Sat.Sep 16, 2023 - Fri.Sep 22, 2023

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Starfield is the fifth biggest game launch in Europe this year (so far)

GamesIndustry.biz

Starfield was comfortably No.1 across Europe during its launch week, GSD data shows. The Xbox game, which is also on PC, became the fastest-selling new IP of the year, and the fifth fastest-selling game of the year overall. Its launch sales are ahead of Final Fantasy 16 and Resident Evil 4, but behind Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo IV, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Fantasy 145
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Unity apologizes to devs, reveals updated Runtime Fee policy

Game Developer

Unity's updated Runtime Fee will no longer apply to games made on Unity Personal, and will only apply beginning with the next LTS version of Unity.

Dev 363
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Trending Sources

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An open letter to our community

Unity Blog

An open letter from Marc Whitten to the Unity community in September 2023.

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AppLovin Launch Project Unifree

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com AppLovin Launch Project Unifree Last week Unity announced their new Unity Runtime Fee, which was met with more or less universal hatred. News got worse after that, when it was discovered Unity had quietly altered their terms of service and that Unity reps were reaching out to clients saying they wouldn’t have to pay … AppLovin Launch Project Unifree Read More The post AppLovin Launch Project Unifree appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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Bandai Namco: "Every publisher has to focus more on their own expertise"

GamesIndustry.biz

2022 was a stellar year for Bandai Namco thanks to Elden Ring's critical and commercial success. As a result, 2023 felt like it was all going to be about maintaining that momentum. When we ask Bandai Namco Europe CEO Arnaud Muller about how well the company has managed to rise to that challenge this year, he first points to Elden Ring's DLC, the Shadow of the Erdtree, announced earlier this year and due to release soon.

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Embracer open to divesting studios, confirms more closures on the horizon

Game Developer

"On the divestment side there is a strong vibrant market with many, many active players.

Studios 364
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Unity’s Trap

Tom Francis

Last week, Unity announced that they will soon start charging developers $0.20 each time their games are installed, past certain (high) thresholds. This came as a surprise to me and a few thousand other developers who chose Unity, invested in it, and paid for it in large part because they told us they wouldn’t take any of our revenue. The reaction has been huge, but it’s not clear yet if Unity will make it right.

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Video game and console sales jump in Europe during August | European Monthly Charts

GamesIndustry.biz

10.7 million video games from AAA publishers were sold across Europe last month, GSD data reports. That's a rise of nearly 29% over August last year. It's an impressive result, especially as the big game of August - Baldur's Gate 3 - is not counted in this data as publisher Larian is not part of the GSD panel. Instead, FIFA 23 is No.1. The football game saw a particularly big spike in sales on Nintendo Switch, as the game was on offer via the Nintendo eShop.

Console 145
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Embracer has conducted layoffs at Tomb Raider dev Crystal Dynamics

Game Developer

Embracer continues to enact layoffs at its various subsidiaries, with the newest round said to be hitting various departments at Crystal Dynamics.

Dev 363
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Hey Unity!

Indie DB

Here are some of my thoughts about the very wonky situation regarding Unity's "Runtime Fee"

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Using Asset Store Assets In Other Engines — Is It Legal?

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Using Asset Store Assets In Other Engines — Is It Legal? This is a question that comes up quite often in video comments, is it legal to use the assets from the asset store of one game engine, in a different game engine? Perhaps you want to take advantage of giveaways or sales that are happening on a game engine that … Using Asset Store Assets In Other Engines — Is It Legal?

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Unity reportedly told dev Planned Parenthood and children's hospital are "not valid charities"

GamesIndustry.biz

Developers of indie puzzle game Orgynizer have claimed that Unity said organisations like Planned Parenthood are "not valid charities" and are instead "political groups." In a blog post, the EU-based developer LizardFactory said the plans to charge developers up to $0.20 per install if they reach certain thresholds would cost them "around 30% of the funds we have gathered and already sent to charity.

Puzzle 145
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Design lessons from the procedural puzzle pieces of Remnant II

Game Developer

Remnant II creative director David Adams discusses the path to making games as replayable as possible through procedural generation.

Puzzle 363
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It should’ve been Donkey Kong Racing

Keith Burgun

Feels like a “rare” few know about what an incredible game Diddy Kong Racing is. I mean, if you’re looking for a light, social party game, one where groups of players of vastly different skill levels can play together, then, as much as I hate to admit it, Mario Kart is better (that is, all of the Mario Karts except for Super and Super Circuit— more on that later).

Racing 111
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Re-Logic Make Huge Donation To MonoGame

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Re-Logic Make Huge Donation To MonoGame Perhaps the most uplifting story resulting from the Unity Runtime Fee fallout, was the announcement yesterday that Re-Logic, the maker of Terraria would be supporting Godot and FNA with large monetary donations. FNA is actually a fork of another popular open source game development project, MonoGame.

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EGDF calls for EU regulation on non-negotiable contracts in wake of Unity backlash

GamesIndustry.biz

The European Games Developer Federation has voiced its concerns over Unity's Runtime Fee, talking about "looming game engine market failure." The EGDF published a statement on its website on Thursday , describing Unity's change as "unfortunate," adding that with these "sudden and drastic changes" the engine firm has "significantly damaged its reputation as a reliable and predictable business partner.

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From Unity to Godot in a Weekend

Game Developer

Thinking of making the switch from Unity? Here are some tips from a developer who's been through the process.

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Mastering Metaverse: John Krajewski’s Eco Adventure

Game Dev Unchained

The world of gaming is always on the brink of something new, something vast, something that promises to change how we play and interact in virtual spaces. I sat down with John Krajewski , the man behind the unique and forward-thinking game, Eco. The conversation shifted from the nuances of game development to the larger, looming concept of the “metaverse.” “I’m the founder and CEO of Strange Loop Games,” began Krajewski, detailing his journey from working on AAA tit

Indy 105
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Unity Announce Massive Pricing Changes

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com Unity Announce Massive Pricing Changes Unity started a firestorm off a week ago when they announced a poorly thought out and overreaching Unity Runtime Fee and to say that Unity developers didn’t like it would be a bit of an understatement. This was back on September 12th and finally on September 22nd they have announced … Unity Announce Massive Pricing Changes Read More The post Unity Announce Massive Pricing Changes appeared first on GameFromScratch.com.

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UK minister defends CMA's decision to block MS/ABK

GamesIndustry.biz

UK business minister Kemi Badenoch has defended the Competition and Market Authority's decision to block the Microsoft-Activision deal. As reported by Reuters , the UK government's Secretary of State for Business and Trade was questioned about Microsoft president Brad Smith's comment that the CMA block was "bad for Britain" and that the CMA has a "flawed understanding" of cloud streaming services.

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Insomniac Games is still supporting remote employees

Game Developer

Remote work has been an important part of game development in recent years, and Insomniac continues to stand by it.

Games 356
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5 Best Approaches to Monetize a Board Game Idea

Logic Simplified

In order to monetize your board game idea successfully, you must first understand what your gamers expect from your games and how much they are willing to spend. By understanding the players’ behavior and preferences, you can tailor your monetization strategy to meet their needs. In this blog post, we will explore the five best approaches to monetizing your board game idea, enabling you to optimize the potential of your app and achieve financial success.

Games 105
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The Art of The Creator: Designs of Futures Past

Concept Art World

Concept Art World The Art of The Creator: Designs of Futures Past Dive into the making of The Creator, an original science fiction adventure from director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Godzilla), with this deluxe behind-the-scenes book. Amid a war between humankind and rampant artificial intelligence in the not-too-distant future, Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of the advanced AI.

Art 104
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Devs on Unity Runtime Fee: "The trust is gone forever"

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox It's been almost a full week since Unity announced its controversial Runtime Fee, and the developer backlash continues. Studios around the world have expressed concerns that the new fee – charging them every time their game is installed after January 1, 2024, providing they meet certain thresholds – threatens to jeopardise the health, or even existence, of their business.

Dev 145
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Challenges in porting to Nintendo Switch - How Pingle Studio ported Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach

Game Developer

Vladyslav Popushoi, Project Lead of the UE4 Department at Pingle Studio, shares his team's experience with their successful port of the PC version of Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach to Nintendo Switch.

Studios 352
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Chicken Police at Gamescom

Indie DB

With Gamescom and PAX West happening almost back-to-back, saying we've had a busy couple of weeks would be an understatement. However, these weeks were also very exciting and inspiring! These two events were the very first opportunity for us to share.

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Ghanaian VR pioneer Caleb Mantey’s road to a Presidential Award

PreMortem.Games

It took Caleb Mantey , CTO and Co-founder of Ghanaian-based Relu Interactives , 5 years of constant rejection for his company’s innovative gamified simulation to catch a break. In August 2023, his breakthrough arrived in the form of a 150,000 Ghanaian Cedi (GHC) award and an additional 50,000 GHC personal contribution by the president of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo.

Engine 104
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Unity reportedly tells staff details of Runtime Fee backtracking

GamesIndustry.biz

Unity executives informed staff today about some of the planned revisions to the controversial Runtime Fee policy it announced last week, according to Bloomberg. In a recording of the all-hands meeting reviewed by the outlet, executives detailed a number of changes under consideration, including: While Unity CEO John Riccitiello acknowledged the company could have done a better job rolling out the Runtime Fee plan, he said, "I don't think there's any version of this that would have gone down a w

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Report: Unity narrows controversial Runtime Fee policy

Game Developer

Outcry from the game development community has led to Unity rethinking its upcoming policy change, which it still insists will affect a small amount of users.

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We Were Here Expeditions

Indie DB

Surprise! A new bite-sized game for you and your friend is available now for free on all platforms!

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Why it took Abbey Games a decade to come up with a sequel to debut hit Reus

PreMortem.Games

Dutch indie game developer Abbey Games has been on quite the journey since the release of their breakout hit, Reus , a decade ago. The studio has experienced the sweet taste of critical and commercial success but also suffered through disappointing sales results. Now, after a long wait, Abbey Games is back in action with the sequel Reus 2. Co-founder Adriaan Jansen reflects on the journey Abbey Games has taken since the release of the original Reus , stating, “We created 3 games in 10 yea

Games 104
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Most Xbox Game Pass subscribers pay full price

GamesIndustry.biz

The majority of Xbox Game Pass subscribers pay full price and use the service on console. That's according to a heavily redacted Microsoft slide deck , spotted by Tweaktown , which was among the latest wave of court documents to be released from the platform holder's legal battle against the Federal Trade Commission. Towards the end of the deck, Microsoft gave an overview of its digital gaming ecosystem as of April 2022, which showed that of the 33.6 million subscriptions on its Xbox consoles, 2

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Unity exec admits company wasn't "listening enough" to devs over Runtime Fee

Game Developer

Unity Create president Marc Whitten admitted that a year after promising to "talk more" with developers, the company still hadn't done enough listening.

Dev 342
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Starship Murder, free on Steam

Indie DB

Hey, everybody! Kuba from My Next Games here. It took me longer than I anticipated but I finally got our new game out into the world! It’s called Tales From The Arcade: Starship Murder and it’s an experimental murder mystery roguelite in which the.

Games 99
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Angel Investor Joakim Achrén • Due diligence on your startup

PreMortem.Games

Joakim Achrén helps founders build successful games companies. He’s the lead of an angel syndicate specifically for games and an investor himself. To follow his work, subscribe to elitegamedevelopers.com/newsletter Here’s his advice for startups. In 2013, the investors asked for a data room when we raised the Next Games pre-seed. I was, “Doh, we are a new company, and there are no legal docs yet.

Data 104
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The plans for Lies of P

GamesIndustry.biz

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. Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz , executives with the studio and its parent explain that they at least started with something familiar by basing the game on the story of Pinocchio.

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SAG-AFTRA: Strike authorization would provide "maximum leverage" against game companies

Game Developer

"Despite many multi-day bargaining sessions, the companies are refusing to meet our members' needs in vital areas.

Games 336