Hand-drawn Metroidvania meets epic JRPG in Manila-based CMD Studios’ debut title, Fallen Tear: The Ascension. The game is certainly quite one to put in your radar, having become the first Filipino-made video game to clinch the Global Play Showcase Award, an international accolade from the Game Developers Conference given to promising titles in development. The team, which previously worked on AAA titles and with world-class animation studios, says that they are “thrilled at the incredible news,” as they hope to inspire gaming communities both in the Philippines and abroad. “It’s such an incr ..read more

For game developers of all stripes, the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) can be a stepping stone to greatness. As one of the largest games trade conferences in the world, having a presence there can be the start of something big, especially for developers in Southeast Asia hoping to make their games stand out. It can be a big gamble, as most of the time, you’re paying to hopefully spark the attention of gamers, executives, and fellow game developers alike. Rappler covered the presence of seven Philippine game developers at TGS 2016, and I myself have happy memories of playing some of the games presented ..read more

MANILA, Philippines – Scotland-based game development studio Sad Owl Studios and publisher Thunderful Publishing on Friday, April 12, took home the awards for the categories New Intellectual Property and British Game at the 2024 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Awards for the puzzle game Viewfinder. Released in July 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows, Viewfinder bested the games Cassette Beasts, Dead Island 2, Disney Illusion Island, Football Manager 2024, and Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin in the British Game category.  For the New Intell ..read more

HONG KONG – China’s NetEase and US games peer Microsoft said on Wednesday, April 10, they will bring popular titles including World of Warcraft back to China after a fallout involving the developer that ended an almost 15-year partnership. The pair said they are working to bring online games from Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard which Microsoft bought last year, back to the world’s second-largest economy, starting this summer. NetEase was the publisher of Blizzard games in China from 2008 to 2023. “We at Blizzard are thrilled to reestablish our pa ..read more

Warzone Mobile replicates the multiplayer experience of its console and PC counterparts, but you’ll need top-tier hardware to run it properly.  Activision-Blizzard launched Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile on iOS and Android with the promise of delivering an authentic extension of Warzone beyond consoles and PC, and in that regard, the game is a shining success.  The solid gameplay and the terrific visuals do an excellent job of replicating the experience that fans of the popular battle royale shooter have come to love, though there are some caveats. The most glaring of which is that you ..read more

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is out now for iOS and Android devices, and you’re likely eager to join in on all the action. The free-to-play battle royale shooter is, according to publisher and developer Activision, built on the same Call of Duty tech across console and PC to allow it to emulate the same graphical fidelity and performance of those versions. It is also, however, an experience built specifically for mobile, and not a direct port. Activision, in a launch event for Warzone: Mobile held in Tokyo, Japan, emphasized the mobile version of the game is built with accessibility in mind ..read more

Disclosure: Sony and Capcom provided a copy of their respective games for review purposes. It’s rare that we see two releases this big happening on the same day. Usually, game publishers don’t drop their big titles on the same day as another big title.  But that’s exactly what’s happening now. In one corner, there’s the PS5-exclusive samurai action open-world title Rise of the Ronin, and then there’s the multiplatform sequel to a 2012 action RPG cult hit – Dragon’s Dogma 2. If you’re not a PlayStation gamer, obviously, there’s not a debate here. But just in case the game eventually comes ..read more

After quite a wait, Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is finally launching on iOS and Android on March 21. The battle royale shooter, which first launched on consoles and PC in March 2020, is one of publisher Activision’s most profitable releases, having attracted over a hundred million players and generated billions of dollars in revenue over the last four years. Its success reportedly helped the Call of Duty franchise cross the $30 billion lifetime revenue mark in 2022.  Now, Activision is ready to bring Warzone to mobile, allowing you to take the intense survival-style action with you on-th ..read more

High-impact, high-quality, and high-budget – AAA games are the darling of major gaming publishers, hooking a global player base and raking a chunk of the worldwide US$184-billion gaming revenue generated in 2023. For Mufizal Mokhtar, general manager at Virtuos and art director of hugely successful titles including Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, the creation of the first homegrown AAA title from Southeast Asia can inspire the emergence of major studios from the region.  “But that’s just a vision,” he says, “The plan is, number one, to make people understand that this is a serious industry.” Th ..read more

There’s no shortage of samurai games. Ghost of Tsushima, Sekiro, and Like a Dragon: Ishin! got into all that blade-swinging action as well. And there was Nioh too, which was coincidentally made by the same people behind the game we’re talking about today, Rise of the Ronin. In development since 2015 by Team Ninja, in collaboration with Sony’s London-based XDev Studio, the PS5-exclusive finally comes out on March 22.  Here’s what you need to know about it. Just something to note: this is a first impressions article based on just a few hours of playtime, and our views may change as we conti ..read more