Game industry business news

Whoops. Sega has had to apologise after an update to mobile title Sonic Runners introduced a character with a rude name. The Halloween update was supposed to include ‘Boo’. Y’know, as in ‘ghost’. Instead, it actually offered a character called ‘Boob’. Y’know, as in ‘breast’. An in-game pop-up currently reads: …

Fnatic‘sBattlefield 4team have been the best in the world for some time. But now the team is quitting the game with a new pasture on the horizon. Overwatch‘s beta arrives on Tuesday and very few people have got their hands on the game. But big players in the esports scene …

Overkill has at last responded to fans who continue to be outraged by the game’s recent addition of microtransactions. The shooter’s recent Black Market update added weapon-boosting perks to the game which can be obtained via a cash-purchase. Fans were especially agitated as the developer explicitly stated in may 2013 …

Eric Neustadter departs after 18 years with the company

If Nintendo had had its way, James Bond would have killed none of his enemies in the hugely successful Goldeneye on N64. Bond is a violent franchise and making that fit with Nintendo, which is very much family-friendly, was a challenge,” the game’s co-designer Martin Hollis explained to an audience …

There’s a rumour doing the rounds that Sony could surprise the gaming world this week with a shock release of No Man’s Sky tomorrow. The root of the chat appears to be the fact that No Man’s Sky is conspicuous in its absence from Sony’s Paris Games Week activities. Sony …

Ubisoft’s London-based Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate has debuted at No.1, but its performance compared to its predecessors will be a big worry. Chart-Track says that its numbers fall short of surpassing any of the other major entries in the series”, although it did better fellow non-Ubisoft Montreal developed title Assassin’s Creed: …

The Electronic Sports League (ESL)is already one of the largest eSports organizations in the world. But it’s looking toexpandits global reachby 2017—with partnering and drug-testing key parts of the plan. ESL runs its own eSports tournamentsand partners with publishers like Blizzard Entertainment to help them organize their professional competitions, running …

It’s not even November but retailer GAME has hit go on its Christmas marketing campaign. It’s fronted by an animated chap called Gamer Claus, created by artist and illustrator Boneface. GAME describes him as an intriguing and mysterious new character”. The campaign will span TV, print and radio and run …

The PC edition of Batman: Arkham Knight will be relisted for sale on Steam later this week, Warner Bros has announced. The publisher posted the news on the game’s Steam community hub, stating it will re-release on October 28th. The game was removed from from Valve’s service in June, following …