It looks like Blizzard continues to take out any references to real people from its games. This time, the company removed an easter egg to Overwatch former game director Jeff Kaplan from one of the upcoming game’s maps.

Hitman was met with huge criticism from users after being released on GOG last week. The game’s rating dropped to 1.4 stars out of 5, as some of its parts required an online connection. The store has officially responded to the backlash, saying it has a zero-tolerance policy towards review bombing.

id Software co-founder and Oculus consulting CTO John Carmack has shared his thoughts on the metaverse. He thinks that Facebook is far from realizing the idea behind it, citing Fortnite and Minecraft as better examples.

In the wake of the latest restrictions, more than 200 game companies in China have pledged to self-regulate the industry and cooperate with the government. They will use different methods to fight gaming addiction among minors, including facial recognition.

GeForce NOW database contained several unannounced titles from AAA companies, including a few games from Ubisoft. As a result, the French publisher has sent a DMCA strike to take down the leaked list.

Newzoo has issued a new report on the state of the mobile market. According to analytics, it will reach over $90 billion in consumer spending in 2021, with Android accounting for more than half of it.

The more money a game generates in its first week the better. But how does the first-week revenue compare to year one revenue?

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called on the ESRB to include new metrics on toxicity and “extremism” in online games. The organization thinks that it will help players and parents make informed decisions about titles with potentially harmful content.

Charlie Oscar founder Sergei Klimov has given his own definition of the term “indie.” He also shared some insights into financial hardships and risks the studio had to take to release its games.

Amazon Games has announced its partnership with indie studio Glowmade. It will develop an original IP, which will be an online co-op game inspired by Labyrinth and Wrestlemania.

Genshin Impact has been finally released on Tencent’s Android store. According to the latest reports, miHoYo reached a cooperation with the Chinese tech giant. It includes not only different promotional activities but also a reduced commission.

According to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Apple has “blacklisted” Fortnite from the App Store. The game is expected to be banned until all court appeals are exhausted, which could take up to five years.

As first developers got their Steam Deck dev kits, they started to share their impressions of Valve’s portable PC. And most reactions are positive, with games industry professionals praising the device’s performance.

Roguelites usually have huge replayability, as their gameplay loop motivates players to come back to them over and over again. Indie developer a327ex, who created SNKRX, decided to compare his game’s playtime stats to similar titles on Steam.

Chacko Sonny will leave Blizzard Entertainment this Friday. He is best known as an executive producer of Overwatch 2. However, there is reportedly no connection between Sonny’s departure and the ongoing scandal.

Embracer has acquired another studio through its subsidiary Saber Interactive. The Swedish holding company now has a 100% stake in Russian studio Bytex. The financial terms of the deal, however, remain undisclosed.

Only users aged 13 and older will be able to use Roblox’s upcoming voice chat. To check a person’s identity, the platform has introduced a special two-stage age verification system.

Over 300 police officers have carried out a massive raid to arrest 469 online scammers in China. They tricked men across the country into spending real money on games by pretending to be female players.

In August, indie developer Arnold Rauers decided to make his mobile games free-to-play on the App Store. As a result, his revenue has grown by 41%.