ac
News Fortnite Players on PS4 Can Now Login on Other Consoles
Full-scale account merging coming in November
It’s all change on the cross-play front, with Sony launching a Fortnite beta that will eventually open the doors for more PlayStation 4 games to interact with the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Of course, one of the big issues with Epic Games’ behemoth Battle Royale back at E3 2018 was that fans who...
News Sony: Cross-Console Play a Major Policy Change
Looking to open up the platform
Sony wasn’t deflecting when it said it was exploring ways to support cross-console play on the PlayStation 4 – it was telling the truth. PlayStation president John Kodera has taken to the PlayStation Blog to announce an extended Fortnite beta which will allow you to play Epic Games’ gargantuan hit across the...
News Sony Bringing Cross-Console Play Beta to Fortnite Today
Play with Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, more
Sony said that it was “confident” of a cross-console play solution on the PlayStation 4, and it genuinely wasn’t lying. PlayStation president John Kodera has taken to the PlayStation Blog to announce an open beta for Fortnite, which will allow “cross-platform gameplay, progression, and commerce...
News The Walking Dead's Clementine Voice Actor Signs Off with Heartfelt Message to the Fans
"A lot of hearts were broken, including mine"
Over the weekend, news broke out that Telltale Games, the studio famous for narrative adventure games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, was laying off almost its entire staff, effectively shutting down. This has left hundreds of people out of work, and all future projects have been cancelled...
News Reports Say Telltale's The Walking Dead Final Season Is Also Cancelled Following Layoffs
No more episodes
Earlier this evening, news broke that Telltale Games has laid off 285 employees, effectively closing the developer down. However, initial reports suggested that a "skeleton crew" was being kept on to finish up the final season of The Walking Dead, but now new reports are saying that isn't actually the case. Sources have told
News Telltale Games Effectively Shuttered After Enormous Layoffs
The Wolf Among Us 2, Stranger Things seemingly canned
Telltale Games has laid off 285 employees, effectively ending the episodic developer’s operations. The studio is retaining 25 staff to complete the final season of its The Walking Dead adaptation, but online scuttlebutt suggests that its in-production Wolf Among Us and Stanger Things series...
News Square Enix Partners with Deck Nine on New Title
Before the storm
Square Enix has extended its external development partnership with Life Is Strange: Before the Storm creator Deck Nine. The pair will collaborate on a new title, although it’s keeping the nature of the project under wraps for the time being. Our assumption? It’ll have something to do with DONTNOD’s teen series. “The...
TGS 2018 PS Vita Production to Cease Next Year in Japan, Says Sony Boss
Vita means life?
We all knew it was coming. Sony's ill-fated handheld has been winding down slowly, but the PS Vita has continued to sell relatively well in Japan. However, in 2019, the platform holder will be pulling the plug on production in Japan. This comes from a report issued by Famitsu, which Gematsu has translated. Sony Interactive...
News THQ Nordic's Spending Spree Expands to Alone in the Dark
It Carnby true
THQ Nordic is a company with a lot of cash, and it’s buying every dormant intellectual property it can get its greedy little hands on. Next up: survival horror Alone in the Dark, which it’s clawed away from the clutches of Atari Europe for an undisclosed fee. The company also picked up real-time strategy series Act of War, which...
News God of War Creator Reveals Why Sony Is Killing It Right Now
David Jaffe chimes in
It's common knowledge that Sony has been knocking it out of the park this generation, with a steady stream of exclusive titles for PS4, which has been a runaway success. However, what we sometimes lack is the view from the inside. What is it that's giving Sony the edge? God of War creator and infamously outspoken developer...
News Dead Rising Developer Capcom Vancouver Closes Down
Chop till you drop
The developer of the more recent Dead Rising games, and Capcom’s flagship Western studio, has been shut down. In a statement sent to Kotaku, the Japanese publisher said that the decision to shutter the branch was made after a review of its in-production projects. Essentially, it’s opted to bin the lot and “concentrate...
News PlayStation Beats Nintendo and Xbox By Some Distance in UK, US Brand Recognition Surveys
#4ThePlayers and all that
It's really common sense, but mind share counts for a lot when it comes to big business. You obviously want your brand to be as recognisable as possible, and it looks like PlayStation's currently doing a great job placing itself in the public consciousness. According to Prophet's Brand Relevance Index for 2018, PlayStation...
News FIFA Ultimate Team Card Packs May Have EA in Trouble with the Law
Belgium launches investigation
As you may or may not have heard, Belgium declared loot boxes in video games a form of gambling earlier this year. Basically, if a game allows players to spend real money on randomised in-game items, then it has to be categorised as gambling and highlighted as such. However, unlike other publishers, EA apparently...
News Kingdoms of Amalur Remaster Isn't Guaranteed, Despite THQ Nordic Buying IP
EA still owns it as publisher
Last week, everyone got hyped because it looked like Kingdoms of Amalur could be making an eventual comeback. Publisher THQ Nordic announced that it had acquired the rights to the property, immediately conjuring images of a remaster or even a sequel. Reviving Kingdoms of Amalur may not be as straightforward as we...
News Hope for a New Kingdoms of Amalur Game Revived as THQNordic Acquires IP
Yes please
Publisher THQNordic has announced that it's acquired the rights to Kingdoms of Amalur, sparking hope in the hearts of those who have been eager for another game in the series -- ourselves included. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was an action role-playing game that launched on the PlayStation 3. While it wasn't a gigantic hit or anything,...
News God of War Director Suggests Sony First Party Devs Get Together for a Video, and Now We Want It
'Dinner with the Directors'
Whenever we see industry types congratulating each other on their successful projects, it's hard not to crack a smile. Bryan Intihar, the creative director of Marvel's Spider-Man, expressed his relief and gratitude in light of the positive response to Insomniac's latest game, and Shuhei Yoshida jokingly asked if he...
News EA to Support Jacksonville Victims' Families with $1 Million Donation
Livestream planned next week
EA has pledged a $1 million contribution to the families of the victims involved in the shooting in Jacksonville last week. For those of you who don’t know, players had gathered to play Madden NFL 19 as part of a qualifier event for the publisher’s Madden Classic series when a gunman fired off shots, killing two...
News European Ratings Board PEGI to Introduce In-Game Purchases Warning on Physical Game Boxes
In place by the end of 2018
Microtransactions are becoming more and more common these days, and they aren't just limited to free-to-play games anymore. Many AAA titles have been criticised for asking consumers to fork out for a full price tag, only to find that you then need to spend more to get ahead of the pack. Of course, not all games with...
News David Cage Offers Behind the Scenes Look at Detroit: Become Human's Complex Branching Narrative
Endless possibilities
Making any game is a massively complicated undertaking, but have you ever wondered what goes into a game like Detroit: Become Human? Quantic Dream's branching narratives have huge scripts, but what about on the technical side? The studio's main man, David Cage, has given us a brief glimpse into how its myriad possible outcomes...
News Xbox Gamers Are More Hardcore Than PlayStation, Says Microsoft
You filthy noobs, you
Microsoft’s getting stomped globally by the PlayStation 4, but it believes that “hardcore gamers” gravitate towards the Xbox One ahead of Sony’s system. Aaron Greenberg, one of the marketing bigwigs at the Redmond firm, told IGN Italia at Gamescom 2018 that he believes the most engaged players prefer to game in green...
News Onrush Director Joins Project CARS Dev Slightly Mad Studios
Safe landing
Following a bout of layoffs at the Codemasters studio responsible for Onrush, the ill-fated game's director, Paul Rustchynsky, has revealed where he's heading next. In short, he's sticking to what he knows, as he begins work on a new game at Slightly Mad Studios, the team behind the Project CARS series. Rustchynsky was game director...
News Shuhei Yoshida was 'Horrified' When He First Played God of War on PS4
First prototype didn't impress
President of Sony's Worldwide Studios, the lovable Shuhei Yoshida, was apparently very unimpressed by God of War when he played an early version for the first time. Cory Barlog recounted the tale during his talk at Devcom, and it's pretty amazing to hear the Shu was so negative about a game that would become a huge...
News PS5 Will Launch Late 2019, Says Japanese Analyst
Unless production snags prevent it
Predictions are all over the place as to when Sony's follow-up to the PS4 will be released. Some were initially predicting late 2018, which obviously isn't happening, while others think the PS5 is further away, in 2020 or 2021. The latest on this subject comes from Japanese firm Ace Economic Research Institute,...
News Sounds Like It's Time for TimeSplitters 4 as Koch Media Acquires Licence
Future perfect
The TimeSplitters series was beloved back on the PlayStation 2, but it sadly fell by the wayside as Free Radical Design began to struggle. The licence for the franchise has rested with Crytek for some years, but nothing has been done with it, despite vocal fans calling out for it, and even attempting to forge remake themselves...
News Electronic Arts Executive Patrick Söderlund to Exit
The legend leaves
Patrick Söderlund, the somewhat scary Electronic Arts executive who you will almost certainly recognise from various press conferences over the years, has decided to depart his role as Chief Design Officer at the publishing giant. The Swedish suit got his start as CEO at developer DICE, but eventually worked his way up the...
News Everybody's Gone to the Rapture Dev The Chinese Room Bought by Sumo Digital
Sumo expanding
The studio behind the PS4 walking simulator Everybody's Gone to the Rapture has been purchased by Sumo Digital. The Chinese Room, which only consists of its co-founders Dan Pinchbeck and Jessica Curry after last year's layoffs, will become a new studio within the group, which is going through a period of growth. Pinchbeck will stay...
News Crystal Dynamics Expands with New Studio, Hires God of War's Lead Combat Designer
Named after Kanye and Kim's kid
Crystal Dynamics’ upcoming Avengers is probably going to have some pretty bad ass Thor gameplay, as the Square Enix subsidiary has just opened a brand new studio and hired God of War’s lead combat designer Vincent Napoli. The all-new satellite studio is based in Bellevue, Washington, and has been imaginatively...
News Bethesda Backtracked on Its Controversial Review Policy
10/10 backtracking
Some time ago, you may remember reports coming out on Bethesda's overhauled review policy. The publisher essentially stopped dishing out review code early to gaming sites like Push Square, effectively eliminating any reviews of its games before they released. By many, this was viewed as an anti-consumer act, since people looking...
