Browsing: PC

24-year Bungie veteran Chris Barrett reportedly was fired from the company following an investigation into accusations of inappropriate behaviour.  That’s according to Bloomberg , which reports that he was let go after at eight female members of staff complained to human resources about his conduct towards them. This includes flirtatious messages, calling female employees attractive and allu…

The founder of games payment giant Xsolla, Aleksandr “Shurick” Agapitov has been accused to transferring more than $100 million from company to personal accounts.  Bloomberg reports that financial documents show the exec moved in excess of $100 million to his personal accounts between March 2021 and March 2023; in 2023, documents show that Agapitov moved around $70 million to his…

Unionised staff at Raven Software have said that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard are not negotiating in good faith.  That’s according to Stephen Totilo’s Game File newsletter , who reports that the union has filed an unfair labour practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), in which it claims that the Xbox and Call of Duty giants are refusing to bargain in good faith…

The post Indie Selects for August: End Summer with Some of Our Favorite New Launches appeared first on Xbox Wire.

The post The Xbox August Update Is Rolling Out with Updates to Cloud Gaming, Consoles, PC Gaming, and Accessories appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Japanese games giant Bandai Namco has cancelled its upcoming MMO Blue Protocol.  In a post on the game’s official website , the company said that the Japanese version of the game  – which came out in June 2023 – was going to be canned, while the upcoming Western version of the title is also being axed. That edition of Blue Protocol was set to come out via Amazon Games. …

War games specialist Slitherine has bought Battlefront, the maker of the Combat Mission series of titles.  No figure has been put on the deal. Slitherine says that this acquisition means good news for the Combat Mission franchise thanks to its increased resources and expertise in the genre.  The Combat Mission series debuted 25 years ago and has sold over one million copies across 20 di…

Services giant PTW has acquired developer Ghostpunch Games.  No figure has been put on the figure, which sees the South Florida-based studio’s executive producer Hugh Falk become the site boss for PTW Fort Lauderdale. Meanwhile, technology chief Alejandro Garcia-Tunon is becoming director of co-development.  Ghostpunch was founded in 2015 and features talent that previously worked at th…

Polish developer Techland has said that shorter, standalone titles may end up being the future of the games industry.  Speaking to GI.biz , Dying Light franchise director Tymon Smektała said that he expects this type of project to become more common. Techland recently announced a new standalone entry in the Dying Light franchise, called The Beast. Smektała says that this type of game makes…

Mojang’s smash hit Minecraft boasted the highest monthly active users figure for the month of July.  That’s according to Newzoo’s rankings for the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, which shows that the blockbuster came in ahead of Roblox in second place. Minecraft was last month’s No.1, too, while Roblox rose up one position month-on-month.  Fortnite fell one place to No.3, whil…

Surprising no one, Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong was the biggest selling game on Steam last week.  The action RPG debuted on August 20th, and its pre-orders had been ranking highly in the top-grossing chart for some time. Black Myth launched to positive reviews and has shifted over ten million copies to date across all platforms.  Counter-Strike 2 and PUBG: Battlegrounds still sit i…

The vice president of Amazon Games, Christoph Hartmann, has said that he reckons generative AI will help out in game development.  Speaking to IGN , the exec said that the tech will help mitigate the ballooning budgets that modern triple-A titles require by streamlining work that is tedious. Pressed on concerns about AI replacing workers – as is the fear of many including SAG-AFTRA, wh…

There is a film based on dystopian sci-fi title Ruiner in the works.  Variety reports that Universal Pictures has acquired the rights to Polish studio Reikon’s 2017 indie hit. Director Wes Ball is attached to head up proceedings, having previously worked on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and The Maze Runner films. Meanwhile, Michael Arlen Ross is adapting the screenplay.  Kelly McCor…

The boss of Borderlands maker Gearbox, Randy Pitchford, has addressed comments he made back in 2019 about the future of Steam.  Back then , the industry vet said that Valve’s platform might be a “dying platform” within five or ten years due to the competition coming from Epic Games Store. At the time, Borderlands 3 was launching on the Fortnite giant’s storefront as a timed exclusive; now Bo…

The post The Casting of Frank Stone’s Features: Everything to Know appeared first on Xbox Wire.