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14 votes
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Toys for Bob, developer for Crash Bandicoot 4 and Spyro Reignited, is now a support studio for Call of Duty: Warzone
12 votes -
Video game giant EA steering players into loot-box option in popular soccer game, insider says
13 votes -
Gearbox threatens to leave Texas over anti-trans bill
27 votes -
How a reckless lie caused huge internet drama for Path of Exile's developer
16 votes -
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney is very excited about the Epic Games Store losing a ton of money
7 votes -
Chris Delay's fail masterclass (Introversion discuss their failed prototypes)
9 votes -
Frost Giant enters pre-production on new RTS
3 votes -
The Digital Antiquarian: System Shock
7 votes -
Star Citizen developers fed up after being expected to work during devastating Texas snowstorm
14 votes -
Valve ceases development on their unfinished rework of Artifact, makes both the original and new versions free to play
32 votes -
Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda (ZeniMax) is now officially complete - Some games coming to Xbox Game Pass this week, confirmation of plans for future Xbox/PC exclusives
8 votes -
Frogwares says the version of The Sinking City on Steam was not made by them
This is a wild, ongoing story that is playing out in a rather bizarrely. First off, here is Frogware's open letter on the situation from August 25, 2020. Basically, Frogwares signed an agreement...
This is a wild, ongoing story that is playing out in a rather bizarrely.
First off, here is Frogware's open letter on the situation from August 25, 2020.
Basically, Frogwares signed an agreement with Nacon (formerly Big Ben Interactive) to license and publish their game in return for funding, but Frogwares still owned the IP. Frogwares claims that Big Ben was consistently late with payments and did not honour milestones for further funding. They took on an EGS exclusivity agreement to help get funding. At some point during the development, Nacom bought another studio and then demanded that Frogwares give their source code to this new company, which Frogwares refused to do.
The released the game in June 2019 but then were told by Nacom that the milestones that were previously agreed to were cancelled, therefore Frogwares would see no profit from the game. Frogware filed a lawsuit and finally got access to some sales data but found it wanting in many regards. They also found that copyright notices on the game were incorrect with the result of misallocating the IP ownership. Their logo was removed from the PS4 and X1 versions of the game and they discovered that Nacon was presenting themselves as the IP owners for the game, and had bought domains for Frogwares' other Sherlock Holmes titles (most of which was published by Focus Home Interactive, with some published by Atlus in North America or self-published by Frogwares).
Frogwares believes they had what they needed to terminate the contract with Nacon, despite some complications with the French legal system due to the COVID pandemic, and so they pulled their games from various storefronts alongside this letter.
In January 2021, that French legal complication played out against them when the Paris Court of Appeals determined that Frogwares acted unlawfully and decided that Nacon would be able to put the game back on the market.
Today, The Sinking City was put back on Steam with Frogwares listed as the developer, but Frogwares says they did not make this version. It seems to be an older version, missing much the DLC and features like achievements and cloud saves.
Frogwares' own version of the game is being sold only on Gamesplanet, Origin, and the Xbox 1 Series, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.
21 votes -
Epic Games acquires Fall Guys developer Mediatonic
10 votes -
Anthem development ceases, BioWare to focus on Dragon Age, Mass Effect
9 votes -
Stadia developers can't fix the bugs in their own game because Google fired them
13 votes -
Hogwarts Legacy lead designer used to run anti-social justice Youtube channel
14 votes -
CD Projekt Red's internal systems were compromised, attacker left ransomware and a threat to release their data, including the source code of Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3
@CD PROJEKT RED: Important Update pic.twitter.com/PCEuhAJosR
18 votes -
Cyberpunk 2077's easter eggs feel like marketing
18 votes -
Cyberpunk developers ask players to please stop having sex with Keanu Reeves
19 votes -
Embracer Group acquires Gearbox Entertainment (Borderlands), Aspyr Media (Civilization VI), and Easybrain (mobile puzzle games)
These are large acquisitions, but Embracer Group already owns a lot: The Group has an extensive catalogue of over 200 owned franchises, such as Saints Row, Goat Simulator, Dead Island, Darksiders,...
These are large acquisitions, but Embracer Group already owns a lot:
The Group has an extensive catalogue of over 200 owned franchises, such as Saints Row, Goat Simulator, Dead Island, Darksiders, Metro, MX vs ATV, Kingdoms of Amalur, TimeSplitters, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Insurgency and World War Z amongst many others.
With its head office based in Karlstad, Sweden, Embracer Group has a global presence through its six operative groups: THQ Nordic GmbH, Koch Media GmbH/Deep Silver, Coffee Stain AB, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive and DECA Games. The Group has 57 internal game development studios and is engaging more than 5,500 employees and contracted employers in more than 40 countries.
Articles about each of the new acquisitions on GamesIndustry.biz:
15 votes -
Google Stadia shuts down internal studios, changing business focus
24 votes -
Inside Supergiant Games during the overwhelming reaction to Hades 1.0
13 votes -
Amazon can make just about anything—except a good video game
12 votes -
Klei Entertainment has agreed to a deal for Tencent to purchase a majority stake in the company
9 votes -
Lenna's Inception post-mortem
13 votes -
Inside Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous rollout
19 votes -
Lucasfilm Games announces that Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment is developing an open-world Star Wars game, the first non-EA Star Wars game since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012
15 votes -
Cyberpunk 2077 - Our commitment to quality and future development
11 votes -
Lucasfilm Games and Bethesda announce new Indiana Jones game, being developed by Wolfenstein studio MachineGames
4 votes -
The rise of Sierra Online wasn’t exactly a fairytale. Founder Ken Williams opens up about his new book, video game design in the late 80s—and his regrets about selling the company.
8 votes -
CD Projekt faces hostile staff after failed launch
15 votes -
The creative mastermind of Minecraft – meet Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten, Chief Creative Officer at Mojang
8 votes -
Electronic Arts reaches agreement for recommended acquisition of British racing game developer Codemasters for approximately $1.2 billion
8 votes -
The secret to the success of Bastion, Pyre, and Hades: No forced crunch, yes forced vacations
12 votes -
EverQuest studio Daybreak Games acquired by EG7
4 votes -
From Xenogears to Xenoblade: The history of Monolith Soft
5 votes -
The video game creator who became Barry Bonds
5 votes -
An analysis of the declining audio quality in Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla
9 votes -
Major police operation at Ubisoft Montreal in response to a hoax, originally believed to be a hostage situation
Live feed in French - in the last 10 minutes nobody really knew what was happening according to my relatively bad french. Montreal Gazette - will be updated The trend on twitter - for some...
Live feed in French - in the last 10 minutes nobody really knew what was happening according to my relatively bad french.
Montreal Gazette - will be updated
The trend on twitter - for some up-to-the-minute information and slight hysteria
An article via Gamasutra - this just happened to be the first one I read, will also likely get updated.
26 votes -
Take-Two Interactive reaches agreement for recommended acquisition of British racing game developer Codemasters for almost $1 billion
7 votes -
How Sierra was captured, then killed, by a massive accounting fraud
21 votes -
The Digital Antiquarian: Master of Magic
4 votes -
You will soon need a Microsoft account to play Mojang games (including Minecraft Java edition)
31 votes -
Despite brute-forcing its way to dominance in many other industries, Amazon is having difficulty getting a foothold in games
11 votes -
BioShock director's next game, a sci-fi immersive shooter, is in "later stages of production"
5 votes -
The Digital Antiquarian: Transport Tycoon
4 votes -
What happened to twelve of gaming's biggest studios after they were sold
10 votes -
Mike Morhaime founds new games company, Dreamhaven
7 votes -
The Digital Antiquarian: X-Com
6 votes