With no E3 this year, platform holders and Ubisoft still generated massive viewership numbers on Twitch. In fact, “decentralized announcement events” that big companies had to run this year brought more viewers than E3 2019 did. This is according to Carter Rogers, Principal Analyst at SuperData.

Roblox announced that the coronavirus pandemic boosted the platform’s user base to over 150 million monthly active users, up from the 115 million it had in February.

Media tracking firm Comscore found that 38 million US households had a console in May 2020. It is up 31% from the 29 million identified in May 2019.

Nekki has launched the open beta test of its Cascadeur physics‑based character animation tool. Devs can use animations created with Cascadeur’s latest beta version in their commercial projects without license fees or even having to ask Nekki’s permission.

Loot boxes have proved rather resilient in the face of attempts by the EU authorities to regulate them through gambling legislation. In the countries that classified loot boxed as a gambling mechanic, such as Belgium and the Netherlands, publishers simply made the in-game currency unavailable while keeping it elsewhere.

Mobile game development is a high risk business. The Belarusian-British publisher Gismart has announced a new model of collaboration with third-party development teams, which, according to the company, “will increase the opportunity to release successful games in a shorter timeframe.”

A study by data and analytics company GfK found that three titles dominated the European video games boxed charts in the first half of 2020: Animal Crossing: New Horizons, FIFA 20, and The Last of Us Part II.

Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima will be part of the jury of the Venice Film Festival 2020.

Epic Games has announced that over 600 recipients have been awarded $42 million under its MegaGrants program.

Ghost of Tsushima sold over 2.4 million copies during its first three days on sale, Sony tweeted today.

Over 28,000 video games businesses shut down in China in 2018 and 2019 as a result of the nine-month licensing freeze. However, more than 22,000 new game-related companies have been registered in China in 2020.

Ukie, the trade organization for the UK video games and digital entertainment industry, conducted 15 roundtable discussions with over 50 businesses along with two surveys with a combined 300 repsonses. The purpose of these studies was to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the UK games industry.

The creators of Rocket League announced that the title is going free-to-play in summer 2020. At the same time, it will become an Epic Games Store exlusive on PC.

Epic Games has announced the Unreal Fellowship, a 30-day intensive blended learning program designed to equip the experienced industry professionals in film, animation, and VFX with the in-depth knowledge of Unreal Engine.

The European Commission has launched an official antitrust investigation to establish whether Apple’s rules for the distribution of apps via the App Store are in violation of the EU competition law.

Simon Carless, the author of Game Discoverability Weekly newsletter, wrote a post arguing it’s time to re-evaluate the lifetime review/sales ratio on Steam.

Eric Lempel, Senior Vice President Marketing & Head of PlayStation Network, has confirmed that first-party exlusives will continue to be released for PS4 even after PS5 debuts this holiday.

Attentat 1942 is a a historically-accurate adventure about the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. When working on the title, the developers at Charles Games consulted historians at the Czech Academy of Sciences. The game came out on PC in 2017 to critical acclaim and very positive user reviews.

Paradox Interactive has bought the Finnish developer, Iceflake Studios.