Players

• Developers can now build Synative playable game demos in Google Play for free

  1 day ago News

  

  Game ad tech specialist Synative has moved to make its Playable Studio platform free for devs looking to build playable ‘Try Now’ demos for Google Play. In essence Synative offers in Playable Studio an accessible platform for building playable ads, all without the need to write a single line of code. Using that platform game developers – or their marketing or PR colleagues with little-to-no dev experience – can build demos of their games that exist as a playable ad. Those [...]

• Against Gravity secures USD$24m investment in VR social gaming space Rec Room

  1 week ago News

  

  Seattle start-up Against Gravity has raised USD$24m (£18.9m) of VC funding. The money will help bolster Rec Room, the studio’s blend of social space, game compilation and user content generation platform. As reported by TechCrunch, Against Gravity raised the investment over two rounds of funding. The first Series A funding round was led by Sequoia, while Index Ventures spearheaded the second, Series B, which concluded recently. Investors in Against Gravity include Acequia Capital, Anorak Ventures, Betaworks, DAG Ventures, First Round Capital [...]

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• E3: Microsoft reveals Xbox One successor, coming 2020

  1 week ago News

  

  With this year’s huge E3 gaming conference hardly underway, Microsoft has revealed that its follow up to the Xbox One console, announcing that the machine is due to launch in 2020. Code-named Project Scarlett, the coming console promises to be ‘four times’ as powerful as Microsoft’s current-generation Xbox One. Console ‘power’, of course, is too complicated to exist on a linear spectrum where all games machines are comparable using a single metric. But thanks in-part to a custom processor, built by Microsoft [...]

• Google confirms pricing structure, launch details and games for cloud-based Stadia gaming platform

  2 weeks ago News

  

  Google has moved to reveal more details on its eagerly anticipated Stadia cloud-gaming service; namely pricing structures, launch details and launch games. The gaming platform – due in November this year – requires no console-like ‘box’ or dedicated hardware beyond a game controller or mouse and keyboard. Instead, games will be streamed over the cloud direct from Google data centres to customers’ screens and controllers. Stadia will be available over smart TVs, laptops, desktop computers and smartphones. Users will access the [...]

• Panic, Playdate and the crank: A lesson learned in engaging the games industry

  3 weeks ago News

  

  The last two days have been a bumpy ride for Panic. The software company and occasional game publisher recently dazzled the global games industry by revealing its delightfully unconventional gaming handheld, the Playdate. Then the organisers of a modest gaming event also titled Playdate stated that they had received an email from Panic asserting that the former could no longer use the name. That has not gone down well. There is little unusual in companies moving to protect or claim brands. However, [...]

• Minecraft revealed as best selling game of all time... probably

  1 month ago News

  

  As Minecraft’s tenth anniversary dawns, its owner Microsoft has revealed that the game has sold 176 million copies. The news came via a Microsoft blog post – spotted by PC gamer – that also reveals a new AR title called Minecraft Earth is underway. Minecraft is no doubt a bona fide cultural phenomenon. It’s star may have faded a little compared to the high of a few years ago, but it can truly stand along household names like Tetris, Pong and Fortnite [...]

• Sony and Microsoft partner to explore cloud gaming and more

  1 month ago News

  

  Sony and Microsoft are to collaborate to develop their respective cloud platforms, covering gaming and other entertainment forms. The pair will also partner to pursue innovations in artificial intelligence and semiconductors. While the two tech giants are looking at the potential of pairing Sony’ semiconductors with Microsoft’s existing cloud offering, their announcement does not suggest that they are developing a single platform or device that they will release together. This collaboration, it appears, is about the two collaborating to bolster their [...]

• One Billion Female Gamers: How the Demographics of Play are Shifting

  1 month ago News

  

  New research conducted by game analytics outfit Newzoo has revealed that today over 46% of gaming enthusiasts are women. That’s perhaps as many as one billion people. While the sheer size of the audience offers plenty to be optimistic about, their current gender ratio shouldn’t come as a surprise. Many statistics over the past decade or so have pointed to a rise in the numbers of females playing games regularly. Thanks to an ongoing diversification of the types of games available [...]

• Google Shifts Weighting of Game Ratings on Play Store

  1 month ago News

  

  Google has revealed subtle tweaks to the way mobile games on its Android Play Store are rated. Google detailed its new plans for rating games at its own I/O developer conference this week. The changes have been enacted to help – or perhaps favour – games by developers that continue to maintain and update their releases. As reported by Gamasutra, from August this year the way Play Store builds average overall ratings from customer reviews of a given game will emphasise more [...]

• China’s Mobile Game Revenue Predicted to Exceed USD$25bn by 2023

  1 month ago News

  

  That figure – and Niko’s other findings – point to rapid growth in China’s games market, despite state involvement stifling game releases in the country through 2018 and into this year. Niko’s in-depth report points to the fact that China presently accounts for 25% of the world’s mobile games market. As home to 18.4% of the world’s population, China is clearly punching above its significant weight when it comes to mobile. China is currently home to 1.4 billion people. Niko’s figures [...]