Tag Archives: ben-parfitt

Civ 5 designer Jon Shafer leaves Paradox

Jon Shafer has left developer Paradox just six months after joining. Shafer launched a Kickstarter for strategy title At the Gates in March 2013, raising over $100k. However, after the game was delayed well beyond its 2014 release date, the developer joined Paradox in March 2017, vowing to return to …

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Budget extends UK Games Fund

Yesterday’s UK budget provided some welcome news for UK games studios, with confirmation of another £1m to extend the UK Games Fund until 2020. This falls a fair way short of the £23.7m proposed in the Independent Review of the Creative Industries just two months ago, however, although does at …

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PUBG could get a ‘socialist makeover’ in China

Tencent’s agreement to become the Chinese publisher of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in the region could result in some drastic changes to the game for Chinese players. The English language press release about Tencent and Bluehole’s partnership quotes Tencent’s senior VP Steven Ma as saying: “PUBG is currently the most popular survival …

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Hellblade reaches profitability after 500,000 sales

Ninja Theory’s experimental psychological action title Hellblade has now reached 500k units sold. That figure means the game has proved profitable, validating the studio’s decision to release a shorter, cheaper game than you’d typically find in the genre, but with a level of quality you’d expect from a premium title. …

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Gazillion staff reportedly sacked as Marvel Heroes closure is accelerated

It seems as if Marvel Heroes will close a month ahead of schedule and that its developer Gazillion has been shut down. The game’s termination was announced last week, at which time it was claimed that it would continue to operate until the end of the year. Now multiple reports, …

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F2P PixelJunk Monsters coming to mobile via Kickstarter

Q-Games wants to make a mobile version of PS3 hit PixelJunk Monsters, and has turned to Kickstarter to do it. As the game will be free-to-play, Kickstarter backers should theoretically still be able to play even without laying down cash – although should not enough people back it, it of …

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Marvel Heroes players are asking for refunds

Some players who sunk money into Marvel Heroes since its release only a few months ago are demanding refunds now the game is being shut down. Kotaku reports on the case of a player called EITTurtle who has apparently spent in the region of $400 on the game since July. …

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Now Steam tweaks review system to combat spamming

Valve’s ever-lasting attempts to ensure fair use of the Steam reviews system have now turned their attentions to the problem of review spamming. The current system in part relies on users giving existing reviews a thumbs up or thumbs down for ‘helpfulness’. Like all of these mechanisms, it relies on …

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Tencent secures PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Chinese exclusivity

While signs have suggested this for some time, it has now been officially confirmed that Tencent will be the exclusive Chinese publisher of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. VentureBeat reports that Tencent will run the game’s Chinese servers and assist developer Bluehole in tackling the proposed Chinese regulations that at one stage looked …

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Belgium Gaming Commission says loot boxes ARE gambling and wants them banned in Europe

Governments from both sides of the Atlantic have said they intend to take down video games loot boxes. PC Gamer reports that after declaring it was investigating loot boxes last week, the Belgium Gaming Commission has decided that they ARE a form of gambling. Furthermore, as a form of gambling …

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