Microsoft has been fined by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for illegally collecting and retaining children’s personal data. The company attributed the issue to a technical glitch, but agreed to take steps to improve protection measures for Xbox users.

Experienced game designer David Ellis is another developer to leave 343 Industries after working on the Halo franchise for more than a decade. This comes a few months after the studio’s restructuring and the departure of other veteran employees.

Apple has announced the winners of its 2023 Design Awards, which highlights innovation and other achievements in app and game design. Here are the titles that were celebrated this year.

Street Fighter 6 is having a great launch both in terms of player reception and commercial success. Just a few days after its release, the game has already reached its first major sales milestone.

Playkot 2D artist Tatiana Mironova has detailed how the studio implemented image-generating tools into their pipeline to create UI elements for Spring Valley. Here is what the team learned during this process and what are the clear advantages and pitfalls of training your own models.

The latest WN Connect event took place on May 24 in Beijing, China. It was attended by local games industry professionals from NetEase, Perfect World, FunPlus, yodo1, Lilith Games, Cocos, and more.

New details about the drama surrounding Disco Elysium and its creators have emerged thanks to an in-depth investigation by People Make Games. Let’s dive into all aspects of it, from ZA/UM’s shareholder structure and legal disputes to Robert Kurvitz’s creative leadership and his recently registered trademark called “Corinthians”.

Redfall is one of the most disappointing game releases of 2023 so far, especially coming from an prominent studio like Arkane. Here is what was going on behind the scenes during development, leading to some obvious problems.

The first season of AI Talks, a series of weekly discussions on AI, is coming to an end with a new episode. Join the talk to get some insights on boosting creativity with new technologies and the potential challenges that come with it.

Civilization developer Firaxis Games is another studio that has been hit with layoffs. The job cuts come in the wake of the weak commercial performance of its latest game, Marvel’s Midnight Suns.

CD Projekt has been reducing the size of the GWENT team for a while now. It looks like the remaining employees will be laid off before the end of 2023, when the game enters the so-called GWENTfinity phase (in other words, the end of content support).

Mateusz Kanik, along with several former CD Projekt RED developers, has formed a new game development studio called Blank. The team is aiming for work-life balance over crunch while working on a post-apocalyptic narrative title based on a new IP.

Green Hell, an open world survival game by Polish studio Creepy Jar, has reached an important sales milestone. The game has now sold over 4.5 million units globally.

David Gaider, former BioWare writer and one of the creators of the Dragon Age series, has shared his thoughts on using AI in video game writing. He believes that while devs will keep trying, this won’t result in really great quests and narratives.

It seems like Kazuhiro Tsuchiya, a prominent Japanese game producer, has left Capcom. He worked there for more than three decades, contributing to some of the company’s most famous brands.

Microsoft is now preparing for a summer fight with the UK regulator, as the country’s Competition Appeal Tribunal has set a timeframe for an appeal hearing. The Competition and Markets Authority failed to convince the court to adjourn the case.

Games and Names is a new podcast launched by AppMagic in partnership with WN Media Group. The first episode, featuring Niko Partners’ Daniel Ahmad, is focused on mobile genres that managed to beat the overall market decline in 2022.

CD Projekt has released its financial report for the first quarter ended March 31. The company announced a decline in revenue (but an increase in profit), while also sharing the updated sales figures for The Witcher 3 and providing more context about its development pipeline.

WN Media Group has launched WN Game Finder, a new game searching and business matchmaking service. Its main goal is to help publishers and investors filter titles and make it easier for game developers to find funding for their projects.