The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a federal complaint with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, claiming that Microsoft went back on its word that no layoffs will happen at Activision Blizzard following its acquisition of the studio, which was among those that were heavily affected by the mass layoffs at Microsoft’s gaming division last month. The FTC [...]
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2K Games subsidiary Visual Concepts, the studio behind NBA 2K and Lego 2K Drive, has been hit with a second round of job cuts following the mass layoffs in September 2023. Former art manager Brad Bowling confirmed the unfortunate news on LinkedIn, saying, ”The games industry bloodletting continues. Today, Visual Concepts Austin laid off myself and a group of very [...]
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The US Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against Microsoft, claiming that it violated the terms of its merger agreement with Activision Blizzard. According to the FTC, Microsoft previously stipulated that there would be no layoffs following the acquisition but then proceeded to do just that when it laid off 1900 employees across its gaming division. The FTC, of [...]
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Fortnite’s multi-franchise universe is about to get bigger as Disney partners with Epic Games to bring the entire Disney universe into the game. The partnership comes with a whopping $1.5 billion investment from Disney to help fund the creation of the Fortnite-based Disney world and the studio itself. “We’ve entered into a strategic relationship with Epic Games, the maker of [...]
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Tencent has gobbled up another video game development studio as it acquires controlling stake in Beijing-based Wangyuan Shengtang Entertainment. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the studio behind the now-defunct wuxia-inspired fantasy MMORPG Swords of Legends Online. The Chinese tech and media giant now owns 94% of Wangyuan Shengtang, which it already had a 20% stake in, along [...]
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RuneScape developer Jagex is once again up for sale to the highest bidder, in this case it’s CVC Capital Partners. According to Sky News, the studio’s current owner, The Carlyle Group, is currently in “exclusive negotiations” with the private equity firm after it out-bid other interested companies with its £900 million ($1.13 billion) offer for controlling stake of Jagex. Other [...]
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Destiny 2 game director Joe Blackburn is leaving Bungie to embark on “a new adventure” after 10 years with the studio and four years as the MMO shooter’s director. “As a deeply invested Guardian before starting here at Bungie, getting to be a part of the Destiny 2 team has been the privilege of a lifetime,” he tweeted. “I am [...]
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Wayfinder developer and now-publisher Airship Syndicate is the latest video game company to be hit with layoffs. According to Polygon’s Nicole Carpenter, the studio recently laid off 12 of its employees, the scope of which is still unclear, while Airship Syndicate president Ryan Stefanelli and CEO Joe Madureira will be taking pay cuts as part of the studio’s cost-cutting efforts [...]
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Earlier this week, a Chinese website broke the news that Hasbro is reportedly looking to sell the Dungeons & Dragons IP and that its currently hammering out a deal with Tencent. Wizards of the Coast, however, recently issued a statement to VGC denying the whole thing, saying that not only are they not selling to Tencent but they’re not selling [...]
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Discord lived up to its name earlier this week when hackers took over several developer channels, including Valheim’s, this Monday. They proceeded to wreak havoc on the communication platform by spamming the channels with disinformation, porn, as well as phishing and malware links that caused even more damage. Valheim developer, Iron Gate Studios, managed to regain control of their channel [...]
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