Netflix recently discussed its long-term game plans, and Amazon has now followed suit in an interview with Variety.Amazon Games VP Christoph Hartmann spoke with the outlet about the retail giant's goals for the medium, which effectively boil down to being the reverse Netflix. Where the streamer is taking its steps into games with mobile titles, Amazon is diving first into the PC and console market."It’s just much more opportunities for the market to be on the PC market, on the console market," said Hartmann. Not only does it best fit his past tenure at 2K and Rockstar, he offered that PC and console players take those titles more seriously than the mobile crowd."If the company would say, Christoph, let’s do mobile games, I would have to hire someone," he contin…
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa doesn't believe the company's next console will be impacted by production issues.Consumers in some regions might have found it difficult to get their hands on a Switch over the years due to component shortages that also impacted other console makers.Despite those speed bumps, the Switch has sold over 141 million units worldwide, and Nintendo has confirmed it will unveil its successor during the current fiscal year (ending on March 31, 2025).Although nobody knows when the mysterious console—rumored to be another hybrid handheld like the Switch—will actually hit shelves, Furukawa has reassured investors it isn't anticipating production issues."Although we were unable to produce sufficient quantities of Nintendo Switch hardware last…
Guilty Gear Strive turned three years old in mid-June, and developer Arc System Works revealed the game has now crossed 3 million players worldwide.The anime fighter originally released for PlayStation 4 and 5 and PC in 2021, followed by a Japanese arcade release in July that same year. It finally came to Xbox One and Series X|S in March 2023, in addition to Xbox Game Pass.
3 million players, but how many sales?
It's unknown how this player milestone translates, sales-wise. As of last August, the fighter sold 2.5 million copies, and both Arc System and Bandai Namco have been mum on its commercial performance since.Strive was the first mainline…
As it turns out, Marvel's Iron Man had another canceled video game that predates the would-be project from Just Cause studio Avalanche.This newly revealed project would have come courtesy of the now-defunct studio Genepool Software. According to then-programmer Kevin Edwards, the developer was working on the title following the release of X2: Wolverine's Revenge in 2003.Interestingly, this game's primary armor was based on Iron Man's suit from the Ultimate Marvel comics. Had it come out, it would've joined 2005's Ultimate Spider-Man in bringing Marvel's alternate reality to a wider audience.To Edwards' knowledge, what was then The Invincible Iron Man was never shown before this point in time. Along with his screenshots of the project, he explained th…
Galvanic Games founder Patrick Morgan has announced the studio will be shutting down.On Twitter, Morgan explained that the sales of the studio's most recent project, Wizard with a Gun, weren't enough to keep it afloat. The developer had "encouraging conversations" at GDC and DICE recently, but its new projects take it doesn't have to make them."There's a certain bittersweetness to knowing that we accomplished all the things we set out to do when we founded Galvanic in 2015," he wrote. "However…I may never get over the irony of spending a decade building my ideal team, only for it to end after our most productive year."After its founding, Galvanic emerged onto the scene with The Rust Belt. Tools and the pipeline from that title would then …
Nearly a full year after leaving Xbox, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb has found a new position at Unity.As he revealed on social media, Hryb will serve as director of the engine maker's community team. "Building on my long history as a developer advocate at Xbox," he wrote, "I'm excited to collaborate again with developers, harnessing our collective creativity to shape the future of real-time gaming and experiences."During his 20-year Xbox tenure, Hryb served as a senior programming director and help guided Xbox Live's evolution on both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, and the development of Kinect peripherals.He was also one of the console brand's biggest faces, which puts some extra weight behind his new Unity job. As he called it on LinkedIn, this …
Paradox Interactive has closed Paradox Tectonic following the cancellation of Life by You.Life By You was scrapped after Paradox claimed the project would not be able to meet expectations. The Swedish publisher said writing down the life sim, which was slated to launch in early access on June 4 but was subsequently delayed, will cost SEK 208 million ($19.8 million)."For a long time, we've held hopes for Life by You and the potential we saw in it, but it is now clear that the game will not be able to meet our expectations," said Fredrik Wester, CEO of Paradox Interactive, in a press release."A version that we'd be satisfied with is too far away, and therefore we are taking the difficult decision to cancel the release. Moving forward, we should perform at a much high…
Meta has laid off an unknown number of Reality Labs employees.As reported by The Verge, the Facebook and Meta Quest owner is currently restructuring Reality Labs into two groups: a 'Metaverse' organization that includes its Quest business and a 'Wearables' group that will house other hardware initiatives.The company has made some employees redundant as part of that restructure. The Verge claims a "relatively small number" of staffers were laid off, including some leaders within Reality Labs. Meta has laid off more than 20,000 workers since November 2022.An internal memo sent out by Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (reprinted by The Verge) claims the shake-up will enable Meta to create a "more integrated product experiences across hardware, software, and experienc…
Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty has described the closure of Hi-Fi Rush developer as a "forward-thinking" decision.Speaking on Variety's Strictly Business podcast (as spotted by Kotaku senior reporter Ethan Gach), Booty said Hi-Fi Rush "did well" for Microsoft and Xbox, but implied leadership changes within Tango Gameworks were a factor when deciding to shutter the studio."There are a lot of people and processes and oversight to make sure we're making a good decision [to close a studio]," said Booty. "I won't get into the real nitty gritty details of what went into the decision, mostly out of respect for the people there. Just because there was a lot of work that went into delivering Hi-Fi Rush, which was a great game and did well for us.…