Month: October 2024

Developers laid off from Dauntless creator Phoenix Labs unveiled a game that almost was at the studio. Codenamed "Project Dragon," it was officially cancelled over the weekend, prompting several artists and the game's composer to reveal their work.This past May, Phoenix laid off around 100 employees and canceled several projects in development. When studios kill projects, they don't always let staff (current or former) publicly speak on nor show off at length what they'd been working on.According to principal concept artist Nicholas Kole, there were multiple internal attempts to save "Dragon" that went nowhere. In revealing his work, he called it "the largest ever art bomb of work I loved."In Kole's words, "Dragon" would've b…

Change is coming to Apex Legends once again. But instead of tweaking characters or providing new modes, Respawn is shifting how the battle royale's battle pass works in the game's larger ecosystem.Beginning with the upcoming Season 22, the three-month passes can only be purchased with real-world money. Players could use in-game AC currency to buy said passes, but that process will be phased out.Further complicating matters is that each Season will be split into two battle passes. The first Premium pass will cost $10 per half season, while the Premium+ pass (which offers extra in-game rewards) will be $20.So unless players stick with the free track, they may pay $20 or $40 for a full season. Per Respawn, the change was done to make things "more approachable and realistic for …

A December 2023 patent newly spotted by Windows Central provides a glimpse of Keystone, which would've been a streaming console for the Xbox ecosystem.It's been long enough to possibly forget, but Xbox was looking to get into cloud streaming hardware via the Keystone console and streaming stick. CEO Phil Spencer first teased the latter in 2022, only to then reveal it'd been shelved the following month out of pricing concerns.Had it seen the light of day, it would've accelerated Xbox's cloud streaming plans, which it'd been pushing that year via Game Pass and deals with the likes of Ubisoft, Meta, and more.Filed on June 1, 2022, the patent shows Keystone at multiple angles. Other than its square design (similar to the original PlayStation), it would've fun…

Generative AI developer Series Entertainment has purchased mobile studio Pixelberry from Nexon for an undisclosed fee.Best known for mobile games like Choices! and High School Story, Pixelberry was deemed "category leader in the interactive fiction genre" by Series co-founder Pany Haritatos. Under its guidance, Series hopes to evolve the studio to "the next level.""We love story-based games and Choices! has long been a leader in the genre," he continued. "We will [add] bigger books, new interactive features, and ever-improving story quality, all designed to deliver the things the Choices community wants.For Pixelberry, this means using its new parent company's Rho engine. The proprietary engine has been touted by Series as the first "AI-native, …

Gameloft Toronto has laid off an undisclosed number of employees after reviewing its "production capacities."The Disney Mobile Kingdoms developer confirmed the news in a statement to GI.biz, and said it had implemented a "reduction in workforce" due to fluctuating market conditions."As a company, we need to constantly review our production capacities. After careful consideration and in response to the ever-changing market conditions we are facing, it has become necessary to implement a reduction in workforce," reads the statement."Unfortunately, this leads us to substantially reduce our production activity in our Toronto studio and to let go some employees of the office. This decision has not been taken lightly, and we understand the impact it may have on…

The online game-focused subsidiary of Bandai Namco reportedly hit a net loss of 8.201 billion yen (or $51.35 million) during the 2023-2024 fiscal year. As spotted by Automaton, the increasingly negative net income has led to the developer becoming insolvent.Bandai Namco Online specializes in MMO and live-service titles for the publisher, such as Gundam Evolution (which went offline in late 2023) and Blue Protocol.This studio was already in the negative for the 2022-2023 period, and at the time saw a reported net loss of 3.98 billion yen. Back in February, Bandai Namco called its 2023-2024 earnings "disappointing" for the third quarter, and indicated Blue Protocol contributed to that loss.Currently, the free-to-play MMO is playable solely in Japan, with a wider release expected la…

While it's currently negotiating with larger game developers, SAG-AFTRA's updated its deal with smaller indie studios.The actors union creatd a fourth tier for its Interactive Media Agreement (IMA) wherein developers can access union-backed voice actors in projects budgeted between $15 million and $30 million. Initially, the IMA started with three tiers covering budgets from $250,000 to $15 million.As with the first three tiers, this fourth one offers AI protections (with informed consent and compensation for digital replicas) to actors for voice and physical performances. Additional pay based on unit sales is also afforded.Under this new tier, "more projects will benefit from the skills and experience of union performers, and performers will have more opportunities to work …