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Update: This article was amended to more accurately communicate the allegations presented in Bloomberg's original report.A day after teaming with Savvy Games Group to provide financial support developers in Saudi Arabia, Xsolla is now under fire for its CEO allegedly treating the company like his "personal piggy bank."Per Bloomberg, six former executives have filed lawsuits against Xsolla or CEO Aleksandr "Shurick" Agapitov since 2019. Two of those lawsuits voiced concerns about the company's financial practices or how Agapitov used cash from the game-focused commerce platform, with one allegation claiming he transferred $120 million in company money to his personal accounts between 2021 and 2023.Of that, nearly $70 million (or 64 percent) was transferred in 2…

Atari is taking a different approach to publishing. Under the stewardship of CEO Wade Rosen, the company revived the Infogrames label earlier this year to "publish games that fall outside the core portfolio of IP associated with the Atari brand," while also developing new collections and sequels.Speaking to Game Developer about Atari's publishing drive at Gamescom 2024, Rosen said the company hopes to position Infogrames as a "preservationist" publisher that can acquire franchises from developers who simply don't have the resources or bandwidth to support them anymore."Infogrames is pretty unique in that we had a lot of opportunities coming to us of games or IPs that people wanted to sell because they felt like they shouldn't just disappear," sa…

Crytek released the 1896 update for Hunt: Showdown last week, and PC players have returned to the multiplayer shooter in droves.Per SteamDB, the game reached a new peak of concurrent players with 60,124 players on its August 15 release. According to PCGamer, that's well up from its last high of 41,255 players in October 2023.Significant updates and new expansions (or an incoming sequel) often revitalize a game's community. In Hunt's case, 1896 was deemed by Crytek to be the start of a "whole new era" for the game, which turns five years old on August 27.

Hunt: Showdown will keep on keeping on

Late last year, general manager David Fifield explaine…

Executives at game studios have high hopes for generative AI and what it could mean for game development. In Christoph Hartmann's case, that technology may help the industry get out of its creative rut.Talking to IGN, the Amazon Games CEO said he hopes genAI can lead to new gameplay ideas. To him, its usage "has nothing to do with taking work away from anyone," and would be extremely helpful in ensuring the industry doesn't "get boring."With games competing for oxygen against so many things, like social media, Hartmann thinks a reinvention is vital. At the same time, he says genAI isn't a magical fix, but can at the very least, foster fresh collaboration and shorter (but maybe still-costly) development times."We as an industry definitely have to inno…

Japanese developer Marvelous Inc. has performed a "strategic organizational change" for a pair of its subsidiary studios, Marvelous USA and XSeed Games.While the latter will still develop and publish titles like Potionomics and Big Catch, the USA studio will be solely devoted to titles under the Marvelous banner. So titles like Story of Seasons and Rune Factory fall under its purview.

XSeed's "more focused approach"

The change helps grow out Marvelous' presence in the west and present its properties "through a singular, global brand." It also gives XSeed a "more focused approach" to "pu…

Bungie wasn't the only developer to end July with staff cuts. Developers at publisher Armor Games revealed they were also laid off, though the current number of reductions is unclear, as is the reason for the layoffs.It appears these cuts were focused on Armor's publishing team. Producer Michelle Lega wrote her group would "all be looking for work soon, so if you’re hiring a publishing team, we’re all very qualified and work well together!""Today is my last day at Armor Games Studios," wrote marketing manager Ariana Perry. "While it'll take a bit to fully process the change, i'm incredibly thankful for the amazing colleagues and developers i was able to work with during my time here.""I've known for a while this was coming, bu…

Tollan Universe developer Foretold Studios has failed to pay a number of employees for months of work, plunging some into debt.Multiple former staffers have told Game Developer the studio has missed numerous wage payments, employed dubious hiring practices, and has suffered due to mismanagement.Despite those issues, the studio is outwardly pushing ahead with development on Tollan Universe, an "adventure game ecosystem" comprising two titles in Tollan Worlds and Tollan Survivors, the first of which initially incorporated web3 elements.Discussing their situation with Game Developer, former Foretold artist Arkadi Allakhverdiev explained they joined the studio in September 2023. They initially received one month's salary and then the problems began. "In my case [the missed …

The cancellation of Life by You and closure of developer Tectonic contributed to a 90 percent decrease in operating profit at Paradox Interactive during the second quarter of the fiscal year.The Swedish publisher, known for working on strategy franchises like Stellaris, Cities: Skylines, and Crusader Kings, saw operating profit fall to SEK 28.9 million ($2.67 million) during Q2–a decrease of 90 percent year-on-year.The company said write-downs of SEK 208 million impacted that total. Q2 revenue also fell by 22 percent year-over-year to SEK 575.8 million.Paradox CEO Fredrik Wester said the company's core business continues to perform "very well," but suggested the cancellation of Life by You means it's ending the second quarter with "mixed feelings.""On t…

Destiny developer Bungie is laying off 220 worker due to "rising costs of development and industry shifts as well as enduring economic condition."The studio, which was acquired by PlayStation maker Sony for $3.6 billion in 2022, said the redundancies will result in a 17 percent workforce reduction. It said people at "every level of the company" will be impacted, including those in senior and executive roles."Today is a difficult and painful day, especially for our departing colleagues, all of which have made important and valuable contributions to Bungie. Our goal is to support them with the utmost care and respect. For everyone affected by this job reduction, we will be offering a generous exit package, including severance, bonus and health coverage," said …