Tag: Industry
Feature Nintendo May Win Its Case Against The US Government, But Tariffs Are Here To Stay
Winning the battle, losing the (trade) war
Rewind the clock back to early April 2025. Gamers in the United States are eager to get their hands on a Switch 2 and are waiting on tenterhooks to lodge their pre-orders. But, as he tends to do, Donald Trump threw a spanner in the works. On 2nd April, he declared a national emergency over the US trade...
News Epic Games Cuts Over 1,000 Jobs Weeks After Raising Fortnite V-Bucks Prices
Plus $500 million in cost cutting
Fortnite is one of the most successful games in the world, but that hasn't stopped Epic Games being affected by the tumultuous nature of the games industry. Today, the company has announced that it's laying off over 1000 employees due to a downturn in engagement. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier initially broke the news...
News Nintendo's Apparently Cutting US Switch 2 Output After Lower Than Expected Holiday Sales
Quarterly productions revised
It's no secret that the Switch 2 struggled over its first holiday period. The console's sales numbers were reportedly down 35% in the US compared to what its predecessor managed back in 2017, and 2025 marked the region's worst November since 1995 in terms of hardware sales. All this is to say, it's hardly surprising to...
News Japanese Teens Apparently Love Nintendo Switch More Than Pokémon & Disney
Our survey says...
The Brand Japan 2026 evaluation survey results have revealed that Nintendo is still an extremely-popular name with Japanese teenagers, with both the company brand and the Switch console only being beaten by YouTube. As reported on (and translated) by Automaton Media, Nikkei BP Consulting's
The Slime has come
Over the weekend, Square Enix announced a collaboration with Google which will see a generative AI-powered "companion" added to Dragon Quest X. As highlighted in an article by news outlet Sankei Shimbun (thanks, NintendoEverything), Google's Gemini will be integrated into the Japan-only MMORPG and power a conversational compa
News Europe Might Be Forcing Nintendo To Revise The Switch 2
A revision with a replaceable battery, according to Nikkei
Nintendo is working on a new Switch 2 revision to comply with European Union rules around the ability for owners to replace batteries in consumer electronics themselves, according to a new report from Nikkei. The Japanese outlet reports that this move is specifically targeted at the...
News Former Overwatch Director Breaks Silence About Sudden Departure From Blizzard
"I literally thought I'd retire from the place"
Before Blizzard's free-to-play multiplayer shooter Overwatch 2 arrived on the scene, there was the original paid experience led by game director (and fan favourite) Jeff Kaplan. You might recall how Kaplan made an abrupt exit from the company behind Diablo and
News Xbox Announces Next Generation Console, Will Play "Xbox And PC Games"
Codenamed 'Project Helix'
There has been plenty of debate about Xbox's future following the recent appointment of Asha Sharna as the new Microsoft Gaming CEO, but it appears the brand will continue as a console maker. In some big industry news this week, Xbox has officially announced "the return of Xbox" in the form of "Project Helix", Microsoft's...
News Nintendo Is Considering A Switch 2 Price Hike This Year, According To New Report
Thanks to AI and "RAMmageddon"
The rising demand for RAM for AI data centres and the associated rising costs are having a massive effect across the tech world, and with Sony reportedly pushing back the launch of its as-yet-unannounced PS5 successor, Nintendo is considering raising the price of Switch 2 in 2026, too, according to a new Bloomberg...
News SEGA Records $200 Million Impairment Loss As Angry Bird Dev's Performance Is "Sluggish"
Rovio's performance "fell significantly short of initial forecast"
SEGA Sammy has published its Q3 2025/26 financial report, and it's a pretty mixed bag for the multimedia giant, with losses reported in multiple different areas. But perhaps the biggest piece of news comes from Rovio's side of the business. Sega acquired the Angry Bird developer in...
News Ubisoft Staff Push Back Against Company Restructure With Three-Day Strike
Update: 538 confirmed to be striking
[Thu 12th Feb, 2026 13:30 GMT]: Late last month, Ubisoft announced a major organisational restructure which saw, among many other things, several studio closures and six game cancellations. This week, in response to the changes, at least 1,200 Ubisoft workers have taken to the streets in a three-day...
News GDC Survey Shows Switch 2 Is Proving To Be A Desirable Platform For Developers
Interest is basically as high as Steam Deck and PS5
The Switch 2 is approaching its eight-month anniversary, and developers across the world are interested in getting their games on the newest gaming system out there. At least, that's what GDC's latest State of the Game Industry survey reveals (thanks, VGC). The report shows that 39% of developers...
News Hideki Kamiya's Block-Happy, Take-No-Crappery Is "Super Reassuring", Says Yoko Taro
“It’s a net positive to instil that fear"
In a recent episode of Cafe Four Leaf on CLOVERS' YouTube channel, NieR creator Yoko Taro has heaped praise on fellow game developer and friend Hideki Kamiya and his approach to gamers online who "say things seriously out of line." (Thanks, Automaton.) Kamiya — the veteran game director who is...
News Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 Studio Comcept Is Finished
It was officially dissolved earlier this month
The video game company Comcept, originally founded by Keiji Inafune in December 2010, has been "officially dissolved by a shareholders' resolution" earlier this month on 13th January 2026. A notice was published about this today in Japan's government gazette Kanpo (thanks for the heads up, Gematsu)...
News Ubisoft Increases 'Just Dance' Subscription Prices In The Wake Of Restructuring & Cuts
Money+
Just a week after Ubisoft announced it was making a huge amount of cuts and cancellations in order to aid efficiency and corporate restructuring, the French studio has confirmed it will be increasing the price of Just Dance+ subscriptions from April 2026. The streaming service, which launched back in November 2022, can be used in-game from...
Expect the unexpected, no?
"A message from the dev team:" Maybe in years past, such an intro would fill us with excitement and anticipation; after all, a peek behind the development curtain is always a welcome treat. But in 2026, the line is a signifier of bad news. Said opening almost always leads to the following: "We've got some news today...
News Industry Veteran Hideki Konno Has Apparently Left Nintendo After Four Decades
Thanks for everything, Konno-san
Following the news of Kensuke Tanabe's retirement earlier this week, it's now being reported game designer, director, producer, and Nintendo veteran Hideki Konno has also called time on his career at the Japanese firm. According to an update on his Facebook page, Konno seemingly left the company in July 2025, but...
News Pokémon Developer Game Freak To Reveal More About 'Beast Of Reincarnation' Later This Month
Update: Director responds to question about a Switch 2 release
[Sat 10th Jan, 2026 01:30 GMT]: The Pokémon developer Game Freak recently released the DLC Mega Dimension, so what's it up to beyond this? In case you missed it when it was revealed last year, the studio has a new action RPG Beast of Reincarnation
News Prince Of Persia Team Behind Cancelled Sands Of Time Remake Shares Final Message
"We know this is deeply disappointing"
Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake will no longer see the light of day after the company announced a major organisational restructure this week. Alongside this news, the team working on the game has issued a message explaining the reason behind this "difficult decision". Although the project had...
Research firm Niko Partners reveals what could drive an increase
Over the past year, both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S have been hit with price increases. It's inevitably led to questions about the Switch 2 getting a price hike in the future. Although there has been no official announcement from Nintendo about a price increase at this...
Random Reggie Recalls Retailers "Upset" With Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Shortages
Just a week into the job
Even though we've just entered a new era of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé is still the name most people associate with the role. And, speaking at this weekend's New York Game Awards, the former NoA president shared a little tidbit about his time early on in his career at Nintendo (thanks,
News The Studio Behind The Sonic Boom Games On 3DS Has Been Shut Down
BOOM!
There have already been multiple layoffs and closures in the opening weeks of 2026, and in case you missed it, Meta (formerly Facebook) last week announced the closure of three studios. Apart from Armature, one of these developers was Sanzaru Games, which was acquired by Meta in 2020 and had been working under Oculus Studios in its Reality...
News Nintendo, Sony And Xbox Update "Safer Gaming" Principles
A "shared commitment" to improve player safety
In 2020, the major players in the console space Nintendo, Sony and Xbox announced a "shared commitment to safer gaming" to "improve player safety" across each platform. Fast forward to this year, and these shared principles have now been updated to ensure they represent the "constant efforts" to keep...
News Ubisoft Layoffs At Two Swedish Studios Expected To Impact 55 Jobs
Following a studio closure last week
A week after we heard about Ubisoft's closure of its mobile game-focused studio Ubisoft Halifax, news has now surfaced about the third-party publisher laying off people at two other teams as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures. According to a report from IGN, Ubisoft "expects 55 jobs" to be impacted at the...
"Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, everybody's done something"
Electronic Arts has been in the headlines for all sorts of reasons over the years, but Hazelight Studios founder and director Josef Fares (who is known for expressing his honest opinion) can't help but feel the third-party video game giant is still "getting more s**t" than it deserves. His...
News Ubisoft Starts The New Year With A Studio Closure, 71 Jobs Affected
Decision apparently unrelated to recent unionisation
Ubisoft has started its new year with the closure of its Canada-based studio Ubisoft Halifax. According to a company spokesperson, more than 70 positions are impacted as part of cost-cutting and restructuring measures. Staff were informed about the closure on Wednesday. Here's the official...
Feature Who Is Devon Pritchard? - Meet The Next NOA President Stepping Into Bowser's Boots
Dougging deep
In September, Nintendo shared the news that none of us could have predicted so soon: Bowser is stepping down from the position of top dog at the end of this year. The Koopas will have to find a new king, the Mushroom Kingdom will have to find a new menace, the kart racing scene will ha— what? Not that Bowser? Oh... we're going to...
Editorial Gamers, Support The People And Sites You Love, Before It's Too Late
Forever
If you're coming to this after the fact, we should note that the Giant Bomb story had a happy ending, with the staff buying GB from Fandom and going independent. Yes! Nevertheless, in another turbulent year for the games industry and the media covering it, it's more important than ever to support the work you love... Well, we've come to...
News Vince Zampella, Call Of Duty Co-Creator And Respawn Head, Has Died
He was 55
Infinity Ward co-founder and Respawn Entertainment head Vince Zampella has died in a fatal car crash, NBC4 Los Angeles reports. He was 55 years old. The crash was reported to have happened yesterday, 21st December 2025, in along Southern California's Angeles Crest Highway, at around 12:45pm local time. Tributes have been pouring in...
News Nintendo Wins $8.2 Million In Damages Over Wii Controller Patent Infringement
15 years leads to big(Ben) payout
Nintendo has been locked in a long-running legal battle with BigBen Interactive — now known as Nacon — over an infringement relating to the patent of the Wii controller for a full 15 years. That's a long time! Now, though, and as reported by The Games Fray (thanks, Games Industry.biz), the J
News Netflix "Didn't Attribute Any Value" To Warner Bros. Games In Acquisition Deal
"We haven't built that into our deal model"
Hm, we're sure that we won't be looking back on this quote with a suspicious eye down the line. Following Netflix's $82.7 billion acquisition agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery (later challenged by a separate offer from Paramount), Netflix co-CEO, president and director Gregory Peters has said WB Games...
News Future Of Tomb Raider To Be Revealed At The Game Awards 2025
"This is one you won't want to miss"
The Game Awards is taking place later this week, and ahead of the big industry event, Lara Croft's return has been teased. As highlighted by the show's creator and host Geoff Keighley and the official Tomb Raider social media account, fans of Lara will be able to tune into the event to find out about the...
Update: Paramount enters the conversation
In a staggering piece of news this Friday, streaming giant Netflix has announced that it has entered an agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery to acquire Warner Bros. in a deal that's valued at roughly $82.7 billion — an equity value of $72 billion. Netflix is specifically acquiring Warner B
News Katsuhiro Harada Announces Departure From Bandai Namco
Father Tekken hangs up his gloves
Katsuhiro Harada, the executive producer and director of the Tekken franchise — a man often referred to as a father of sorts to all things Tekken — has announced via social media that he'll be stepping down from his role at Bandai Namco, and therefore from involvement in the series, at the end of 2025. The...
News Nintendo To Acquire Bandai Namco Studios Singapore As A Subsidiary
'Nintendo Studios Singapore' will become an internal team
Nintendo has announced that it will acquire a majority stake in Bandai Namco Studios Singapore after reaching an agreement with Bandai Namco for the transfer of shares next year. Described in the press release as being "for the purpose of strengthening its development structure," BNSS will...
News Ongoing MicroSD Shortages Could Have A Knock-On Effect For Switch 2 Storage Availability
Maybe it's time to ask Santa for MicroSD Express cards
Storage-hungry consumers in Japan have been jumping on available stocks of super-fast MicroSD cards as an ongoing memory shortage continues across the computer industry, with no signs of getting better in the immediate future. As reported by Tom's Hardware, a spiralling issue of rising costs...
News "Consumers Generally Do Not Care" About AI In Games, Says Former Square Enix Exec
"Gen Z loves AI slop"
Genvid CEO Jacob Navok, the former Director of Business at Square Enix, has shared his two cents' worth on the ongoing debate surrounding the use of AI in game development. While it's far from a glowing endorsement of the practice, Navok argues that most players "generally do not care" about it (thanks for the heads up,...
Random Do You Miss Metroid Prime: Blast Ball? Don't Worry, PlayStation Has Got You Covered
As it expands into mobile gaming with a major IP
In recent years, Nintendo has been able to grow its brand and expand its IP with mobile game apps. To date, the cumulative number of unique downloads for Nintendo apps has now surpassed 950 million, and it's banked a lot of coin in that time. It's a market that's ripe for the picking, and in some...
News Reggie Is "Surprised" We Haven't Seen More Xbox Titles On Switch 2
"I thought there would be much more"
In the last year or two, Microsoft has been very vocal about its desire to support Switch and Switch 2. We've seen a couple of examples of this on the new hardware with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 + 4 and the soon-to-come Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but where's the Gears? Where's the Call o
News "These Shouldn't Be The Only Games Being Made" - Keiji Inafune Critical Of Reliance On Big IPs
"I didn’t dwell on my past hits"
Mega Man artist and Mighty No. 9 creator Keiji Inafune has been a huge name in the industry for nearly four decades, so you could say he's got a fair bit of experience. Recently, the producer gave a talk at South Korea’s Console Game Developer Conference 2025, and has a few strong words for developers and...
News Square Enix Hit By Mass Layoffs As Part Of Global Restructuring
Over 100 jobs in the UK are potentially affected
Reports have emerged that Square Enix is the latest video game company to be hit with layoffs today, with job cuts across "nearly all areas" outside of Japan including roles in sales, marketing, and publishing. VGC broke the news earlier today and reports that Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu held...
News Microsoft On Its Gaming Business Going Forward: "We Want To Be Everywhere"
"Gaming's competition is not other gaming"
Last month, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer reiterated how Xbox would support Switch 2 and PlayStation 5 players going forward, and now the tech giant's Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has chimed in. Speaking to TBPN recently about this "shifting" business model, Nadella mentioned how the company wants to...
News EA Staff Are Reportedly Less Than Happy With Their Much-Hyped AI "Helpers"
EA's internal chatbot, ReefGPT, is making life harder, not easier
Despite the negative press and questions surrounding the ethical use of training data, Generative AI is making a significant impact on game development, with many of the industry's major players now utilising the technology to help create and enhan
News "Go Tell Nintendo" - Ex-Blizzard President Responds After Xbox Calls Exclusives "Antiquated"
"Nintendo has continually dominated with outstanding games"
Xbox has been making headlines recently with the news that Halo: Campaign Evolved would be making its way to the PS5 in addition to Xbox Series X|S. Halo had always seemed like the last bastion of exclusivity for Microsoft's platform, and now that it's going multi-platform in 2026, it...
News EA Is Diving Headfirst Into Generative AI With New Partnership
"Together, we’re opening new creative frontiers"
Electronic Arts (EA) has already caused some controversy in recent weeks when it announced it had been acquired by the PIF (Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for a cool $55 billion. Now, the company is back at it again. In a new announcement,
News Nintendo Reportedly Increases Switch 2 Production To 25 Million Units For Year 1
Now that be some Mario magic
Nintendo has apparently requested its global suppliers to pump out as many as 25 million Switch 2 console units by the end of March 2026, Bloomberg reports (paywalled). If the Big N can manage this, it would set the company up for meeting the demands of what's set to be a record-breaking first year of sales for the new...
News Team Ninja Founder And Industry Veteran Tomonobu Itagaki Has Passed Away
"My life has been a series of battles. I kept winning."
Team Ninja founder Tomonobu Itagaki, who was also the creator of the fighting game series Dead or Alive and revived Ninja Gaiden for a new generation, has passed away at the age of 58. A post on his Facebook page originally confirmed this, and we've now got a translation (confirmed by James...
"Whether generative AI is involved or not"
Nintendo has posted a short statement denying that it has lobbied the Japanese government on the subject of generative AI. The post on X was made following a tweet by Japanese politician Satoshi Asano, who originally claimed the company had been lobbying the government on the subject of generative AI...
"We will continue to push the boundaries of entertainment, sports, and technology"
Electronic Arts has announced that it has entered an agreement to be purchased by the PIF (Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for a staggering USD $55 billion. The deal, which is expected to close in Q1 FY 2027, was confirmed...
News Nintendo Of America Reportedly Cuts Loose Customer Service Contractors As It Looks To Outsource
"A lot of us are feeling betrayed"
A new report states that Nintendo of America is cutting loose around 200 long-time contractor jobs as it has decided to outsource its customer support services ahead of the Switch 2's first holiday season. This report comes from IGN's Rebekah Valentine, who spoke to numerous customer support staff and sources...
