Business The money behind it all. Business The value of X (Twitter) has fallen 71% since Musk's purchase According to Fidelity, a mutual fund owning a stake in X Holdings, the platform's value has dropped by 71.5% since Musk's $44 billion purchase in October 2022. This valuation places X at approximately $12.5 billion. The platform has seen a 15% drop in monthly users in the first year under Musk's leadership, amidst rising concerns over increased hate speech. Musk's tenure has also been marked by substantial staff cuts, reduced moderation, and a warning from the European Union about the high ratio Continue reading The value of X (Twitter) has fallen 71% since Musk's purchase Disney, Apple, IBM and more Companies pulling ads from X Several major advertisers are withdrawing from X, significantly impacting its ad business. This follows Elon Musk's endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory and reports of increased antisemitism and hate speech on the platform. Media Matters for America highlighted that ads from various companies appeared alongside far-right posts on X. Despite X CEO Linda Yaccarino's statements about combating antisemitism and discrimination, companies like Apple, IBM, Disney, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lions Continue reading Disney, Apple, IBM and more Companies pulling ads from X Newsletter I know where the bodies are buried. Being indispensable as a developer is never a good position to be in, and can actually be self-destructive to your career. Continue reading I know where the bodies are buried. Anthem NEXT is Canceled Bioware's Anthem was supposed to be their next big IP. Unfortunately, it never gained the same traction as their other games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Continue reading Anthem NEXT is Canceled Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 will no longer be coming in 2021 It's been announced development has shifted from Hardsuit Labs to Paradox Interactive Continue reading Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 will no longer be coming in 2021 Valheim Reaches 2 Million Players in Just two Weeks The Viking inspired survival game has already hit 2-million players since it arrived on Steam Early access just two weeks ago. With their small team of 5, the developers at Iron Gate and Coffee Stain Publishing have already made close to $28 million after Steam's 20% revenue cut. Continue reading Valheim Reaches 2 Million Players in Just two Weeks Business Google Shutters Stradia Internal Game Development Studios Stradia launched just a little over a year ago, and they're already shutting down both of their internal studios in Los Angeles and Montreal. Continue reading Google Shutters Stradia Internal Game Development Studios KFC is making a Dating Sim Sure, fine why not. The developer behind this has some experience making narrative-based games, so it won’t be terrible. Probably. Continue reading KFC is making a Dating Sim Respawn CEO says some developers ‘crossed a line’ pic.twitter.com/j8woV7g9Tx — Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) August 19, 2019 I keep going back and forth between how I feel about the whole situation. On one hand, this is exactly what community managers are for. As developers, it’s not our responsibility (nor do we often have the experience) to interact directly with fans. It’s not really a surprise that some developers resorted to name-calling and poor judgment when they started to receive death threats. But, on the other ha Continue reading Respawn CEO says some developers ‘crossed a line’ Respawn's Plan to Deal with Apex Legends Cheaters Apex Legends developer Respawn is looking to deter cheating by forcing those who break the rules to play together. Too bad they don’t take this concept one step further. If painted in the right light, this could be a huge opportunity for a hacking type of competition, much in the same vein of Facebook’s CTF. They could even go so far as offering rewards for players who disclose exploits, as a sort of bug bounty program. Continue reading Respawn's Plan to Deal with Apex Legends Cheaters A Dark Room Removed From Switch eShop In concept, it was a great idea to have a hidden high level code editor right there on a console as an easter egg. But in practice, this opens the console up to a slew of exploits. there’s no saying what kind of system access the editor really has, and players that do not know how to read code could potentially brick their systems. Nintendo made the right call to remove it. Continue reading A Dark Room Removed From Switch eShop Epic Games Acquiring Rocket League Developer Psyonix I’ve had a Steam account long enough to know how annoying Steam can be. It started out terrible, got better, then somewhere around the time of trading cards, music player, and other useless features, its started to turn to shit. It does have some great features for everyone though; Steam workshop and game forums for example. Epic isn’t even trying to compete in these areas, making it clear they arent trying to make a better platform, they’re just trying to steal users. With worsening PC platfo Continue reading Epic Games Acquiring Rocket League Developer Psyonix Google shuts down its in-house VR film studio Google is shutting down its Emmy Award-winning VR film division, Spotlight Stories, after six years of building out content Between this and they’re Daydream platform not being updated for over a year, it’s clear Google is exiting VR. A shame, because projects like Spotlight Stories highlighted the notion that VR can be used for other forms of entertainment besides just video games. Continue reading Google shuts down its in-house VR film studio Titanfall 3 Is Not In The Works, Respawn Says “The world thinks we’re making Titanfall 3 and we’re not – this is what we’re making,” he said. “To try and convince a skeptical audience for months with trailers and hands-on articles, we’re just like, ‘Let the game speak for itself’ – it’s the most powerful antidote to potential problems. We’re doing a free to play game, with essentially loot boxes, after we were bought by EA, and it’s not Titanfall 3. It’s the perfect recipe for a marketing plan to go awry, so why have that – let’s just sh Continue reading Titanfall 3 Is Not In The Works, Respawn Says Adobe Buys Allegorithmic Since the inception of Substance, our technology and tools have evolved to make 3D creation accessible to artists of every stripe. In Adobe, we’ve found a great partner who shares our love of creation and our drive for innovation and growth. As someone who used to be a heavy user of pretty much the entire Substance Suite, I have mixed feelings about this. One one hand, Substance software will be around for a lot longer. On the other hand, there’s this statement (emphasis by me): When Continue reading Adobe Buys Allegorithmic Valve updates Proton Linux gamers who rely on Wine or native game clients will have a new option to play games thanks to the latest update. Valve’s fork of Wine, received a major update allowing users to choose to use Proton in place of games’ clients, in some cases providing new functionality such as controller support, better frame rates, or even better multiplayer support. Even better? It works with non steam titles. Linux users still don’t have the same level of support as Mac or Windows users do, but with too Continue reading Valve updates Proton Splash Damage's Dirty Bomb Game Design Doc Shortly after announcing the game was going completely free after live development has ceased, Splash Damage also decided to release their original crowdfunding awards, one of which is a 300 page game design doc. I love reading these things. Continue reading Splash Damage's Dirty Bomb Game Design Doc Epic, Improbable start $25 million fund “Unity has clarified to us that this change effectively makes it a breach of terms to operate or create SpatialOS games using Unity, including in development and production games,” Improbable said today. As soon as I read the news earlier today about Unity’s decision regarding SpatialOS games, I knew it was only a matter of time before another engine partnered with them. I just wasn’t expecting them to put forth such an absurdly large amount of money. Now maybe a portion of that can be u Continue reading Epic, Improbable start $25 million fund Bungie Breaks from Activision We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny. Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 8 years since Bungie joined Activision. We all like to take the easy jabs and poke fun Continue reading Bungie Breaks from Activision Marc Andreessen on VR/AR From Marc Andreessen: I think AR has tons of potential applications, both at work and at home. [But] I think VR is going to be about 1,000 times bigger. On the latest podcast of a16z, Andreessen goes onto explain that while AR works for more “interesting” places in the world (in other words, more densely populated), rural places never get to see the benefits of AR as much. As someone who spent a large portion of my life growing up in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, this makes a lot of s Continue reading Marc Andreessen on VR/AR Fortnite Developer Launches Epic Games Store Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%. The timing of this is interesting, coming just days after Stream’s new tiered pricing favoring larger titles. Continue reading Fortnite Developer Launches Epic Games Store Wildstar MMO shuts down Via twitter: As of November 28 at 2pm PST, the North American and European WildStar game service has closed. Thank you to everyone who joined us on this grand adventure across Nexus! I never played the game, but it’s always sad to see an MMO close up shop. Continue reading Wildstar MMO shuts down Aardman Animation Is Giving the Company to Their Employees The studio behind Wallace and Gromit will be handing over 75% ownership to it’s workers, assuring the team won’t be in danger of a big company buyout. Continue reading Aardman Animation Is Giving the Company to Their Employees Facebook Fired Palmer Luckey Because He Supported Donald Trump Good. Employers should be able to fire employees based on their political beliefs, no matter what they are. Political beliefs are a chosen ideology, unlike race or gender. If your beliefs do not align with a company you work for, go somewhere else. Continue reading Facebook Fired Palmer Luckey Because He Supported Donald Trump Niantic acquired Seismic Games Seismic Games is best known for mobile game Marvel Strike Force, (something I had to do a bit of searching around to learn). Having a group of industry veterans with experience working on IP based games will hopefully provide a strong boost for Niantic’s upcoming Harry Potter game as well as Pokemon Go. Continue reading Niantic acquired Seismic Games Mark of the Ninja, Walking Dead devs form Campo Santo Nels Anderson, lead designer of Mark of the Ninja, Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin of Telltale’s The Walking Dead (probably most famous for their Idle Thumbs podcast), and artist Olly Moss have come together to form Campo Santo, based in San Francisco, CA. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Campo SantoCampo Santo is a small but scrappy video game developer in San Francisco. Our debut game Firewatch is available for PS4, Windows, Mac, and Linux.Campo Santo Update April 21, 2018: Valve h Continue reading Mark of the Ninja, Walking Dead devs form Campo Santo Syntertainment is Will Wright's new startup Will Wright has cofounded Syntertainment, a new startup that has raised $5 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and former Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello. Will Wright raises $5M for Syntertainment startup to blend reality and entertainment (exclusive)Tech veteran Avi Bar-Zeev joins Wright as cofounder at startup that plans to blend entertainment and reality.VentureBeatDean Takahashi Continue reading Syntertainment is Will Wright's new startup Andrew Wilson is the new EA CEO Andre Wilson: I also believe EA’s strategy is sound. Our focus on our talent, our brands and our platform together with our investment in next-generation consoles, mobile and PC free-to-play, as part of our ongoing transition to digital, is right. But we have plenty of work ahead to ensure our collective success. The words of former executive vice president of EA Sports and Origin. Notice how PC is lumped together with ‘free-to-play’. Even though Wilson has been with EA for 13 years, I’m sti Continue reading Andrew Wilson is the new EA CEO Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games Studios Sci-fi author and former writer and story consultant for Microsoft Game Studios, Eric Nylund, has joined up with Amazon Game Studios as its new director of narrative design. After playing around with the Amazon games marketplace on Android, it seems pretty clear the want to really get into the video games market, they just don’t know how. Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games StudiosEurogamer.netJeffrey Matulef Continue reading Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games Studios Kartlytics Using Mario Kart to demonstrate your startup’s new product is a neat idea. The website with all their results can be found here. http://www.joyent.com/blog/introducing-kartlytics-mario-kart-64-analytics Continue reading Kartlytics John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO Carmack has been a huge backer of the Oculus Rift since it’s inception, so this comes as no surprise. Shortly after the announcement, id tweeted to confirm Carmack will still be involved there as well. John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTOWe have incredible news to share with the community: legendary game programmer John Carmack will be officially joining the Oculus team as...Oculus VR Continue reading John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO Ex-F.E.A.R devs form Blackpowder Games Former Monolith developers behind F.E.A.R have announced their new studo, Blackpowder Games and their first title, Betrayer. The high contrast black and white look is an interesting and unique style to go with. Ex-Monolith devs form BlackpowderKey devs behind F.E.A.R., No One Lives Forever re-team with colleagues for PC action adventure BetrayerGamesIndustry.bizChris Buckley Continue reading Ex-F.E.A.R devs form Blackpowder Games 73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t bought a game After owning the little cube for more than a month now, I can attest to this. The marketplace and UI are horrible. I’ve since sideloaded the thing with XBMC and Netflix, and has become a nice media device, however. 73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t paid for a single gameCEO Uhrman projects confidence even as majority aren’t spending money.Ars TechnicaKyle Orland Continue reading 73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t bought a game Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi Hidden away in the press release, World of Warcraft dropped to 7.7 million subscriptions, losing roughly 600k since the last quarter. Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi in $8.2 billion deal<b>UPDATE</b> The house of <i>Call of Duty</i>, <i>World of Warcraft</i> and <i>Skylanders</i> will spin off of Vivendi to become an independent, publicly traded publisher.Game DeveloperKris Graft Continue reading Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San Diego Formed by executives hailing from Blizzard, Sony Online and Relic Entertainment, and backed by NCSoft in their first round of funding. Their first order of business should be a better web site. Molten Games – New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San DiegoMolten Games Update 04/14/2022: Former employees have reported the studio has closed March 24th, 2014. Molten Games shuttered last week, former employees sayMolten Games, the developer founded last year by ex-Blizzard, Relic Entertainmen Continue reading New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San Diego Historical Franchises Find New Homes In Wake of Atari’s bankruptcy auction, Master of Orion and Total Annihilation managed to get snapped up by Wargaming, with Rebellion Interactive grabbing Moonbase Commander and Battlezone, and Stardock bought Star Control. Interesting to note that Chris Taylor, designer behind Total Annihilation works at Gas Powered Games, which was acquired by Wargaming earlier this year. ScribdScribd Continue reading Historical Franchises Find New Homes Lead Members Leave Maxis to Form Indie Studio Creative Directer Ocean Quigley, Gameplay Lead Dan Moskowitz, and Lead Architect Andrew Willmott have left EA/Maxis to form an indie studio, Jellygrade. An interesting move, but Im going to remain skeptical for the time being. Forming a studio to develop an iPad game just seems like a bad move with the shape of the current market. jellygradejellygradeTumblr Continue reading Lead Members Leave Maxis to Form Indie Studio Michael Pachter Questions Why Anyone would buy a Wii U Nintendo’s in trouble right now. Nintendo, I think, waited two years too long to launch a competitive, high definition console…I think by the time they did launch a console which stacks up really well, the other two guys [Sony and Microsoft] passed them by, and I think they’re in a world of trouble right now. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Nintendo is in trouble, but they have definitely waited too long. Between the poor marketing of the Wii U, and the lack of real third party support, its h Continue reading Michael Pachter Questions Why Anyone would buy a Wii U Silicon Knights director/Precursor Games Founder Ken McCulloch arrested Between this, the lawsuit with Epic Games, and the PR disaster surrounding the failed crowd funding attempt, I’m starting to think there really is a curse over Silicon Knights. Precursor Games founding member arrested by police on child pornography chargesFormer Silicon Knights director of content and Precursor Games founding member Kenneth McCulloch has been arrested by police on charges related to child pornography, according to a media release...PolygonMichael McWhertor Continue reading Silicon Knights director/Precursor Games Founder Ken McCulloch arrested Google Is Developing an Android Console As much as I love Android, Google has a terrible track record of trying to break into the home entertainment market. Google Building Android Game ConsoleGoogle is developing a videogame console and digital wristwatch powered by its Android operating system. The company hopes to combat similar devices that Apple may release in the future.The Wall Street JournalAmir Efrati Update: 2/14/2022: I cant help but wonder if this is what eventually turned into Google Stadia, or if this was something c Continue reading Google Is Developing an Android Console Nvidia SHIELD Delayed Until July Following a $50 price cut and mere days before it’s expected launch, Nvidia pushed back their mobile game console citing a “mechanical issue” Mobile Technology Blog Post Archive - Archives Page 1 - The Official NVIDIA BlogMobile Technology Blog Post ArchiveThe Official NVIDIA Blog Continue reading Nvidia SHIELD Delayed Until July Playstation 4 Runs Modified FreeBSD OS Not too surprising, seeing as both the PS3 and Vita also run modified versions of FreeBSD. Details about Playstation 4 OS developmentWe have some details about the development of the Playstation 4 OS. The Operating System is called “Orbis OS”. It is a modified version of FreeBSD 9.0. We aren’t sure if this will bring again the “Other OS” functions to Playstation 4 (remember that this option enabled Playstation 3 to install other …VGLeaks 3.0Mr.H Continue reading Playstation 4 Runs Modified FreeBSD OS Dirty Game Development Tricks I love these kinds of anecdotes. Dirty Game Development TricksOne of Game Developer’s most popular features was our “Dirty Coding Tricks” bit from 2009, where we got devs to open up about some of their ugly hacks -- and in 2013 we’re back with nine new from-the-trenches stories, including a few unorthodox tricks from other dev disciplines besides programming.Game DeveloperGame Developer Magazine StaffJune 24, 2013 Continue reading Dirty Game Development Tricks "Naughty Dog has been NAUGHTY" Basically, I’m fucking furious. Yea, Naughty Dog is large studio, but Im pretty sure something like this was an honest mistake. So, rather than taking the mature approach of contacting Naughty Dog, the author decides to take to Tumblr and complain to the Internets first. I wonder if the author got permission to use the various logos in some of the maps hes designed… Maybe it’s just me, but if a website I built randomly popped up in a video game, I’d be pretty damn flattered. Source: h Continue reading "Naughty Dog has been NAUGHTY" Atari Dump Will Be Excavated In 1983, Atari loaded an estimated 13 dump trucks for of broken hardware, including games (like E.T), in a landfill in New Mexico. Twenty years later, a game developer hoping to make a documentary about it has been given the okay to have the site excavated. Continue reading Atari Dump Will Be Excavated The DRM-Free Revolution Treating your customers as humans is good business. So many publishers are too busy trying to stop piracy that concept is often overlooked. Good Old Games: GOG.com And The DRM-Free RevolutionGOG.com managing director Guillaume Rambourg says DRM betrays trust between game makers and their consumer base.ForbesErik Kain Continue reading The DRM-Free Revolution Apparently EA Really Hates the Wii U EA Senior Software Engineer and Architect, Bob Summerwill takes to twitter (Then quickly deletes his tweets) regarding the Wii U. This comes days after EA announced it has no future plans to develop games for the console. EA Senior Engineer: ‘The Wii U Is Crap’ - IGNIn a series of Tweets, EA’s Bob Summerwill blasts Nintendo and explains why EA isn’t working with them anymore on Wii U.IGNColin Moriarty Continue reading Apparently EA Really Hates the Wii U 6 More Games Added to Steam Greenlight The latest batch features Game Dev Tycoon, a clone of Game Dev Story for IOS/Android. Even though it’s more or less just a mobile port, It’s still worth checking out. Continue reading 6 More Games Added to Steam Greenlight Why Virtual Worlds Died Give people a blank piece of paper and ask them to “have fun!” A few might get excited and start writing a poem or sketch a masterpiece. But most will be annoyed, grow bored and give up. People are quick to point out Minecraft as an exception to this. Sticking with the paper analogy; while most virtual worlds only give you a pencil, Minecraft gives you colored pencils, glitter, and scissors. Continue reading Why Virtual Worlds Died Warner Bros is Making 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie With a script by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath Of The Titans and Red Riding) and being produced by Roy Lee and Courtney Solomon. Solomon also directed the 2000 film of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m skeptical Dungeons & Dragons can ever really work as a movie. D&D itself is a setting. Not a plot. It’s a tool to bring a story to life. It’s like creating a movie around Coca-Cola or emoji. 09/12/19 update: Dammit. Continue reading Warner Bros is Making 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie World of Warcraft Drops to 8.3 Million Users Looks like its time for another expansion. Continue reading World of Warcraft Drops to 8.3 Million Users Good Enough. Nearly a decade ago I launched ULost, my first startup, providing affordable web hosting to everyone. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but what it did, it did well. At it’s peak, I hosted nearly 900 paid monthly subscribers, and thousands of free accounts. But due to a series of unfortunate events and trusting the wrong people, I eventually was forced to make a tough decision: shut it down, or rebuild from the ground up. Working 14 hour days doing tech support, managing servers, and web dev Continue reading Good Enough. Star Wars The Old Republic To go Free-to-Play In Fall Called this back in January, but I expected it to go Free-to-play a lot sooner. Really, I’m just surprised the monthly subscription setup for the game lasted as long as it did. 2012-07-31T14:27:21 Continue reading Star Wars The Old Republic To go Free-to-Play In Fall Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime Comments on Diablo III Mostly fluff acknowledging the game still needs a lot of work. There is also some mention of “social changes” that will hopefully make the game not feel like a ghost town. Continue reading Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime Comments on Diablo III IOS Game Stole Torchlight Assets Armed Heroes developer, Serena Zhang responds that they “never straightly stole assets from Torchlight,” instead they were inspired by games like World of Warcraft. Notice they don’t deny they used stolen assets- they just didn’t steal them directly. Continue reading IOS Game Stole Torchlight Assets Tekken Producer on DLC Actually this is something my bosses have been asking me for quite a while now – what are our plans for DLC? How much money can we make? They are a company, obviously, in it to make money. So it’s something I’m continually asked even now. But I haven’t changed my stance. If you’re making a fighting game, all of the elements necessary to enjoy it should be on the disc, or should at least be available for free. Continue reading Tekken Producer on DLC Penny Arcade Sells Out People don’t like advertising almost as a general rule; Advertising is simply The Way It Is. People who make content learn to like it, because they want to make content, and they also want to eat food and sleep under a roof, and the opportunity to do both at the same time seems like a pretty good idea. Honestly, I thought this was a joke at first. It falls way beyond what Kickstarter was meant for- that is, time-limited projects. Either way, it’s an interesting take on the crowdfunding issue. Continue reading Penny Arcade Sells Out Valve Announces Steam Greenlight With the success of their Steam Workshop, Valve has found a way to crowdsource the approvals process for Steam. Continue reading Valve Announces Steam Greenlight Second Life Didn’t Fail The problem — really the only problem, but a big one nonetheless — is they couldn’t ever find a way to make those numbers grow. Nothing they did worked, and Rosedale doubts that even early Facebook integration would have helped. Right, Second Life didn’t Fail. It just could never figure out what it wanted to be. Continue reading Second Life Didn’t Fail
Business The value of X (Twitter) has fallen 71% since Musk's purchase According to Fidelity, a mutual fund owning a stake in X Holdings, the platform's value has dropped by 71.5% since Musk's $44 billion purchase in October 2022. This valuation places X at approximately $12.5 billion. The platform has seen a 15% drop in monthly users in the first year under Musk's leadership, amidst rising concerns over increased hate speech. Musk's tenure has also been marked by substantial staff cuts, reduced moderation, and a warning from the European Union about the high ratio Continue reading The value of X (Twitter) has fallen 71% since Musk's purchase
Disney, Apple, IBM and more Companies pulling ads from X Several major advertisers are withdrawing from X, significantly impacting its ad business. This follows Elon Musk's endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory and reports of increased antisemitism and hate speech on the platform. Media Matters for America highlighted that ads from various companies appeared alongside far-right posts on X. Despite X CEO Linda Yaccarino's statements about combating antisemitism and discrimination, companies like Apple, IBM, Disney, Comcast/NBCUniversal, Lions Continue reading Disney, Apple, IBM and more Companies pulling ads from X
Newsletter I know where the bodies are buried. Being indispensable as a developer is never a good position to be in, and can actually be self-destructive to your career. Continue reading I know where the bodies are buried.
Anthem NEXT is Canceled Bioware's Anthem was supposed to be their next big IP. Unfortunately, it never gained the same traction as their other games like Dragon Age or Mass Effect. Continue reading Anthem NEXT is Canceled
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 will no longer be coming in 2021 It's been announced development has shifted from Hardsuit Labs to Paradox Interactive Continue reading Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 will no longer be coming in 2021
Valheim Reaches 2 Million Players in Just two Weeks The Viking inspired survival game has already hit 2-million players since it arrived on Steam Early access just two weeks ago. With their small team of 5, the developers at Iron Gate and Coffee Stain Publishing have already made close to $28 million after Steam's 20% revenue cut. Continue reading Valheim Reaches 2 Million Players in Just two Weeks
Business Google Shutters Stradia Internal Game Development Studios Stradia launched just a little over a year ago, and they're already shutting down both of their internal studios in Los Angeles and Montreal. Continue reading Google Shutters Stradia Internal Game Development Studios
KFC is making a Dating Sim Sure, fine why not. The developer behind this has some experience making narrative-based games, so it won’t be terrible. Probably. Continue reading KFC is making a Dating Sim
Respawn CEO says some developers ‘crossed a line’ pic.twitter.com/j8woV7g9Tx — Vince Zampella (@VinceZampella) August 19, 2019 I keep going back and forth between how I feel about the whole situation. On one hand, this is exactly what community managers are for. As developers, it’s not our responsibility (nor do we often have the experience) to interact directly with fans. It’s not really a surprise that some developers resorted to name-calling and poor judgment when they started to receive death threats. But, on the other ha Continue reading Respawn CEO says some developers ‘crossed a line’
Respawn's Plan to Deal with Apex Legends Cheaters Apex Legends developer Respawn is looking to deter cheating by forcing those who break the rules to play together. Too bad they don’t take this concept one step further. If painted in the right light, this could be a huge opportunity for a hacking type of competition, much in the same vein of Facebook’s CTF. They could even go so far as offering rewards for players who disclose exploits, as a sort of bug bounty program. Continue reading Respawn's Plan to Deal with Apex Legends Cheaters
A Dark Room Removed From Switch eShop In concept, it was a great idea to have a hidden high level code editor right there on a console as an easter egg. But in practice, this opens the console up to a slew of exploits. there’s no saying what kind of system access the editor really has, and players that do not know how to read code could potentially brick their systems. Nintendo made the right call to remove it. Continue reading A Dark Room Removed From Switch eShop
Epic Games Acquiring Rocket League Developer Psyonix I’ve had a Steam account long enough to know how annoying Steam can be. It started out terrible, got better, then somewhere around the time of trading cards, music player, and other useless features, its started to turn to shit. It does have some great features for everyone though; Steam workshop and game forums for example. Epic isn’t even trying to compete in these areas, making it clear they arent trying to make a better platform, they’re just trying to steal users. With worsening PC platfo Continue reading Epic Games Acquiring Rocket League Developer Psyonix
Google shuts down its in-house VR film studio Google is shutting down its Emmy Award-winning VR film division, Spotlight Stories, after six years of building out content Between this and they’re Daydream platform not being updated for over a year, it’s clear Google is exiting VR. A shame, because projects like Spotlight Stories highlighted the notion that VR can be used for other forms of entertainment besides just video games. Continue reading Google shuts down its in-house VR film studio
Titanfall 3 Is Not In The Works, Respawn Says “The world thinks we’re making Titanfall 3 and we’re not – this is what we’re making,” he said. “To try and convince a skeptical audience for months with trailers and hands-on articles, we’re just like, ‘Let the game speak for itself’ – it’s the most powerful antidote to potential problems. We’re doing a free to play game, with essentially loot boxes, after we were bought by EA, and it’s not Titanfall 3. It’s the perfect recipe for a marketing plan to go awry, so why have that – let’s just sh Continue reading Titanfall 3 Is Not In The Works, Respawn Says
Adobe Buys Allegorithmic Since the inception of Substance, our technology and tools have evolved to make 3D creation accessible to artists of every stripe. In Adobe, we’ve found a great partner who shares our love of creation and our drive for innovation and growth. As someone who used to be a heavy user of pretty much the entire Substance Suite, I have mixed feelings about this. One one hand, Substance software will be around for a lot longer. On the other hand, there’s this statement (emphasis by me): When Continue reading Adobe Buys Allegorithmic
Valve updates Proton Linux gamers who rely on Wine or native game clients will have a new option to play games thanks to the latest update. Valve’s fork of Wine, received a major update allowing users to choose to use Proton in place of games’ clients, in some cases providing new functionality such as controller support, better frame rates, or even better multiplayer support. Even better? It works with non steam titles. Linux users still don’t have the same level of support as Mac or Windows users do, but with too Continue reading Valve updates Proton
Splash Damage's Dirty Bomb Game Design Doc Shortly after announcing the game was going completely free after live development has ceased, Splash Damage also decided to release their original crowdfunding awards, one of which is a 300 page game design doc. I love reading these things. Continue reading Splash Damage's Dirty Bomb Game Design Doc
Epic, Improbable start $25 million fund “Unity has clarified to us that this change effectively makes it a breach of terms to operate or create SpatialOS games using Unity, including in development and production games,” Improbable said today. As soon as I read the news earlier today about Unity’s decision regarding SpatialOS games, I knew it was only a matter of time before another engine partnered with them. I just wasn’t expecting them to put forth such an absurdly large amount of money. Now maybe a portion of that can be u Continue reading Epic, Improbable start $25 million fund
Bungie Breaks from Activision We have enjoyed a successful eight-year run and would like to thank Activision for their partnership on Destiny. Looking ahead, we’re excited to announce plans for Activision to transfer publishing rights for Destiny to Bungie. With our remarkable Destiny community, we are ready to publish on our own, while Activision will increase their focus on owned IP projects. It’s hard to believe it’s already been 8 years since Bungie joined Activision. We all like to take the easy jabs and poke fun Continue reading Bungie Breaks from Activision
Marc Andreessen on VR/AR From Marc Andreessen: I think AR has tons of potential applications, both at work and at home. [But] I think VR is going to be about 1,000 times bigger. On the latest podcast of a16z, Andreessen goes onto explain that while AR works for more “interesting” places in the world (in other words, more densely populated), rural places never get to see the benefits of AR as much. As someone who spent a large portion of my life growing up in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, this makes a lot of s Continue reading Marc Andreessen on VR/AR
Fortnite Developer Launches Epic Games Store Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%. The timing of this is interesting, coming just days after Stream’s new tiered pricing favoring larger titles. Continue reading Fortnite Developer Launches Epic Games Store
Wildstar MMO shuts down Via twitter: As of November 28 at 2pm PST, the North American and European WildStar game service has closed. Thank you to everyone who joined us on this grand adventure across Nexus! I never played the game, but it’s always sad to see an MMO close up shop. Continue reading Wildstar MMO shuts down
Aardman Animation Is Giving the Company to Their Employees The studio behind Wallace and Gromit will be handing over 75% ownership to it’s workers, assuring the team won’t be in danger of a big company buyout. Continue reading Aardman Animation Is Giving the Company to Their Employees
Facebook Fired Palmer Luckey Because He Supported Donald Trump Good. Employers should be able to fire employees based on their political beliefs, no matter what they are. Political beliefs are a chosen ideology, unlike race or gender. If your beliefs do not align with a company you work for, go somewhere else. Continue reading Facebook Fired Palmer Luckey Because He Supported Donald Trump
Niantic acquired Seismic Games Seismic Games is best known for mobile game Marvel Strike Force, (something I had to do a bit of searching around to learn). Having a group of industry veterans with experience working on IP based games will hopefully provide a strong boost for Niantic’s upcoming Harry Potter game as well as Pokemon Go. Continue reading Niantic acquired Seismic Games
Mark of the Ninja, Walking Dead devs form Campo Santo Nels Anderson, lead designer of Mark of the Ninja, Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin of Telltale’s The Walking Dead (probably most famous for their Idle Thumbs podcast), and artist Olly Moss have come together to form Campo Santo, based in San Francisco, CA. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Campo SantoCampo Santo is a small but scrappy video game developer in San Francisco. Our debut game Firewatch is available for PS4, Windows, Mac, and Linux.Campo Santo Update April 21, 2018: Valve h Continue reading Mark of the Ninja, Walking Dead devs form Campo Santo
Syntertainment is Will Wright's new startup Will Wright has cofounded Syntertainment, a new startup that has raised $5 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and former Electronic Arts chief executive John Riccitiello. Will Wright raises $5M for Syntertainment startup to blend reality and entertainment (exclusive)Tech veteran Avi Bar-Zeev joins Wright as cofounder at startup that plans to blend entertainment and reality.VentureBeatDean Takahashi Continue reading Syntertainment is Will Wright's new startup
Andrew Wilson is the new EA CEO Andre Wilson: I also believe EA’s strategy is sound. Our focus on our talent, our brands and our platform together with our investment in next-generation consoles, mobile and PC free-to-play, as part of our ongoing transition to digital, is right. But we have plenty of work ahead to ensure our collective success. The words of former executive vice president of EA Sports and Origin. Notice how PC is lumped together with ‘free-to-play’. Even though Wilson has been with EA for 13 years, I’m sti Continue reading Andrew Wilson is the new EA CEO
Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games Studios Sci-fi author and former writer and story consultant for Microsoft Game Studios, Eric Nylund, has joined up with Amazon Game Studios as its new director of narrative design. After playing around with the Amazon games marketplace on Android, it seems pretty clear the want to really get into the video games market, they just don’t know how. Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games StudiosEurogamer.netJeffrey Matulef Continue reading Halo and Gears of War writer joins Amazon Games Studios
Kartlytics Using Mario Kart to demonstrate your startup’s new product is a neat idea. The website with all their results can be found here. http://www.joyent.com/blog/introducing-kartlytics-mario-kart-64-analytics Continue reading Kartlytics
John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO Carmack has been a huge backer of the Oculus Rift since it’s inception, so this comes as no surprise. Shortly after the announcement, id tweeted to confirm Carmack will still be involved there as well. John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTOWe have incredible news to share with the community: legendary game programmer John Carmack will be officially joining the Oculus team as...Oculus VR Continue reading John Carmack Joins Oculus as CTO
Ex-F.E.A.R devs form Blackpowder Games Former Monolith developers behind F.E.A.R have announced their new studo, Blackpowder Games and their first title, Betrayer. The high contrast black and white look is an interesting and unique style to go with. Ex-Monolith devs form BlackpowderKey devs behind F.E.A.R., No One Lives Forever re-team with colleagues for PC action adventure BetrayerGamesIndustry.bizChris Buckley Continue reading Ex-F.E.A.R devs form Blackpowder Games
73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t bought a game After owning the little cube for more than a month now, I can attest to this. The marketplace and UI are horrible. I’ve since sideloaded the thing with XBMC and Netflix, and has become a nice media device, however. 73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t paid for a single gameCEO Uhrman projects confidence even as majority aren’t spending money.Ars TechnicaKyle Orland Continue reading 73 percent of Ouya owners haven’t bought a game
Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi Hidden away in the press release, World of Warcraft dropped to 7.7 million subscriptions, losing roughly 600k since the last quarter. Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi in $8.2 billion deal<b>UPDATE</b> The house of <i>Call of Duty</i>, <i>World of Warcraft</i> and <i>Skylanders</i> will spin off of Vivendi to become an independent, publicly traded publisher.Game DeveloperKris Graft Continue reading Activision Blizzard breaks off from Vivendi
New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San Diego Formed by executives hailing from Blizzard, Sony Online and Relic Entertainment, and backed by NCSoft in their first round of funding. Their first order of business should be a better web site. Molten Games – New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San DiegoMolten Games Update 04/14/2022: Former employees have reported the studio has closed March 24th, 2014. Molten Games shuttered last week, former employees sayMolten Games, the developer founded last year by ex-Blizzard, Relic Entertainmen Continue reading New game studio, Molten Games, opens in San Diego
Historical Franchises Find New Homes In Wake of Atari’s bankruptcy auction, Master of Orion and Total Annihilation managed to get snapped up by Wargaming, with Rebellion Interactive grabbing Moonbase Commander and Battlezone, and Stardock bought Star Control. Interesting to note that Chris Taylor, designer behind Total Annihilation works at Gas Powered Games, which was acquired by Wargaming earlier this year. ScribdScribd Continue reading Historical Franchises Find New Homes
Lead Members Leave Maxis to Form Indie Studio Creative Directer Ocean Quigley, Gameplay Lead Dan Moskowitz, and Lead Architect Andrew Willmott have left EA/Maxis to form an indie studio, Jellygrade. An interesting move, but Im going to remain skeptical for the time being. Forming a studio to develop an iPad game just seems like a bad move with the shape of the current market. jellygradejellygradeTumblr Continue reading Lead Members Leave Maxis to Form Indie Studio
Michael Pachter Questions Why Anyone would buy a Wii U Nintendo’s in trouble right now. Nintendo, I think, waited two years too long to launch a competitive, high definition console…I think by the time they did launch a console which stacks up really well, the other two guys [Sony and Microsoft] passed them by, and I think they’re in a world of trouble right now. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Nintendo is in trouble, but they have definitely waited too long. Between the poor marketing of the Wii U, and the lack of real third party support, its h Continue reading Michael Pachter Questions Why Anyone would buy a Wii U
Silicon Knights director/Precursor Games Founder Ken McCulloch arrested Between this, the lawsuit with Epic Games, and the PR disaster surrounding the failed crowd funding attempt, I’m starting to think there really is a curse over Silicon Knights. Precursor Games founding member arrested by police on child pornography chargesFormer Silicon Knights director of content and Precursor Games founding member Kenneth McCulloch has been arrested by police on charges related to child pornography, according to a media release...PolygonMichael McWhertor Continue reading Silicon Knights director/Precursor Games Founder Ken McCulloch arrested
Google Is Developing an Android Console As much as I love Android, Google has a terrible track record of trying to break into the home entertainment market. Google Building Android Game ConsoleGoogle is developing a videogame console and digital wristwatch powered by its Android operating system. The company hopes to combat similar devices that Apple may release in the future.The Wall Street JournalAmir Efrati Update: 2/14/2022: I cant help but wonder if this is what eventually turned into Google Stadia, or if this was something c Continue reading Google Is Developing an Android Console
Nvidia SHIELD Delayed Until July Following a $50 price cut and mere days before it’s expected launch, Nvidia pushed back their mobile game console citing a “mechanical issue” Mobile Technology Blog Post Archive - Archives Page 1 - The Official NVIDIA BlogMobile Technology Blog Post ArchiveThe Official NVIDIA Blog Continue reading Nvidia SHIELD Delayed Until July
Playstation 4 Runs Modified FreeBSD OS Not too surprising, seeing as both the PS3 and Vita also run modified versions of FreeBSD. Details about Playstation 4 OS developmentWe have some details about the development of the Playstation 4 OS. The Operating System is called “Orbis OS”. It is a modified version of FreeBSD 9.0. We aren’t sure if this will bring again the “Other OS” functions to Playstation 4 (remember that this option enabled Playstation 3 to install other …VGLeaks 3.0Mr.H Continue reading Playstation 4 Runs Modified FreeBSD OS
Dirty Game Development Tricks I love these kinds of anecdotes. Dirty Game Development TricksOne of Game Developer’s most popular features was our “Dirty Coding Tricks” bit from 2009, where we got devs to open up about some of their ugly hacks -- and in 2013 we’re back with nine new from-the-trenches stories, including a few unorthodox tricks from other dev disciplines besides programming.Game DeveloperGame Developer Magazine StaffJune 24, 2013 Continue reading Dirty Game Development Tricks
"Naughty Dog has been NAUGHTY" Basically, I’m fucking furious. Yea, Naughty Dog is large studio, but Im pretty sure something like this was an honest mistake. So, rather than taking the mature approach of contacting Naughty Dog, the author decides to take to Tumblr and complain to the Internets first. I wonder if the author got permission to use the various logos in some of the maps hes designed… Maybe it’s just me, but if a website I built randomly popped up in a video game, I’d be pretty damn flattered. Source: h Continue reading "Naughty Dog has been NAUGHTY"
Atari Dump Will Be Excavated In 1983, Atari loaded an estimated 13 dump trucks for of broken hardware, including games (like E.T), in a landfill in New Mexico. Twenty years later, a game developer hoping to make a documentary about it has been given the okay to have the site excavated. Continue reading Atari Dump Will Be Excavated
The DRM-Free Revolution Treating your customers as humans is good business. So many publishers are too busy trying to stop piracy that concept is often overlooked. Good Old Games: GOG.com And The DRM-Free RevolutionGOG.com managing director Guillaume Rambourg says DRM betrays trust between game makers and their consumer base.ForbesErik Kain Continue reading The DRM-Free Revolution
Apparently EA Really Hates the Wii U EA Senior Software Engineer and Architect, Bob Summerwill takes to twitter (Then quickly deletes his tweets) regarding the Wii U. This comes days after EA announced it has no future plans to develop games for the console. EA Senior Engineer: ‘The Wii U Is Crap’ - IGNIn a series of Tweets, EA’s Bob Summerwill blasts Nintendo and explains why EA isn’t working with them anymore on Wii U.IGNColin Moriarty Continue reading Apparently EA Really Hates the Wii U
6 More Games Added to Steam Greenlight The latest batch features Game Dev Tycoon, a clone of Game Dev Story for IOS/Android. Even though it’s more or less just a mobile port, It’s still worth checking out. Continue reading 6 More Games Added to Steam Greenlight
Why Virtual Worlds Died Give people a blank piece of paper and ask them to “have fun!” A few might get excited and start writing a poem or sketch a masterpiece. But most will be annoyed, grow bored and give up. People are quick to point out Minecraft as an exception to this. Sticking with the paper analogy; while most virtual worlds only give you a pencil, Minecraft gives you colored pencils, glitter, and scissors. Continue reading Why Virtual Worlds Died
Warner Bros is Making 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie With a script by David Leslie Johnson (Wrath Of The Titans and Red Riding) and being produced by Roy Lee and Courtney Solomon. Solomon also directed the 2000 film of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m skeptical Dungeons & Dragons can ever really work as a movie. D&D itself is a setting. Not a plot. It’s a tool to bring a story to life. It’s like creating a movie around Coca-Cola or emoji. 09/12/19 update: Dammit. Continue reading Warner Bros is Making 'Dungeons & Dragons' Movie
World of Warcraft Drops to 8.3 Million Users Looks like its time for another expansion. Continue reading World of Warcraft Drops to 8.3 Million Users
Good Enough. Nearly a decade ago I launched ULost, my first startup, providing affordable web hosting to everyone. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but what it did, it did well. At it’s peak, I hosted nearly 900 paid monthly subscribers, and thousands of free accounts. But due to a series of unfortunate events and trusting the wrong people, I eventually was forced to make a tough decision: shut it down, or rebuild from the ground up. Working 14 hour days doing tech support, managing servers, and web dev Continue reading Good Enough.
Star Wars The Old Republic To go Free-to-Play In Fall Called this back in January, but I expected it to go Free-to-play a lot sooner. Really, I’m just surprised the monthly subscription setup for the game lasted as long as it did. 2012-07-31T14:27:21 Continue reading Star Wars The Old Republic To go Free-to-Play In Fall
Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime Comments on Diablo III Mostly fluff acknowledging the game still needs a lot of work. There is also some mention of “social changes” that will hopefully make the game not feel like a ghost town. Continue reading Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime Comments on Diablo III
IOS Game Stole Torchlight Assets Armed Heroes developer, Serena Zhang responds that they “never straightly stole assets from Torchlight,” instead they were inspired by games like World of Warcraft. Notice they don’t deny they used stolen assets- they just didn’t steal them directly. Continue reading IOS Game Stole Torchlight Assets
Tekken Producer on DLC Actually this is something my bosses have been asking me for quite a while now – what are our plans for DLC? How much money can we make? They are a company, obviously, in it to make money. So it’s something I’m continually asked even now. But I haven’t changed my stance. If you’re making a fighting game, all of the elements necessary to enjoy it should be on the disc, or should at least be available for free. Continue reading Tekken Producer on DLC
Penny Arcade Sells Out People don’t like advertising almost as a general rule; Advertising is simply The Way It Is. People who make content learn to like it, because they want to make content, and they also want to eat food and sleep under a roof, and the opportunity to do both at the same time seems like a pretty good idea. Honestly, I thought this was a joke at first. It falls way beyond what Kickstarter was meant for- that is, time-limited projects. Either way, it’s an interesting take on the crowdfunding issue. Continue reading Penny Arcade Sells Out
Valve Announces Steam Greenlight With the success of their Steam Workshop, Valve has found a way to crowdsource the approvals process for Steam. Continue reading Valve Announces Steam Greenlight
Second Life Didn’t Fail The problem — really the only problem, but a big one nonetheless — is they couldn’t ever find a way to make those numbers grow. Nothing they did worked, and Rosedale doubts that even early Facebook integration would have helped. Right, Second Life didn’t Fail. It just could never figure out what it wanted to be. Continue reading Second Life Didn’t Fail