Sat.Jun 10, 2023 - Fri.Jun 16, 2023

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Sony's choice to delay first-party games on PlayStation Plus is paying off

Game Developer

PlayStation's subscription head claims its first-party games' post-launch arrival on PlayStation Plus has helped grow the service's player base.

Games 267
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FF16's demo is a masterclass in pre-launch marketing | Opinion

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox It's rare to be able to watch public opinion about a game change in real time – and in the cases when we do, it's usually not a change for the better. Goodwill for a game (or for any other product or brand) is usually built up slowly but squandered quickly. It's been refreshing, therefore, to watch the incredibly positive swing in opinion and word of mouth about Final Fantasy 16 this week, following the release of

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Analysis: Embracer’s financial trouble is late-stage capitalism destroying creativity

PreMortem.Games

After its rapid rise to become Europe’s largest and most valuable game publisher, Embracer suffered a $2 billion loss on the eve of its most recent earnings and woke up this week to a company-wide restructuring plan. We’re treated to an incredible exercise in the destruction of value. Today, Embracer in its entirety is worth $3 billion, roughly the same as what it paid for Asmodee in December 2021.

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Compiling Unreal Engine 5 Dedicated Servers for AWS Graviton EC2 Instances

AWS Games

Epic Games (Epic) is a leading interactive entertainment company and provider of Unreal Engine (UE), one of the most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tools that powers some of the world’s leading games including Fortnite, and is also utilized by creators across industries to deliver cutting-edge experiences. Epic Games and AWS recently collaborated to introduce AWS Graviton instance support for Unreal Engine.

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Opinion: Embracer's plan for The Lord of the Rings is bad for everyone

Game Developer

Embracer has announced its intention to "exploit" its ownership of The Lord of the Rings. That plan is doomed to fail.

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After 13 years, Remedy's dream of Alan Wake 2 is real – and it's really going for it

GamesIndustry.biz

Remedy's last game, Control, was a real breakout hit for the developer. Released in 2019, the action adventure attracted ten million players and plenty of critical praise. So the smart business play would be to double down and immediately begin work on a sequel. But Remedy didn't do that. Although more Control is coming, the Finnish studio has chosen to do something decidedly more risky and build a sequel to its 2010 Xbox game, Alan Wake.

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Developer Shares Building Fabrics, Ropes, And Soft Bodies

Cocos

A dev, Night by Night 00, shared his work on building warpable and wearable materials for games. Though not fully complete, the demos already show a lot of progress, and the developer is selling their findings on the Cocos store for Chinese developers. The developers love it, so we thought we’d share the insights this developer gave with our Western community.

Build 98
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Diablo IV 's development was set back by Blizzard's developer shuffles

Game Developer

A new report shows how Diablo IV's development was tainted by Blizzard Entertainment's culture once its original director and designer were brought on.

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Embracer announces restructuring program, studio closures expected

GamesIndustry.biz

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Embracer has announced a restructuring program, which will lead to studio closures. The "comprehensive" program, CEO Lars Wingefors said, is to "better optimise the use of [Embracer's] resources.

Studios 145
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From extra content to extra revenue: DLC works best for strategy games

PreMortem.Games

Top image: Europa Universalis IV expansion, Lions of the North Downloadable content (DLC) has become an essential tool for game developers and publishers. It enhances the gameplay experience, provides additional content, and attracts new players. With the rise of live-service games, releasing constant new content has become crucial. Successful DLC prolongs a game’s lifespan and generates additional revenue beyond the initial release.

Content 104
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Developer Shares Building Fabrics, Ropes, And Soft Bodies

Cocos

A dev, Night by Night 00, shared his work on building warpable and wearable materials for games. Though not fully complete, the demos already show a lot of progress, and the developer is selling their findings on the Cocos store for Chinese developers. The developers love it, so we thought we’d share the insights this developer gave with our Western community.

Build 98
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Report: FTC to file injunction to block Microsoft-Activision merger

Game Developer

The FTC is reportedly preparing to file an injunction against Microsoft to further back back against the developer's merger with Activison-Blizzard.

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What crisis? Xbox plays its hand, and it's impressive | Opinion

GamesIndustry.biz

Ahead of Xbox's latest showcase, Phil Spencer took to the stage to speak with fans. During it, he apologised for being emotional on a podcast – referring to his appearance on Kinda Funny, where he reacted to the poor performance of Bethesda's Redfall, and expressed his frustration with the console business. I don't believe he should apologise for anything.

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Most Popular Programming Languages for Game Development

Real Programming

When parents think of video games, they might think of grainy computer games that seemed miraculous because kids could play them at home rather than in the arcade. True, parents today didn’t grow up pumping quarters into pinball machines, but video games have come a long way in just the past few years. Today, the value of the video game industry has eclipsed Hollywood.

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Kim Parker Adcock on harnessing the potential of neuro-divergent talent in the games industry

Game Development News

Neuro-divergency in games was discussed at length at the inaugural UK Games Mental Health Summit last month and One Player Mission’s Kim Parker Adcock was taking notes

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People Can Fly enters work-for-hire deal with Microsoft on Xbox series

Game Developer

Outriders developer People Can Fly is teaming with Microsoft to develop a game based on e currently unknown Xbox franchise.

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Xbox: We will do a $1bn on PC this year

GamesIndustry.biz

Xbox chief Phil Spencer says Microsoft will generate $1 billion from PC games this year. In a panel called 'What's Next For Gaming', Spencer observes that contrary to popular opinion, Xbox is a far bigger business today than it was during the Xbox 360 era. Part of that is the growth it's seen on other platforms, including PC. He reiterates the company's mission to bring "new players and new creators" to what gaming is all about, for the benefit of everyone in the games industry, not just Xbox.

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Efficient Log Analysis with ChatGPT: Boosting QA Efficiency

Rocket Brush Studio

Log analysis is a critical aspect of the quality assurance (QA) process, enabling testers and developers to uncover defects, diagnose issues, and enhance application performance. To meet the growing demand for efficient and accurate log analysis, organizations are increasingly adopting automated log data analysis like ChatGPT. In this article, we will explore how leveraging ChatGPT enhances log analysis, boosts productivity, and delivers exceptional testing outcomes.

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How to add VR support to your Universal Render Pipeline project

Unity Blog

Learn how to quickly add VR support to your existing Universal Render Pipeline (URP) project by taking advantage of the XR Plug-in Management and XR Interaction (XRI) Toolkit packages.

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Cyberpunk 2077 director says CD Projekt Red's work culture has improved

Game Developer

CD Projekt Red director Gabe Amatangelo explains how the studio's culture has changed as it's developed the Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077.

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PlayStation confident in PS Plus strategy as it readies PS5 game streaming

GamesIndustry.biz

PlayStation is testing cloud streaming with PS5 games, and will make it available to PS Plus Premium subscribers. The service will include PS5 titles from the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Game Trials, as well as 'supported' digital PS5 games that players already own. Players will only be able to stream these games to PS5 consoles for now, reveals Nick Maguire, who is the company's vice president and global head of subscriptions.

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Film production management decoded: Lessons from iconic films

Filmustage

The unsung heroes behind the scenes, the production management team, play a critical role in transforming a simple script into a cinematic masterpiece. Dissecting film production management Understanding the labyrinth that is production management is critical to appreciating the filmmaking process. A perfect example of effective production management can be seen in the creation of the iconic film "12 Angry Men" (1957).

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Horror

iHobo

Ten Player Motives #6 Why do we love horror? It's a question that has provoked a great deal of debate, but the two most important things to understand about the horror motive are that it is about indulging in unpleasant feelings, and that precisely because it's about nasty things, it's not for everyone. Indeed, the absolutely vital point about the horror motive is that if you choose to include it, you're excluding some proportion of your possible audience.

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Microsoft reaffirms first-party ambitions with impressive Xbox Games Showcase

Game Developer

Long-awaited updates and major reveals indicate Microsoft could finally be about to make good on its promise of a first-party renaissance for Xbox players.

Games 230
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Diablo 4 ends Zelda's four-week stay at No.1 | UK Boxed Charts

GamesIndustry.biz

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has finally lost its No.1 status in the UK Boxed Charts. At four weeks, it is the longest time a game in the series has held the top spot. The Nintendo Switch release saw sales fall 36% over the week before. That means the new No.1 is Activision Blizzard's Diablo 4. The game didn't sell particularly big numbers at boxed retail, and its launch week sits well behind Zelda, Hogwarts Legacy, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Resident Evil 4 and Dead Island 2.

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Digital cinematography: A new era in the evolution of filmmaking

Filmustage

This groundbreaking shift not only altered the way films are made but also redefined the aesthetic aspects of cinema, reshaping the visual storytelling landscape. The advent of digital cameras in film production The emergence of the digital camera marked a new era in film production. George Lucas' "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002) was one of the first major motion pictures shot entirely with digital cameras, sparking a significant shift in the industry.

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The 2023 Mobile Growth and Monetization Report is here

Unity Blog

Discover data-backed insights to help your monetization and user acquisition strategies achieve more with less.

Mobile 105
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The best free tools for narrative games

Game Developer

The best free tools for writing and creating narrative games, from Twine to Ren'Py to Decker and much more.

Writing 272
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FTC asks court to prevent Microsoft closing Activision Blizzard deal early

GamesIndustry.biz

At a glance: The Federal Trade Commission has asked a US court to prevent Microsoft from completing its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard before the Commission's legal challenge against the deal has been addressed. In a new court filing to the US District Court of Northern California, spotted by VGC , the FTC requested a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against both Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, claiming to two companies "have represented that they may consum

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Industry Voices: Social mobility and the games industry: how an industry worth £4.6 billion is failing its talent

Game Development News

Dan Ahern, QA lead at Radical Forge talks about social mobility in the games industry - MCV/DEVELOP

Mobile 105
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MetaHuman Animator Released by Epic Games

Game From Scratch

GameFromScratch.com MetaHuman Animator Released by Epic Games First announced at GDC 2023, today Epic Games have released MetaHuman Animator for it’s life-like human creation tool MetaHuman Creator. MetaHuman Animator enables developers to easy create facial animations for Metahumans, including a new suite of facial animation capture tools that can be used with a single iPhone device.

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FTC awarded temporary restraining order to halt Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal

Game Developer

Microsoft will now be unable to close the deal until a court has considered the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction.

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"Microsoft had already loaded Sony's gun" | 10 Years Ago This Month

GamesIndustry.biz

The games industry moves pretty fast, and there's a tendency for all involved to look constantly to what's next without so much worrying about what came before. That said, even an industry so entrenched in the now can learn from its past. So to refresh our collective memory and perhaps offer some perspective on our field's history, GamesIndustry.biz runs this monthly feature highlighting happenings in gaming from exactly a decade ago.

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Updating Unity’s guiding principles for ethical AI

Unity Blog

As AI continues its explosive growth, Unity has updated its guiding principles to ensure that its AI tech is developed and deployed in an ethical and socially conscious manner.

AI 74