38 Studios Lays Off Entire Staff
Friday, May 25th, 2012The entirety of 38 Studios – and its Maryland subsidiary Big Huge Games – was laid off today, the blame for the company’s history of financial problems placed in part on the failure of the studio’s RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to move the necessary 3 million units to cover production costs. Financial returns place [...]
No CommentsRI Governor Holds Sudden Press Conference on 38 Studios
Thursday, May 24th, 2012Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee held an unexpected press conference on the state of 38 Studios earlier today, expressing a worsening state of affairs for the makers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Lacking any new outside investment, the studio is being denied all the tax credits it has applied for, likely due to company not [...]
No Comments38 Studios Pays off Rhode Island, Governor Gives MMO Release Date
Monday, May 21st, 2012The second time’s the charm for 38 Studios. The developer’s second $1.125 million check sent to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation cleared late last week, fulfilling the first payment on the company’s $75 million loan. The state believes the totality of the $49 million portion given to the studio has been spent, their next [...]
No Comments38 Studios Fails to Pay State, Employees
Friday, May 18th, 201238 Studios’ check to the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation was returned due to insufficient funds, according to local news outlet WPRI. The $1.125 million owed by the Curt Shilling-backed studio was the impetus for the company’s default on May 1st, as per a 2010 loan agreement. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee stated that the [...]
No CommentsActivision v. EA Settled
Thursday, May 17th, 2012A settlement agreement has been be filled by both Activision and Electronic Arts, a little under two weeks before their case was to go to court. The move comes one day after an appeal for a 30-day postponement of the trial by Activision lawyer Beth Wilkinson was denied. The agreement removes EA from the list [...]
No CommentsNexon Buyout Rumors Cause Spike in EA Shares
Friday, April 27th, 2012After a rumor of an Electronic Arts buyout by South Korean free-to-play publisher Nexon began circulating early this morning (via Bloomberg video report), shares in EA spiked $1.22 (8.1%). Coming up from a year-long low, Electronic Arts evened out at $16.23 after closing bell.
No CommentsStarbreeze Acquiring ‘Payday: The Heist’ Makers
Saturday, April 21st, 2012Swedish studio Starbreeze (Syndicate) recently finalized plans to acquire Overkill Software, the makers of the PSN co-op squad shooter Payday: The Heist, in a deal that will be completed this June. Starbreeze initiated the acquisition in order to bolster its ranks for upcoming projects like Project Mercury and V13. The only price point currently known [...]
No CommentsCalifornia GameStops Mandated to Include DLC Warnings
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012California GameStops will now be required to include warning labels on used copies of games featuring paid Day-1 DLC and/or Online Passes. A class action lawsuit brought against the retail chain by law firm Baron and Budd claimed GameStop mislead customers with their discounted merchandise, a move which enabled them to profit in the vein [...]
1 CommentSony Sees Record Loss After Tax Hit
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012Sony Corporation hasn’t been seeing anything but red for a while now, having four straight years of negative numbers, but the Corporate Headquarters in Japan sunk to a new debt plateau with a posted ¥520 billion ($6.4 billion) expected loss. Recently appointed CEO Kazuo Hirai stated that he was prepared to take “painful steps” to [...]
No CommentsAdult Movie Network Looking to Support Fighting Game Events
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012Acting as an interesting epilogue to the accusations of sexual harassment that were labeled against the fighting game community in the wake of comments made by Wednesday Night Fights commentators last month, an online media network specializing in adult entertainment is looking to get into game tournament sponsorship. Based on the Twitter account of Brazzers’ [...]
1 CommentSurvey Results in for 2011 Game Dev Salaries
Tuesday, April 3rd, 20122011 was a pretty flat year, according to the findings of Game Developer magazine’s annual salary survey of industry professionals. Salaries were calculated and compared across discipline, region, experience level and gender from 2,500 interview-ees (out of 4,000 respondents). 66% of respondents netted a higher income than last year (up from 56% in last year’s [...]
No CommentsSega Streamlining Western Operations with Job Cuts and Cancellations
Saturday, March 31st, 2012With their net income projections for the financial year ending March 31st slashed by almost 50% (¥18 billion from ¥38 billion) – and a ¥7.1 billion loss overall – Sega has announced some stiff reductions across the board for its Western Operations. Both the company’s EU and US offices are expected to take heavy – [...]
No CommentsUK Brings Out Tax Incentive Policy to Video Games
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012Yesterday, representatives for the UK government announced plans to bring tax relief programs to its indigenous video game development industry. The government has stated that it wants to make Great Britain “Europe’s technology centre”. The move comes around two years after the last concentrated effort to add tax incentives to game development, when the Labor [...]
No Comments‘Skylanders’ Landing Major Licensing Deals
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012The part toy collectible series, part video game Skylanders has yet to have any official sales data released on it, but has been inking some major retail and license deals since its launch last year. Over 150 licensing executives attended a recent promotional event for the brand, hoping to attach themselves to the product. Penguin [...]
No CommentsMojang, Humble Indie Bundle Team Up for Charity Game
Thursday, February 16th, 2012Earlier today, Mojang announced a production partnership with the Humble Indie Bundle, the experienced group responsible for organizing dozens of indie games for pay-your-own-price collections. The challenge this time around is for the Minecraft-makers to produce a game within 60 hours (starting at 10am CET, February 17th). All of the work will be livestreamed on [...]
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