Game industry business news

2017’s biggest hit will be arriving on Xbox One on December 12th. As it did on PC, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will launch as an Early Access title via the Xbox Game Preview program. The Xbox version will arrive with vaulting enabled – a feature that is due to hit the PUBG …

A fierce debate has been raging since Sony decided to portray two of its biggest upcoming titles with scenes of violence towards women. The trailers for both The Last of Us 2 and Detroit shown at Sony’s Paris Games Week showcase earlier this week depicted scenes that have upset some …

Star Wars Battlefront 2 expected to perform well as shares drop by 3 per cent

Data from Kantar Worldpanel suggests that physical games sales have enjoyed a surprise surge. UK physical entertainment spend for the quarter ending September was up 2.2 per cent across all sectors, but it was video games that saw the strongest growth – 26 per cent. That offset decline of 5.4 …

AR specialist Reality Gaming Group has hired Fiddlesticks co-founder and BAFTA Breakthrough Brit winner Henry Hoffman. Hoffman will work on the company’s underlying tech, joining existing team members Paul Mottram (lead developer) and Ben Hebb (executive producer). The company has also expanded its Philippines development hub. The studio is currently …

Nintendo has revealed that mobile title Super Mario Run has now been downloaded 200m times. Of that total, 90 per cent have come from outside of the Japanese market. Run is initially free to download but then requires a purchase to unlock all but the earliest game content. And it …

Nintendo has said that it estimates recent release Super Mario Odyssey has sold around 2m copies in its first two days on sale. That equates to a little more than one in every four Switch owners buying a copy. In the UK, Mario just missed out on the chart top …

Esports website Slingshot Esports is closing its doors today, ceasing operations after two years. CEO Joe Ragazzo posted a statement to the website on Monday, entitled“A letter to our readers.”In the post, Ragazzo mentions that Slingshot was unable to find the funding to continue to operate. Slingshot was well regarded …

Icelandic games giant CCP has called time on its big virtual reality adventure. CCP was one of the earliest and largest supporters of VR, but has now announced its intentions to quit the sector. The move comes at the cost of 100 jobs and two studios. Its Atalanta office is …

After its first year on the market PS VR stands at something of a crossroads as we approach the key retail quarter. Today at Paris Games Week it showcased a raft of titles for the device, undoubtedly to get the platform moving before the key sales season – waiting for …