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Last week's sudden restructuring of Humble Games has affected various developers, including Squid Shock Games.The creator of Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus revealed it's been dealt a "critical blow," particular with the game's console ports. It and QA support were linked to its deal with Humble deal, which has now hampered post-launch support."[Humble's news] took us completely by surprise," said Squid Shock, "and we are now in a difficult situation when it comes to updating the console ports."Shortly after news of the restructuring, Humble assured that this wouldn't affect the deals it had in place with studios like Squid Shock and Coral Island creator Starway Games.The latter put out a statement last week affirming it too was in a rough …

Three months after Koei Tecmo filed a lawsuit against mobile studio Youzu, the two developers have reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed fee.At the time of the April suit, the Japanese developer claimed Youzu had repeatedly infringed on its copyright. Music and in-game assets from its games had allegedly been used to promote Youzu titles like Dynasty Origins and Sengoku Legend: Uprising.It was further claimed the Singaporean developer "continuously used" materials without asking permission. Despite a "voluntary promise" to Koei Tecmo to stop what it was doing, Youzu continued using the music and assets.Koei Tecmo stressed that these actions "damage our intellectual property’s value and lead to misconceptions by users and our partners that we are r…

NetherRealm is shutting down mobile title Mortal Kombat: Onslaught and removing it from storefronts.The collectible-RPG was pitched as a mobile exclusive featuring a brand new Mortal Kombat story. It only launched in October 2023 so will have survived for just over a year.The game will officially shut down on October 21, 2024. It will be removed from the App Store and Google Play on October 7, with in-game purchases being disabled on October 8. "Players can enjoy the game until 10/21/24. It has been an honor creating this game for our Kommunity," concludes a brief statement on X.The news is patricianly notable because it follows reports that NetherRealm and parent company Warner Bros. Games have laid off a number of mobile developers.Last week, multiple former NetherRealm employe…

As OpenAI is getting more focus from regulators like the FTC, Microsoft and Apple are both distancing themselves from the ChatGPT maker.Per Ars Technica, both tech giants have elected not to join OpenAI's board after previously signing their allegiance. The former accepted an observer role in November 2023 as Sam Altman was ousted (and returned) from OpenAI.Notably, this comes almost a full year after the FTC launched its investigation into the generative AI company. At the time, it believed ChatGPT potentially violated consumer protection laws and harmed consumers.The exit of both companies means OpenAI no longer has any observers on the board. On Microsoft and Apple's side, this absolves them of any potential (and further) antitrust attention from regulators.In a letter obtaine…

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…