Microsoft says developers have earned $2.5B through ID@Xbox

According to Microsoft, game developers have made a fair chunk of change through its ID@Xbox program.

ID@Xbox is the gaming brand’s program to support independent developers and has been used to publish titles including Dead by Daylight, Warframe, SMITE, Dead Cells, Spelunky 2, The Long Dark, Kerbal Space Program, Human Fall Flat, Overcooked, Grim Dawn, Outer Wilds, and thousands of others.

Needless to say, ID@Xbox has been rather successful. The program has enabled...

29 March 2022 | Gaming

Nintendo denies handing out 4K Switch development kits

Nintendo has been forced to refute a Bloomberg report that it provided 4K-capable Switch development kits to select gaming studios.

This week, Bloomberg reported that at least 11 developers – including Zynga – were given kits to develop 4K resolution games for unannounced Switch hardware.

Following the report, Nintendo tweeted:

https://twitter.com/NintendoCoLtd/status/1443366440183074819

It’s a rare denial that has probably been issued out of concern...

30 September 2021 | Gaming

Nintendo announces Switch OLED with minor improvements

Nintendo has finally announced its long-awaited new Switch model but without many of the rumoured upgrades.

The new Switch OLED, as its name suggests, boasts a new display that should improve some of the complaints about previous models having poor contrast and brightness. However, the rumoured bump to 1080p hasn’t materialised and the screen is still just 720p.

Nintendo has increased the screen size from 6.2-inch to 7-inch so a boosted resolution would have been even...

6 July 2021 | Gaming

Developers claim that PlayStation is particularly difficult to work with

Independent game developers have bemoaned the difficulty of working with PlayStation over Xbox and Nintendo.

Iain Garner of independent game publisher Neon Doctrine recently posted a tirade on Twitter where he suggested that getting prominent promotion on the store of a “very successful console” that “does not have Games Pass” (i.e not Xbox, and presumably meaning PlayStation) costs at least $25,000.

Video game publication Kotaku first published the story and...

2 July 2021 | Gaming

GameRefinery’s AI auto-tags features and visuals for iOS developers

GameRefinery has boosted its game analytics platform with a new AI which automatically generates tags highlighting features and visuals.

The new system can auto-generate up to 100 tags per game and is currently being used for over 100,000 iOS games in Western markets including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

GameRefinery claims its new AI can automatically identify 51 features and 45 visual styles. This enables it to quickly tag games that its human...

30 October 2020 | Artificial Intelligence

Developers can now peek under the hood of the Amnesia games

The developers of the legendary Amnesia horror series have made their code open source to help teach and inspire others.

Code for Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs is now available in full on GitHub.

In a blog post, developer Frictional Games wrote:

“This doesn’t mean that the game is suddenly free. It just means that people are free to use the source however they want as long as they adhere to the GPL3 licence. The game and all of...

24 September 2020 | Gaming

Epic calls out Apple in ‘Nineteen-Eighty Fortnite’ video following App Store removal

Epic Games has released a 1984 (or "Nineteen-Eighty Fortnite")-style parody of Apple's own famous video after Fortnite was removed from the App Store.

Apple removed the hit game after Epic attempted to circumvent the App Store's built-in payment systems. Not long after, Epic started the #FreeFortnite campaign and released this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiSHuaw6Q4

Epic is among the increasing number of companies, developers, and even lawmakers that are...

14 August 2020 | App Stores

Microsoft decides games can be exclusive to Xbox Series X

Microsoft has decided that developers can make games just for the Xbox Series X, including those from first-party studios.

One of Microsoft's most debated policies for the upcoming generation is that games must also run on the PC and older Xbox One consoles. In recent weeks, that policy appeared to have softened so that third-party developers could decide what hardware to support.

First-party studios, however, still appeared to have to develop games for all the Xbox One...

24 July 2020 | Gaming

Apple stops updating games without a government license in China

Apple has suspended game updates in China from developers without a license from the government.

The policy, draconian as it is, has been in place for some time – but rarely enforced.

Apple has faced increasing pressure from Beijing in recent weeks to start enforcing the rule that developers must show proof of a license issued by the government.

Google’s Play Store is not available (officially) in China, meaning Android users in the country typically use...

2 July 2020 | App Stores

Google further opens Maps to developers, enables Pokemon Go-like games

Google has improved the access developers have to Maps, providing the ability to build things such as games which offer alternate versions of the real world.

The most obvious example of such a game is Niantic's Pokémon Go which, while not quite as viral as it once was, remains popular today.

Niantic was once a startup within Google – back when it was known for its less commercially-successful but still groundbreaking AR game, Ingress. The company offers a toolkit for...

16 June 2020 | Android