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February 2019 Archive

    1. POC in Play formed to promote racial diversity, equity in UK gaming industry
    2. Slime Rancher sells over 2m copies
    3. Horizon: Zero Dawn sells 10m copies worldwide
    4. How games whitewash Nazism, and the responsibility developers have to history
    5. Former Sledgehammer senior creative director launches Ascendant Studios
    6. Techland planning to shut down Polish publishing division by the end of the year
    7. Duplication or innovation? How games become genres
    8. Wish Studios closing down
    9. Playdius re-brands as Dear Villagers
    10. Epic Games accused of exploiting African American talent in latest dance move lawsuit
    11. VR and mobile developer Hipfire Games raises over $200,000
    12. Oculus Quest targets "quality-first" approach with more stringent store curation
    1. Tencent set to unveil new cloud gaming service
    2. EA, Amazon, Comcast reportedly bidding for Nexon
    3. Demystifying the creation of games through Japanese woodblock prints
    4. Lessons from Spider-Man
    5. Devs to get larger cut as GOG ends Fair Pricing Package for consumers
    6. Resident Evil 2 shipments pass 4 million
    7. Overkill's The Walking Dead officially cancelled
    1. THQ Nordic holds AMA on imageboard known for child porn
    2. No Deal Brexit will mean "dark, dystopian UK" | Opinion
    3. FIFA announces eNations Cup tournament
    4. Jobs roundup: Codemasters promotes new SVP from within
    5. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella defends HoloLens military contract
    6. Twitch's fight against EU copyright laws continues with MEPs playing Mario Kart
    7. Mattel's video game division eyes original IP
    1. GOG lays off "around a dozen," reportedly due to financial trouble
    2. Psychonauts and surviving the publisher shuffle
    3. Taiwanese developer under fire for mocking Chinese president
    4. Snail Games launches indie publishing label
    5. Why you need to get your game loop right | Opinion
    6. Employees demand Microsoft cancels $479m HoloLens military contract
    7. Rising development costs forced Square Enix to find its soul | Opinion
    8. Activision's Bobby Kotick and EA's Andrew Wilson among most overpaid CEOs in US
    9. Microsoft adds eye-tracking, doubles field of view for HoloLens 2
    10. Anthem: Critical Consensus
    11. Anthem tops UK boxed charts
    1. Superdata: Digital revenue down in January as major console franchises underperform
    2. Overwatch League Boston Uprising, New England Patriots owner charged with soliciting prostitution
    3. Microsoft to reveal new Xbox hardware at E3 2019 - Report
    4. Game Pass, Xbox-exclusive games reportedly heading to Switch
    5. Noita from idea to execution in a dozen years (and counting)
    6. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: What does success mean for Crackdown 3?
    7. JustGiving launches Gaming for Social Good hub
    8. "China is saying is that esports is cool, and more healthy than gaming itself"
    9. Goodgame Studios names new CEO and chief product officer
    10. Tencent and NetEase's combined non-China mobile revenues leap 505% to $472m
    11. Massive layoffs at EA's Australian studio
    12. Crackdown 3 shows a vision of the future | Opinion
    13. Fortnite's Marshmello concert beats game's concurrent player record
    14. US Future staff to unionize with Writers Guild of America
    1. ArenaNet bracing for layoffs
    2. Christofer Sundberg departs Avalanche
    3. Reggie Fils-Aime to retire, Doug Bowser named Nintendo of America president
    4. Kabam founder forms blockchain gaming startup Forte
    5. Vive Focus Plus targets enterprise market
    6. Epic Games to deliver keynote at GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit US
    7. Hi-Rez Studios: Turning battle royale into an entertaining esport
    8. Cooperative Innovations completes £500,000 seed round, licences animation tech Ikabod
    9. Paratopic haunts the walking sim with verbs and violence
    10. GamesIndustry.biz 100: Women In Games event coming to EGX Rezzed
    11. Building an empire, one IP at a time
    12. Starbreeze applies for extension on reconstruction period
    13. Female viewership of esports increasing
    14. NetEase maintains revenue growth despite Chinese approvals freeze
    15. THQ Nordic raises $225m for further acquisitions
    16. Overkill's The Walking Dead postponed, not cancelled on console
    17. Media Molecule to launch Dreams in paid Early Access this spring
    18. Keywords acquires cloud software firm GetSocial
    19. Epic pulls YouTube ads after predatory videos discovered
    1. Razer lays off 30 from shut down projects
    2. Teatime Games launches Hyperspeed with face-to-face camera gameplay
    3. Embark Studios grows to over 50 people, working on first title
    4. Kingdom Hearts III, Resident Evil 2 can't stop January US sales dip
    5. Yacht Club Games and Graffiti Games hope to sign new titles at PAX East
    6. Introducing Game Dragons, the Oliver Twins' new consultancy firm
    7. Paradox Interactive breaks new ground for modding on consoles
    8. Chinese government halts new game approvals to work through backlog
    9. Wales Interactive: “We look for personalities when signing games"
    10. Valve retires non-gaming content from video on-demand service
    11. Live support for Heroes of Newerth scaled back to essentials only
    12. Overkill's The Walking Dead earned $3.7m from sales in Q4
    1. Shadow of the Tomb Raider ships 4.12 million
    2. Square Enix consolidating its business divisions
    3. Eastshade focusing on the bigger picture
    4. Epic Games files legal claim against Fortnite Live event organizers
    5. Improbable CCO departs company to return to making games
    6. Google teases GDC reveal
    7. SEIS/EIS funding changes hurting UK games studios
    8. Tonk Tonk Game secures $2m in seed funding
    9. Nitro Games enters negotiations to layoff up to 30 staff
    10. The head games of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
    11. Paradox Interactive capped strong 2018 with best quarter in its history
    12. YouTube reverses bans after mistaking Pokémon Go's Combat Points for child porn
    13. Crackdown 3 was the most played premium title on Xbox One last week
    14. Why Tetris 99 is one of Nintendo's most important new games | Opinion
    15. Tencent introduces streaming rules to comply with Chinese internet governance
    16. Amy Hennig and Warren Spector join Reboot Develop Blue as speakers
    1. Cecilia D'Anastasio wins Writers Guild of America Award
    2. Com2uS acquires 51.9% stake in Day7
    3. Painting a different apocalypse in Far Cry: New Dawn
    4. Was PlayStation's E3 criticism justified? l Opinion
    5. Apex Legends mods have already banned 16,000 cheaters
    6. Cristiano Ronaldo replaced on FIFA 19 box art
    7. Crackdown 3: Critical Consensus
    8. Razer Games Store closing after just ten months
    9. Number of graduates in UK computer game courses doubled since 2013
    10. How to make the most of localisation outsourcing in video games
    1. UK Charts: Far Cry New Dawn is No.1, but Metro Exodus is the real winner
    1. Class action lawsuit against Niantic reveals proposed settlement terms
    1. 505 Games and XD Network partner to bring Human: Fall Flat to China
    2. AFL-CIO urges games industry to unionize
    3. Minecraft on mobile sees best year so far
    4. Disney promotes Jedi: Fallen Order with game-inspired toy range
    5. Tencent in talks to bring Apex Legends to China - Report
    6. Major games publishers are feeling the impact of peaking attention
    7. Cultist Simulator passes 100,000 sales after first year
    8. Next Games laying off 26 staff to cut costs
    9. Improbable hires former EA, DreamWorks exec as its new CTO
    10. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Activision's record year and redundancies
    11. Alfonso Ribeiro denied copyright to Carlton dance, damaging Fortnite lawsuit
    12. 134 jobs in danger at Blizzard's French office
    13. Apex Legends beats Fortnite record for single-day Twitch viewing
    14. Tencent joins Netmarble consortium in Nexon bid
    15. Stubbornness over cross-play reminds us of bad old Sony | Opinion
    16. Yusuke Hashimoto departs PlatinumGames
    17. TinyBuild raises $15 million in Series A funding
    1. Amazon Moments lets mobile developers offer digital and physical incentives
    2. Rewarding profit and nothing else | Opinion
    3. Plug In Digital raises $2.25 million for expansion to Asian markets
    4. Why Ubisoft moved The Division 2 to the Epic Games store
    5. Ubisoft holds steady in Q3 despite competitive holiday
    6. From pages to polygons: The storytelling of Metro Exodus
    7. No link between violent video games and increased aggression in teens, study finds
    8. Nintendo's greatest strength this generation is self-acceptance | Opinion
    9. Rovio prepares to sell Hatch following lacklustre financials
    10. Battle of Polytopia dev donating IAP revenue to solar energy firm
    11. God of War sweeps 2019 DICE Awards
    12. Game Workers Unite sparks campaign to fire Activision Blizzard CEO following mass layoffs
    13. Vainglory's vision of a cross-platform future
    1. Activision Blizzard staff cuts largely hurt support teams, IT, QA, and publishing
    2. WWE Hall of Famer sues Activision for character copyright infringement
    3. Esports now officially a profession in China
    4. AppLovin: Mobile users play games 3-4 times per week on average, but are reluctant to identify as gamers
    5. Apex Legends: Critical Consensus
    6. Double Fine, Gearbox and Versus Evil are looking to meet indie developers at PAX East
    7. Ubisoft partners with Mozilla on AI coding assistant
    8. Activision split with Bungie because Destiny “was not meeting financial expectations”
    9. Epic Games files for dismissal of 2 Milly's Fortnite dance lawsuit
    10. Konami halts sales of PES 2019 currency in Belgium over loot box ruling
    11. Riot Games: "Before we take on football, we have to be humble"
    12. Devs refute Sony claims that it's "open for business" with cross-platform play
    13. THQ Nordic net sales rose 713% to $447.6m in 2018
    14. Reawakening the fears of the past with Resident Evil 2
    15. VP of product development Jeronimo Barrera departs Rockstar Games after 20 years
    16. THQ Nordic buys Australian publisher 18Point2
    17. THQ Nordic acquires Warhorse Studios in a €33.2m cash deal
    18. Activision Blizzard reportedly shutters King's Seattle studio
    1. Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy has sold over 10m units
    2. Activision Blizzard sees "record year," plans to lay off hundreds
    3. Nexon celebrates record year for revenue and income
    4. Russ Pitts steps down from Take This, on leave from Escapist
    5. PS3 was "a stark moment of hubris" - Layden
    6. Newzoo: Global esports market will exceed $1 billion in 2019
    7. Failbetter: Sunless Skies did "far better than we needed it do"
    8. Gaming disorder diagnosis puts industry at risk - ESA
    9. Image & Form: The steam-powered journey to self-sufficiency
    10. Novaquark opens Montreal studio, hires ex-Eidos exec Stéphane D'Astous
    11. Dark Slope secures $1.5 million in seed funding
    12. EA pays respects to Emiliano Sala, removes him from FIFA
    13. Unity reportedly considering IPO for 2020
    14. Activision Blizzard share price slumps to two-year low
    15. Sonic Mania dev Christian Whitehead co-founds new studio Evening Star
    16. Starbreeze sells System Shock 3 publishing rights
    17. Supercell revenue down second year in a row as titles reach revenue milestones
    18. Apex Legends reaches 25m players, 2m concurrent
    19. Jim Ryan appointed Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO
    1. Shawn Layden: "The world has changed, but E3 hasn't necessarily changed with it"
    2. Bigben acquires publishing rights for two Cyanide titles
    3. EEDAR: Nintendo Switch attracting more women, wider age ranges over time
    4. "We had a bush-fire back then, but we're about to go through a flash-fire now"
    5. Blacklight: Retribution shutting down in March
    6. Sumo Digital opens new mobile studio in Leamington Spa
    7. Google has no plans to lower its 30% cut
    8. UK Charts: Red Dead Redemption 2 back at No.1
    9. Activision Blizzard staff reportedly bracing for layoffs
    1. Activision issuing refunds for Guitar Hero Live in the US
    2. Media Create: Kingdom Hearts III unlocks another top chart victory in Japan
    1. Kingdom Hearts III crowned at top of EMEAA charts in debut week
    2. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds wins Game of the Year in Steam Awards
    3. EA stock bounces back in wake of Apex Legends success
    4. Telltale veterans assemble AdHoc Studio
    5. Swedish Tax Agency targets King with $389m fine
    6. Nintendo plans to "boost" Switch Online after surge in short subscription plans
    7. Miniclip acquires Head Ball studio Masomo
    8. Tearing down the lone developer myth
    9. Fortnite iOS revenue estimated at $500 million
    10. King signs Tech Talent Charter to drive diversity
    11. Monster Hunter: World nears 12 million sales
    12. Fortnite alone can't explain tumbling game stocks
    1. Apex Legends reaches 10 million players in 72 hours
    2. Ex-Wargaming, Riot employees form Ganymede Games
    3. Skybound-Beamdog deal to bring classic PC RPGs to console
    4. Atari ST programmer Steve Bak dies at 66
    5. Gaming business bolsters Bandai Namco's Q3 profits
    6. Riot, Sega, four more join ESA
    7. Magic Leap prototype becomes Angry Birds' VR debut
    8. 20th Century Fox announces indie games fund
    9. Jobs Roundup: Yael Prough appointed as new EVP, GM of IGN
    10. New conference hopes to improve UK games skills crisis
    11. Shares slump for big four publishers after latest financials
    12. Zynga CEO: It's “too early to tell” if more will follow Epic's anti-App Store stance
    13. League of Geeks: "We are a response to what was before"
    14. Zynga "turnaround now complete" as dev posts record mobile performance for 2018
    1. Warface team splits from Crytek to form Blackwood Games
    2. Insurgency developer New World Interactive opens Canadian studio
    3. Resident Evil 2's triumphant debut in EMEAA charts
    4. Hatch coming to Japan with Docomo partnership
    5. Take-Two CEO on Epic Store: "Competition is a good thing"
    6. Narrative design and body slams: What developers can learn from pro wrestling
    7. Take-Two beats targets as Red Dead Redemption II shipments reach 23 million
    8. Tomb Raider and Just Cause fail to offset wider declines at Square Enix
    9. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Apex Legends and the safety of a surprise launch
    10. EA confirms new premium Titanfall game coming this year
    11. Disney praises “good relationship” with EA and Star Wars games
    12. Battlefield V sold 7.3m but missed EA's forecast
    13. EA forecasts 6m sales for Anthem in six weeks
    1. Microsoft Studios rebrands to Xbox Game Studios
    2. ESA: Proposed Pennsylvania video game tax a "violation of the US Constitution"
    3. Halo rolling out a touring fanfest
    4. EA reflects on "difficult quarter," looks ahead to Anthem and Apex Legends
    5. Vivox SDK to be made available to all Switch developers
    6. Hi-Rez Studios employee arrested in child sex sting
    7. Apptopia January report: An arcade takeover
    8. Universal, Starbreeze team up for new mobile Payday game
    9. McLaren's drive to turn gamers into Formula 1 racers
    10. Hypnospace Outlaw weaving a tangled Web
    11. Kongregate and Velan Ventures join GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit @ PAX East
    12. EA didn't pre-announce Apex Legends because it was scared to | Opinion
    13. HMV saved from collapse by Sunrise Records
    14. Sega Sammy revenue and profit down in latest financials
    15. Kingdom Hearts III ships more than 5m copies worldwide
    16. Apex Legends attracts 1m unique players in less than eight hours
    1. Rise to Ruins developer promises to repay Patreon pledges back double
    2. Steam Awards to broadcast results this Friday
    3. EA and Respawn launch their own battle royale, Apex Legends
    4. Human: Fall Flat sells 5 million units
    5. Wargroove breaks even three days after launch
    6. Kingdom Hearts III: Critical Consensus
    7. "Isolation for all of us is corrosive" - The power of addressing social issues in games
    8. Take-Two hires games veteran Michael Condrey to form new, diverse studio
    9. 4A Games embroiled in controversy over Metro Exodus' Epic Games Store exclusivity
    10. Microsoft bringing Xbox Live to Switch and mobile
    11. Twitch streamers racked up 9.36 billion hours viewed in 2018
    12. Twitch celebrates Black History Month by raising money for Code2040
    13. What to look for in an engineering partner
    14. Mobile and esports drive Konami revenues to $1.75 billion
    15. Capcom posts record profits in latest financials
    1. Kingdom Hearts III conquers UK charts with impressive debut week
    2. Machinima closes down with more than 80 jobs lost
    1. Sony reports slowdown in PS4 sales
    2. Did EA beat Nintendo at its own game?
    3. The Dungeon Master fantasy: Designing asymmetrical multiplayer in Breach
    4. Smash Bros Ultimate is the fastest selling console game in Nintendo's history
    5. Battlerite Royale switches to free-to-play
    6. Sumo Group acquires Red Kite Games
    7. Kingdom Hearts III sells more than 600,000 copies in Japan at launch
    8. Opt-in review system in the works for Epic Games Store
    9. Epic vs Steam: Exclusives raise the stakes | Opinion
    10. Mobile game based on Dr. Mario due to launch this summer
    11. Nintendo to open first official retail store in Japan