Daybreak acquires struggling Palia developer Singularity 6

MMO specialist Daybreak has acquired Palia developer Singularity 6 (S6) for an undisclosed fee.Daybreak, known for developing EverQuest and PlanetSide 2, said Singularity 6 will join its ranks as a wholly owned subsidiary."We are thrilled to welcome Singularity 6 to Daybreak Games. S6 is an excellent addition to our development studios, renowned for their success in creating large-scale online games and content," said Daybreak CEO, Ji Ham, in a press release."Their debut title, Palia, is a fantastic addition to our online portfolio. We eagerly anticipate collaborating with the S6 team to make Palia the best online experience possible across all major gaming platforms and to help continue expand their community of players for years to come."Singularity 6 was established …

Capcom acquires animation partner Minimum Studios

Capcom has made what may be its first studio acquisition in 2024 via the purchase of Minimum Studios for 888,888 New Taiwan dollars (or around $27,265).Per Capcom, the acquisition was done "to sustainably bolster its developmental and technological capabilities, aiming to achieve its long-term management goal of 100 million units in annual sales."It acquired two-thirds of the Taiwan-based company, which was founded in 2018. Per its website, Minimum specializes in game and character animation across human, mechanical, and animal characters.

Capcom's investment in Minimum makes sense

All three of those fall inside Capcom'…

Tango Gameworks developer documents the studio’s final day

Tango Gameworks staffer Takeo Kido has documented the Hi-Fi Rush developer's last day.The Tokyo-based studio was shuttered by parent company Microsoft in May. Other studios including Arkane Austin and Alpha Dog Games were also closed. Microsoft announced 1,900 layoffs in January 2024 following its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard. Those studio closures followed shortly after.A sobering X thread shared by Kido revealed the Tango team spent their remaining hours together feasting on pizza in studio that resembled an apartment on moving day. His final post was a photograph of the Tango logo on an office wall. "Farewell," he wrote.The thread is a brief window into the lives of those who dedicated themselves to making games before having the rug yanked out from under…

Industry vets launch specialist co-development studio The Unreal Guys

There's a new studio in town, and it's hoping to lend a hand to anyone making a game specifically in Unreal Engine.Fittingly named CodeDev: The Unreal Guys, the London-based studio was founded by chairman Rik Alexander, CEO Myke Parrott, and CTO Ryan Woodland. The three are positioning their new venture as a support studio.While co-developers are nothing new in games, it's not every day a studio announces its specializations in a particular engine. Epic Games' engine is updated and iterated upon on a consistent basis, so having a team to help with that lightens the production load.All three men have been in the industry from between 15 and 33 years, and previously worked at Climax Studios, Microsoft, and Bethesda. The company plans on tackling Unreal projects "of a…

CI Games and Epic Games team on EGS-exclusive Lords of the Fallen sequel

CI Games already has a follow up to 2023's Lords of the Fallen in development, and PC-wise, that title will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store.Spotted by the likes of PCGamer, CI and Epic Games recently entered into a binding agreement for the 2026-bound game. Under it (in translated form), Epic has the "exclusive global distribution right" for the new title for its "entire product life cycle."For consoles, CI maintains the rights to publish Fallen's sequel on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, and the entire IP overall. A more detailed agreement will be revealed separately in the coming weeks.The deal between CI and Epic sounds similar to one the latter had with Remedy and Quantic Dream. In 2019 as the EGS was getting off the ground, Epic courted those and …

Astro’s Playroom, Spider-Man 2 among PlayStation Portal’s most-played launch games

The PlayStation Portal is getting a lot of usage from players, according to Sony. In its newest PlayStation Blog, the developer revealed some interesting statistics for its not-quite-handheld.From mid-November 2023 to early February, its most played games included PS exclusives Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Astro's Playroom, and God of War Ragnarok. On the multiplatform (and multiplayer) end were EA Sports FC 24 and Fortnite.Sony didn't give hard numbers but highlighted how much easier the Portal (or PSP) makes accessing games. Average Portal engagement shot up within the first two months of players using it.Remote play has been a good feature for PlayStation since it was introduced with the PlayStation 4. With the Portal, over 60 percent of players started using the feature for th…

Venture to the Vile maker Studio Cut to Bits lays off majority of staff

Nearly a full month after the launch of its debut game, Venture to the Vine, Studio Cut to Bits has conducted layoffs.Per co-founder Masao Kobayashi, the Montreal studio lost most of its 10-person staff today, himself concluded. The cuts were due to "financial reasons," though it's unclear if these issues were longstanding or connected to Venture's launch."After 5 years of hard work on Venture to the Vile and the studio, it's hard to know what to say," he wrote.Cut to Bits was founded in late 2019 by Kobayashi and fellow co-founders Tommy Sagala and Paul Green. The three were previously Ubisoft alums who worked on titles like Far Cry 5 and Far Cry 6, and Rainbow Six Siege.At time of writing, it's unclear if Kobayashi was the only higher-up to be let …

Resident Evil 2 Remake becomes the franchise’s top-seller at nearly 14 million sales

The 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 turned five years old back in January, and Capcom has now revealed it's the top seller in the survival horror franchise.As of March 31, 2024, the remake of the 1998 classic has sold over 13.9 million copies. Capcom revealed the milestone during a recent celebration for the game, and the studio's first in-game party for it."The positive feedback from everyone who has played the game is encouraging to all of our staff!" wrote Capcom in a translated post.
In July 2022, Resident Evil 2 had topped 10 million copies sold. Around that time, it had just been ported over to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
In recent years, Capcom's gradually been remaking the original Resident Evil sequels, each of which have done well commerci…