Art

Epic Games has officially released an updated version of the Unreal Engine — 5.4. It has significantly improved the quality of animation and improved rendering performance.

The use of artificial intelligence in game development continues to cause heated debate. This time, Champions TCG studio participated in them. She stated that the artwork for her collectible NFT card game Champions of Otherworldly was made using neural networks. They were created by an "AI artist" alone, to whom she paid tens of thousands of dollars.

Champions of Otherworldly Magic is a digital card game, and it appears that all the art for it was generated using AI tools. According to the developers, they have already paid tens of thousands of dollars to a single “AI artist” over the past six months.

Good news. Despite the crisis in the industry, new gaming companies are still emerging. Emanuel Palalic and Garrett Young have announced the launch of a new studio. It's called Emptyvessel. This is the second such announcement in the last 24 hours.

Last week, Owlcat Games studio posted a vacancy for a concept artist for its next project. Among the requirements for the candidate was the experience of working with Midjourney, DALL-E or other neural networks with which you can generate art. This condition caused a flurry of criticism.

Mass layoffs announced by PlayStation last week affected hundreds of people, including veteran developers. Among them was Santiago Gutierrez, an experienced artist who has been with Naughty Dog for nearly two decades.

On this frosty Tuesday, we continue to summarize the results of 2023 with the gaming (or related to the gaming sector) teams. Next up is an interview with Alexey Pechenin, founder of the outsourcing studio Infinite Art Solutions.

Actually, this is not news. Information about such a budget has already been passed, but we, for example, missed it. We are correcting ourselves.

We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the gaming and near-gaming teams. Next up is an interview with Denis Khamin, co-owner of the Allcorrect studio for game localization and outsourcing of 2D and 3D art.

Fun gameplay aside, one one of the factors behind Dave the Diver’s success was its combination of pixel art and 3D graphics. Here is how a small team at Mintrocket managed to create the game’s appealing visuals using the Unity engine and its tools.

In this article for Game World Observer, ZiMAD artist Andrey Novikov shares his insights on how to interact with AI tools and explains which parts of the work can be delegated to them without compromising quality.

At the end of last week, Fortnite creative director Donald Mustard quit Epic Games. Now it has become known that his position has passed to Charlie Wen, who at one time was responsible for the design of the world and characters in the films of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has opened up about the use of AI tools in game development. He also threw shade at Steam, saying that the EGS doesn’t ban titles for “using new technologies.”

Erik Peterson, responsible for business development at Valve, has shared some insights into visibility and discovery mechanisms on Steam. Here is how the company helps devs reach players and connect users to games.

Starfield is now available for owners of the Premium edition, already attracting hundreds of thousands of players. Let’s take a look at the game’s early launch numbers and how they compare to other titles from Bethesda.

Discoverability expert Simon Carless has shared some interesting insights into why some games, even quality ones, fail commercially in today’s market. It might be due to the oversaturation of certain genres, but the issue seems to be much more complex.

Despite the disappointing Season 1 and other post-launch issues, Diablo IV seems to be performing well for Blizzard in terms of revenue and player engagement. Here are some new stats about the game and its position in the market.

Marvel Snap has been a huge hit for developer Second Dinner and publisher Nuverse. Let’s dive into the numbers to see the game’s road to $100 million in revenue.

Blackbird Interactive is another game studio that has been recently hit with job cuts. It appears that the Homeworld 3 developer has laid off dozens of people, including some senior staff.

Canada-based indie developer Sabotage Studio has just released Sea of Stars, a turn-based RPG in the style of classic Japanese titles. Let’s take a look at its launch numbers.

Imagendary Studios, led by a group of industry veterans, has reportedly been hit with mass layoffs, which affected most of its 54-person staff. The company hasn’t announced a single game in its three years of operation.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon has just been released globally to positive reviews from critics and players. On Steam, the game is now having one of the biggest launches in the history of FromSoftware.

Developers of anti-tamper solution Denuvo have announced a new feature that would prevent users from manipulating files in games made with Unreal Engine. Branded as another way of fighting against pirates and fraudsters, it poses a real threat to modding.

Magic shooter Immortals of Aveum has just been released globally. The initial metrics for the AAA game, developed by Ascendant Studios and published under the EA Originals program, don’t look promising.

Consultant and experienced developer Rami Ismail has shared his thoughts on the state of the games industry, while expressing some fears and concerns. He tried to outline the issues of the existing system where funding decides what gets made.

Circana (formerly The NPD Group) has shared its monthly breakdown of the US video game market. Let’s take a look at some data on the best-selling titles and consoles of July 2023.

The enhanced version of Quake II came out last week, offering updated graphics and even new content. Looking at all the technical and QoL improvements, it is safe to say that other companies would be better off taking a similar approach to rereleases and remasters of their old games.

NetEase has established a new first-party studio, T-Minus Zero Entertainment. The team will be led by Rich Vogel, an industry veteran known for his contributions to a number of MMO titles such as Ultima Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

NCSoft is stepping into the AI field by announcing a set of in-house language models to optimize game development. The South Korean publisher is now offering a one-month free trial to users across the globe.

History is cyclical, and this is true for the games industry as well. Veteran developer and former BioWare producer Mark Darrah has shared his thoughts on companies that repeat the same mistakes over and over again when trying to make their own Ultima Online or Destiny.

Inside could have become a PlayStation timed exclusive, and Playdead was close to signing with Sony. However, it turned out that it was Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer who personally convinced the studio to choose Xbox.

Roblox has released its financial report for the second quarter ended June 30. The company is optimistic about its future, but some results and metrics have sent its stock down over 20%.

Sony has published its financial report for the three months ended June 30. Here are the financial highlights for the company’s gaming division, including sales of video games and PlayStation 5.

Square Enix shares have experienced a huge decline after the company released its report for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30. Analysts were unhappy with a 79% drop in operating profit and lower-than-expected game sales.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has finally launched today, and Larian Studios looks stronger than ever — both financially and creatively. However, the company has overcome many headwinds in its nearly 30-year history, from crises to publishers that couldn’t care less about the team and their passion.

Remnant II is selling much faster than its predecessor, proving to be a commercial success. The game has exceeded the expectations of publisher Gearbox.

Generative AI is increasingly penetrating game development. Writing for Game World Observer, Nexters art producer Alisa Roz has detailed how the company started using Midjourney in the art creation process for its titles.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has sparked a conversation about whether it should be considered a new standard for the RPG genre. Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke has shared his thoughts on the matter and tried to explain why he doesn’t buy into this whole discourse.

What are hybrid-casual games and how are their monetization loos different from hyper-casual? Voodoo head of publishing Thibault de Vésinne-Larüe has opened up about the company’s approach and what metrics it looks at when launching new titles.

Tencent is back on its shopping spree as its global expansion continues. The Chinese tech giant is now preparing to acquire a majority stake in Dying Light developer Techland.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which assigns age ratings to video games, has asked the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to greenlight a new age-estimating method. According to the organization, it should avoid the collection of any personal data.

Cliff Bleszinski needs no introduction, especially for people familiar with the games industry of the 90s and 2000s. Although he now produces Broadway musicals, creates comic books, and is involved in the restaurant business, he still has countless stories to tell from his gamedev days.

The mobile version of NetEase’s popular MMO title Justice Online is generating several million dollars per day on iOS. And the game is currently only available in China.

Last month, video game sales in Europe increased by 20% compared to June 2022. This is according to new data provided by the Game Sales Data (GSD) charts.

Publisher 505 Games has entered into an agreement with Ghostrunner 2 developer One More Level. The terms imply that the studio is committed to actively supporting the game for a year after its global launch.

The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) has released a new guidance for video game loot boxes, which consists of 11 principles. They are designed to be followed by developers, publishers, and other market participants.

Dan Pinchbeck, who co-founded The Chinese Room 15 years ago, has announced his departure from the studio. He is best known for creatively leading the UK team and working on games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

In July, platform ByteBrew, branded as an all-in-one solution for working with mobile applications and games, celebrated its second anniversary. To commemorate the occasion, the company has shared some statistics.

Some changes are coming to Naughty Dog’s leadership team as the studio’s co-president Evan Wells announces his departure after working there for 25 years.

Microsoft is now one step closer to acquiring Activision Blizzard, as a Calfironia judge has denied a preliminary injunction request by the US Federal Trade Commission. Here is what’s next for the companies trying to close the largest M&A deal in video game history.