Industry News July 3, 2020 Westworld creators working on Fallout series HBO’s Westworld producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy are working on a Fallout TV series for Amazon. Nolan and Joy’s Kilter Films is producing the show in partnership with Bethesda.
Industry News July 2, 2020 Facebook and Kongregate announce changes as Flash end of life approaches Facebook announced it would end new game submissions for Web Games on Facebook by December 31, 2020 and Gameroom will be closed entirely on June 30, 2021.
Industry News July 2, 2020 Apple begins sweeping App Store in China Apple has kept its word. It’s removing all IAP and premium games from the App Store in China that had not received a government approval by June 30.
Industry News July 2, 2020 Sony introduces PlayStation Indies program PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida announced the launch of the PlayStation Indies initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to support indie devs capable of advancing the medium though risky untested concepts.
Industry News July 1, 2020 Analytics in Game Development (workshop) Today, on July 1, at 11:00 (UTC+1, London Time), tune in on the WN Hub for an exclusive workshop on Analytics in Game Development.
Industry News June 30, 2020 Discord softly rebrands as it reaches over 100 million MAU. It’s not just for gamers anymore Discord has launched a new website and introduced a new tagline: “Your Place to Talk.”
Industry News June 30, 2020 CD Projekt Red to change Cyberpunk 2077 for release in Japan The Japanese release of Cyberpunk 2077 will be heavily censored when the game comes out on November 19.
Industry News June 30, 2020 Microsoft reportedly pulls advertizing from Facebook Microsoft has paused advertising on Facebook (including Instagram) despite being its third-biggest advertiser in 2019. This is coming from Bloomberg, which cites its unnamed sources.
Industry News June 30, 2020 Starni Games announce a new WW2 title following Nazi propaganda allegations from Russian Senate Starni Games have announced a new title in the Strategic Mind franchise, called Strategic Mind: Spectre of Communism. It’s a turn-based strategy with strong RPG elements offering the USSR’s perspective on WW2. The game will follow the historical path up to Berlin, but will also have an alternate history ending after the end of WW2. This will apparently include “staging the world Communist revolution,” according to the game’s description on Steam.
Industry News June 29, 2020 Tencent’s Trovo streaming platform to challenge Twitch? Since at least March, Tencent has been testing a live-streaming platform in the U.S. The new service is called Trovo Live, and, according to Bloomberg, it “closely resembles Twitch in its appearance and functionality.”
Industry News June 29, 2020 Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja departs from company and video games Supercell co-founder Mikko Kodisoja left the company on June 26 2020. The news of his departure he shared on Facebook, as spotted by PocketGamer.biz.
Industry News June 29, 2020 More games to hit small screen: Cuphead and Disco Elysium adaptations underway Last week, the Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has partnered with the production company dj2 Entertainment to create a TV show based on the game.
Industry News June 26, 2020 The Last of Us Part II shoots past 4 million in three days since launch The latest PlayStation blog post has revealed that The Last of Us Part II has sold over 4 million copies in three days since the game came out. How it breaks down between physical and digital isn’t mentioned.
Industry News June 26, 2020 Non-intrusive in-game advertising startup Admix raises $7m Startup Admix has raised $7 million to fund its “non-intrusive” in-game advertising technology.
Industry News June 26, 2020 Focus Home Interactive acquires Deck13 Focus Home Interactive has acquired The Surge developer Deck13 Interactive.
Industry News June 26, 2020 Newzoo: games to generate $160 billion in 2020 This year, gamers will spend $159.3 billion on games. This is up 9.3% from last year. The main growth drivers are the pandemic and the upcoming launch of new consoles.
Industry News June 25, 2020 Forbes: Apple potentially reshapes mobile attribution industry Apple’s new iOS 14 will enable users to turn off Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) for each app. That option has existed before but it has been securely buried in the Settings where not a lot of people could find it.
Industry News June 25, 2020 HTML5 Game Developer Day to run July 7 HTML5 Game Developer Day will be held on July 7. It’s an event focused on the creation of HTML5 games. Speakers include representatives of Cocos, Snap, Facebook, SoftGames, CoolGames, OK.ru and other companies.
Industry News June 24, 2020 Italian videogames industry association IIDEA joins European Games Developer Federation IIDEA, the association representing the video game industry in Italy, has joined the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF).