“505 Games lays off 30% of staff, will focus on sequels and “previously successful” games because that’s what works.” It’s the latest headline in what has been a bloodbath year in the games industry as developers and publishers, large and small, have hemorrhaged staff and slashed their plans. Earlier this…
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Late last week, Sony PlayStation head, Jim Ryan, announced his resignation. Good. Ryan joined the company in 1994, just before the launch of the PlayStation. That’s a 30-year tenure, and there’s no doubt that he was instrumental in the company becoming the entertainment behemoth that it is today. During that…
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Some news today on Microsoft acquisition journey towards a monopoly: The company announced that it has signed a “binding agreement” to continue to produce Call of Duty games for PlayStation. This comes off the back of much hang-wringing about the PlayStation being locked out of such a critical load of…
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As anyone in PR or communications will tell you, the best time to make a catastrophic announcement is when everyone is busy looking elsewhere. You don’t want to hide it, but you want to push it through the news cycle at a time when you’ll only generate half as many…
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“New US$69.99 price may negatively impact PS5 game unit sales, data suggests. Reports indicate that PlayStation users are buying less (sic) games, and Sony’s data suggests that higher costs are a reason why unit sales have dropped.” This lede, published by TweakTown, seems ludicrous. It’s one of those real stating-the-obvious…
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Babylon’s Fall had the makings of a great game. It had exceptional art direction and an amazing aesthetic. It had Platinum Games, with all their talent for combat design, giving us a new action experience with some interesting mechanics, and it had an intriguing setting and hits of what could…
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David Cage’s studio, Quantic Dream, is certainly a controversial one. There are some that love the company’s output, including such titles as Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. However, there are also plenty who find the studio intolerable, in no small part because of the behaviour of Cage himself. In…
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The big news in gaming this week is that Embracer Group has gone on yet another one of its spending sprees. This time around it has picked up everything from Tolkien’s Middle-Earth (from film to games), to Snow Bros. (Toaplan, in the company’s first-ever Japanese acquisition), and Limited Run Games…
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Nintendo has finalised an agreement with Dynamo Pictures for 34.5 million yen (USD$245,000) that will see the house of Mario acquire the Tokyo-based CG company. As part of the deal, Nintendo will be renaming it Nintendo Pictures, and integrating it into the vast Nintendo group by October 3 of this…
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News by Matt S. This is absolutely what I wanted to be doing at 12:43am and at the end of a six pack of beer. News just breaking from multiple reliable sources (reliable enough that I’m reporting on it without the formal press release) is that Microsoft is purchasing Activision…
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