Industry News April 10, 2020 Publisher gives up on Vainglory. Developer to continue support Rogue Games couldn’t afford supporting Vainglory anymore. The publisher shut down the servers for the mobile MOBA, but developer Super Evil Megacorp intends to independently keep the title alive.
Industry News April 10, 2020 Amazon’s New World pushed to August 25 Amazon, which is now “investing hundreds of millions of dollars” in games development and distribution, had to delay the release of its MMORPG New World. They game should have come out in May, but the studio’s transition to remote work has “exposed some problems” that have to do with the technical and collaborative nature of game development.
Industry News April 9, 2020 Early digital release highly unlikely for The Last of Us Part II With The Last of Us Part 2 delayed indefinitely, Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann suggested on PlayStation Blogcast that Sony is still exploring different scenarios for when and how to launch the title. One such option might involve the game’s digital-only release on May 29, with the physical copies arriving later.
Industry News April 9, 2020 CD Projekt 2019 annual report: revenue up 44% from 2018 In the 2019 financial year, CD Projekt’s revenue reached zł521m ($124.9m), up 44 percent from the previous fiscal year. Profit for the period hit zł175m ($41.9m) in a 66 percent increase.
Industry News April 9, 2020 Registration open for GDC Summer GDC organizers have opened registration for GDC Summer that will take place August 4th through 6th in San Francisco.
Industry News April 8, 2020 Sony devs happy with DualSense after seeing prototypes Sony announced DualSense, a new wireless controller for PlayStation 5. The company is starting to ship the new controller in its final design to developers so that they can implement its features into their games.
Industry News April 8, 2020 THQ Nordic parent company raises $164m to buy more studios Embracer Group, the THQ Nordic parent company, has raised $164 million through a direct share issue.
Industry News April 8, 2020 JX3 incident: censorship or campaign against insensitive language? Video game industry in China is famously conducive to all sorts of political controversy. Most recently, Chinese developer Seasun Games has cut off 1.5 million players in Taiwan from JX3, a MMORPG similar to World Of Warcraft.
Industry News April 8, 2020 State of emergency in Japan paralyzes video game certification Japan’s Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) has suspended its review process after the Japanese government declared a state of emergency amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Industry News April 8, 2020 Steam reports on how new releases performed in 2019 Steam shared information on developer earnings in 2019. Take this with a pinch of salt as Valve’s storefront might have slightly manipulated the stats in its favor.
Industry News April 7, 2020 Fundamentally Games to help developers with live ops following seed round Startup Fundamentally Games concluded a new seed round of funding. This company was created to help developers turn their games into services.
Industry News April 7, 2020 Phil Spencer: Xbox Series X and PS5 prices will be more important for users than teraflops The “console war” is heating as users compare the specifications of upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer shared his view of the situation.
Industry News April 7, 2020 US players spend 45% more time in games during lockdown Because of the coronavirus lockdown, people are resorting to games. According to Nielsen, the United States has seen a 45 percent increase in the time spent in games. Moreover, users have begun to spend more money on games.
Industry News April 7, 2020 New survival game in development from DayZ creators Dean Hall, who created DayZ, reunites with Brian Hicks, who was Creative Director on DayZ at Bohemia Interactive.
Industry News April 6, 2020 Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord tops Steam best-selling list Steam has posted last week’s top 10 best-selling games. The top spot is held by Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord, the game with impressive player counts and an unusual update schedule.
Industry News April 6, 2020 Amazon: from streaming games to making games Amazon is now ready to expand its presence in the video game industry beyond Twitch.
Industry News April 3, 2020 GDC Relief Fundraiser concludes at $61K Gamedev.world ran a fundraising event from March 27th to April 3rd, with money going to the GDC Relief Fund. The raised money should support devs affected by the cancellation of GDC. The effort generated $61 thousand.
Industry News April 3, 2020 Unity launches Unite Now Unity announced Unite Now, a series of learning sessions, demos, roundtables, interviews, and Q&As starting April 14.
Industry News April 3, 2020 The Last of Us Part II delayed indefinitely Sony announced it would not be releasing The Last of Us Part II on May 29. The title has been delayed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Industry News April 2, 2020 VR vs flat screen development: checklist Last year’s release of the Oculus Quest the recent launch of Half-Life: Alyx have certainly shifted the VR landscape, but it still remains a niche market.