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February 2020 Archive

    1. GDC 2020 postponed
    1. Eve Fanfest 2020 cancelled
    2. Amazon, Blizzard withdraw from GDC
    3. Capcom Pro Tour cancels three events over outbreak
    4. End Game Interactive closes $3m seed funding round
    5. Microsoft and Epic pull out of GDC
    6. Creative Chronicles: Analysing AI behaviour in Total War
    7. EMEAA January Report: Nintendo Switch accounts for 52% of all console sales
    8. Iron Galaxy Studios latest to withdraw from GDC
    9. Facebook cancels F8 conference over "growing concerns" around coronavirus
    10. Xbox Series X gets its first great soundbite | Opinion
    1. Larian plays dungeon master for a new era of Baldur's Gate
    2. IEM Katowice will go on without an audience
    3. Epic questions SuperData on Fortnite figures
    4. Plague Inc. pulled from Chinese App Store
    5. NetEase revenue and profits ride high on the back of diverse portfolio
    6. Unity pulls out of GDC as coronavirus "presents too much risk"
    7. Kwalee and the power of profit sharing
    8. China and Asia show their influence over the top grossing mobile games
    9. My.Games annual revenue spikes by 23% to $474m
    10. FunCraft raises $1.8 million
    11. Konami Code creator Kazuhisa Hashimoto has died
    12. Designing the end of all Longing
    13. Roblox closes $150m funding round
    14. Microsoft expects to miss Q3 targets due to coronavirus
    15. Hideo Kojima to receive BAFTA Fellowship
    1. Roberta Williams to receive GDCA Pioneer Award
    2. Platinum Games opening new Tokyo studio
    3. Herman Miller, Logitech G collaborating on a chair
    4. GOG expands refund policy to 30 days
    5. TIGA principles for protecting players are quietly radical | Opinion
    6. San Francisco declares "local health emergency" over coronavirus
    7. Panic Art Studios CEO posts racist remarks on Twitter
    8. NHS' gaming addiction clinic only needed by 'a very small percentage'
    9. Sonic the Hedgehog beats Detective Pikachu in US opening weekend
    10. CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp cancel event plans due to coronavirus
    1. Facebook acquires Sanzaru Games
    2. Newzoo: Global esports market will reach $1.1b in 2020
    3. National Videogame Museum launches new games preservation initiative
    4. Xbox boss calls for greater transparency on key issues
    5. What to do when your video game leaks
    6. FIFA pro player banned from EA games and services for code conduct violations
    7. Sega invests in music startup Flutin
    8. EA pulls out of GDC over coronavirus fears
    9. Capcom developers, Square Enix bow out of PAX East
    1. GameStop's concept stores: A "laboratory," not a Hail Mary
    2. Microsoft confirms more Xbox Series X details
    3. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: How will coronavirus affect the games industry?
    4. Activision goes after Reddit to expose Call of Duty leaker
    5. GamesIndustry.biz HERoes awards set for Rezzed
    6. Six common mistakes when moving to live-service games and free-to-play
    7. Bethesda pulls games from GeForce Now, more publishers may follow
    8. Games' European mobile market share expected to shrink to 55% by 2022
    9. PlayStation and Facebook cancel GDC appearances citing coronavirus concerns
    10. Boston mayor petitions Sony to reconsider PAX East withdrawal
    11. New legal counsel takes over class action lawsuit against Riot Games
    1. UK Charts: Bayonetta and Vanquish return to Top Ten
    1. Black Desert Online and the diverging MMO ecosystem
    2. Adapting to the evolution of esports
    3. Kunai becomes the latest title review bombed on Metacritic by a single person
    4. Creative Chronicles: Total War character art tutorial
    5. The Witcher 3's has generated $50m on Steam since October 2018
    6. NACE partners with Skillshot Media for collegiate esports program
    7. Employees say "sheer desperation" drives GameStop's aggressive sales tactics
    8. Changes to the GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit at PAX East
    9. COVID-19 looms over planning for next-gen launches | Opinion
    10. Pokemon Home first week downloads reached 1.3m
    1. Eli Roth to direct Borderlands movie
    2. Private Division moves Kerbal Space Program 2 development to new, internal studio
    3. Tempo Storm raises $3.3 million
    4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons lost save files can only be recovered once
    5. Deathtrap Dungeon adaptation aims to demonstrate the true potential of interactive fiction
    6. On Kirby 64 and Impressionism
    7. Kixeye lays off around 20
    8. Italian trade body rebrands to IIDEA
    9. Giants opening Chicago office
    10. UK Monthly Report: GTA V and Nintendo Switch Lite shine in quiet January
    11. Make-A-Wish launches GameStars charity intiative
    12. Starbreeze looks toward Payday 3 with $5m share sale
    13. Cyberpunk 2077 coming to GeForce Now with ray tracing
    14. Australian retailers limit Ring Fit Adventure sales as resellers and coronavirus cause stock shortage
    15. EVE Online players raise over $100,000 for Australian bushfire relief
    16. Metro Exodus off to strong start on Steam, despite Epic exclusivity
    17. Game crunch lessons: How to avoid game development crunch
    18. Netmarble's full year sales are up, but profit is down
    1. Sony drops out of PAX East due to novel coronavirus concerns
    2. Ultimatum Games shuts down
    3. The GamesIndustry.biz Readership Survey
    4. THQ Nordic parent Embracer Group now has 26 studios, more to be announced
    5. Jobs Roundup: Gio Corsi's new role is with Predator: Hunting Grounds studio IllFonic
    6. GTA IV returns to Steam with Complete Edition next month
    7. Fortnite and FIFA honoured at the Game Shaker Awards 2020
    8. Stillfront Group posts record annual profits
    9. Eve Online shooter Project Nova is not cancelled, it's just changing
    10. The ten commandments of indie survival
    11. Embracer Group acquires Saber Interactive in $525m deal
    1. ESL, DreamHack sign revenue-sharing deal with 13 esports teams
    2. Kickstarter becomes one of the first major US tech companies to unionize
    3. Stadia expands to support some non-Google mobile devices
    4. Dreams: Critical Consensus
    5. Why Warface surprise launched on Switch today
    6. Paradox Interactive sees record user numbers as annual profits rise
    7. Official PlayStation forums closing next week
    8. YouTube reportedly paid $160m for Activision Blizzard esports exclusivity
    9. How to build a games studio free of toxicity
    1. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: The curious case of Tim Sweeney's keynote
    2. Lydia developer's quest to make a 'feel bad' game about substance abuse
    3. Develop:Brighton adds Mobile track to its 2020 conference
    4. "It'd be quite nice to make something that wasn't quite so whimsical"
    5. Activision Blizzard pulls all games from GeForce Now a week after launch
    6. HQ Trivia shuts down
    1. UK Charts: PS4 exclusives Yakuza and Dreams crack Top Ten
    1. NPD: January sales down 26% year-over-year
    2. Tekken 7 surpasses five million lifetime sales
    3. "The people in the suits, in the expensive boardrooms, are nerds now"
    4. Creative Chronicles: Managing complexity in game audio
    5. Remedy holds steady, posting solid growth across the board
    6. Wizards of the Coast reveals new studio headed up by BioWare veterans
    7. Expensive components drive PS5 production costs to $450 per unit
    8. Anthem gets a rare second chance | Opinion
    9. Untitled Goose Game wins Game of the Year at DICE Awards 2020
    10. Australian games industry bodies set to merge
    1. Nexon's Korean business holds full-year revenues steady despite declines in China
    2. GDC gives COVID19 update
    3. Let's talk insurance for your games business
    4. Former Starbreeze CFO convicted of insider trading
    5. Amiqus' G Into Gaming launches free service improve industry diversity
    6. Sony Pictures and Tencent partner on Crossfire movie
    7. Blind Squirrel Games' decade-long drift from work-for-hire to original IP
    8. Microsoft testing Project xCloud streaming service on iOS
    9. Disney wants developers to "reimagine" its IP for video games
    10. The risky business of sexuality in games
    1. Epic Games hires Adam Sussman as president
    2. ESA names 10 companies still attending E3
    3. Mobile World Congress Barcelona show cancelled over virus fears
    4. Lineage 2 M surpasses $152m in three months
    5. Sweeney criticizes "customer adversarial" industry tactics
    6. Geoff Keighley will not participate in E3 2020
    7. Games industry faces major disruption across all sectors as coronavirus spreads
    8. Bit Fry backers invest additional $3.5 million
    9. Double Loop Games raises over $2.5m for mobile games
    10. Azerion acquires remainder of Spil Games
    11. Accessible design and focusing on the gaps
    12. Check out the full GamesIndustry.biz Investment Summit PAX East schedule
    13. EA will move Need for Speed development back to Criterion
    14. Rovio profits tumble as Hatch continues draining resources
    15. Kojima Productions joins bushfire relief efforts
    1. Xbox to donate up to $250k to veteran support group OSD
    2. Atari acquires assets from tech start-up Wonder
    3. Nintendo will no longer work with outlet that leaked Pokemon Sword and Shield details
    4. Black game pros assess industry's diversity efforts
    5. How Star Trek Online managed to live long and prosper
    6. 2K Silicon Valley studio becomes 31st Union and expands to Spain
    7. Sony files patent which encourages stuck players to spend money on DLC
    8. Starbreeze relies on Payday as full-year losses increase to $12m
    9. System Shock 3 development staff reportedly "no longer with the studio"
    10. Supercell to "slow growth significantly" in coming year
    11. Amber opens new Mexico studio
    1. PUBG Mobile was the top-grossing mobile game for the fifth month in a row
    2. ForwardXP establishes new games division, Forward Game Studios
    3. Phil Spencer: "There's no slide deck that says we want to turn everyone into a subscriber"
    4. Nioh has sold over 3m copies worldwide
    5. Sony paid $229 million for Insomniac
    6. Anthem team ditches major seasonal updates in favor of "longer-term redesign"
    7. PitStop Productions opens new Croydon studio, expands Northern facilities
    8. IronSource launches new mobile studio Supersonic Games
    9. The road to removing crunch is a long one | Opinion
    10. How will Brexit affect investment opportunities for the UK games industry?
    11. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Why Xbox is targeting Amazon and Google
    12. How to get the best game publishing deal
    13. Yager receives strategic investment from Tencent
    14. UK spend on Video Games Tax Relief rose to record £582.6m in 2019
    15. Humble Bundle joins efforts to raise money for Australian bushfire relief
    16. THQ Nordic opens new studio Nine Rock Games
    1. UK Charts: FIFA 20 reclaims No.1 and Ring Fit Adventure re-enters Top Five
    1. Nintendo: Switch "just entering the middle of its lifecycle"
    2. With no profit motive, new kids' mobile IP from BBC focuses on a "safe gaming experience"
    3. Have we got Google Stadia all wrong? | Opinion
    4. Glu Mobile avoids second year of loss thanks to Q4 surge
    5. Hitmarker: Number of full-time esports jobs doubled last year
    6. Who are Microsoft's "real" competitors? | Opinion
    7. Creative Chronicles: The sweet spot of asymmetric design
    8. New Zealand's games industry has doubled revenue in two years
    1. Blizzard president on Warcraft 3 Reforged: "We stand behind our games"
    2. Call of Duty rises as rest of Activision Blizzard stumbles
    3. Grand Theft Auto Online just had its best holiday quarter ever
    4. InnoGames mobile revenue up 14% year-over-year
    5. Beyond Good & Evil 2 isn't part of Ubisoft's plans for next fiscal year
    6. Ubisoft quarterly revenues down 26%
    7. Nexon Korea and union agree on pay raises
    8. $1.4bn divestment offsets modest annual loss for MTG
    9. Putting together an All-Star team of sports licenses
    10. Light Brick wants to rebuild how we play with digital Lego
    11. How to get your game funded at PAX
    12. Take-Two stock slumps following Dan Houser's departure from Rockstar
    13. Steam reached nearly 95m MAUs in 2019
    1. Where now for Gears of War?
    2. The Coalition's Rod Fergusson leaves Gears of War for Diablo
    3. Zynga posts record full-year revenues
    4. DeNA reassessing games strategy as older titles fail to deliver
    5. Major esport organisations launch new team-owned CS:GO league
    6. Bleszinski regrets being too political with LawBreakers
    7. Phil Spencer: "We see Amazon and Google as the main competitors"
    8. Nacon buys Rig headset brand from Plantronics
    9. How to identify and avoid unconscious bias
    10. Modl.ai closes $1.7m seed funding round
    11. Cheat software: Can publishers level the playing field?
    12. Improbable acquires game hosting service company Zeuz
    13. Sega lowers full-year forecast on soft Q3 packaged sales
    14. Electric Square opens Singapore studio
    1. Dan Houser departs Rockstar Games
    2. PlayStation to close Manchester VR studio
    3. Code Vein has sold over one million copies
    4. DeNA shuts down two of its Japanese mobile titles
    5. Nvidia launches GeForce Now cloud gaming service at $4.99/month
    6. Sony gaming revenue and profit on the decline as new console generation looms
    7. Exploring new frontiers of color with The Outer Worlds
    8. Amazon, Wired Productions and Irregular Corporation join PAX Investment Summit
    9. ESA launches Game Generation campaign to highlight positive impact of gaming
    10. The games industry continues to rally behind Australian bushfire relief
    11. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne boosts profits at Capcom
    12. What I learned about community management from my immigrant parents
    13. Mediatonic to close Fable Fortunes servers in March
    14. The UK games industry is still overwhelmingly young, white, and male
    1. Nicolas Doucet named PlayStation Japan studio head
    2. Nintendo's latest subscription model is attached to Fire Emblem Heroes
    3. Platinum Games enters self-publishing with Wonderful 101 Kickstarter
    4. Mediatonic to open Leamington Spa studio
    5. The GamesIndustry.biz Podcast: Do numbers matter?
    6. Are gamers scarier than biker gangs?
    7. Supercell backs new mobile studio formed by EA DICE veterans
    8. Ubisoft acquires free-to-play mobile dev Kolibri Games
    9. The mobile games market is getting bigger -- and not just for the top ten
    10. Kentucky officials trying to ban Fortnite from varsity esports
    11. PlayStation game sales pass one billion units
    12. Koei Tecmo games profits slide in slow Q3
    13. UK Charts: Nintendo Switch games dominate as stock shortages end