Singaporean co-development giant Virtuos has made its first UK acquisition.  The firm has bought Third Kind Games, a Leamington Spa-based outfit that was set up in 2016 by veterans of Activision. The studio features talent that has worked on the likes of Fable, Fay Cry 5, Forza Horizon and the F1 games. At the moment, Third Kind employs over 70 staff and has plans to double this headcount in...

The recently-released Black Myth: Wukong has already hit 1.4 million concurrent players on Steam.  That's according to data from SteamDB , which shows that the action RPG has reached 1,443,570 users at once at its peak. At the time of writing, Black Myth: Wukong has 1,405,420 concurrent players.  The game launched today, August 20th, and at the time of release has out for about seven an...

The CEO of Fortnite giant Epic, Tim Sweeney, has said that the company's strategy of giving away free games to users on its storefront has been good for bringing in users.  Speaking to the press recently –  as reported by PC Gamer – the exec said that the company was spending around a quarter on user acquisition by giving money to developers to give away their games than it...

Pre-orders for the eagerly anticipated Black Myth: Wukong was the highest grossing title on Steam last week.  The action RPG is set to release today (August 20th) and is likely to perform very well indeed on the back of its pre-purchases. Reviews for Black Myth have been on the positive side of mixed and the game is launching amid something of a controversy surrounding guidelines given to in...

League of Legends maker Riot Games has created a combined publishing and esports businesses.  In a post on its website , the company announced that its current esports president John Needham is helming this outfit, which is designed to make things more "seamless" between its pro-gaming, music and publishing, and its games.  Riot's TV and film development division is also being divided i...

US developer North Beach Games has opened a brand new studio in Prague.  The imaginatively named North Beach Games Prague is being headed up by Sam Edwards, the chief technology officer of Stranded Deep maker Beam Team Games and Tomáš Pšenička from Keen Software.  This new Czech studio is going to be working on Stranded Deep 2. "We’re super excited to be kick...

French publishing giant Ubisoft has cut 45 members of staff from its US business.  The news was initially reported by Bloomberg , which claimed that the Assassin's Creed firm was laying off workers from Red Storm Entertainment – based in Cary, North Carolina and its office in San Francisco. It's not clear what fields have been impacted by these cuts.  “Yesterday Ubisoft San...

Industry veteran Adam Boyes is leaving Iron Galaxy.  In a blog post on the company's website , the co-CEO said that he would be stepping down from his role by the end of 2024. Chelsea Blasko will become the studio's CEO upon his departure; she was promoted to co-CEO back in 2020 .  Boyes joined Iron Galaxy in 2016 as its chief executive officer having previously worked at the likes of P...

Terra Tech maker Payload Studios is cutting 25 per cent of its staff.  In a post on LinkedIn , CEO and founder Russ Clarke wrote that the company had tried "very hard" to avoid having to lay off employees but said that things had been too tough within the industry.  "Small independents like us have no protection from this, other than 'nailing it' every time, which is much easier said th...

Swedish games giant Embracer Group has reported a 34 per cent decline in net sales for its PC and console arm.  For the three months ending June 30th, the firm brought in SEK 2.7 billion ($256.8 million), by far the biggest decline within its games divisions. This was due to what the company calls "tough comparisons" aka it didn't have anything that performed nearly as well as in 2023 when D...

Streaming giant Amazon has reportedly commissioned a new anthology show that is focused on video games.  Deadline reports that the retail firm is set to publish a new adult animated series named Secret Level, with individual episodes set within the worlds of a variety of games. These include Amazon's own MMO New World, roguelike indie hit Spelunky and a variety of PlayStation titles. It's ex...

Japanese games firm Marvelous is changing how American branch and Xseed Games operate.  The company is announcing a new structure for these divisions; the former is going to be publishing Marvelous' first-party line-up of games such as Story of Seasons and Rune Factory while the latter is going to be focused on third-party titles, such as the upcoming The Big catch and Moonlight Peaks. ...

Games firm Valve is changing how Steam store pages operate.  In a post on its website , the company said that developers and publishers will no longer be able to have external links in store descriptions. This includes social media pages and links to other games on Steam. Furthermore, companies will no longer be able to have embedded imagery that imitates store UI or buttons such as wishlist...

Chip specialist Intel has sold its stake in British silicon design firm Arm Holdings.  The deal was disclosed in a regulatory filing – spotted by Reuters – in which it announced its intention to sell 1.18 million shares in the UK giant. Intel stands to have made around $146.7 million from this sale.  Arm debuted on the Nasdaq Fund Network in September 2023 as one of the firs...

Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader maker Owlcat Games has moved into publishing.  The firm is going to be helping out indie studios that are making RPGs or narrative-driven titles. Owlcat's services for these developers include funding, advice and other services.  The company has signed two projects – Rue Valley from Serbia's Emotion Spark Studio and Another Angle Games from Poland. In a...

Our partner site, PocketGamer.biz, has launched its annual Mobile Games Industry Trends Survey and you're invited to fill it in for a chance to win prizes.  Its purpose? To take the temperature of the mobile games industry, to see how developers feel about the state of the market, and how they are adapting to challenges and opportunities. Mobile opportunities (and challenges) It’s been...

Korean games giant NCSoft has invested $3.5 million in Swedish developer Moon Rover Games.  The venture was founded back in 2022 by veterans of DICE; the studio is currently working on a co-op FPS dubbed Project Aldous.  “This investment represents a milestone in the history of Moon Rover Games," Moon Rover Games CEO Julien Wera said.   "It will enable us to combine the exper...

Former Bethesda studio director Yves Lachance has been hired by Warner Bros.  He has been appointed VP and studio head of the company's Montreal developer. In this new position, Lachance will be reporting into Warner Bros Games SVP of production and studios, Ben Bell.  Lachance previously spent close-to nine years as head of studio for Bethesda in Montreal. Prior to that, he spent over...

Destiny maker Bungie is laying off 220 members of its staff.  That's according to an email from studio boss Pete Parson – shared on the company's website – in which he said that around 17 per cent of the company's employees were being laid off. Parson added that these job cuts had to be made to reduce costs and "focus development efforts" on Destiny and Marathon.  A further...

Microsoft has reported that its Xbox content and services division saw a 61 per cent increase in revenue for the three months ending June 30th.  In its release to investors, the company reported that its subscription and software arm had seen a 61 per cent increase in revenue in no small part due to Activision's help. That company contributed 58 per cent of this growth. Microsoft told invest...

European games firm Plaion has signed an agreement with Skydance to publish its upcoming Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra.  The title was revealed at GDC of this year at Epic's event and is being created by Skydance New Media. That venture is headed up by Naughty Dog vet Amg Hennig. Rise of Hydra is set to launch in 2025.  “We are proud to partner with Skydance Games and industry legend...

US publishing giant Electronic Arts saw its net revenue drop by 17 per cent fort the three months ending June 30th.  In its release to investors , the company reported $1.66 billion in net revenue, down from 2023's $1.92 billion. Of that, $1.4 billion came from live-service titles, while $250 million was generated by full games.  Net bookings clocked in at $1.26 billion, down 20% year-o...

My.Games has sold CEBC, DonationAlerts and Boosty.  In a post on its website, the company said that the trio had been sold to Cypriot businessman Pavel Kharaneka, the founder of Broadsmart Group, which appears to be a property developer. Huh, bit odd that.  No figure has been put on the deal, which is set to close in Q3.  CEBC helps develop social network start-ups, while DonationA...

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) has put out a statement declaring its solidarity with striking SAG-AFTRA video game workers.  The CWA says that it fully supports SAG-AFTRA in its push for "explicit, enforceable language" that protects against the use of AI in their fields.  "The decision to go on strike is never an easy one and is always the result of management’s refu...

It's been a week of controversy for Apex Legends, but the free-to-play battle royale was back in the Top Ten this week on Steam.  The title was the ninth best-performing game of the week thanks to the new Void Reckoning limited event which made its debut on July 23rd. This all comes among a week of negative press for Apex Legends thanks to the changes Respawn planned to make around the title...

Japanese publishing giant Capcom has reported a 32.5 per cent decline in net sales for the thre months ending June 30th.  In a release to investors, the company said it brought in ¥29.6 billion ($192.5 million) in net sales, attributing the almost one-third decline on not having something to replicate the success that Street Fighter 6 had 12 months prior.  However, operating and ord...

In-development projects including Grand Theft Auto 6 are exempt from the recently-announced SAG-AFTRA strike.  Kotaku reports that game that were already in the works before September 2023 are not part of the striking action. Live-service titles are also exempt. This is something that SAG-AFTRA is far from content with.  "We're obviously not happy about that," the union's  chief co...

Valve has changed how demos operate on its Steam platform.  In a blog post on the Steamworks blog , the company said that users can now add demos to their libraries without installing them right away. You can also add demos to your library from the Steam mobile app.  Valve also wrote that demos can be installed even if users already own the full game, adding that this use case is first...

Games services firm Xsolla has hired Cathlee Nilson as its new chief financial officer.  She joins from AI firm Kami Vision and has previously held finance roles at the likes of EA, Samsung and Google.  "Cathleen Nilson's appointment as CFO marks a significant milestone for Xsolla," the company's founder and CEO Shurick Agapitov said.  "Her extensive experience and proven track rec...

From Software's Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon has sold over three million copies to date.  The milestone was announced on Twitter by the game's official account , in a post where the company thanked the title's fans. This news comes just eleven months after the game's initial release on August 25th 2023.  There's no indication how many of these sales were on PC.  Back in October...

Gaijin Entertainment, the developer of popular military sim title War Thunder, has issued an apology after it featured an explosion from the Challenger shuttle in new key art.  In a post on the game's forum – as spotted by PCGamesN – the studio said that it was going to be changing the artwork and implementing steps to ensure that this kind of thing doesn't happen again. The rath...

Pullup Entertainment – formerly known as Focus Entertainment – has acquired minority stakes in two developers, Uppercut and Rundisc.  In the company's financials for the 2023/24 financial year – spotted by GamesIndustry.biz – the firm announced that it had made investments in Submerged maker Uppercut and Rundisc, the maker of Chants of Sennar. No figure has been put o...

The latest entry in the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise has attracted over 15 million players since its 2020 release.  That's according to the game's official Twitter account , which revealed the milestone and thanked the title's growing playerbase.  Microsoft Flight Simulator was released in August 2020; four months after release, the title has attracted two million players. ...

Troubled European games firm Embracer Group has paid back SEK 3.2 billion ($300 million) in debt that it owed to its revolving credit facility.  The firm has said that this repayment has been made, with repayment of the full amount set to take place by May 2025. This was possible thanks to Embracer selling off Gearbox Entertainment to Take-Two Interactive for a cool $460 million. That deal w...

The head of Xbox's first party line-up, Matt Booty, has suggested that the company closed Tango Gameworks due to its recent change in leadership.  Speaking to Variety's Strictly Business podcast – as reported by Eurogamer – the exec was asked whether the Big M had looked to sell the studio rather than just shut it down. Booty didn't answer the question, but did call out Tango's m...

Japanese publishing giant Bandai Namco has said that its marketing push for Elden Ring expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is its "most ambitious" for DLC so far.  Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz , Anthony Macare – the company's European marketing and sales boss – said that it is developer FromSoftware's biggest expansion to date.  "We envision Shadow of the Erdtree as a monumenta...

It appears that chip giant AMD is the latest victim of a cyber attack.  That's according to Twitter account Hackmanac – as spotted by PC Mag – which reports to have spotted a group called IntelBroker posting on a hacking forum that it had stolen a load of information from the company earlier this year. Specifically in June, this group claims to have walked away with "future AMD p...

There's a new event in the calendar that'll be ideal for readers of PC Games Insider and anybody working in PC and console games.  While already well-known for its focus on mobile games, at this year’s huge  Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki , the dedicated Big Screen Gaming Summit will offer a forum for PC, console, XR, and web3 discussions, featuring insights from industry leaders...

The top brass at US publishing giant Electronic Arts were compensated to the tune of $60 million for their work in the 2024 financial year.  That's according to a Proxy Statement filed by the company – spotted by Game Developer – which notes that CEO Andrew Wilson is the biggest earner of the lot. The chief exec walked away with $25.6 million for the year – of that figure,...

Swedish games firm Paradox Interactive has closed Tectonic, the studio that was working on sim title Life by You.  In a post on the company's website , CEO Fred Wester confirmed the closure,  saying that 24 members of staff were affected by the news. This follows Paradox cancelling the long-in-development Life by You earlier this week.  "This is difficult and drastic news for our c...

Two former staff from publisher Modern Wolf – George Willard and Sophie Atkin – have founded a new "visibility agency" called Secret Sauce.  This outfit is designed to help promote indie developers, offering services such as branding and marketing, PR, self-publishing support and biz dev. Secret Sauce is already working with Fireshine, Goose Byte and Wallride, in addition to some...

Swedish games firm Paradox has cancelled its long-in-development simulation title, Life by You.  The news was announced by deputy CEO Mattias Lilja on the company's forum in a post  where he said that it had opted to cancel the project rather than delay it as previously announced.  They continued, saying that that the game as is was lacking in "some key areas".  "Though a time...

Battle royale giant PUBG: Battlegrounds shot up 11 places to take the top spot on Steam last week.  This appears to be related to a collaboration event with K-pop act NewJeans, which has seen the band take over Krafton's shooter with music videos and aesthetic changes, among other things. This is the first time that the battle royale hit has been the biggest seller on Steam since November 20...

Three veterans of the games industry have set up a brand new co-development studio called CodeDev: The Unreal Guys.  As reported by Game Developer , the venture has been established by Rik Alexander, Myke Parrott and Ryan Woodland and – do I need to spell this out? – is focused on helping create games using Epic Games' Unreal Engine. One has to wonder whether the Fortnite giant w...

US indie developer Galvanic Games is closing its doors.  In a post on Twitter , studio president and founder Patrick Morgan announced that it was shutting down due to sales of its most recent game, Wizard with a Gun, not selling enough to allow the company to stay in business. "Despite the promising start of Wizard with a Gun, sales are not strong enough to sustain our studio," Morgan wrote....

The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has commented on the recent wave of layoffs at studio closures at the company's stable of developers.  Speaking at IGN Live , the exec said that these measures were taken as part of his efforts to run a company that is "sustainable". Spencer added that the decision to make these cuts was not a decision he loved.  "The closure of any team is hard, obviousl...

The developer of the smash hit Among Us, Innersloth, has founded a new fund for indie games.  Announced on stage at Summer Game Fest, the venture is dubbed Outersloth and is offering the "kind of deals" that developers what co-founder and CEO Forrest Willard "wanted back in our less popular days".  On its website , Outersloth said that it is only interested in funding projects and that...

The 2024 Xbox Showcase was headlined by new entries in the Doom, Call of Duty and Gears of War franchises, as well as gameplay for the upcoming Perfect Dark reboot.  Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the first entry in the long-running franchise to be launched under Microsoft's ownership. The shooter is set to release on October 25, 2024. Meanwhile, Bethesda revealed Doom: The Dark Ages, a follow...

A new report has detailed some of the issues that developers faced in making Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.  According to Bloomberg , the project was plagued with problems, such as a shifting change in what the game was intended to be, as well as perfectionism from management. Though Rocksteady was the studio that eventually shipped the game, it was not Warner Bros' first choice; th...

Two game development veterans, Megan Ralph and Joel Herber, have set up a new indie studio called Kindred Spirit.  In a post on LinkedIn , the duo said that they had been working for six months on this new venture. Ralph has 14 years of experience, having worked at the likes of Team Bondi of LA Noire, Sony London Studio (RIP), Mediatonic and Ninja Theory. Meanwhile, Herber has held roles at...