Marcus Teilman, the CEO of gaming and esports firm Fragbite Group, has resigned from his position.The company said he will leave to "pursue new challenges," and will be replaced by chairman of the group’s board of directors Stefan Tengvall on an interim basis. Tengvall will step down as chairman and will be replaced by current board member Sten Wranne.Teilman worked at Fragbite for over three years, originally joining as deputy CEO and head of M&A. Read more
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The enormous wave of layoffs, studio closures, and corporate consolidations which hit the games industry last year is by no means over – but it does appear to have crested, at least, with the pace of such announcements starting to slow down as we’ve entered the second quarter of this 2024.The knife will still fall in some painful places before this is over, but at last we’re also starting to see early signs of recovery – green shoots amidst the rubble, with new studios being formed and some established ones cautiously starting to expand again.The scale of the downturn this time around was unprecedented – not least because the industry overall is so much larger than in previous cycles, so there are more jobs to be lost in the first place – but the downturn itself was a familiar story. Companies over-extended in an economic environment where capital was easy to come by and made some bad bets on trends that didn’t turn out to have the appeal or longevity they hoped; a shift in economic climate then dampened risk appetite and companies that had voraciously pursued growth for years suddenly found themselves obsessed with cost-cutting instead. This cycle has repeated throughout the industry’s history at various intervals and at different scales. Read more
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Lightspeed Studios has appointed industry veteran Michael Pattison as vice president of its publishing division for PC and console.As reported by Game Developer, Pattison has over two decades of experience in the industry, having worked in senior positions at THQ and Capcom before becoming leading third party publishing, developer relations, and global marketing at Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2013.He left SIE in 2021, and was appointed CEO of Team17 in 2021 for two years. After Pattison’s departure from Team17, he worked in consulting before his appointment at Lightspeed Studios. Read more
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The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill has been passed by UK Parliament, which could force platform holders such as Apple and Google to allow the Epic Games Store on its devices.The DMCC Bill was put through on Thursday following the announcement of a general election set for July 4.As reported by VGC, parts of the DMCC Bill contain sections established in the EU’s Digital Markets Act passed in November 2022, which would force platform holders to allow users to sideload third-party apps and software onto devices. This also opens up the possibility of alternative marketplaces on these platforms. Read more
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Sony has shared a video that shows the results of a prototyping exercise in which its teams imagined what future products from the company might look like, including PlayStation.In the video below, you’ll see a mix of transparent smartphones, augmented reality headsets, and a games controller with a ring light in the middle.The footage was first shown at Sony’s annual corporate strategy meeting, where it shared its ’Creative Entertainment Vision’ for where it aims to be in ten years. Read more
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Relic Entertainment has partnered with UK-based investment firm Emona Capital to become fully independent after being sold by Sega in March.As reported by Game Developer, the studio has secured funding to stay independent through Emona Capital.The investment firm will support the developer’s current portfolio and will assist in creating partnerships with other publishers. Read more
Rolling Stone has returned to games media by launching a new section, Rolling Stone Gaming.As reported by Game Developer, the section will be headed by senior gaming editor Christopher Cruz, who was previously an executive producer of the site’s content studio which included its daily show Rolling Stone on Twitch.Rolling Stone Gaming launched in partnership with ESL FaceIt Group owned by Savvy Games Group, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Read more
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Atari has a picked up the Intellivision brand name and 200 games from Intellivision LLC.Details on the games were not shared, but Intellivision LLC will continue to develop the Amico games console separately with a license from Atari to distribute games on the platform.The Amico console was originally due to release in October 2020, but a lack of funds has caused a delay to the product and as of November 2023, the firm stated it didn’t have the money needed to distribute the machine. Read more
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Fragbite Group is filing for bankruptcy for its internal development studio Fall Damage.The Swedish development team had been working on Alara Prime, a free-to-play four-vs-four shooter that was aiming to release this year. However, the studio struggled to sign a publisher for the game.Fall Damage was in discussions with multiple potential publishers, but had "not yet been able to fully complete [the process] within the necessary timeframe," according to Fragbite. Read more
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