[LATEST UPDATE: March 31st] As the COVID-19 novel coronavirus continues its spread and has hit pandemic level, there has been a growing impact on the game industry. The game sector’s problems, of course, are trivial compared to the millions impacted and the potential danger to millions more across the world.  However, the earlier Taipei Game Show and Mobile World Congress were previously cancelled amidst concerns around the virus, the potential arrival of the next-generation consoles may – or may not – [...]

TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the prevalent business stories in gaming. In today’s news: Valve softens rhetoric against Steam competition; Bohemia Interactive grosses USD$68m (£58m); and Amuka Esports acquires Incendium Gaming. Valve softens rhetoric against Steam competition Valve CEO and co-founder Gabe Newell has softened the company’s rhetoric against competition for its Steam storefront. Writing in Edge Magazine, Newell stated that competition is “awesome for everybody” and helps stores release new features and constantly finesse their respective relationships with developers. Newell’s comments [...]

As part of the recent UK budget, the government confirmed that it is pressing ahead with its somewhat controversial Digital Services Tax. As reported by the Financial times, the UK plans to raise £500m a year by applying the tax primarily to large US tech companies. It is being seen as a means to secure money in relation to allegations that many large tech outfits are not paying enough tax in the areas in which they operate, instead using low tax [...]

The classic video game arcade has almost become a trope for nostalgia. They appear across contemporary fiction as shorthand for a fondly remembered version of the 1970s and 1980s. The arcade’s ‘passing’ is often lamented in tandem with warm, fuzzy memories of growing up in those decades; even if that lamenting started while arcades were still active. Indeed, arcades are still active. Here in the UK there may be very little of any ‘arcade industry’ remaining, and that is true at many [...]

PlayStation is skipping on attending E3 this year, just a few months before it plans to launch the PS5. A decade or so ago, that would have seemed like a very peculiar move. E3 has long been the place to announce and launch the biggest games and gaming platforms. It is famed as a media frenzy, where the world’s press amass to collect and share all the key gaming news. Indeed, it was the very first E3 in 1995 that saw one [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Team17 picks up Yippee Entertainment; Worldwide Christmas spend on apps tops USD$277m (£209.6m); and Nexon sells off mobile development subsidiary for JPN¥1 (£0.007). Team17 picks up Yippee Entertainment Long-standing UK developer and publisher Team17 has acquired Yippee Entertainment for close to £1.4m. Founded in 2011, Yippee develops own IP alongside end-to-end creation of games on a third-party basis. The company has also served as a digital publisher. Now wholly owned [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: EA hints at return to Steam; Sony examining sale of PlayStation Vue; and Ubisoft share price plummets following profit warning. EA hints at return to Steam EA has hinted that the company’s titles will be returning to Steam, ending an eight year period of exclusivity on the Origin storefront. The firms appear to have reached a compromise, whereby titles will be available to purchase on Steam but will [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Ubisoft revises 2019-2020 targets downwards; Google opens first Stadia studio; and TSMC invests additional USD$4bn (£3.1bn) in semiconductor production. Ubisoft revises 2019-2020 targets downwards Ubisoft has substantially lowered its targets for the 2019-2020 financial year as a result of delayed releases and poor performance from its Ghost Recon Breakpoint title. Net revenue has now been revised downwards to €1.45bn (£1.25bn) from €2.185bn (£1.886bn), a reduction of 33.6%, with [...]

TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Tencent integrates live-streaming e-commerce functions in WeChat, Scopely expands into APAC, and PlayStation 4 sells thirty million units in the US. Tencent integrates live-streaming e-commerce functions in WeChat Chinese internet giant Tencent has integrated live streaming functions into its WeChat platform, which has been designed to facilitate e-commerce capabilities, according Weixin (translation provided by KrASIA). The functions on the platform, which has 1.1 billion monthly active users will [...]

BITKRAFT Esports Ventures has spearheaded a USD$5m (£4.1m) Series A funding round in competitive hyper-casual platform Ready. By any technical definition, Ready is an esports offering. At its most fundamental, it lets players do battle in multiplayer games for cash prizes. It’s key differentiation from conventional esports models comes from its hyper-casual leaning. Esports are typically the preserve of the most hardcore, devoted player demographics there are. Professional esports players have strict training regimes, coaches and even sports psychologists to optimise their [...]