Technology

• 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 [...]

• 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 [...]

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• 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 [...]

• iOS 13 to bring faster downloads, smaller app sizes and greater user privacy

  2 weeks ago News

  

  Apple has used its annual Worldwide Developers Conference to detail the coming iteration of its iPhone operating system, iOS 13. Overall, iOS 13 promises to deliver faster, more responsive performance; something anyone would expect from a new operating system. However, thanks to the new ways in which apps are stored on an iPhone, software downloads are purported to be much faster, while Apple says apps will take up to 50% less storage space than currently seen. That may be significant to [...]

• 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, [...]

• Tencent and Riot rumoured to be partnering on League of Legends mobile

  4 weeks ago News

  

  Chinese technology giant Tencent is understood to be partnering with Riot Games to bring the latter’s globally popular PC game League of Legends to mobile. While Tencent can feel like a company that dominates the headlines all too often, this one is simply too big to ignore. League of Legends is an absolute giant of the booming esports sector; an industry that is expected to reach a global value of USD$1bn (£788.7m) in 2019, according to figures from analytics and data [...]

• 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 [...]

• 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 [...]

• Google CEO: Game publishers want to see our commitment to Stadia

  2 months ago News

  

  Google CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that game publishers have been keen for the tech giant to assert its commitment to its new Stadia streaming platform. Revealed at GDC earlier this year, the Stadia platform offers consumers a cloud-based gaming system. In short, users would have access to a wide library of  games – including technologically demanding triple-A titles – without the need to invest in expensive, powerful home-gaming hardware. Stadia promises to bring gaming to myriad devices with a screen [...]

• deltaDNA: Maturing Mobile Games Market Sends Revenues Soaring Off the Chart

  2 months ago News

  

  In this contributed piece written exclusively for TheGamingEconomy, Mark Robinson, CEO of global game analytics and real-time marketing powerhouse deltaDNA, considers a shift in the balance of power in the mobile space that is seeing success democratised as investors return… The Free-to-Play (F2P) mobile games market has always been dominated by a handful of juggernaut publishers generating the lion’s share of revenue. However, with the market beginning to reach maturity, this long-established status quo is now giving way to a model [...]