New Studio
Zynga opens new development studio in Austin
"We believe that the Austin talent market is highly compatible with our mission of bringing triple-A console visuals and deep, compelling gameplay to mobile platforms"
Growing Industry
Nearly 80% of UK developers work outside London
"The video games industry can play an important role in levelling up the economy"
Expansion
Development services firm Amber opens a new studio in Montréal
Outpost focused on QA, localisation and engineering initially
One Of Us
Among Us will get accounts as early as next month
Move from developer Innersloth will help fight cheating and toxicity
Welcome Aboard
Keywords brings in Fumiko Okura to head up Tokyo studio
She joins with more than 15 years of experience in the business
Welcome Aboard
Kwalee hits 100 members of staff as the company continues to grow
"We're extremely proud to have expanded the Kwalee team to more than 100 people – particularly in such a challenging year"
Gaining Independence
Light Brick Studio splits from Lego following an investment from the company
"We're very excited to be able to expand and continue our journey to create new and interesting experiences"
Making Amends
Lab Zero vet Zaimont suspended from work on Guilty Gear
Follows accusations of misconduct at his studio
Going Mobile
Activision Blizzard will bring more franchises to mobile
"We need to make sure that we're enabling our franchises on the billions of mobile devices that are available right now"
Welcome Aboard
Retro Studios hires Marisa Palumbo as it looks to remodel Texas HQ
She has worked for Rockstar and Blizzard
Growing Market
Scottish games industry experiences 17 per cent growth across 18 months
"Scotland represents the fourth largest games cluster in the UK"
Set Up Shop
Annapurna Interactive opens new internal dev studio in Los Angeles
"Many of us came from an internal development background and are excited to make this a part of Annapurna Interactive moving forward"
Making Of
Kongregate's Tammy Levy on licensing, partnering with Nickelodeon and launching TMNT: Mutant Madness
"There are many hero-focused games on the market, so we wanted to make ours stand out"
Welcome To The Family
Scopely snaps up match-three developer Genjoy
Will join Scopely's operations in Spain
Welcome Aboard
Sumo Leamington appoints Codemasters vet as technical director
“Although a lot has changed during my time in the industry, my commitment to video games remains the same"
Get Hyped
Supersonic Studios launches its Superstars contest for hypercasual devs
“Since the day Supersonic was launched, we have focused on developing a strong relationship with our developers"
Publishing Programme
JoyPac launches HyperFuel to aid in developing hypercasual titles
"The idea behind HyperFuel is to replicate the kind of hands-on input and access to resources that accelerators are so good at"
"progressive Strides"
Com2uS purchases Out of the Park Developments
"We expect OOTP to become a key part of our officially-licensed sports management product lineup"
To Battle!
Lion Studios launches its first co-developed title Ancient Battle
"Looking beyond hyper-casual, we worked closely with Mandrill VR on Ancient Battle to create a game that really stands out"
Acquisition
My.Games acquires a majority stake in mobile games dev Deus Craft
"We are happy to welcome Deus Craft to the My.Games family"
Acquisition
Thunderful Group acquires Shadow Point developer Coatsink
”We have established a good relationship with the founders and key personnel of Coatsink"
Pick A Card
Belka Games launches Solitaire Cruise
And discusses the success of its R&D department
Welcome Aboard
Huuuge Group welcomes Grzegorz Kania as its new CFO
"I am very excited to be joining Huuuge at this time"
New Partnership
Focus Home Interactive teams up with Flying Wild Hog for new title
"Focus Home Interactive is the perfect partner for Flying Wild Hog"
Change In Focus
InnerSloth cancels Among Us sequel to focus on original
"We have decided to cancel Among Us 2 and instead put all our focus into improving Among Us 1"
I Have A Dream
Former Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime founds new studio, Dreamhaven
"We believe in the power of gaming to bring people together"
Starting Fresh
Former Lab Zero devs form new studio Future Club
"We wanted to start fresh with a company structure that was worker-owned and gave everyone a say in the future of our organisation"
Investment
My.Games invests in mobile games developer Hypemasters
"We are primarily interested in investing in people and talent, not just the end product"
Welcome To The Family
Keywords acquires Heavy Iron Studios
Developer has worked on Marvel's Avengers, the Call of Duty series, and Disney Infinity in the past
Pgc Helsinki Digital
PGC Helsinki Digital: Learning from Fingersoft's new game development funnel
"The best part about this whole funnel is that we can give everyone that works for us equal opportunities to create games"
Welcome Aboard
Glu Mobile welcomes Jon David as its new vice president and general manager
"I am thrilled to be joining Glu, especially at a time when more people than ever before are turning to mobile games for entertainment"
Farewell
Indie studio Vlambeer is shutting down after 10 years
The developer's upcoming title Ultrabugs is still on the way though
Moving Up
InnoGames appoints Christian Reshöft as its new CPO
"Christian contributed heavily to InnoGames’ sustainable growth in previous years and achieved many important milestones"
Got Your Back
Microsoft gives its support to Epic in its ongoing feud with Apple
"Developing a game using different game engines for different platforms may be prohibitively expensive and difficult"
Best Of Both
Bossa Studios embraces remote working in its new structure
Staff can choose to work from the office or at home
Welcome Aboard
Sybo hires ex-Gram Games VP of product Jeremy Stein to head up its Copenhagen studio
"With multiple top-grossing mobile games to his credit, Jeremy's proven success is a big win for SYBO"
Moving On
Street Fighter boss Yoshinori Ono leaves Capcom after nearly 30 years
"I've been with the Street Fighter brand for a long time, experiencing good times, bad times, and even non-existent times"
Going Nowhere
AT&T appears to be keeping hold of Warner Bros. Interactive
"Warner Bros. Interactive remains part of the Studios and Networks group"
Makeover!
Playtika has given itself a rebrand
"Playtika's new look and feel is designed to match our new brand story and our mission – to entertain the world through infinite ways to play"
Money Money Money
Roblox developers are on track to bring in $250 million this year
"The accomplishments of our developer community have eclipsed even our loftiest expectations"
Investment
LocalizeDirect receives $1.1 million investment
Will be used for its CMS for games development known as Gridly
New Acquisition
Huuuge Games acquires Finnish games studio Double Star
"This acquisition marks another step forward in our Build-and-Buy strategy"
Team Up
Gismart is looking to partner with hypercasual developers
To bring games to market quicker
Now That's Epic
Epic Games has given $42 million to 600 developers as part of its MegaGrants scheme
AMD has donated 200 Ryzen 7 3800X desktops to the initiative
Gone Fishing
Electronic Arts hires Jeff Karp to head up its mobile division
Karp is the former president of Big Fish Games
Under One Roof
HAL Laboratory moves into Nintendo's Tokyo building
It's increased its staff numbers to 195
Merging
Games development agency Amber is merging with studio KaraOkulta
"Amber is always looking for outstanding talent and the team at KaraOkulta impressed us"
New Studio
Nifty Games opens a new studio in Chicago
Headed by Robomodo co-founder David Michicich
New Partnership
Sperasoft partners with RuneScape developer Jagex
"Our experienced team of developers are focused on providing innovative solutions in tools development"
Being Innovative
Pixel Federation establishes a new R&D department
"The goal of the R&D department is to add sophisticated procedures"