Category: Gaming

Nintendo has reintroduced purchase checks for the multi-language version of the Switch 2 in Japan after detecting orders suspected of bulk buying, adding a fresh layer of control to one of the year’s most sought-after gaming devices.The Kyoto-based company temporarily halted sales of the Nintendo Switch 2 Multi-Language System on its official Nintendo Store and said future purchases would be limited to accounts showing at least 50 hours of play on the original Nintendo Switch by 23:59 on 31 May

Xbox Game Pass lost “millions” of subscribers after Microsoft lifted the monthly price of its Ultimate tier from $20 to $30 in October 2025, exposing the limits of consumer tolerance for subscription gaming even at one of the industry’s most heavily promoted services.Matthew Ball, Xbox’s chief strategy officer, said at The Game Business Live that the company “shed millions of subscribers over the span of a few months” after the increase, giving rare public detail on a service whose membership

UAE residents are entering the FIFA World Cup 2026 cycle with access to the country’s first licensed online sports wagering and internet gaming platform, marking a significant shift in a market that has long treated gambling as tightly restricted activity.Play971, operated by Abu Dhabi-based Coin Technology Projects LLC, is listed by the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority under both internet gaming and sports wagering categories. The platform offers betting markets on football and other sports, alongside casino-style online games and

Square Enix has confirmed Final Fantasy VII Revelation as the closing chapter of its remake trilogy, setting a spring 2027 launch across PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S and PC on the same day.The announcement marks a major shift for one of the company’s most important franchises. Earlier entries in the remake project arrived first on PlayStation before expanding to PC and other consoles, but Revelation is being positioned from the outset as a global multiplatform release. The

Asia and MENA’s video games market is on course to expand from $88.9 billion in 2025 to $103.6 billion by 2030, a 16.5% rise that underlines the region’s growing weight in the global games industry as publishers, platforms and investors look beyond slower mature markets for new growth.The latest market model points to revenue growth of 3.4% in 2026 to $91.8 billion, with the five-year compound annual growth rate projected at 3.1%. The number of players across the 13 tracked

Amazon MGM Studios and Amazon Games are set to take a larger role in future James Bond video games, shifting the franchise away from the self-publishing model used by IO Interactive for 007 First Light and placing the next stage of Bond’s gaming strategy more firmly under Amazon’s expanding entertainment empire.The move follows Amazon MGM Studios’ acquisition of creative control over the James Bond franchise in 2025, a turning point that changed the balance of power around one of cinema’s

Abu Dhabi Gaming has signed a strategic partnership with ASPIRE to accelerate AI-led game development, linking the emirate’s interactive entertainment ambitions with advanced research capabilities from one of its key technology institutions.The agreement was formalised during the A2RL Summit at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi, where global technology, mobility, autonomy and gaming specialists gathered to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping industries built around real-time decision-making and simulation. The deal places gaming alongside robotics, smart mobility and autonomous systems as part

Playstack is set to come under the majority ownership of Integrated Media Company in a deal that values the Balatro publisher at about £125 million, marking one of the more closely watched transactions in the independent games market this year.TruFin, the London-listed fintech and investment group that owns 84.5 per cent of Playstack, has agreed to sell its holding to VantageCo Limited, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Integrated Media Company. The proposed transaction is expected to generate about £112.4

Rotterdam Ahoy became the centre of Twitch’s European creator community as TwitchCon Rotterdam 2026 opened its final weekend before the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform shifts its European convention to Berlin next year.The two-day gathering, running on 30 and 31 May, brought streamers, viewers, game publishers, sponsors and technology partners together at one of Europe’s busiest fan events for livestreaming culture. Twitch confirmed that TwitchCon Europe 2027 will be held in Berlin on 22 and 23 May, marking a return to Germany

Acer has unveiled the Predator Atlas 8, a Windows 11 handheld gaming PC powered by Intel’s new Arc G-Series processors, marking a deeper push by the PC maker into a fast-expanding portable gaming market dominated by premium devices and performance-focused chip platforms.The device, announced for Computex 2026, will be offered with Intel Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme processor options, paired with Intel Arc B370 or Arc B390 graphics based on the Xe3 architecture. Acer is positioning the Predator Atlas

Arc Raiders secured Nordic Game of the Year at the Nordic Game Awards in Malmö, strengthening Embark Studios’ position as one of the region’s most influential developers after a breakout year for the extraction shooter.The title, developed by the Stockholm-based studio, won the top award at the ceremony held on May 28 during the Nordic Game conference at Slagthuset in Malmö. It also took Best Technology and Best Audio, making it the most decorated game of the night and underlining

Epic Games has offered the first public look at Unreal Engine 6 through a short Rocket League teaser, placing one of its most durable live-service titles at the centre of its next major technology transition.The reveal came during the Rocket League Championship Series Paris Major, where a brief in-engine sequence showed the vehicular football game running with sharper lighting, glossier car surfaces, denser stadium detail and more polished effects. The teaser was short, but its message was clear: Rocket League,

Fortnite’s full return to Apple’s iOS ecosystem has delivered an estimated 3.4 million downloads in its first week, giving Epic Games its strongest App Store performance for the title since its launch month in 2018 and underscoring the scale of pent-up demand after years of restricted access on iPhones and iPads.The download surge followed the game’s May 19 return to the App Store across most major markets, widening availability beyond earlier limited channels and restoring direct access for users

Take-Two Interactive Software ended its 2026 financial year with a sharp rise in net bookings and revenue, as sustained demand for NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto and Zynga’s mobile portfolio strengthened the company’s position ahead of the planned launch of Grand Theft Auto VI later this year.The New York-based games publisher reported fiscal-year net bookings of $6.72 billion for the year ended March 31, 2026, up 19% from $5.65 billion a year earlier. Net revenue rose to $6.66 billion from

Quantic Dream has halted development of Spellcasters Chronicles and will close its servers on June 19, ending the studio’s first original multiplayer title less than four months after its early access launch on Steam.The Paris-based developer said the free-to-play action-strategy game had failed to attract the audience needed to support long-term development. Players will be able to access the game until the shutdown date, while all spending during the early access period will be eligible for a full refund on

European Parliament scrutiny of the Stop Destroying Videogames initiative was diverted by Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík after he used a debate on digital ownership and game preservation to attack what he described as “woke ideology” in the games industry.The initiative, widely known through the Stop Killing Games campaign, asks the European Commission to require publishers selling or licensing videogames in the European Union to leave them in a functional state when official support ends. It became the 14th valid European

Take-Two Interactive has moved to quiet speculation over another Grand Theft Auto VI delay, reaffirming that Rockstar Games’ blockbuster open-world title remains scheduled for release on 19 November 2026.The confirmation, issued alongside Take-Two’s fiscal 2026 results, places the game at the centre of the company’s next financial year and signals that management is still planning around one of the most consequential launches in entertainment. Chief executive Strauss Zelnick said fiscal 2027 was expected to deliver record operating performance, driven by

Morocco is moving to turn video gaming into a high-growth industry, offering financial backing, incubation and training to local startups as it seeks to create skilled jobs, widen export revenue and produce the country’s first billion-dollar technology companies.The push has gained fresh momentum around the Morocco Gaming Expo 2026 in Rabat, held from May 20 to 24, where officials, developers, investors and international technology firms are gathering to promote the Kingdom’s ambition to become a leading gaming hub for Africa

Sony has raised PlayStation Plus prices for new customers in select markets, increasing the cost of one-month and three-month subscriptions from 20 May as pressure builds across the video games industry over tariffs, currency swings, platform costs and weaker consumer spending.The company said the change was being made because of “ongoing market conditions”, with one-month subscriptions now starting at $10.99 in the United States, €9.99 in Europe and £7.99 in the United Kingdom. Three-month subscriptions will start at $27.99, €27.99

Jeff Fowler has signalled a major step forward for Sonic the Hedgehog 4, confirming that filming has wrapped and offering fans an early glimpse of Metal Sonic, the robotic rival whose arrival is expected to reshape the next chapter of Paramount’s fast-growing video game film franchise.The director, who has steered all three previous Sonic the Hedgehog films, marked the end of principal photography with a production update that immediately drew attention to the franchise’s next antagonist. The image shared from

Uwe Boll is moving back into zombie cinema with a new project positioned as a spiritual successor to his 2003 videogame adaptation House of the Dead, escalating a public rivalry around Sega’s revived screen plans for the franchise.The German filmmaker has begun production work on 23 Years Later: The Castle of the Dead, a horror film designed to invoke the legacy of his earlier House of the Dead picture without operating as an official Sega-backed sequel. Filming is scheduled to

Discord Nitro subscribers will receive a starter edition of Xbox Game Pass at no additional charge under a new partnership with Microsoft, adding a substantial gaming benefit to the paid chat and community service as both companies compete for deeper engagement among players.The offer gives eligible Nitro members access to more than 50 PC and console games, along with 10 hours of Xbox Cloud Gaming each month. The catalogue includes titles such as Fallout 4, Stardew Valley, DayZ, Deep Rock

Sony’s PlayStation business booked a $765 million impairment charge tied to Bungie, sharply weakening fourth-quarter profit even as the games division delivered record full-year operating income.The charge, recorded against Bungie’s intangible and other assets, amounted to ¥120.1 billion for the year ended 31 March 2026. It included ¥31.5 billion in the second quarter and a larger ¥88.6 billion hit in the fourth quarter, turning the acquisition of the Destiny studio into a more costly test of Sony’s live-service strategy.Game &

Nintendo plans to lift Switch 2 prices in Japan, the United States, Canada and Europe this year as rising component costs and softer profit guidance cloud the outlook for its flagship console cycle.Kyoto-based Nintendo said the Japanese-language Switch 2 would rise to ¥59,980 from ¥49,980, a 20 per cent increase, while price increases in North America and Europe are scheduled to take effect from September 1. The move comes as the company forecast operating profit of ¥370 billion, about $2.4

Blizzard has returned Warcraft III’s legacy client to Battle. net, giving owners of the game direct access to the original The Frozen Throne 1.29 build without requiring a Warcraft III: Reforged installation to launch it. The move reopens an official route to a version of the landmark real-time strategy title that many players believed had been effectively buried after the troubled 2020 remaster.Players can now select “Warcraft III - Legacy TFT 1.29” through the Game Version dropdown on the

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has won Best Game at the BIG Festival Awards during Gamescom Latam 2026, strengthening Sandfall Interactive’s claim to one of the most striking debut successes in modern role-playing games.The French studio’s title also took Best Sound at the São Paulo ceremony, giving it two honours at a festival that has become a major showcase for Latin American and international game development. The awards formed part of Gamescom Latam, where organisers selected 81 titles for the BIG

GamesIndustry. biz is set to return to Brazil next week to cover Gamescom Latam in São Paulo, as the event prepares for a five-day run from April 29 to May 3 at the Anhembi District, with April 29 reserved as a VIP day before the main public programme opens. The trip places the publication back at one of the gaming sector’s fastest-expanding regional gatherings, at a time when Latin America is drawing closer attention from publishers, developers and investors seeking

Forza Horizon 6 has reportedly crossed 500,000 pre-sold copies on Steam with about a month still to run before its full launch, a figure that, if borne out, would mark one of the strongest pre-release performances yet for a first-party Xbox racing title on Valve’s platform. The game is officially due on 19 May 2026 for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, Steam and Game Pass, with Premium Edition buyers getting early access from 15 May, while a PlayStation 5

Jagex is preparing to take RuneScape: Dragonwilds into the Asia-Pacific market later this summer, extending the survival-crafting spin-off beyond its existing footprint and giving the long-running franchise a new test of international reach as it marks its 25th year. The Cambridge-based developer said the game will launch in Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean, a move it described as the most significant international expansion in its history.Dragonwilds heads east this summer comes at a moment when Jagex is trying to

Microsoft has given its clearest account yet of how it plans to build the next Xbox, saying the teams that make its games are working alongside the engineers shaping Project Helix, the company’s next-generation console. The approach, outlined by Xbox Chief Content Officer Matt Booty, signals a tighter link between hardware and software as Microsoft tries to define what an Xbox machine should be in a market increasingly blurred by PC gaming, subscriptions and cross-device play.Booty said Xbox’s development

Britain has begun rolling out a £30 million Games Growth Package, opening a new phase of public support for the video games sector with £28.5 million channelled through the UK Games Fund and a further £1.5 million set aside for the London Games Festival over the next three years. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport said applications to the fund opened on 14 April, with ministers presenting the move as part of a wider industrial strategy aimed at lifting

Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI is heading towards a 19 November 2026 release, but the loudest conversation around the title this month is not coming from the studio’s official marketing. It is being driven by a new wave of leak claims and online speculation that suggest major changes to the game’s story structure, character dynamics and wider design, even as Rockstar itself has confirmed only a limited set of details through its trailers, website and parent company statements.At

 Roblox has agreed to a $12 million settlement with Nevada and is rolling out broader child safety and age-checking measures across its platform, as the gaming company faces mounting scrutiny over how it protects young users from harmful contact and unsuitable content. The deal, announced this week, combines payments for youth programmes and safety initiatives with product changes that Roblox says will apply nationwide by June.The settlement stems from claims by Nevada that Roblox had not done enough to shield

Microsoft’s games division is facing fresh pressure over the cost of Xbox Game Pass after reports said Microsoft Gaming chief Asha Sharma told staff the service had “become too expensive for players”, signalling a possible rethink of one of the company’s most important consumer bets. Sharma’s appointment as executive vice-president and chief executive of Microsoft Gaming was announced by Microsoft on 20 February, giving added weight to the reported remarks even though they emerged through a leaked internal memo rather