DIGITAL
- Facebook Embeds ‘Hidden Codes’ To Track Who Sees And Shares Your Photos
- Facebook To Face Record $5 Billion FTC Settlement Related To Cambridge Analytica Scandal
- Facebook’s FTC fine will be $5 billion—or one month’s worth of revenue: Fine will settle privacy investigation triggered by Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- FTC Approves Record $5 Billion Settlement with Facebook
- FTC Approves $5 Billion Fine Against Facebook for Privacy Violations
- The FTC And Facebook: Why The $5 Billion Fine Is Both Too Little And Too Much
- Facebook denies allegations that you make friends on Facebook: Facebook responds with blanket denials to DC’s Cambridge Analytica suit.
- Here’s What Facebook Says About Camera Privacy on Quest & Rift S
- Germany Cashes Out, Hits Facebook With Fines For Failing To Comply With Its Ultra-Vague ‘Hate Speech’ Law
- Laura Loomer Files Defamation Suit Against Facebook For Calling Her ‘Dangerous’ When Booting Her From The Platform
- There’s a big problem with Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency
- House Representatives Ask Facebook to Halt Moving Forward with its Cryptocurrency
- Donald Trump blasts Facebook’s Libra, demands strict regulation
- Donald Trump: Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies aren’t money – The US president said he’s not a fan of Facebook’s Libra, and demands digital coin companies seek a banking charter
- Anti-money laundering rules for cryptocurrency dealers finalized by Canadian government
- A Global Review of the Regulatory Considerations Relating to Crypto-Asset Trading Platforms
- By Clicking Continue…
- Affirmed: President Trump Cannot Block Critics on Twitter
- Second Circuit Affirms Judge Buchwald in Trump Twitter Case
- Second Circuit Holds That Blocking Users’ Access To Presidential Twitter Account Violates First Amendment
- Trump can’t block his critics from the @realDonaldTrump Twitter account, says the Second Circuit (and the First Amendment)
- Right-wingers say Twitter’s “bias” against them should be illegal
- Following Trump Ruling Against Twitter Blockade, AOC Sued For Her Blocks On Twitter
- Comments on the Hikind v. Ocasio-Cortez Lawsuit Over AOC’s Twitter Blocks (Eric Goldman)
- America’s Road to Reputational Ruin: The decline in U.S. soft power didn’t start with Trump, but he accelerated it this week with his racist tweets.
- Twitter launches the ‘Hide Replies’ feature, in hopes of civilizing conversations
- Twitter is changing Twitter.com to be more like mobile app
- Microsoft warns 10,000 customers they’re targeted by nation-sponsored hackers: Hacking remains a tool of choice for influencing elections, company warns.
- Ninth Circuit Upholds Arbitration Provision in Online Consumer Contract
- Can an employer be vicariously liable for an employee’s racist Facebook post?
- Censored Chinese search project is “terminated,” Google rep testifies
- GOP Puts Google Search On Trial In DC
- Why Is The Washington Post Publishing Blatantly False Propaganda About Section 230?
- Former Content Moderator Explains How Josh Hawley’s Bill Would Grant Government Control Over Online Speech
- 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 4 (Section 230, Content Moderation) (Eric Goldman)
- IBM’s Ridiculous Opportunism: Sells Out Section 230 To Sell More Filters
- The Third Circuit Joins The Ninth In Excluding E-Commerce Platforms From Section 230’s Protection
- Section 230 Is Not Exceptional, It Is Not Unique, It Is Not A Gift: It’s The Codification Of Common Law Liability Principles
- Gab, Mastodon And The Challenges Of Content Moderation On A More Distributed Social Network
- The Sixth Circuit Also Makes A Mess Of Section 230 And Good Internet Policy
- Three Years Later: 1st Amendment Challenge Over DMCA’s Anti-Circumvention Provisions Can Move Forward
- Large and Diverse Coalition Issues a Statement of Principles to Help Evaluate UGC Liability Reform Proposals (Eric Goldman)
- ICO’s McDougall Warns Adtech Sector that Change Is Needed
- Senator Graham Spreads A Bunch Of Nonsense About ‘Protecting Digital Innocence’ Online
- Netflix Removes Controversial Suicide Scene From ’13 Reasons Why,’ Citing Medical Experts
- Netflix U.S. Subs Drop in Q2 After Price Hikes, Company Blames Global Forecast Miss on Content Slate
- The Toxic Potential Of YouTube’s Feedback Loop
- American kids would much rather be YouTubers than astronauts
- YouTube stars wish YouTube had more competition from other platforms
- Creators Say Competition Would Force YouTube To Be Better — But Right Now, There Are No Competitors
- YouTube Megastar KondZilla, With 50 Million Subscribers, Drops Trailer For New Netflix Series
- YouTuber Ray Diaz Arrested For Allegedly Assaulting His Underage Girlfriend
- YouTube Finally Demands Specificity From Copyright Claimants
- YouTube Begins Blocking Stream-Ripping Sites
- At VidCon, YouTube Announces Addition Of Channel Membership Levels, ‘Super Stickers,’ More Merch Shelf Vendors
- TikTok took over VidCon, and YouTube is next: YouTube offers what TikTok can’t – stability
- YouTube is adding more ways for creators to make money: New merch, membership, and chat features
- YouTube is launching educational playlists that won’t include algorithmic recommendations
- The Dodo Launches Children’s-Focused YouTube Channel With 3 Original Series
- Glad Challenges YouTube Vet Grace Helbig To Create An Instagram-Worthy Dish While Offroading
- Creators Going Pro: For Musicmaking Duo NEFFEX, YouTube Opened All The Doors To A Full-Time Career
- Kian And JC To Launch $25,000 ‘Big Brother’-Style Series With 13 YouTuber Contestants
- Cracking The YouTube Algorithm In 2020
- American kids would much rather be YouTubers than astronauts: Becoming an astronaut ranked last among five professions.
- StyleHaul’s Former VP Of Accounting And Finance Indicted For Embezzling $22 Million
- RTL Group Consolidates 3 European MCNs Under The Divimove Banner
- BroadbandTV Corp. Partners with Snapchat to bring new Creator Shows to Life
- These Brands Dominated Social Video Through The First Half of 2019 (Study)
- James Charles, Emma Chamberlain Among 25 Most Influential People On The Internet, Per ‘Time’
- Ryan Toys Review Scrubs Up With Colgate For Children’s Oral Care Collection
- Joey Graceffa’s ‘Escape The Night’ Spawns Actual Escape Room In L.A. This August
- You could be a celebrity without knowing it if you have 30,000 followers on social media
- New Study Points Out What A Boon Sports Streaming Piracy Could Be To Leagues
- Netflix Hires BBC Studios’ Jackie Lee-Joe as Chief Marketing Officer
- EFF Posts New White Paper On Stingray Device Capabilities
- Doing the right thing: accessibility and OTT broadcasters
- Hulu To Get A Little More Delicious With 24 Shows From Tastemade
- Disney Shutters FX Networks’ Nascent Streaming Service FX+ After Acquiring It In March
- VidCon To Host Inaugural Asian Summit In Singapore, Will Return To London In February
- FBE Launches Interactive Content Lab, Will Produce 12 TV Pilots Alongside Eko
- Quibi Acquires Projects From ‘Glee’ Alum Darren Criss, WWE
- NBC News to Produce Two Daily Shows for Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi
- Quibi Acquires First News Program In Reported 8-Figure Deal With NBC
- Patreon Announces $60 Million Funding Round, With Participation From Creators Hannibal Buress, Serj Tankian
- Microsoft Teams is now officially bigger than Slack
- Microsoft opens first flagship store in Europe: Announcement of location on Oxford Circus comes alongside £1m grant to train young community members in digital skills
- Gartner, IDC agree that PC sales are up—but they don’t agree what a PC is
- EU Looking To Regulate Everything Online, And To Make Sites Proactively Remove Material
- Amazon Teams With Colorado Police, US Postal Service On Sting That Catches Zero Package Thieves
- 27 Top Twitch Streamers Host Amazon Prime Shopping Stream ‘Twitch Sells Out’
- Amazon Music Unlimited is growing faster than Apple Music or Spotify, report says
- Spotify Pacts With Disney to Launch Hub With Music From Movies, TV Shows
- Spotify And Disney Partner To Bring Mouse House Magic With New ‘Disney Hub’ Playlists
- International family law: is WhatsApp the future for serving court papers?
- OurPact returns to App Store, reviving debates about Apple’s impartiality
- Apple reportedly planning to fund creation of exclusive original podcasts
- Apple is planning to buy up original podcasts with exclusivity in mind
- Patchwork of digital taxes intensifies
- US Trade Representative Initiates Section 301 Investigation of France’s Digital Services Tax
- Lawmaking for the Internet of Things
- The Failure Of Courts/Regulators To Understand The Difference Between Infrastructure Providers And Edge Providers Is Going To Be A Problem
- WIPO Now Gets Into The Extrajudicial, Zero Due Process, Censorship Act Over Sites It Declares ‘Infringing’
- Insights: As Our Cultural Lives Go Fully Digital, How Will We Signal What We Care About?
- Tech journalism’s ‘on background’ scourge
- Browse the Bookshelf of U.S. Case Law: Announcing the CAP Case Browser
- Justice John Paul Stevens, dead at 99, promoted the Internet revolution
A.I.
- Steam embraces machine learning with interactive recommendation tool
- Steam launches Steam Labs to house feature experiments: First three test projects all involve new ways to discover games, including a machine learning recommendation feature
- Steam uses machine learning for its new game recommendation engine
- Devs express optimism, caution over Steam interactive recommender
- Australian researchers just released the world’s first AI-developed vaccine and it could prevent another horror flu season
- California’s BOT Disclosure Law, SB 1001, Now In Effect
- ‘Robot’ umpire calls first professional baseball game with one hitch and no controversy
- Neuralink: Elon Musk’s Elusive Brain-Computer Firm Just Made a Big Reveal
- Elon Musk’s Neuralink Takes Baby Steps to Wiring Brains to the Internet
- Musk’s newest startup is venturing into a series of hard problems
- Elon Musk announces another price hike for “full self-driving” package
- Facebook and CMU’s ‘superhuman’ poker AI beats human pros: ‘It can bluff better than any human.’
- Facebook AI Pluribus defeats top poker professionals in 6-player Texas Hold ’em
- Ford-VW alliance means more EVs for Europe, joint Argo AI investment
- Artificial intelligence (AI) designs metamaterials used in the invisibility cloak: The research team led by professor Rho of POSTECH developed a simultaneous inverse design of metamaterials via deep learning
- MIT whiz kids got a robot to take on the viral #BottleCapChallenge
- Atlantic League coach ejected for arguing over automated strike zone just one inning into robot umpire era
- How GoldenEye 007 set a new standard for video game AI
- How AI companies can avoid ethics washing
- Blizzard unleashes Google’s DeepMind AI against European Starcraft II players: Experimental AlphaStar agent will play anonymously, but only against gamers who opt into test matches
- Brains scale better than CPUs. So Intel is building brains
COMMUNICATIONS
- EFF Hits AT&T With Lawsuit Over Sale Of User Location Data
- AT&T Breaks Another Merger Promise In Making ‘Friends’ Exclusive
- AT&T Will Now Filter Robocall Spam, If You Pay Them Extra
- ‘Smoking gun’: Huawei staff employment records link them to Chinese military agencies
- The Drama Around Huawei: Can U.S. Companies Do Business with the Chinese Chipmaker?
- Cheap as chips? Controversial judgment could have significant implications for the global wireless communications industry
- HBO Communications Chief Quentin Schaffer to Exit After 39 Years
- Google Joins Talks In Bid To Salvage T-Mobile Merger
- Charter gets final approval to stay in NY despite breaking merger promise
- 5G’s Latest Problem: Summer Temps Are Causing 5G Phones To Overheat
- The latest barrier to 5G speeds? The summer: Hands-on report says “persistent overheating” issues plague 5G hardware.
- Last Woman Standing: Belittled by Viacom and CBS executives and insulted by her own father, Shari Redstone now sits atop a $30 billion media empire.
- Fortune favours the bold broadcaster?
- The Impact of PDR Network LLC v. Carlton & Harris Chiropractic
- Ajit Pai’s new gift to cable companies would kill local fees and rules
- FCC Makes $100 Million Available for Telehealth Experiments
- FCC Proposes a Three-Year Pilot Program to Fund “Connected Care” Telehealth Applications
- FCC Set to Commercialize Educational Broadband Service Portion of 2.5 GHz Band to Enable 5G
- FCC Considers Restrictions on Arrangements Between Building Owners and Broadband Providers
- FCC gives ISPs another $563 million to build rural-broadband networks
- West Virginia’s Biggest Telco Says Broadband Business ‘Unsustainable’
- FCC Seeks Comment on Actions to Promote Broadband Deployment and Competition in Apartment and Office Buildings
- FCC Revises Broadcast Signal Carriage Election Notices for Cable, Satellite, and Other Multichannel Video Providers
- FCC Makes Significant Changes to Its Children’s Television (KidVid) Rules
- Actions Taken at July Meeting – FCC Adopts Changes to Children’s Television Rules and to TV MVPD Carriage Election Notices Procedures
- FTC Announces Robocall Crackdown
- FCC Chairman proposes rules addressing spoofed texts and international robocalls
- All Bark and No Bite? FCC Proposes Rule To Ban Spoofing of Text Messages and Foreign Robocalls
- FCC Holds Summit on Implementation of SHAKEN/STIR Call
- 2.5 GHz EBS Spectrum to Be Commercialized, Opened to TribalNations
PRIVACY
- British Airways and Marriott Face Record-Breaking GDPR Fines
- British Airways faces record-breaking GDPR fine after data breach: The ICO wants to fine the airline £183 million
- GDPR Shows its Teeth – UK Pursuing Record Fines for Data Breaches, Emphasizes Accountability
- A Fine Mess: the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office’s proposed GDPR fines
- Russian Spy Discovers The Hard Way How Much His Smartphone’s Metadata Reveals About His Activities
- How U.S. Tech Giants Are Helping To Build China’s Surveillance State
- DEA tracked every opioid pill sold in the US. The data is out – and it’s horrific: Just three drug makers and six distributors were behind the flood.
- Office 365 declared illegal in German schools due to privacy risks
- German state bans Office 365 in schools, citing privacy concerns: Schools in Hesse will have to rely on non-cloud software
- Revealed: This Is Palantir’s Top-Secret User Manual for Cops – Palantir user manual gives unprecedented insight into how the company logs and tracks individuals.
- Former Content Moderator Explains How Josh Hawley’s Bill Would Grant Government Control Over Online Speech
- Google workers listen to your “OK Google” queries—one of them leaked recordings
- Can I buy a phone that doesn’t use anything from Google or Apple?: Steve does not like firms slurping up his data, so wants a device that respects his privacy
- Eavesdropping flaw prompts Apple to suspend Walkie-Talkie app
- Wiretap Report Says Courts Are Seeing Fewer Wiretap Requests, Fewer Convictions Linked To Wiretaps
- Collecting employee data: Privacy and data protection concerns are gaining increasing prominence in the workplace
- NAD Recommends Baby Monitor Improve Disclosure of Information Gathering
- New UK ICO guidance on cookies and similar technologies
- Here’s How To Harness Facebook’s New Privacy Updates To (Sort Of) Control Who Has Your Personal Data
- CCPA Privacy FAQs: If I post a “do not sell my personal information” link on my website, and opt those consumers that select it from receiving behavioral advertising cookies, have I complied with the CCPA?
- Reducing the risk of ransomware attacks
- Privacy concerns over viral photo apps are totally valid. But they’re also often overblown.: The panic about FaceApp’s old-person filter isn’t wrong, exactly. It’s just tinged with xenophobia and devoid of context.
- A Recap of the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Amending the California Consumer Privacy Act
- No Shirt, No Shoes, No Facescan, No Service: Welcome To 21st Century Convenience Store Shopping
CREATIVITY
- In Canada and elsewhere, freedom of speech is on the endangered list
- Cameras should be welcomed in Canadian courtrooms: Forstner
- Canada’s election advertising rules have changed – here’s what you need to know
- Judge Castel: Plaintiffs Fail to State Claim Against Ja Rule for Fyre Festival
- Claims of False Advertising and Unfair Competition Are Not Disparagement or Defamation
- Danish court orders car dealer to compensate Chinese artist Ai Weiwei
- Rights in sports data
- NY AG settlement resolves deceptive practices action with ticket resale companies
- SPLC Asks Court To Toss Proud Boy Founder’s Defamation Lawsuit By Asking ‘Where’s The Lie?’
- Congress Moving Forward With Copyright-For-Censorship ‘Small Claims’ Act
- WIPO copyright treaty to be adopted in Uzbekistan
- Branding and marketing clearance is the new punk rock
- Alitalia Pulls Commercial Featuring Actor in Blackface
- TD Bank N.A. v. Hill
- Tackling the registration of copycat company names and domain names
- California Student-Athletes Would Like to Remind You, “It’s My Name, Don’t You Forget!”
- The helicopter team that films the Tour de France is one of a kind
- Sound, Noise, Distinguish? The relationship between sound and intellectual property law (Shane Burke)
- 1H 2019 Quick Links, Part 5 (Censorship, Defamation) (Eric Goldman)
GAMES
- Former College Basketball Players Sue Fortnite Creators for Use of “Running Man” Dance
- ESA Steps In With Amicus Brief In Support Of Activision Versus Humvee
- Would freedom of speech beat loot box legislation? | Opinion: A look back at the Supreme Court’s 2011 ruling on video game violence suggests the First Amendment defense may not play out the same way a second time
- German researchers propose treatment for gaming addiction: Clinical trial of 143 finds promising remission rate using cognitive behavioral therapy
- Losing yourself in virtual worlds can have good as well as negative effects: Psychologist Pete Etchells chats with Ars about his first book, Lost in a Good Game.
- Yogscast CEO Mark Turpin resigns following sexual harassment allegations: Turpin apologises for “error of judgement” as second sexual harassment case hits Yogscast in as many weeks
- Ion Maiden becomes Ion Fury following Iron Maiden trademark lawsuit
- Battlegrounds has been banned in Jordan due to negative impact on players
- Gears 5 to drop depictions of smoking after urging from Truth Initiative
- The Coalition partners with Truth Initiative, cuts smoking from Gears 5: Rod Fergusson – “I’ve been against smoking from the beginning”
- Why is there no smoking in Gears 5? It depends on who you ask: Either way, you won’t see cigars dangling from COG mouths any time soon.
- Red Candle won’t be re-releasing Devotion (yet) following China controversy
- Red Candle Games will not re-release Devotion “in the near term”: Developer apologizes again for artwork mocking Chinese president, but hopes to “rebuild trust”
- Respawn will deal with Apex Legends cheaters by making them fight each other
- Respawn working on matchmaking Apex Legends cheaters with other cheaters: Studio upping anti-cheat resources, working on spam and cheat detection using machine learning
- Overwatch’s new cheat detection will end matches when cheats are used
- Blizzard testing automatic shutdown for Overwatch matches where players are cheating: But game’s director Jeff Kaplan promises rule-abiding players will not be punished in any way
- Ubisoft criticised for sourcing Watch Dogs Legion music through Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s HitRecord: Developers and composers decry use of audience compositions as ‘exploitative spec work’
- Ubisoft Once Again Crowdsourcing Content For Video Game, Once Again Gets Unwarranted Backlash
- Ubisoft defends Watch Dogs HitRecord partnership amid spec work criticism
- Ubisoft puts kibosh on Assassin’s Creed XP-farming exploit
- Ubisoft bans XP farming quests in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s story creator: Coincidently, publisher continues to sell permanent XP boosts as in-game purchases
- Ubisoft: “Nobody has dared do anything with a granny before” – EMEA Director Alain Corre on Watch Dogs, Tom Clancy, and the dream of creating a game with one billion players
- Odyssey and Siege push Ubisoft to a better-than-expected quarter
- Ubisoft sees PC, digital sales share increase in Q1: Publisher continues anticipating quieter first half as it preps for big releases, UPlay+ later this year
- Ubisoft’s Uplay+ subscription library launches this fall with 100+ games
- How to spot an exploitative mobile game publishing deal — from a former publishing CEO
- Blog: Charting the record $9.6B games investment over the past 18 months
- ‘Reality-focused’ game dev Surrogate secures $2 million in funding
- UK publisher Merge Games creates $4 million indie game fund
- Kickstarter suspends funding campaign for online gameRAW over honesty concerns
- Ratio of successful Kickstarter projects at highest since Double Fine Adventure: ICO Partners breaks down ongoing maturation of crowdfunding projects with H1 2019 update
- Kickstarter suspends over ambitious MMO inspired by GTA Online: “We require projects to be honest and clearly presented, and this project failed to meet that standard,” says Kickstarter
- Blog: Crowdfunding and video games – A 2019 mid-year update
- Blog: Crowdfunding and tabletop games – A 2019 mid-year update
- Minecraft Earth’s closed beta: This augmented reality needs more augmenting
- Want to be more creative? Playing Minecraft can help, new study finds
- Video Games can Increase Creativity, but with Caveats (Jorge Blanco-Herrera, Douglas Gentile & Jeffrey Rokkum)
- Jo Twist: Games industry needs to “step up” to fight cultural bias – UKIE CEO warns critics and publishers to be careful with their language, says games are “an easy target because we’re new”
- Under fire from game devs, G2A proposes new ‘Key Blocker’ tool
- G2A proposes key-blocking tool: But controversial marketplace wants at least 100 developers to register interest before it begins development
- How does the games industry get rid of G2A? Eliminate game keys altogether: The only way to stop key resellers is to stop selling keys, but will the industry take such a radical step?
- Wube Software takes up G2A on offer to pay back ten times its chargeback fees: Studio has racked up $6,600 in chargebacks for Factorio, also encourages players to pirate rather than buy via G2A
- GOG puts Heaven’s Vault up for sale after declining to sell the game at launch
- Jason Kingsley: Epic is “paying through the nose” to build its store – Rebellion founders discuss change of heart on Epic Store exclusivity
- Epic awards Blender Foundation $1.2m grant: Epic MegaGrants-fueled support to help bolster Blender creation suite
- RetroArch will be Steam’s biggest emulation launch yet, coming July 30
- Steam Labs is Valve’s new home for experimental Steam features
- Controversial freelance firm Fiverr opens game services store
- Fiverr adds dedicated gaming store: Freelancer hiring platform includes sections for development and streaming services
- Stadia’s dev partners program has received more than 4,000 applications
- Google’s Dead Wrong If It Thinks Broadband Caps Won’t Hurt Game Streaming
- PlayStation’s former portfolio strategy head is now tackling game licensing at Disney
- Disney hires former PlayStation portfolio boss to head up games licensing: John Drake says it’s an “amazing time” to bring the worlds of Star Wars, Marvel and Fox to video games
- Video: The importance of finding your platform champions
- RuneScape dev Jagex says sale is possible, but not set in stone
- Jagex denies reports it has been sold: Suggested sale by owner Fukong “remains one of various possible outcomes”
- Smartphone maker Rokit launches $50 million game development fund
- Smartphone maker ROKiT announces $50m indie dev fund: Selection committee of industry veterans established, up to $500,000 per project on offer
- Tencent launches app for streaming PC games to smartphones: League of Legends only game currently available, but more expected soon
- Twitch growth dips as Fortnite viewership continues to decline: Riot Games surpasses Epic Games as most-watched publisher in Q2 2019
- Fortnite streaming hours drop for fourth straight quarter: Biggest battle royale games all show declines but Epic’s hit remains most watched title on streaming platforms
- Epic awards $1.2 million to Blender Foundation through Epic MegaGrants program
- Don’t Miss: 20 difficult games worth revisiting and learning from
- League of Legends dominates South Korean PC cafés: Riot Games’ hit accounted for almost 40% of hours played last month as Path of Exile made a strong first impression
- Riot extends deadline for removal of Echo Fox shareholder following racist remarks: Esports organisation was instructed to oust shareholder two months ago or face “formal action” from LCS
- Esports Upstart 100 Thieves Names Retail Vet Doug Barber VP Of Brand And Apparel
- Don’t Miss: Memoirs of a video producer who put Madden in Madden
- Nearly three-fourths of gamers prefer Netflix-style subscription for cloud games: Broadband Genie: 86% say they expect cloud purchases of games to be cheaper than digital or physical copies
- Nintendo deletes popular Mario Maker 2 level for unexplained reasons
- Dr Mario World is the lowest grossing Nintendo mobile launch so far: But Sensor Tower says puzzle game is on par with latest Candy Crush release
- Nintendo reaffirms its toy-maker identity | Opinion: Ventures into mobile games and streaming might have clouded Nintendo’s self-image — but the company is still first and foremost a toy-maker
- Switch owners say Joy-Con controllers are prone to drifting after just months
- Evidence points to another Switch hardware revision on the horizon
- Nintendo releasing new Switch with longer battery life: Tweaked model of flagship console will last up to nine hours – two more than Switch Lite
- The Switch may be getting a new processor and flash storage
- New standard Switch model will improve battery life 40 to 80 percent
- Nintendo is boosting Switch battery life through a slight hardware refresh
- The industry is still “developing games in a bubble”: FlavourWorks’ Jack Attridge says Conan O’Brien’s Clueless Gamer videos are proof of how inaccessible games have become
- “In the past, YouTubers were very problematic… Suddenly they became our allies”: How streaming can benefit storytellers, and the “serious problem with people not even finishing our games”
- CAA Signs Comedic Gaming Collective ‘Neebs Gaming’ (Exclusive)
- Control, alt, degree: Trinity Western to launch game development program this fall
- Big PC sales continue to rock EMEAA charts: GTA V back in the lead alongside resurgence of Borderlands games
- UK digital charts: Sales and anticipation lift Borderlands 2, Pre-sequel once more – Crash Team Racing holds on for one more week, before being dethroned by GTA V
- Gearbox wants crossplay in Borderlands 3, but it won’t launch with it
- UK Charts: Super Mario Maker 2 scores third consecutive No.1 – But Crash is snapping at Nintendo’s heels
- German consumers spent €4.4bn on video games in 2018: Mobile and consoles have overtaken PC as nation’s most popular games platforms
- MTG has invested $11m in games companies this year: H1 deals include Dorian, Tonk Tonk Games and Sviper
- Merge Games announces $4m indie publishing and marketing fund: UK publisher looking for multi-platform titles to support as it celebrates 10th anniversary
- Indie publisher Private Division splits from Swedish dev The Outsiders
- Video: Living the freelancing dream while avoiding the nightmare
- NetEase acquires minority stake in Behaviour Interactive: Partnership to help enhance Chinese game giant’s research and development efforts
- LuckyHammers shuts down: 70 employees affected by closure of Montreal-based studio
- Private Division has parted ways with Darkborn developer, The Outsiders: Publisher confirms split at end of last year, but financially supported dev for “several months” afterwards
- NetEase nabs minority stake in Dead by Daylight dev Behaviour Interactive
- Terraforming Mars dev LuckyHammers has closed down
- Outsourcing studio Pole to Win expands with Montreal office
- Surrogate raises $2m in seed round: Funding will go toward development of “Surrogate Reality” portfolio of games
- Sports Direct now owns 84% of GAME: Shares in UK games retailer will be removed from London Stock Exchange by August 12
- GameStop taps design firm R/GA to help keep its stores relevant
- GameStop plans to renovate stores, pilot new store concepts: Troubled retailer hopes to draw customers back in with local esports competitions and retro-only branches
- Pixion Games raises $2m toward mobile esports development: Seed funding to focus on core PvP experiences, expansion of “lunchtime esports”
- Spiritfarer wants to talk to you about death: Thunder Lotus CEO William Dubé and creative director Nicolas Guérin on the game’s conception and the personal stories that built it
- Lego Star Wars: Rise of TT Games: Game director James McLoughlin talks us through the evolution of the Lego games as the studio comes full circle with The Skywalker Saga
- Boom-shaka-laka: Call of Duty’s new “Gunfight” mode is like NBA Jam with guns
- The aggressive resource management of Doom Eternal
- Blog: The secrets of dynamic difficulty adjustment
- Blog: Finding the fun in monetizing Archero – Part 3
- ‘Things will go wrong’: The challenge of Dauntless’ day-one crossplay
- Don’t Miss: Designing Baba is You’s delightfully innovative rule-writing system
- Designing experimental game Cultist Simulator for commercial success
- Rumor: Apple Reportedly Suspends Work on Consumer AR Headset
- Overcooked 2 named Game of the Year at Develop:Star Awards: Sumo Digital, Playground Games take home multiple prizes in inaugural event
- Pokemon Detective Pikachu is the second highest grossing video game movie ever
- Blog: How music enhances virtual presence – Part 1
- Detective Pikachu becomes the highest-grossing video game movie: Film has brought in over $436m worldwide as five remaining territories push it over record set by Warcraft
- The Man in the High Castle creator to produce TV series based on Warhammer 40,000: Games Workshop, Big Light Productions partner for live action series, entitled Eisenhorn
- Atari 2600 rarity Extra Terrestrials goes on sale for $90,000
- U.S. Patent No. 5,805,784: Computer story generation system and method using network of re-usable substories
- Fashion in games: Why it matters
- Pakistani Minister Congratulates Pilot For Miraculous Save In Retweet Of GTA V Video
Jon