Game industry business news

In a post-match conference after their first match of the Heroes of the Storm Mid Season Brawl Loser’s Bracket taking place at Dreamhack, L5 flex player Jin ‘NaCHoJin’ Su Park said the team dropping to the lower bracket was due to “Korea improving at a slower rate than other regions.” When pushed …

Consoles are usually creations of compromise. They have to hit a certain price point, not be too large (or too noisy), provide future-proofed technology, and often include a range of other media features. The original Xbox One was simply stretched too thin. It was bulky, relatively underpowered and weighed down by …

One the most unexpected announcements of this year’s E3 was undoubtedly Ubisoft’s ambitious new toys-to-life title. At a time when some have described the sector as being doomed, with only Lego Dimensions bucking that trend, it’s a very brave move to be launching a toys-to-life title. But with Starlink: Battle …

Following its split with publisher Square Enix, IO Interactive has announced that not only has it now gone fully independent, but it’s also obtained complete control of the Hitman IP, marking a happy end to the studio’s recent misfortunes. CEO Hakan Abrak broke the news this afternoon on IO Interactive’s …

After a relatively quiet week at Japanese retail, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is back at the top of Japan’s weekly charts, according to the latest numbers from Famitsu. The title had been inched out of the number one spot for a couple of weeks following the launch of Nihon Falcom’s …

MIDiA Research’s lead analyst for research on games and the mobile content economy Karol Severin shares his views on Nintendo’s recent game announcements and how they look set to prepare the platform holder for the launch of its Online Service. He can be reached @karel_kayo Nintendo made a number of game …

Finnish publisher and developer Next Games has landed the rights for a mobile game based on upcoming sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049. The game comes as a result of a direct partnership with Blade Runner 2049 production company Alcon Entertainment. Details about the nature of the title have not yet …

Academic studies of video games have long pondered the relative merits of gameplay vs story, or ludology vs narratology as it’s often called. While we leave such critical musings to the experts, the debate has rarely been played out in such stark terms across the two primary platform holders’ showcases. …

Almost two years on from a damning report about life for Konami workers, fresh allegations have been made about the company’s treatment of its workforce. Specifically, it has been alleged that Konami makes a pro-active effort to prevent former workers from gaining new employment. Nikkei reports that a former Kojima …

There has been much debate about Microsoft’s decision to price the Xbox One X at 449 ($499 in the US). That’s the same price the original Xbox One launched at (and the PS3, for that matter) but $100 more than both the PS4 and PS4 Pro launch prices. Speaking to …