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‘Candy Crush’ Developer King Opening Berlin Office

CandyCrushSaga 28 Nov

Candy Crush Saga developer King has announced it will be opening a new office in Berlin in 2014. The studio head will be named in January.

“We’re thrilled to be opening a new studio in Berlin,” CEP Riccardo Zacconi said, in part. “Germany is home to an exceptional amount of games development talent and Berlin is one of Europe’s leading creative hubs, so we have no doubt that the Berlin studio will produce fantastic, fun casual games that can be enjoyed by millions of people around the world.”

“We’re looking forward to welcoming the very best of Germany’s creative talent to join the new studio.”

King currently has studios in Barcelona, Bucharest, London, Malmo and Stockholm. The company was valued at $5 billion following the success of the Candy Crush Saga, Bubble Witch Saga, and the Farm Hero Saga.

(via GamesIndustry International)

Blitz Games Founders Form New Studio

OliverTwins 28 Nov

Blitz Games Studios owners and founders Anrdew and Philip Oliver have formed a new studio in Leamington Spa called Radiant Worlds, Develop reports.

Blitz Games Studios was closed in September after 23 years. The Oliver twins then said that they had formed a new company to take on two of the developer’s existing projects. Radiant Worlds is already employing 50 staff, however the studio is currently keeping the details of its first projects under wraps.

Double Fine Acquires ‘Constume Quest’, ‘Stacking’ Rights

CostumeQuest 27 Nov

After Nordic Games acquired the Double Fine developed games Costume Quest and Stacking during THQ’s bankruptcy auction in April, Double Fine announced it’s intention to re-acquire the rights.

According to a new press release, Double Fine has now acquired those rights from Nordic Games. The press release also announces that Nordic will be publishing retail versions of Psychonauts, Costume Quest and Stacking for Windows and Mac during the first half of 2014 due to a new agreement between the two companies.

“I am pleased that we have regained full control over Costume Quest and Stacking, following a daring and top-secret midnight raid on the Nordic Games headquarters in Vienna,” Double Fine president and CEO Tim Schafer said.

“We can’t wait to partner with Double Fine for this upcoming retail launch of three of its most excellent games,” owner and CEO of Nordic Games Lars Wingefors said. “However, I feel compelled to point out that we were happy to transfer distribution rights for Costume Quest and Stacking back to Double Fine in an entirely non-secretive and heist-free manner.”

“Double Fine is dedicated to controlling its own IP, and we will continue working to bring all associated rights back in-house whenever possible,” Double Fine business development VP Justin Bailey added, “no matter how many split-second security system hacks or painstaking tunneling operations we have to execute.”

(via VG247)

Twitch Pulls Channels For Streaming ‘Playroom’ On PS4

Twitch 26 Nov

Twitch has temporarily pulled channels streaming the PlayStation 4’s Playroom due to the content not being gaming-related, which violates Twitch’s terms of service.

“We removed Playroom content from the directory because a majority of it was non-gaming related,” a Twith representative told Polygon. “We will look into adding it back as PS4 owners become more familiar with the games-only focus of Twitch content. In the meantime, you can view all of the amazing gameplay from PS4 broadcasters in this directory page on Twitch.”

Twitch announced earlier this week that it would crack down on users violating its terms by streaming off-topic content. Twitch’s terms of service requires all streams to feature game-related content.