World of Warcraft maker Blizzard is seemingly much the same after Microsoft's $68.7 billion acquisition. That's according to the MMO's executive producer and VP, Holly Longdale, who told VGC that being part of the Xbox giant has been a "helpful" experience. Microsoft closed its record-breaking acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October 2023 after announcing it in January 2022. "If anything, it ..read more

The developer of Ready of Not, Void Interactive, was the victim of a cyberattack. Initially reported by Insider Gaming – with the studio confirming the news to Kotaku – hackers made off with over 4TB of data, though this appears to not include any information about staff or players. What is certain, however, is that the source code for Ready or Not has been stolen as part of the leak ..read more

Ann Hurley has been appointed the general manager of Team17's games division. She initially joined the company back in October 2023, following the departure of Michael Pattison. Hurley has now been given a permanent seat at the table. She previously spent nine years working at QA specialist Testronic. "I’m happy to share that after several months leading our magnificent team I am honoured t ..read more

New developer Red Rover Interactive has scored $15 million in Series A funding. This has been led by PUBG: Battlegrounds giant Krafton, with Tirta Ventures and Overwolf also contributing in addition to existing investors, The Games Fund, Behold Ventures, GEM Capital, Lifelike Capital and Acequia Capital. "Our rapid progress to date can largely be attributed to our commitment to validation-driven ..read more

UK developer and publisher Kwalee is cutting around ten per cent of its staff. Mobilegamer reports that the firm is laying off less than 40 employees, though has not clarified what roles in particular have been impacted. It appears that the cuts are largely focused on its UK headquarters, though Kwalee's Indian office in Bangalore have been affected. The company is, however, hiring around its new ..read more

Cliff Bleskzinski's Lawbreakers has made a surprising return. Per Twitter, there's an unofficial fan-made launched for Boss Keys' now defunct (I guess undefunct at time of writing?) shooter which allows gamers to play the shooter six years after its demise. Bleszinski for his part has been promoting Lawbreakers 2.0 – or REBL as it is known, on the social media platform. To be clear, this ne ..read more

Games platform Roblox has tweaked how the application process works for its Marketplace. In a post on its website, the firm will now allow people to sell on this platform so long as they are ID verified, are subscribed to either the Robux Premium 1,000 or 2,200 membership tiers and follow its Community Standards and Marketplace Policy. Previously – as of 2019 – users had to apply to s ..read more

The launch of the new Anomaly content has helped Rimworld return to the Top Ten in fifth place. The game sat at No.83 last week, meaning that it has shot up 78 places to reach its current place. The new Anomaly DLC launched on April 11th and was the sixth biggest seller of the week. The No.1 spot went to Counter-Strike 2 once again, while PUBG: Battlegrounds shoots up four places to second. Both ..read more

The former head of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, has said that players should be able send tips to developers after finishing their game. In a post on Twitter , the industry vet wrote that he sometimes wished he could send extra money to creators of games that he has enjoyed. He did concede, however, this is not necessarily a popular idea, not least because games are already expensive and ..read more

Swedish games firm Avalanche Studios Group is entering into a collective bargaining agreement with local unions. In a post on its website , the company said that it would be inking an agreement with local unions Unionen and Engineers of Sweden. Avalanche says that this collective bargaining agreement would come into effect during the second quarter of 2025. As it is with Swedish unions, it will o ..read more