Netflix closes its only AAA game studio
Game Developer
OCTOBER 22, 2024
The Southern Californian developer was around for less than two years.
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Game Developer
OCTOBER 22, 2024
The Southern Californian developer was around for less than two years.
Game Developer
SEPTEMBER 9, 2024
This article covers five key aspects—production, community, development, storytelling, and updates—valuable for both indie and AAA game developers.
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GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 18, 2024
A new AAA studio has launched, composed of industry veterans from EA, Sony, Blizzard, Disney, Apple, and Google. Founded in October 2023, Muddy Robot Games is led by former International Game Developers Association president Chris Hood.
GamesIndustry.biz
FEBRUARY 28, 2024
NetEase Games has opened another new studio in the West in the form of BulletFarm, and has hired Call of Duty veteran David Vonderhaar to lead the team. BulletFarm is headquartered in Los Angeles but positioned as a remote-first studio, and is already working on a AAA game built in Unreal Engine 5.
GamesIndustry.biz
FEBRUARY 8, 2023
PUBG developer and publisher Krafton has opened its first Canadian studio, GamesIndustry.biz can reveal, with the unveiling of Krafton Montreal. Currently employing 12 staff, the team hopes to grow to 150 people within the next three years, adding another AAA studio to the already competitive Montreal development scene.
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 12, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Experienced veterans from EA's Respawn studio have formed a new AAA team called Giant Skull. The developer is led by Stig Asmussen, who is best known as the game director for 2019's Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
GamesIndustry.biz
JANUARY 10, 2023
Some of the leaders behind the Forza Horizon series have formed a new AAA games studio in Leamington Spa called Maverick Games. The team is led by studio head and creative director Mike Brown, who was previously the creative director on the Forza Horizon franchise. Running the studio itself is COO Harinder Sangha.
GamesIndustry.biz
OCTOBER 25, 2023
Artisan Studios is setting up a development studio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The developer will expand into publishing its titles, in addition to developing what it says will be "the first AAA titles in the GCC region."
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 16, 2023
The veterans who left Need for Speed developer Criterion in December last year have reunited to form a new AAA studio: Fuse Games. The new outfit has been founded by studio general manager Matt Webster, head of content Steve Uphill, head of production Pete Lake, head of technology Andrei Shires, and head of operations Alan McDairmant.
GamesIndustry.biz
OCTOBER 22, 2024
Netflix has shut down its AAA Southern California game studio known as Team Blue. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
JULY 10, 2023
The AAA developer is based in Seattle, and it's creating an original third-person single player game based on Marvel's Black Panther franchise. It follows news that EA's Motive studio is creating a game based on the Iron Man IP.
GamesIndustry.biz
FEBRUARY 22, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox A team of game developers who have worked on various AAA titles such as Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Doom Eternal have unveiled Fun Dog Studios. The studio is a minority-led and completely employee-owned game developer. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
DECEMBER 22, 2023
The Los Angeles-based studio shared a statement on social media , citing a "lack of support for VR within the industry" as the main reason for closing its doors. "As As an AAA VR game developer, we are just not able to justify the expense needed going forward," the studio said. "[We]
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 20, 2023
PlayStation has agreed to acquire Firewalk Studios, the AAA multiplayer developer that is working on a live service game for PS5 and PC. It is the third dedicated live-service game studio that PlayStation has acquired over the last 18 months, alongside Bungie and Haven Studios.
GamesIndustry.biz
OCTOBER 2, 2023
There's an exciting new AAA game studio that's growing rapidly in Leamington Spa and already picking up awards. Lighthouse Games is a new development team set-up by Gavin Raeburn, the co-founder and former studio head of Forza Horizon developer Playground Games.
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 27, 2023
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox A new AAA development studio has opened doors in the UK hub of Leamington Spa, helmed by the former studio head and co-founder of Forza Horizon creator Playground Games.
PreMortem.Games
OCTOBER 27, 2023
Chaosmonger Studios , based in Tallinn, Estonia, is a multimedia production company specializing in everything from documentaries, science fiction films and animations to music video, graphic design and video games. The more you raise the bar, the more you risk disappointing somebody, especially if you don’t have AAA budgets.”
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 5, 2024
Discovery has been historically focused on AAA console games, but the company's CEO and president of global streaming and games JB Perrette wants to change that. And having 11 owned studios where we're not just a publisher of games but actually a developer of games, we think is a differentiative asset for us." Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 27, 2024
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox In August 2023, David Vonderhaar announced he was leaving Treyarch , the Activision studio behind the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, after 18 years working on the blockbuster shooter franchise.
Mircosoft Game Dev
JANUARY 15, 2023
The features offered are also a lot more reminiscent of AAA games, such as far more material options and advanced visual effects (including circle DOF , volumetric fog, AMD FSR, etc.). While for very large studios this is not an area of interest, medium-sized studios still rely on significant amounts of assets and pre-made functionality.
GamesIndustry.biz
NOVEMBER 25, 2024
Unions for Ubisoft's AAA and mobile studios in Barcelona have filed a lawsuit against the Assassin's Creed publisher over its remote work policy changes. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
MAY 23, 2023
Former EA DICE leaders have reunited to form Time To Kill Games, a new AAA studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. The studio currently consists of seven people, but with plans to scale up to between 80 and 120 employees. It’s working on a new shooter built using Unreal Engine.
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 9, 2024
New AAA game developer Deviation Games is closing, the studio announced. By 2021 it had over 100 employees, and the studio signed a deal with PlayStation to create an original AAA IP for the company. But the project hit challenges.
GamesIndustry.biz
JULY 5, 2023
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Lighthouse Games has secured an unspecified investment from leading tech firm Tencent, financing its goal to become one of the UK's biggest AAA studios. It is currently working on an unannounced IP. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 7, 2024
By unifying development and project management, studios can tap into global teams with diverse skill sets and talents beyond geographical boundaries – saving studios precious time, money and resources. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
JANUARY 18, 2024
Rocksteady co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker have created a new London-based studio, called Hundred Star Games. As reported by Polygon , which found the company's Great Place to Work profile , the studio is set to make AAA titles, employing 100 developers.
GamesIndustry.biz
SEPTEMBER 20, 2023
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox As a AAA single-player Souls-like, Lies of P is a leap into uncharted territory for both its publisher, Neowiz, and developer, Round8 Studio.
GamesIndustry.biz
MAY 15, 2023
Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Independent AAA studio Deviation Games has reportedly been hit by layoffs. VGC spotted several members of the team announcing via social media that they had been dismissed from the studio. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
JULY 19, 2024
Artificial Agency just came out of stealth after a year in operation, with the company claiming it's working in "close collaboration with several notable AAA studios." Its engine is due to be available to all studios in 2025. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
JULY 14, 2023
People Can Fly, the developer behind Outriders, has established a studio in Montreal. The Montreal studio will develop a AAA project led by creative director Roland Lesterlin. As reported by VGC , the new office joins the company's locations throughout Poland, England, and the US. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
FEBRUARY 27, 2024
It is a AAA fantasy shooter created by a 100-person dev team, led by a former Call of Duty creative director and published by EA. And a month after the game was released, developer Ascendant Studio laid off 40 employees. Immortals of Aveum was not made by a small developer. It was not made on a tight budget. Read more
GamesIndustry.biz
MARCH 15, 2024
Virtuos has acquired the Los Angeles-based VFX studio Beyond-FX for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2015, Beyond-FX is a co-development studio that provides VFX for AAA games, having worked on titles such as Mortal Kombat 1, Valorant, and God of War.
GamesIndustry.biz
AUGUST 22, 2024
We do have AAA games that are in development," he says. We've announced some of the partnerships that we have with the likes of Starbreeze and Gameloft to build D&D games.
GamesIndustry.biz
MAY 14, 2024
Some are bemoaned for crippling previously successful studios with the imposition of unwanted live service models, while others are lamented for implementing unpopular matchmaking algorithms that prioritise retention over connection quality or fair team composition.
GamesIndustry.biz
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
It refers to the fact the PlayStation studio will have released three major PS5 games in three years, while other AAA developers have yet to manage one. And it's a big studio with multiple teams. It's a question I've encountered a few times in recent years. Of course, Insomniac's games aren't exactly 100-hour epic RPGs.
Ask a Game Dev
MARCH 12, 2024
I've seen plenty of programmers who had experience working at smaller or mobile studios move to AAA games and many go in reverse. When we hire engineers for game dev, be it AAA or indie, we look for candidates who can work with a team and have a knack for solving problems with performant, legible, and elegant code.
GamesIndustry.biz
AUGUST 17, 2023
Prytania Media has announced the opening of two new AAA development studios: Fang & Claw and Dawon Entertainment. The latest additions to Prytania Media will join sister studios Possibility Space and Crop Circle Games. This studio will focus on fantasy combat sports.
GamesIndustry.biz
APRIL 9, 2024
Given the widespread contractions the industry has seen in the past year and ProbablyMonsters' own willingness to part ways with Firewalk, it's interesting to see the company seemingly return to growing its development footprint, but Ryan tells GamesIndustry.biz it's far from unexpected.
GamesIndustry.biz
NOVEMBER 23, 2023
Since 2017, the company has acquired almost 90 businesses, ranging from smaller developers like Zen Studios, to AAA studios such as Gearbox and Crystal Dynamics, to non-games firms like tabletop leader Asmodee, comics publisher Dark Horse Media, and even Lord of the Rings owner Middle-Earth Enterprises.
GamesIndustry.biz
AUGUST 15, 2024
Rare studio boss Craig Duncan and chief of staff Harriet Manson will join Dlala CEO Aj Grand-Scrutton and COO Gemma Foster in a discussion around the rapid rate of change happening inside and outside of the games industry, such as on-going challenges posed by economic, political and global unrest. Tickets are on sale here.
GamesIndustry.biz
AUGUST 23, 2024
Techland's Tymon Smektała, franchise director for the hit Dying Light series, expects more developers to focus on shorter, standalone games instead — or at least in between — hundred-hour AAA blockbusters in future.
GamesIndustry.biz
JULY 11, 2024
The company will provide funding and marketing support to the studios its signs with, drawing on its team's experience working on a range of titles over more than 20 years, including a mix of indie titles and AAA blockbusters.
GamesIndustry.biz
MAY 10, 2024
Xbox president Sarah Bond says that Microsoft's shuttering of four Bethesda studios is to ensure the firm's business is "healthy for the long term." Bond was asked how consumers should understand the shuttering decision in terms of the firm's commitment to developing exclusive games.
GamesIndustry.biz
NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Over the past twenty years, the scope, budget and audience expectations of games have inflated, and smaller studios are left seemingly locked in a cycle of diminishing returns on increasingly ambitious productions. Savvy studios seeking more immediate return on their investments might seek other, more cost-effective approaches to game design.
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