Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group reduced its headcount by 4,532 employees over the past year.As noted in the company's fiscal report for the year ended March 31, 2024, Embracer's total headcount dropped by 27 percent to 12,069 employees in Q4 FY24—down from 16,601 in Q4 FY23.Embracer explained 3,727 of those departures were "game developers" and noted it also cancelled 80 game projects during that time.That colossal headcount reduction comes with Embracer having completed a sweeping restructuring program that resulted in widespread layoffs, studio closures, project cancellations and huge divestments—including the sale of Gearbox Entertainment and Saber Interactive.Embracer is now preparing to begin a "new chapter" that will see it split its business in…

Ubisoft's troubled, repeatedly-delayed shooter xDefiant has launched and is said to be doing quite well for itself.Per Insider Gaming, the free-to-play shooter saw 1 million unique players just 2.5 hours after it launched on Tuesday, May 21. If true, it marks the fastest Ubisoft game to hit that milestone.At time of writing, it's said the game reached 3 million players and now has 300,000 concurrent players on PC (via Ubisoft Connect), Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.Ubisoft's yet to release any other hard numbers at time of writing. Big free-to-play games tend to launch very strongly, and it helps there's no huge shooter competition at the moment, since Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 isn't coming for another four or five months.Like most big shooters, xDefiant had a…

The attorney famous for successfully winning a settlement for Sandy Hook school shooting victims' families has brought a new pair of lawsuits in relation to the deadly 2022 Uvalde shooting at Robb Elementary: this time aimed at rifle manufacturer Daniel Defense), Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta, and Call of Duty publisher Activision.Legal documents reviewed by the Washington Post allege that Activision, Meta, and Daniel Defense all bear responsibility for radicalizing a "socially vulnerable" demographic by glorifying violence and making weaponry easily accessible.In terms of the Call of Duty publisher's alleged responsibility, the lawsuits seek to connect the promotion of real-world weaponry to "vulnerable" young men who are "insecure about the…

Sony Interactive Entertainment is implementing a new, multi-pronged leadership structure following the departure of long-serving president Jim Ryan.Effective June 1, 2024, PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst will be appointed CEO of SIE's Studio Business Group. In his new role, Hulst will be responsible for the "development, publishing, and business operations of SIE's first-party content.""I am thrilled to lead the Studio business group and continue to build on our success with PlayStation 5, while preparing for the future," said Hulst. "The video game industry is one of the largest entertainment industries in the world and has been built on the marriage of content and technology, and I look forward to continuing to push the boundaries of play and ente…

A new Tomb Raider TV series is on the way thanks to a partnership between Embracer-owned Crystal Dynamics and Amazon MGM Studios. Amazon Prime's foray into the iconic gaming property comes hot on the heels of its success with the Fallout series, and today's announcement only noted one talent signed to the project: Fleabag creator/writer/star Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Waller-Bridge is listed as a writer and executive producer here."The series, based on the iconic Tomb Raider video game franchise, follows the adventures of world-famous archaeologist and adventurer Lara Croft," reads a press release. "The series is produced by Crystal Dynamics and Amazon MGM Studios, and will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide."

Los Angeles-area developer Fighting Chance Games has announced that it is ceasing development on Drag Her!, a classic fighting game featuring a roster of popular drag queens like Alaska 5000, Kim Chi, and BenDeLaCreme. The team had previously raised a modest $75,000 on Kickstarter to fund development.In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the studio said it made the "painful decision" to stop work on the game after three years for a simple reason: the team ran out of funding."Over the life of this project, we have pitched to a long list of publishers, platforms, and more looking to get Drag Her! picked up," the team said in a statement. Despite the successful Kickstarter and a number of grant applications, and positive fan reception online and at events, "no amount of …

Grand Theft Auto maker Take-Two Interactive has narrowed the release window for GTA VI to Fall 2025 and reiterated its belief the title will be an "unparalleled entertainment experience."The company shared the news in its fiscal report for the year ended March 31, 2024, where it revealed that annual net bookings increased by 1 percent to $5.33 billion and GAAP net revenue remained flat at $5.35 billion.Breaking down those figures, Take-Two said net bookings from recurrent consumer spending increased by 2 percent year-on-year and accounted for 78 percent of total net bookings. The largest contributors were NBA 2K24, Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Toon Blast, Empires & Puzzles, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Read Dead Online, Words With Friends, and Merge Dragons!.N…

Helldivers 2 will soon require PC players to link their Steam account to the PlayStation Network.On the game's Steam page, developer Arrowhead says new players will have to make a free PSN account (if they don't already have one) and link it starting on Monday, May 6. Current players will have to do so by June 4.When the game launched and became suddenly popular, account linking was made "temporarily optional." Arrowhead and Sony had what it called a "grace period" for Steam users to play it without linking.That time is now over, and Arrowhead said this "plays a critical role in protecting our players" from griefing and abuse.

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Video games' transmedia prospects just grew with a new deal between Story Kitchen and Dreamworks Animation.Per Deadline, the Kung Fu Panda studio has a first-look option on any game-based animated movie Story Kitchen works on. It falls to the production company to "secure exciting, iconic video game IP" to be adapted.Already, Story Kitchen is working on a live-action Dredge film and Vampire Survivors animated series. They aren't included in this, but still speak to the studio's ability to find properties ripe for adaptation.No specific projects are being made currently, but Deadline said the announcements are coming. Story Kitchen's noted projects as of late include an adaptation of It Takes Two for Amazon, Lionsgate's Streets of Rage movie, and Netflix&#…

DeepWell co-founder and chief creative officer Mike Wilson, who you might know best as the co-founder of Devolver Digital, has left the therapeutic game publisher after two years.Wilson broke the news on Linkedin and said he felt "compelled" to let his industry colleagues know he departed in late 2023 and wasn't involved with the development or launch of DeepWell's latest title."I left DeepWell late 2023, along with almost all of the games industry colleagues I brought to that company, and have absolutely nothing to do with the game they released today on the Quest store (which they called Zengeance) and which my colleagues also asked to have their names removed from," he wrote."I still have high hopes and strong beliefs for the power of games and other d…