Embracer has completed the financial portion of its divestment from Saber Interactive and confirmed that 4A Games and Zen Studios were not included in the deal. The Swedish conglomerate sold significant assets of Saber Interactive–including studios like 3D Realms, Slippage, and New World Interactive–to Beacon Interactive earlier this year. Beacon is owned by Saber co-founder … Read more
French game developer Drama Studios has raised $2.5 million in seed funding and plans to invest that money in its debut title, the bodycam shooter Not registered. Most of that funding came from VC firm The Games Fund. That’s a lot of money at a time when game funding has declined, in turn leading to … Read more
Bloomberg is reporting That Visions of Mana Developer Ouka Studios is about to be shut down by parent company NetEase. The Japanese studio opened in 2020 and hired veteran developers from Capcom and Bandai Namco. It was chosen to handle production on Visions of Manaa new chapter in the popular series published by Square Enix. … Read more
Third-party development partner Virtuos has made an acquisition in Third type studiesStaff are said to be unaffected by the change, which is said to help “strengthen Virtuos’ AAA co-development capabilities.” Founded in 2016, Third Kind has co-developed several AAA games over the past few years. Many of these come from Xbox (such as the new … Read more
Video game actors are calling on movie studios to provide more support when asking actors to work on intimate and explicit scenes. In a wide-ranging BBC News reportSeveral actors working in the video game industry have recalled feeling “shaken” and “disturbed” after being cast in scenes involving scenarios such as sexual assault and “full-on” sexual … Read more
Hybrid Developer/Publisher Reforged Studies has acquired British studios Ground Shatter and Extra Mile (or EM Studios) for an undisclosed sum. Reforged, which started in 2023, prides itself on being a studio that acquires other teams to assist them with their games. According to the websiteThis “helps to grow their success sustainably, avoiding the ‘boom and … Read more
TerraTech developer Payload Studios has laid off 25 percent of its workforce. Payload CEO and founder Russ Clarke confirmed the news on Linkedin and said the cuts were a result of “struggles plaguing the broader video game industry.” “We've tried very hard to avoid it, and I won't pretend that we've done everything right in … Read more
Tollan Universe developer Foretold Studios failed to pay several employees for months of work, plunging some of them into debt. Several former employees told Game Developer that the studio skipped numerous salary payments, engaged in questionable hiring practices, and suffered damages due to mismanagement. Despite these issues, the studio is apparently moving forward with development … Read more