EA is sunsetting three Battlefield titles on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this month.The publisher confirmed Battlefield 3, Battlefield 4, and Battlefield: Hardline will be removed from digital storefronts on Xbox 360 and PS3 on July 31, 2024. DLC and "all extra related content" will also be pulled from sale."Online services for these titles on these platforms will end on November 7th, 2024. While the online components of these titles close for these platforms, if you own the game, you will still be able to play the single-player component," added EA.Battlefield 3 will remain playable on PC, while Battlefield 4 and Battlefield: Hardline will remain playable on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
Epic Games is bringing its storefront and Fortnite to Japan in 2025.Epic revealed the news on Twitter, attributing its arrival to a new law recently passed by Japanese parliament. Per Apple Insider, it's similar to the recently enacted European Union law, a ruling that established the right of third-party app stores to exist on Apple Japan's App Store.The bill was proposed in June 2023, but won't take effect until late 2025. Both Apple and Google will be required to let users download third-party app stores and alternate payment systems.Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic, called both bills part of a "new free world, from the point of view of app developers and users."
U.S. publisher EA has revealed how much its executives netted during FY2024, a 12-month period that saw it deliver annual net bookings of $7.43 billion but also cut 5 percent of its global workforce.As noted in the company's annual Proxy Statement, which details its executive compensation plan, EA's named executive officers collectively earned over $60 million during the last fiscal year. That total includes individual base salaries, stock awards, and incentive plan compensation.The biggest earner was EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who took home over $25.6 million after helping the company execute on "key strategic and operating objectives" such as restructuring the business around the new-look EA Sports and EA Entertainment pillars and launching the EA Sports FC brand.Wilson wa…
U.S. publisher EA has revealed how much its executives netted during FY2024, a 12-month period that saw it deliver annual net bookings of $7.43 billion but also cut 5 percent of its global workforce.As noted in the company's annual Proxy Statement, which details its executive compensation plan, EA's named executive officers collectively earned over $60 million during the last fiscal year. That total includes individual base salaries, stock awards, and incentive plan compensation.The biggest earner was EA CEO Andrew Wilson, who took home over $25.6 million after helping the company execute on "key strategic and operating objectives" such as restructuring the business around the new-look EA Sports and EA Entertainment pillars and launching the EA Sports FC brand.Wilson wa…
A recent patch for Steam may have quietly wiped away Mac support for older Valve-developed games.Per iMore, both Portal games and Team Fortress 2 were among those made unplayable on Apple computers. Thus far, other games include Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2 (plus its "Lost Coast" level and two episodic spinoffs), and Left 4 Dead 2.At time of writing, titles like DOTA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (via a "legacy" version) still function natively on MacNo mention of this dropped support was made by Valve on social media, or the game's Steam pages. It's a contrast to how it announced it'd stop Mac support for Global Offensive last year shortly before Counter-Strike 2's launch.Interestingly, these games being unplay…
Shawn Layden has looked at the last two years of strife within the game industry and come to a conclusion: publishers need to relax.Talking to GamesIndustry for its new GI Sprint podcast, the ex-PlayStation boss decried the industry for being so quick to shut down a studio or lay off employees. It's "real frustrating" for newer studios, he added, since they don't get a real chance to grow."When you bring completely new things that people have not seen before," he said, "the publishing industry doesn't have patience now to nurture these things, and they feel they need the quick big win."Layoffs have been hitting the industry hard since 2023, particularly newer studios. Some have closed down before their debut project was revealed (much less relea…
According to The Information (and spotted by Ars Technica), Apple is already looking at getting a cheaper version of its $3,500 Vision Pro headset out the door.A lighter, more affordable iteration of the augmented reality device (which released in February) is such high priority, development on its more high-end successor was halted. This reduced Vision Pro is being eyeballed at a reported price point of around $1,600.It sounds like a steal, but there'd be some tradeoffs: namely, less cameras and speakers. The outlet further claimed the tech giant hoped to release it alongside the original Pro (like it does with phones), but it's now set to arrive before the end of 2025.Pricing always matters when it comes to tech, but especially so for mixed reality headsets. Meta has played aro…
German developer Fishlabs was developing a new Red Faction game—at least until parent company Embracer canceled the project.According to a new report from RockPaperShotgun, the Chorus studio was looking to revive the destructive open-world franchise. It was one of two projects Fishlabs was making, with the first being an original sci-fi game canceled months prior.This new Red Faction game was apparently in the works in the same proximity as Embracer shutting down series creator Volition last year. Sources called this a "ghoulish" move to the outlet, but Fishlabs reportedly had a genuine interest in its sci-fi setting.Staff from the scrapped original game ("Project Black") moved over to Red Faction, then-codenamed "Project White" and dubbed a "side hustl…
Last week, publisher Skystone Games announced its Early Access shooter Boundary is going offline at the end of June. But what first sounded like a standard tale of an online game going down is actually more thornier than expected.In the announcement for the game's closure, Skystone claimed it'd give publishing rights to developer Surgical Scalpels. It then went on to claim the studio failed to update and improve the game, in turn leading to "growing concerns" from players.But as PCGamer spotted, Surgical Scalpels has a different side of the story. Per the developer's translated post, Skystone allegedly (and abruptly) decided to stop supporting Boundary, a move it called "unreasonable and unfair to [us] and the players.""We immediately negotiated with…
Square Enix revealed sales for its Octopath Traveler series have eclipsed 4 million copies sold.Both entries in the mid-size RPG franchise just launched on Xbox Game Pass, with 2023's Ocotopath Traveler II making its debut on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. The original game also just released on PlayStation 4 and 5.With this, nearly the entire series is available on current consoles, save for the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.Octopath II sold 1 million copies in three and a half months, and the first game sold 3 million in a little over four years. This milestone stops at June 2023, so it's unclear how much either has sold since then.
In today's Summer Game Fest presentation, Victoria Tran and Forrest Willard from Among Us publisher Innersloth announced a new indie funding initiative—dubbed Outersloth—and showed off a sizzle reel of projects currently slated for the new label. They noted the dismal funding environment in the current industry was the impetus to create Outersloth, offering "the kind of deals we would have wanted in our less popular 'Amongy' days," said Willard."This is our way of saying thank you to our crew mates, players, [and] peers, by helping some games and devs [get] the funding and freedom needed to ship their games," said Tran. "And then we all get to play them, which was the real plan!"
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In today's Summer Game Fest presentation, Victoria Tran and Forrest Willard from Among Us publisher Innersloth announced a new indie funding initiative—dubbed Outersloth—and showed off a sizzle reel of projects currently slated for the new label. They noted the dismal funding environment in the current industry was the impetus to create Outersloth, offering "the kind of deals we would have wanted in our less popular 'Amongy' days," said Willard."This is our way of saying thank you to our crew mates, players, [and] peers, by helping some games and devs [get] the funding and freedom needed to ship their games," said Tran. "And then we all get to play them, which was the real plan!"