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2022 Was The Year The Video Game Industry Ate Itself
6.12.2022
The video game industry went on a shopping spree in 2021. Epic Games bought Mediatonic (Fall Guys), Sony bought Housemarque (Returnal), and Embracer bought Gearbox (Borderlands). It seemed like things might slow down in 2022, but instead they ramped up even more into an acquisition free-for-all....
Report: Big Game Companies Like Square Enix And Roblox Are Ignoring Climate Change
23.11.2022
AfterClimate, a research and consultancy business “on a mission to decarbonise the games industry”, have this week published the results of their “game industry net zero 2022 snapshot”, a report that takes a detailed look at how most of the world’s biggest video game companies are responding to...
Blizzard Games Are Disappearing From China Thanks To 'A Jerk'
17.11.2022
NetEase, the service provider Overwatch creators Blizzard have been using to bring its games to China for the last 14 years, is ending several licenses with the developer. Overwatch 2, Diablo III, World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm will no longer receive service...
China’s Metaverse Gaming Market Might Explode to Over $100 Billion According to JPMorgan
14.9.2022
Analysts from JPMorgan believe that the metaverse gaming market could explode in China even with the current state of regulation, which presents certain difficulties for adoption. Companies like Tencent, Netease, and Bilibili are JPMorgan’s picks when it comes to taking advantage of this...
Head Of Halo Infinite Studio Is The Latest To Leave
12.9.2022
For as long as 343 Industries has existed, Bonnie Ross has been in charge of it. No longer. The Microsoft veteran announced on Monday that she would leave the studio in charge of Halo Infinite to deal with a family medical issue. It’s the latest high-profile departure on a pivotal Xbox game that...
Report: Chinese Metaverse Industry Raises $780 Million in Funding
5.9.2022
The Chinese metaverse industry has reportedly raised about $780 million in funding and there are expectations this will grow to be a $5.8 trillion industry by 2030. So far there are 160,000 virtual human enterprises in China while 20 provinces or cities in the country are reportedly supporting...
Diablo Immortal's China Release Delayed Following Social Media Silencing
20.6.2022
Diablo Immortal has been one of the more hotly contested releases of 2022, receiving the lowest ever user score on Metacritic, while simultaneously receiving eight million downloads and making over $24,000,000 in its first two weeks. However, according to a report by Reuters, the announcement of...
Diablo Immortal Is Far Too Good To Be Free
8.6.2022
Last week Blizzard launched Diablo Immortal, the next entry in its long-running, loot-driven action-RPG franchise. However, unlike previous games, this one is free-to-play, and was built from the ground up to be a mobile game first. While it did also come out on PC last week, the reality is this...
New Marvel Card Game From Ex-Hearthstone Devs Plays Fast As Hell
19.5.2022
Announced today, Marvel Snap looks like a chaotic but fun digital trading card game (TCG) featuring popular Marvel heroes and villains. It’s also the next game from some of the key folks behind Blizzard’s popular digital card game Hearthstone, who left to form their own studio a few years back....
The Ways Shanghai's Food Crisis Is Impacting Chinese Game Devs
15.4.2022
For the past few days, Genshin Impact players have been speculating about how extended lockdowns and food crises in Shanghai have been affecting the game’s development. The promised teapot event was never released, and the Serenitea housing system has been in extended maintenance mode since...
The Chinese Gaming Industry Is About To Start Moving Again After Devastating Nine-Month Freeze
11.4.2022
After a nine-month hiatus that put the Chinese games industry on edge, China’s culture regulators have finally started issuing new approvals for domestic games so they can be published within the country.Read more
Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi Won't Be Making Smartphone Games
15.2.2022
After leaving Sega, Toshihiro Nagoshi set up a new studio called Nagoshi Studio in Tokyo. Earlier this year, NetEase Games described the wholly-owned subsidiary’s M.O., stating it “develops high-end titles for worldwide release, with a primary focus on the console software business.”Read more
What's Old Is New Again
7.2.2022
Nicodemus Yang-Mattisson is an artist at Netease, and has been working in the video game business for almost twenty years now, on projects as varied as Gravity Rush, Crackdown 3 and Forza.Read more
Harry Potter RPG 'Accidentally' Added Popular Hentai Porn Expression
18.11.2021
Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, a card-based RPG for mobile devices and PC that’s only available in Eastern countries for now, is really popular in China. However, the game is currently attracting attention not for its incredibly successful launch, but for a hilariously unfortunate “bug” that’s...
NetEase Games Acquires Goichi Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture
22.10.2021
Founded in 1998 by Goichi Suda, Grasshopper Manufacture is best known for games like Killer 7, Lollipop Chainsaw, and No More Heroes. Today, the studio announced it is being acquired by Chinese conglomerate NetEase Games. Read more
Chinese Gaming Giants Lose Eight Bethesdas In Value Amid Government Crackdown
9.9.2021
Bloomberg reports that the value of China’s largest gaming companies, Tencent and NetEase, plummeted dramatically during an overnight stock selloff, resulting in losses totaling more than $60 billion between the two. To put that in perspective, that’s about eight times what Microsoft spent...
Yakuza Director & Jet Set Radio Artist Is Back At Sega
7.9.2021
I’m not normally someone to dwell on personnel changes at video game studios, but this isn’t your everyday career change: Ryuta Ueda, who while at Sega served as Art Director on both Jet Set Radio titles, has announced his return to the company almost a decade after he left.Read more
Chinese Kids Have Their Online Gaming Time Slashed By New Government Rules
31.8.2021
A new rule being introduced by the The National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), China’s online watchdog, is looking to curb what the government feels is a growing “gaming addiction among young people”.Read more
Report: Yakuza Creator Toshihiro Nagoshi Leaving Sega To Join NetEase
30.8.2021
Veteran developer Toshihiro Nagoshi, of Sega Rally, Monkey Ball and Yakuza fame, is in the final stages of negotiating a contract to leave Sega and join Chinese company NetEase, according to a report on Bloomberg.Read more
Video Games Are "Spiritual Opium," Says Chinese Government-Owned Media
3.8.2021
Tencent stock fell as much as 11 percent today after a Chinese economic paper blasted gaming, referring to it as “spiritual opium” and “electronic drugs.”Read more