Region Focus
The state of Finland's games industry in 2025
We speak with local industry experts about what's happening in the Finnish games industry and where it goes next
Staff
Alex Forbes-Calvin
Job Title
PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor
Contact editorial@steelmedia.co.uk
About Alex Forbes-Calvin is a freelance writer and photographer, mostly operating within the games industry. Over his career, he has written for the likes of MCV, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz, The Observer, VGC and Esquire. That's on top of writing books for Dark Horse on RuneScape, Assassin's Creed, Dead Island 2 and more.
Articles by Alex Forbes-Calvin
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Tributes
The games industry pays tribute to Andy Brammall
In memory of an industry legend
Refocus
Warner Bros. Games restructures around key IP
The outfit is now split into divisions focused on DC, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and Mortal Kombat
10th Anniversary
Fallout Shelter surpasses 230m downloads
The news comes as the title turns ten years old
Barcelona Beckons
Sandsoft CEO on how a cohesive national strategy could level up Spain's games industry
We speak to Sandsoft CEO David Fernandez about Barcelona's bustling games hub and what it needs to continue growing
Barcelona Beckons
Rovio's ambitions to become a key player in Barcelona's dev scene
We speak to Rovio VP of marketing Luis de la Camara about the Angry Birds developer's Spanish operations
Barcelona Beckons
How Barcelona became Scopely's largest games hub
We speak to the Monopoly Go developer's director of operations Néstor Pequeño about its Spanish expansion
Region Focus
How Barcelona is establishing itself as a key mobile games industry hub
Ahead of the debut Pocket Gamer Connects Barcelona on June 3rd to 4th, we speak to industry locals about the opportunities and challenges facing the development hub
Branding News
Longstanding games services firm PTW rebrands as Side
"I’m proud that all our employees are now united under one banner"
Success Story
Stardew Valley sells over 41 million copies
The PC version has shifted 26m units on PC and 7.9m on Nintendo Switch
Publishing News
Former Annapurna Interactive employees take over Private Division portfolio
Haveli Investments is backing the venture
Global Trends
Global Trends: Wargaming's Evgeniy Shukin on the increasing difficulty of launching new live games
We catch up with industry leaders to get their insights on the state of play in the games sector
Stock Drop
Ubisoft shares fall to 10-year low
This appears to be related to the muted reception to Star Wars Outlaws
Diverse Senior Team
Capcom wants 15% of its managers be women
"Looking ahead, we believe we will be able to see more female directors by broadening our scope and increasing the ratio of female managers"
Sell Outs
Thunderful is selling Headup for €500,000
The company is being bought by Headup's own CEO and founder
Legal News
Activision Blizzard to pay $55 million in gender discrimination settlement
Agreement puts end to lawsuit filed by the Department of Fair Employment and Houses in 2021
No Deal
Discord considers IPO as Microsoft talks end
Company is apparently interested in going public in the future
In The Clouds
Microsoft rolls out Xbox Cloud Gaming beta for iOS
Via web browsers
Money Maker
Sumo sees 2020 sales up 41% to $95 million
A bigger adventure
$$$$$
Report: Discord holding "exclusive" sale discussions with Microsoft
Negotiations have reached an "advanced" stage, deal could close next month
You're A Winner
Hades wins big at the BAFTAs
Animal Crossing: New Horizons picked up two awards
Money Bags
Frost Giant secures additional $5m funding
Fellow Blizzard vet James Anhalt joins the studio
Staying Put
Starbreeze appoints Tobias Sjögren as permanent CEO
He has been acting chief exec since last October
Protect The Earth
Razer wants to be carbon neutral by 2030
Firm has committed to running entirely on renewable energy by 2025 and use recycled or recyclable materials for its products
Splash The Cash
Report: Microsoft among companies looking to buy Discord
Chat platform is apparently up for sale with a $10 billion price tag
New Venture
Sumo Group launches Secret Mode indie publishing arm
Head up by Sega vets James Schall and Derek Seklecki
Red Carded
EA investigating allegations of staff selling FIFA UT cards
Posts on social media point claim to show employees selling cards for huge sums of money
Show Me The Money
Roblox hits $38 billion market cap at end of first day on stock exchange
"To all those who helped us get one step closer to fulfilling our vision of the Metaverse – thank you"
Money Bags
Discord revenue nearly tripled during 2020
Platform boasts 140 million monthly active users
Go Ahea
Microsoft ZeniMax acquisition gets nod in EU and US
Deal is worth $7.5 billion
Lotta Loot
Games with loot boxes might be given automatic 18 rating in Germany
This is the result of changes to the country's youth protection laws
Not So Difficult
'Dynamic Difficulty' class-action lawsuit against EA gets dropped
Publishing giant apparently showed the legal team "detailed technical information" to show this tech isn't in use
Not On Cloud Nine
Report: Stadia didn't achieve Google's subscriber expectations
The search giant reportedly paid out tens of millions for titles like Red Dead Redemption 2
Moving On
Amazon Luna boss Marc Whitten departs the company
Exec has taken a role at Unity
Farewell
GameStop CFO Bell to step down next month
Follows a rather dramatic 2021 for the retailer so far
Legal Drama
Google hit with class-action lawsuit for Stadia 4K claims
Case claims the search giant misled consumers
Going Public
Roblox shares to be listed at start of March
Company will be trading under RBLX "on or about" March 10th
Seeking Protection
CD Projekt issuing DMCA strikes to stop Gwent source code social media posts
Follows this being stolen in a cyberattack earlier in February
You're Out
Velan to make a dodgeball game called Knockout City for EA
Set to launch later this year
Cold Feet
Microsoft acquiring Bethesda gave Google cold feet about Stadia games business
Search giant talked up how well everything was going just five days before announcing it was closing its first-party studios
In The Clouds
Microsoft is testing xCloud streaming via browsers
Public trial coming in the near future
Competition
Unity claims its "real competition" is companies still making own engines, not Epic
But CFO Jabal points out the firm's dominance over the Fortnite maker in many areas
Yoohoo
Yooka-Laylee dev Playtonic launches Friends publishing label
Firm is already working with three studios, details of first projects coming "soon"
So Life Like
Epic's MetaHuman allows you to create digital people quickly
“Up until now one of the most arduous tasks in 3D content creation has been constructing truly convincing digital humans"
Such Discipline
Take-Two says it lost Codemasters to EA due to its "disciplined approach"
CEO and chair Zelnick admits that it was "disappointing" to not snap up the UK racing specialist
See You In Court
Former assistant to Riot Games CEO suing company over alleged harassment
O'Donnell claims that she was wrongfully terminated from her role for refusing to sleep with chief exec Laurent
Under Attack
Witcher maker CD Projekt hit with cyber attack
Someone infiltrated the firm and has stolen source code for Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 in addition to internal documents
Going Digital
ESA aiming for digital E3 2021
Follows the trade body cancelling last year's show
Staying Private
Nope, it doesn't look like Epic Games is going public yet
Fortnite giant is seemingly focused on private investment for now
Rip
Bethesda co-founder and CEO Robert Altman has passed away
No cause of death has been given at this time, Altman was 73