Tag: Business
News Crush 40 Musician Is Suing Sega Over Sonic Adventure 2 Theme, 'Live And Learn'
Never too late, eh?
Johnny Gioeli, the Crush 40 musician and singer behind the iconic Sonic Adventure 2 track 'Live and Learn', is suing SEGA of America over breach of contract for the song's repeated use throughout the Sonic series (thanks, Polygon). According to Gioeli's lawsuit (via Polygon), filed to the District Court of S
News Several PlatinumGames Veterans Have Seemingly Left The Studio
Hideki and seek
In 2023, PlatinumGames made the surprise announcement that its co-founder and vice president, Hideki Kamiya, had left the company. One year on, it looks like several other veterans may be following suit. As spotted on the r/GamingLeaksAndRumours Reddit forum by user Joseki100 (off the back of an initial post by PlatinumGamesFanboy),...
News Nintendo Now Officially Owns 100% Of Monolith Soft
The chronicle continues
The 'Company Profile' section of the Monolith Soft website has been updated and it looks like Nintendo now finally owns 100% of the company (thanks, Automaton West). The Big N first staked its claim in Monolith back in 2007, purchasing 80% of its shares from Namco before increasing its proportion to 96% in 2011. It's unclear...
News Ubisoft Reportedly Discussing Buyout Options As Talks Of Going Private Continue
Following yet another wave of staff layoffs
Back in October, it was rumoured that Ubisoft was considering going private after a rough year of releases. Two months on and it appears that the negotiations are still ongoing, with Ubisoft and Tencent apparently engaged in talks about buyout terms. That is according to the latest report from Reuters,...
News Atelier & Dynasty Warriors Publisher Looks To Expand And Focus On PC, Consoles
Plans to double employee numbers
Koei Tecmo's recent shareholders Q&A briefing, which was held in October 2024, has just been published, and it shows that the company is planning some big expansions in the long term. The publisher and developer — known best for Dynasty Warriors, the Atelier series, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and Nioh —...
News Composer Grant Kirkhope Joins Davide Soliani's New Indie Studio
"There’s no way out now."
Davide Soliani, the director of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, recently revealed his new indie studio, Day 4 Night. Focused on delivering "deeply heartfelt and original games that innovate in storytelling and design", its a bold new venture for the creator who had previously spent 25...
News Palworld Dev May Have Found An Unexpected Ally In Nintendo's Lawsuit: An Old GTA 5 Mod
Trevorlution
Earlier this month, Palworld developer PocketPair detailed the patent infringement claims that make up Nintendo's ongoing lawsuit. The case itself is still underway, with both parties building their arguments, but a new prediction from a Japanese patent attorney suggests that PocketPair may be finding support in the most unlikely of...
News Mario & Luigi's Future In Doubt As A Potential Sony Acquisition Emerges
Update: Kadokawa acknowledges Sony's offer
A new report from Reuters has emerged that reveals Sony is potentially in talks to purchase Kadokawa, a Japanese media conglomerate that serves as parent to dozens of entertainment companies. In the gaming space, Kadokawa owns Spike Chunsoft, Acquire, Gotcha Gotcha Games, and FromNetworks, while also...
News Thunderful Announces Its Second Restructuring Program In One Year
Up to 100 redundancies expected
Publisher Thunderful has confirmed that it is launching another restructuring program aimed at reducing its workforce by up to 100 employees. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, Thunderful is looking to “increase its focus on t
News Saudi Arabia's PIF Further Reduces Its Stake In Nintendo
Sovereign wealth fund now has a 6.3% stakehold
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has reduced its stake in Nintendo for the second time in as many months. As reported by Bloomberg (thanks, The Edge), a new filing in Japan shows that the PIF's stake in the Japanese video game firm now stands at 6.3%, down from 7.54%. This follows an earlier 1.04%...
News Nintendo Is Handed Another Lawsuit Win After Accused Switch "Pirate" Fails To Plead
Dub by default
Back in July, Nintendo dished out a handful of lawsuits in its continued clampdown on Switch piracy. Four months on, one of these legal claims has come back as another win for Nintendo after the defendant failed to plead or otherwise respond within the court's given time. The case in question was against James 'Archbox' Williams, the...
News RiME And 'Song Of Nunu' Developer Tequila Works Has Filed For Insolvency
Following "prolonged market conditions"
Tequila Works, the development studio behind the likes of RiME, GYLT, Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story and The Sexy Brutale, has announced that it has been forced to file for insolvency. The Madrid-based studio's founding members have each stood down from their respective positions, leading to Térence...
News Palworld Developer Details Patent Infringement Claims From Nintendo's Lawsuit
Nintendo and TPC seek 10m Yen in damages
News on Nintendo and The Pokémon Company's lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair had gone quiet over the past few weeks, but a new statement from the latter studio has shed some more light on the complaint — specifically, the patents Nintendo claims have been infringed upon and the prescribed fine...
News Take-Two Sells Private Division To Undisclosed Buyer
Deal includes "existing and unreleased titles"
The video game publisher Take-Two has officially sold its smaller label Private Division to an unnamed buyer for an undisclosed sum. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick told Variety how "the buyer purchased substantially all of Private Division's existing and unreleased titles". He added how this was a...
News Nintendo Would Rather "Organically Expand The Organisation" Than Rely Solely On Acquisitions
Not that any future mergers are off the table, mind
As a part of its recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing for FY2025, Nintendo has reiterated its stance on mergers and acquisitions. Namely, while future acquisitions are never off the table, it would rather "organically expand the organisation". This, the briefing note claimed, is so that new...
Talking Point Nintendo's Latest Financials Make One Thing Abundantly Clear
Echoes of Switchdom
Blimey, has it already been three months since the last lot? Yes, it's time for another round of Nintendo financial results, and we can soon expect the usual investor Q&A with Shuntaro Furukawa and co. deflecting questions about the Switch "successor" and then explaining how the Nintendo Music app is one example of the...
News Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of September 2024
Two games switch places
Nintendo has released its latest financial data covering the first six-month period for FY2025 and, as part of that, it has updated the top ten best-selling games list once more. The only major change we can see with this one is that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has usurped Super Mario Party to claim the eighth...
News Nintendo Lowers Its Hardware Forecast As Switch Sales Slow To A Crawl
Still, 146 million ain't bad
Nintendo has released its six-month financial data for FY2025 Q1/Q2, revealing that the Switch family of systems has now topped a whopping 146.04 million units. The downside of this is that the console's momentum has undoubtedly slowed down, selling just 2.64 million more than the 143.42 reported in August this year...
News Nintendo Cooks Up New Food & Accommodation Trademarks For Pikmin, Smash Bros. And More
Order up!
Nintendo is no stranger to a trademark application, but its latest batch is worthy of note because of how non-gamey it is. You see, instead of bagsying the use of a particular mechanic or other software-related gimmick, Nintendo appears to be trademarking its properties for use in the food and accommodation sector (thanks for heads up,...
News Tales Of Kenzera Director Slams Publishers' Desire To Create "The Next Fortnite"
"It shouldn’t be about money, it should be about expression"
Abubakar Salim, actor and director for the 2024 metroidvania Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, has recently slammed publishers' desire to create "the next Fortnite". In speaking with Dexerto, Salim commented on the state of the games industry at the moment and his desire for companies to start...
News With EA Playing For Another Team, FIFA Kicks Off New eSports Collaboration With Konami
Bringing eFootball to the eMasses
Now here's a move that we didn't expect. Following the split from EA, FIFA has announced that it is partnering with one-time rival Konami on a new eSports collaboration. To be clear, this isn't to say that Konami will be taking over the FIFA license, nor that the studio's current football series, eFootball...
News Saudi Public Investment Fund Reduces Its Stake In Nintendo
Update: Contrary to reports which had suggested a possible increase
Update [Tue 8th Oct, 2024 12:15 BST]: Following articles over the weekend that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund may seek to increase its investment in Nintendo over and above the 8.58% stake it owned, CNBC now reports that the PIF has, in fact, cut its stake in the Japanese...
News No, Tomonobu Itagaki's Game Studio Hasn't Shut Down, It's Just Had A Name Change
(Devil's) Third time's the charm
For a brief moment yesterday, it appeared that Tomonobu Itagaki's game studio had been dissolved. But fear not, the Devil's Third creator still has his dev team, albeit under a slightly different name (thanks, Gematsu). A company dissolution notice was published in Japan's government gazette yesterday, with the...
News Pour One Out For The Modchip Seller Facing Nintendo In Court Alone
Hounds, released
Back in July, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Modded Hardware — an online store which, as you might expect, sells modded Switch consoles and chips — in its continued attempt to clamp down on piracy. Three months on, the alleged owner of the store, Ryan Daly, has filed his answer to the complaints where he denies any wrongdoing...
News Ubisoft's Disastrous 2024 May Lead To The Company Going Private
It lost half of its market value this year alone
Tencent and the Guillemot family are reportedly considering taking Ubisoft private as part of efforts to stabilise the company amid a tumultuous 2024. Acording to Bloomberg, both parties have reportedly been speaking with advisors on how best to bolster Ubisoft's value after multiple gaffs ov
News Nintendo Patents Filed After Palworld's Release Suggest Lawsuit Prep Started Months Ago
Pika your battles
Last week, Nintendo and The Pokémon Company announced that they were filing a patent infringement lawsuit against Palworld developer Pocketpair. While the latter studio claimed it was "unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon," online speculation soon began to throw out various plausible-sounding submis
News Nintendo To Go In 'Different Direction' To Current AI Trends, Says Miyamoto
Music to our ears
AI is, for better or worse, one of the hot topics of 2024. It's bloomin' everywhere at the moment. Naturally, there's a lot of speculation on whether major video game companies will implement the technology into their work (and many, it seems, already have), but Nintendo fans will no doubt be delighted to hear that the Japanese...
News PlatinumGames Gains 'The Wonderful 101' Trademark From Nintendo
How wonderful
Developer PlatinumGames has gained full ownership of the trademark for The Wonderful 101 from Nintendo after a document was spotted detailing the transfer. The document in question was picked up by Joseki100 on Reddit and relayed by the folks over at
News Analyst Is Certain Nintendo Will Win Its Lawsuit Against Palworld Developer
"Nintendo took its time to really build the case"
While everyone is patiently awaiting news from Nintendo regarding its upcoming Switch successor, the company made another, undoubtedly more surprising, announcement. Months after Palworld's release, Nintendo has now filed a patent lawsuit against developer Pocketpair, claiming that Palworld...
News Ex-Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aimé Is Keen To Discuss The State Of The Industry
"Let’s talk"
It's safe to say that the games industry is in somewhat of a volatile state at the moment. Projects are taking longer to complete, budgets are becoming unsustainable, and development staff worldwide are being made redundant left, right, and centre. Indeed, it seems as though Nintendo is really one of the only major companies...
News Bayonetta Star Jennifer Hale On The SAG-AFTRA Strikes: "AI Is Coming For Us All"
"Now you’re using technology to take away our ability to feed our kids.”
The topic of AI is seemingly becoming more and more heated as time goes on at the moment, with creatives in particular speaking out against the technology as coporate big wigs look to streamline their operations and, ultimately, line their pockets. One actor who recently...
News Nintendo Of Europe Announces Leadership Changes As President Resigns
Welcome, Mr. Pereña
Nintendo of Europe has announced a few changes to its management structure after Stephan Bole stepped down from his role as President. Bole served as President for NoE for six years after succeeding Satoru Shibata in 2018, and has being an employee at the company for more than 35 years. According to the announcement, Bole has...
News Tango Gameworks Survives, Reviving The 'Hi-Fi Rush On Switch' Dream
Krafton saves the day
Tango Gameworks, the acclaimed studio behind the likes of Hi-Fi Rush, The Evil Within, and Ghostwire: Tokyo, lives to see another day. After being unceremoniously shut down by Microsoft earlier this year, the Japanese studio has been swooped up by South Kore
News Warner Bros. Is Reportedly Looking To Sell A Stake In Its Games Business
In an effort to reverse tumbling share price
Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly looking to sell a stake in its video game business. As relayed by VGC, sources speaking to Financial Times claim that the media conglomerate is considering offloading smaller assets of its business in an effort to reverse its falling share price since the merger of...
News Xenoblade Chronicles Dev Monolith Soft Is Recruiting For A 'New RPG'
Eight roles are up for grabs
Monolith Soft, the developer behind the wonderful Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, has announced that it is looking to recruit new talent for what it describes as a 'new RPG'. In a post via the studio's official website (thanks, Nintendo Everything), founder, CCO, and executive director Tetsuya Takahashi put a call out...
News Nintendo's Share Price Tanks Amid Fears Of A US Recession
Nikkei 225 index fell by more than 12%
Nintendo's share price has tanked by more than 15% on Monday morning amid global fears of a US recession and rising tensions in the Middle East. As highlighted by Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of industry consultancy Kantan Games, almost every major Japanese gaming company saw a drop in share price as Japan's Nikkei...
News Iconic Publication Game Informer Is Closing Down After 33 Years
Damn
Game Informer has announced that it is closing down after 33 years. The publication, owned by US retailer GameStop, started back in August 1993, but has announced its closure via a short post on social media. It states, "After 33 thrilling years of bringing you the latest news, reviews, and insights from the ever-evolving world of gaming, it...
News Nintendo Of Europe Completes Plan To Merge Subsidiaries
All hail NoE SE
In addition to its usual financial shenanigans, Nintendo has announced that its plan to merge its European subsidiaries under one banner is now complete. The merger - the details of which were originally divulged back in November 2022 - saw the likes of Nintendo France, Nintendo Benelux, and Nintendo Ibérica effectively cease to...
Random Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Sold Better Than Tears Of The Kingdom Last Quarter
Showing the youngsters how it's done
Well, we weren't expecting this. After crunching some of the numbers from Nintendo's latest financial report, it turns out that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - which was a launch game in 2017, mind - actually sold better than its direct sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, during Q1 of FY2025 (cheers, Mr. Jon...
News Nintendo Notes A Rise In Research And Development Costs As 'Switch 2' Looms
Whatcha working on?
File this one in a box labelled "Huh, makes sense", because Nintendo has confirmed that its selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses rose by 2.4% year-on-year during its latest financial report. "Okay, so?", you might ask, and it's a fair question. While certainly not a particularly noteworthy announcement on its...
News Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door And Luigi's Mansion 2 HD Both Surpass One Million Sales
A good day for Mario and friends
Nintendo has published its financial results for the first quarter of FY2025 and we have a couple of first-party titles that have crossed their first major milestone. If the headline hadn't given it away already, Luigi's Mansion 2 HD and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door have both surpassed one million sales...
News Here Are The Top Ten Best-Selling Nintendo Switch Games As Of June 2024
Change may be afoot
Nintendo has published its latest financial data for Q1 of FY2025, and as part of that, we've got an updated look at the top ten best-selling games list for the Switch. The order stays the same with some minimal additions to the total sales figures, but there may be a shift in the coming months. Take a look at Zelda: Tears of...
News Nintendo Switch Sales Hit 143 Million As Hardware And Software Figures Decline
The TOTK and Mario Movie effects take their toll
Nintendo has published its financial results for the first quarter of the 2024/25 fiscal year, revealing that Switch hardware sales now stand at 143.42 million units sold (as of 30th June 2024). This is up from 141.32 million as reported in May, with Nintendo selling 2.1 million consoles across the...
News AI Generator Scraped YouTube Videos Without Permission, Including Nintendo's
Uh oh...
Runway, the multi-billion dollar company claiming to 'move creativity forward' with artificial intelligence (yuck!) has reportedly trained its text-to-video generator by scraping thousands of videos from YouTube, potentially including several of Nintendo's channels. As discovered and reported by 404 Media, the information comes via a...
News Red Art Games Has Fallen Victim To A Significant Cyberattack
Multiple customer details compromised
Red Art Games has announced that it has fallen victim to a significant cyberattack in which multiple customer details have been compromised. The company confirms that all bank details are safe, but details including email addresses and shipping addresses have been affected. It has also confirmed that shipments,...
News Capcom Currently Has No Plans To End Physical Game Support
Firm cites significant user demand
During Capcom's 45th General Shareholders meeting, the firm confirmed that it currently has no plans to end support for physical media. The firm stated that due to a "significant number of end users" currently demanding physical games, it does not expect to "eliminate physical products". This will no doubt come as...
News Retailer GAME Is Reportedly Ending In-Store Pre-Orders
GAME Wallet is also ending
UK retailer GAME is reportedly ending in-store pre-orders in what feels like yet another baffling move as it further integrates itself into the wider Fraser Group. As originally reported by TechRadar Gaming (thanks, Eurogamer), existing pre-orders or deposits for products due to release before the end of January 2025 will...
News Don't Worry, Nintendo Likely Won't Utilise Generative AI In Its Game Development
Phew...
Update #2 [Fri 5th Jul, 2024 10:15 BST]: Here's the official translation from Nintendo: "In the game industry, AI-like technologies have long been used — for example, to control the movements of opponent characters — so I believe that game development and AI technology have always had a close relationship. Generative AI, which is...
News Revived Infogrames Label Acquires 'Surgeon Simulator' Franchise
Atari will see you now
Infogrames, the newly revived publishing label and subsidiary of Atari, has announced that it has acquired the Surgeon Simulator franchise after finalising a deal with tinyBuild Inc. This follows the previous acquisition of Totally Reliable Delivery Service back in April 2024, announced to coincide with Infograme's revival...
News Retailer GAME Reportedly Ending In-Store Sales Of Physical Games And Hardware
Update: Report "categorically not true", says GAME
Update [Mon 24th Jun, 2024 12:45 BST]: GAME has provided a comment to Eurogamer to state that the report from Gfinity eSports is not true, stating that it will continue to support the physical gaming market. "This reporting is categorically not true. GAME continues to support the physical gaming...
