Tag: Industry - Page 39
News Shadow of the Tomb Raider's Devs Not Worried About Spider-Man
"Only one game has Lara Croft"
In a year that’s already been packed to bursting point with big games, September will seriously up the ante with a sequence of huge releases. Two major titles, Marvel’s Spider-Man and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, are scheduled to deploy within days of each other – a harrowing prospect for publisher Square Enix and...
News Bethesda Defends Legal Action Against a Man Who Tried to Resell a Game
Used and abused
A strange story started circulating on Polygon overnight involving a man who attempted to resell a sealed copy of The Evil Within 2 as a “new” product on Amazon Marketplace. Bethesda’s law firm Vorys took issue with the listing, and threatened legal action against the individual. The company’s view is that there’s no way to...
News Streaming Devices Will Kill Traditional Consoles Within the Next 10 Years, Says EA
Here we go again
Games and streaming, two words that a lot of people don't seem to want to see in close proximity -- but the conversation about streaming services eventually replacing traditional video game consoles is only going to grow over the next few years and beyond. Just a couple of months ago, Ubisoft caused a bit of an uproar when it said...
News Capcom Knew Monster Hunter Would Be a Hit in the West 'On the Right Platform'
And it was correct
Monster Hunter: World's gigantic success is well documented by this point. The seriously addictive action role-playing title has been crowned Capcom's best selling game of all time, but before it launched earlier this year, some doubted that it would leave a mark here in the West, with many long time fans of the series...
News Capcom Wants 'Games That Get 9s But Sell Less' Over the Likes of Resident Evil 6
Capom's chasing quality
Capcom's tact has certainly changed over the last few years, and many would argue for the better. The company is currently riding a wave of unprecedented profit thanks to hugely successful titles such as Monster Hunter: World, and the Japanese publisher has said that it wants to continue pushing for high quality games...
News New Chinese Game Console Rivals the Power of the PS4 Pro
Power trip
A brand new machine is entering the console arms race -- in China, at least. AMD, the electronics company who produces the PS4's Jaguar CPU, has partnered with Zhongshan Subor to build a console for the Chinese market, and the details released so far put it on a level with the PS4 Pro, possibly even surpassing it. All the information...
News PS Plus Subscribers Dip Slightly Compared to Previous Quarter
Retention detention
Sony lost around 300,000 PlayStation Plus subscribers in the quarter ending 30th June, with 33.9 million users maintaining an active membership, compared to 34.2 million earlier in the year. It’s not exactly a significant decrease, but considering one of the company’s primary goals is to retain subs, it won’t be overjoyed...
News Capcom's Having a Great Year Off the Back of Monster Hunter: World's Huge Success
Roarsome
Capcom's in a pretty good place right now, going by the company's latest financial report. The publisher's operating income is up a rather staggering 550 per cent year-over-year, while net sales are up 46 per cent. In other words, Capcom's raking in some significant dosh -- and Monster Hunter: World is the main reason why. Launching...
News Indie Devs Are Finding Their Feet with Cheap Platinum Trophies
"A lot of people will buy it"
There’s no doubt that the PlayStation 4’s audience is changing, and indie developers are finding it harder than ever to ensure their games stand out against both AAA blockbusters and their many contemporaries. This is particularly problematic for new studios, who don’t have a major hit to their name or an existing...
News Quantic Dream Loses Employment Case Amid Photoshop Scandal
First of several cases to rule in employee's favour
The controversy surrounding Quantic Dream rumbles on, as the Parisian developer has lost a court case against a former employee, who quit their job following an image manipulation scandal
News The West Likes Yakuza Because It Doesn't Pander to Western Tastes, Says SEGA
Preach
SEGA has come a long way since the days of removing parts of Yakuza 3 because western audiences wouldn't "get it". Speaking to GameIndustry, SEGA Europe boss John Clark says that Yakuza has found its footing here in the West because it doesn't shy away from its Japanese roots. "We're not turning every Yakuza title into an open-world...
Interview From Psygnosis to Persistence - Reassembling Studio Liverpool into Scouse Scares
We fire up Firesprite's studio history
In our third article following Push Square’s visit to Firesprite, we sent one of our retro enthusiasts who was particularly eager to learn more about the links between its studio’s history with Psygnosis and Studio Liverpool. In time for the launch week of the sci-fi horror game The Persistence we also...
News Amazon UK to Stop £2 Prime Discount on Game Pre-Orders
Less bang for your buck
One of the benefits of an Amazon Prime membership was a small discount when pre-ordering games, but it seems that will be ending very soon. In an email sent to all Prime members, the giant online retailer stated that it will be putting a stop to the £2 discount. We would now like to inform you that we will no longer offer...
Feature How Sony's First-Party Turned Critical Success into Commercial Success
On the up
It’s almost been ten years since LittleBigPlanet released, a PlayStation 3 exclusive that would record a 95 on Metacritic and eventually go on to sell around 4.5 million units as of 2010. It was a success, but like so many of Sony’s games at the time, its numbers didn’t really match its reception. Uncharted 2: Among...
News The Culling 2 Flopped So Badly That It's Been Scrapped After a Week
And the dev's returning to work on the original game
The Culling 2 released on the PlayStation 4 last week, and it’s been removed from the PlayStation Store this week. The game, a kind of Battle Royale, was basically a disaster – and developer Xaviant Games has been forced to address its community on YouTube. In a refreshingly frank video,...
News Horizon: Zero Dawn Dev Guerrilla Expanding, Moving to New Five-Floor Office
Studio targeting 400 full-time employees
Guerrilla Games has always been one of Sony’s most important developers, but with the release of Horizon: Zero Dawn its stocks have risen dramatically. The studio is now one of the most recognised games companies in the world, working on one of the most promising new intellectual properties. The problem? It...
News Germany Bans Pre-Orders for Games that Don't Have a Set Release Date
A good thing?
This is a pretty interesting story. Over in Germany, products that don't have a set release date -- including video games -- are no longer allowed to be pre-ordered. This means that, for example, you can't go ahead and pre-order something like The Last of Us: Part II, since it has a vague "coming soon" release date attached. The...
News Sony Completes Turnaround with 10 Year Stock High
The biggest electronics maker in Japan
Kaz Hirai will probably be remembered by most for his goofy E3 presentations, but in truth the ex-Sony CEO proved his business credentials by transforming the encumbered organisation back into a global juggernaut. A new article from Hollywood Reporter reveals that the conglomerate’s stocks have hit a 10 year...
News PSN Credit Is Inexplicably Unavailable Again at Amazon
Saga rumbles on
Amazon’s spat with Sony appears to be rumbling on, as for the second time this year, PlayStation Network credit is unavailable at the popular online retailer. This includes all denominations of the virtual currency, although the issue appears to be limited to the United States branch for now;
News Shuhei Yoshida Wishes Sony Was More Successful at Making Multiplayer Games
Forever alone
Shuhei Yoshida has been in Brighton recently to pick up the Develop Legend Award for his achievements in the industry. While he was there, he spoke at Develop:Brighton with editor of Edge magazine, Nathan Brown. When asked about Sony finding success with its large single player games as the industry trends towards multiplayer, Shu...
News Shawn Layden Shares the Highs and Lows of a 30 Year PlayStation Career
Ups and downs
Shawn Layden may be the “suit” you see on stage at E3, but the executive has a 30 year history with PlayStation, spanning multiple roles across various different continents. The current Worldwide Studios chairman previously spent time as the head of SIEJ, and also worked in London for a while as well. It means that the...
News We're Making a Huge Bet Every Time We Start a New Project, Reveals Sony
Each title feels too big to fail
Big-budget blockbuster games are a massive risk these days. With development budgets soaring and expectations rising ever higher, it’s amazing that games like God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn see the light of day at all. And as part of an interview with MCV, Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida has revealed...
News Amy Hennig Leaves EA, Goes Independent
"Ragtag" Star Wars game now open world
With EA closing Visceral Games last year and its Amy Hennig-fronted Star Wars game, codenamed "Ragtag", being handed over to EA Vancouver, it appeared that the future of the project was in doubt. Now, in an interview with Eurogamer at this year's Gamelab conference, Hennig has announced that she left EA in...
News PUBG Corp Withdraws Copyright Lawsuit Against Epic Games and Fortnite
Victory royale
About a month ago, we reported that PUBG Corp, the company behind PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, had issued a copyright violation lawsuit against the creators of Fortnite, Epic Games. Well, the studio now seems to have suddenly dropped all legal action. PUBG Corp has been making a case against Epic since January 2018, and planned to...
News Friday the 13th: The Game Slashes All Future Content
Ongoing lawsuit means no content can be added
A few weeks ago, Friday the 13th: The Game developer Gun Media announced that it was involved in a copyright lawsuit between the director of the original Friday the 13th movie, Sean Cunningham, and the film's writer, Victor Miller. Since the lawsuit is ongoing, no new Friday the 13th products can be...
Talking Point How Much Does Cross-Play Matter to You?
Your say
Okay, let’s do it. The games industry is completely dead in the aftermath of E3 2018, with everyone except us apparently gorging on Turkey Twizzlers at all-inclusive holiday resorts. In fact, it would appear the only people left over are those running the Nintendo and Xbox social media accounts, who are so gleefully fellating each...
Soapbox Games Are Allowing Players to Be More Expressive, And It's Ace
You're in control
What was the story of E3 2018 apart from cross-play and an abundance of amazing late-generation games? For me, it was player choice. This is nothing new, of course – the promise that you can “play your own way” has been a buzzword espoused by developers for eons, and it was a particularly prevalent selling-point in last...
News Check Out The Swanky Offices of Sucker Punch Productions
Fetching
It's always fun to get a peek behind the curtain when it comes to game studios. With much of game development still shrouded in mystery, it's very interesting when a company opens its doors to give us a glimpse inside. A corporate focused website named 425 Business had the chance to venture inside Sucker Punch Productions, which we know is...
News Why Ninja Theory's Leaving PlayStation
In its own words
If there was one thing at Microsoft's E3 2018 press conference that stung most for PlayStation fans, it was the announcement that Ninja Theory – the cult favourite developer of Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, and Hellblade – had become part of Microsoft Studios. Despite over a decade of games on Sony hardware, this...
News There's Only 362 Days Until E3 2019 Gets Underway
Mark your calendars
Would the Push Square team please look away now? The Electronic Software Association has announced that E3 will return on 11th June, 2019. This means that there are 362 days until next year’s show gets underway. It sounds like a long way away, but you know how the old adage goes: time flies when you’re having fun. So what...
Soapbox Why Don't We Hear from Sony Executives Anymore?
Off limits
You can brand me a big fat nerd if you want to, but I genuinely look forward to the executive interviews you get around E3 time. I used to anticipate Jack Tretton joining Geoff Keighley, his Hollywood smile only eclipsed by the sweltering Los Angeles sun. And then for a while it was Shuhei Yoshida’s turn to take the spotlight, the...
Soapbox E3 2018 Demonstrates the Disconnect Between Gamer Demands and Development Realities
You can't flip a switch
Depending on where you look, Hideo Kojima is getting ripped today. Death Stranding got its first gameplay demonstration during Sony’s E3 2018 press conference, and it looked early – I agree. Now you can criticise the platform holder for announcing the game too early if you like – clearly the ex-Konami man was desperate...
E3 2018 Ninja Theory Will No Longer Make PS4 Games
Microsoft acquires Hellblade developer
Microsoft’s always indicated that it wants its own Naughty Dog, and so after Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice launched first on PlayStation 4 – it’s just bought developer Ninja Theory. The acquisition does make sense: it’ll presumably allow the Cambridge developer to work on much bigger games, without...
Talking Point Do We Really Need E3?
Industry celebration, or shouting contest?
E3 is widely considered to be the biggest week in the gaming calendar, but is that actually true anymore? In just over ten days, publishers and platform holders will descend upon Los Angeles to reveal to the world their biggest wares – well, assuming they haven’t already leaked on Walmart’s website...
News Ex-Naughty Dog Dev is Now Senior Game Designer on a Secret Sony PS4 Project
Mysterious
Last year, Quentin Cobb left Naughty Dog to work on Just Survive, a PC-only zombie survival shooter, in the role of Senior Game Designer. 12 months later, and he's now back under the Sony umbrella under the same job title, but where he's working - and what he's working on - remains unknown. When asked which studio Cobb is now working...
News PUBG Corporation is Taking Epic Games to Court for Copyright Infringement
The real battle royale
Uh oh. PUBG Corporation, the developer of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Epic Games for the similarities between its game and the explosively popular Fortnite. This can only end well. PUBG Corp. is a subsidiary of the Korean games company Bluehole Studio. A representative...
News Sony Improving and Increasing First-Party Production
Exclusives for everyone
Sony’s first-party games are doing extraordinarily well both critically and commercially at the moment, and that’s convinced the company to double down on exclusives. Speaking as part of a recent investors relations day, president John Kodera said that the company is planning to enhance its exclusive output, and added...
News Sony: We're Exploring What Our Customers Want from Portable Gaming
Good luck with that
The last time Sony talked about handheld gaming, former PlayStation president Andrew House ruled out the possibility of a PS Vita successor, while Worldwide Studios bigwig said that the “climate was not healthy” for portable gaming. While we still believe that statement to be generally accurate – the Nintendo Switch is a...
News Sony Is Thinking About a PSone Classic Console
Yes please
SNK announced recently that it would be producing a NeoGeo Classic Edition to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and rumours are rife regarding a potential Nintendo 64 Classic Mini. These micro-consoles have proven to be vastly popular, and naturally, we've pondered whether Sony would ever produce an equivalent for the PSone. According to...
News Sony Commits Support to PS4 Through 2021
And probably beyond
While the PlayStation 4 may be entering the final phase of its lifecycle, Sony intends to support the system through 2021 and potentially beyond. The platform holder pledged support to the platform as part of a mid-term corporate strategy report, which spans now through 31st March, 2021. Realistically, the console will probably...
News PS4 'Entering Final Phase of Its Life' Says Sony CEO
Beginning of the end
The PlayStation 4 is nearing the end of its life cycle, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera. Speaking at the company's latest investor meeting, Kodera's statement comes as no real surprise. After all, the PS4 will turn five years old this November. The question, then, is how long will this "final phase"...
News PlayStation VR Is Growing, But Virtual Reality Is Stumbling
Company keeping expectations realistic
PlayStation VR is doing well, but virtual reality as a whole is stumbling. Former PlayStation president Andrew House talked about this prior to his departure; Sony is absolutely dominating the fledgling medium, but the company needs growth across the entire sector for it to properly take off. In other words,...
News Sony Promises More First-Party PlayStation Exclusives
Doubling down
Sony is having a huge amount of success with its first-party exclusives this generation, and in promising news for us PlayStation fans, the company’s hinted that it will be doubling down on this area of the business. Speaking at an investors relations day overnight, CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said that the company aims to strengthen its...
News Best Buy Locks Up Popular Gamers Club Initiative
No more deep discounts on new games
All good things must come to an end, and for fans of Best Buy’s popular Gamers Club Unlocked, this particular news will be tough to swallow. Many enjoyed the annual subscription for the 20 per cent discounts it offered on brand new games, but it was clearly putting the company out of pocket, because it’s been...
News Sony Will Still Make Physical PS Vita Games in Japan
Vita means life
Earlier this week, it was reported that Sony will stop manufacturing PlayStation Vita game cartridges in the future. However, a new story originating from Japanese site GameSpark indicates that not all territories will be following suit -- SIE Japan will continue to produce physical games for the handheld. Translated by
News The Division 2 Due Before April 2019, Alongside The Crew 2 and Unannounced Ubisoft Title
All of them 'AAA'
In the latest earnings report from Ubisoft, the French publisher lets slip some of its plans for the relatively near future. For starters, the report states that The Division 2 -- announced but not shown back in March -- is due out this fiscal year. In other words, it'll launch at some point between now and April 2019. The shooter...
News Sony to Cease Production of Physical PS Vita Games
The end is near
In a message to developers, Sony has stated that it plans to stop producing PS Vita game cartridges, according to a report from Kotaku. The company says that this will happen by the end of the fiscal year 2018, which translates to 31st March 2019. Sony also stipulates that all requests for Vita product codes be presented by...
News Horizon Developer Guerrilla Games Recruiting for New Game
A new Horizon
Gee, wonder what this could be? Dutch developer Guerrilla Games has started a hiring spree, suggesting that its next project is decided and is about to enter full production. We wonder if it could be a sequel to the studio’s massively popular breakout hit, Horizon: Zero Dawn? The mind truly boggles. Perhaps a more interesting...
News LawBreakers Developer Boss Key Productions Shuts Down
Cliffy B releases statement
Boss Key Productions "is effectively no more" according to Cliff Bleszinski, who co-founded the studio in 2014. The developer's only PlayStation title, LawBreakers, launched in August of last year, and although the team-based shooter was quite well received, it struggled to retain a sizeable player count. In what...
News PS4 Is Way Ahead of Xbox One in Total Console Sales, Says New Data
EA spills the beans
As we've known for some time now, Microsoft no longer publicly shares Xbox One sales figures. Meanwhile, Sony's been more than happy to spread word of the PlayStation 4's success on numerous occasions, with the company's most recent statement claiming that the current-gen console has moved close to 80 million units. It's always...
