Gaming industry riddled with layoffs, closures
The Big Picture
It seems like the games industry worldwide is set aflame with layoffs and closures, so it's sad news to report on one happening in our vicinity.
PlayStation Studios Malaysia is facing layoffs with around 20 staff targeted. Various sources, including a few from Kakuchopurei's side and a couple of posts on social media from the ex-staff, have confirmed that those from the art team and project management are getting laid off. Those affected received an email about the layoffs.
This is also affecting the rest of PlayStation, with key members in the main PlayStation studios like Oscar Diaz (Ryosuke) getting laid off in February. This may have a lot to do with numerous PlayStation live service games getting cancelled, possibly due to the results of last year's live service game Concord, which only had two weeks to stay active.
One wonders about the future of other game studios and asset makers like Passion Republic, Streamline, and Virtuos, as the world is experiencing video game industry shake-ups and cancelled overseas projects that require help from other countries.
Short Beats
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 has been made official. The remaster of the classic extreme sports game will be out for PC and current-gen consoles this July and will include Doom characters as new skaters.
Japanese gamers preferred domestic games to Western ones last year, according to a recent survey.
Monster Hunter Wilds is the fastest-selling Capcom game ever, according to Capcom. It also caused a shortage of Indian cheese naan in Japan due to the fact that players can eat the in-game version of that delicacy and how good it looks compared to the real deal.
There may not be a Last of Us Part 3, according to Naughty Dog president Neil Druckmann.
Analysts predict that Grand Theft Auto 6 may go on sale for US$100 per copy.
Sega is the top-ranking publisher with the most gaming hits of 2024, with an accumulated score of 325.5 points, according to Metacritic. This was followed by Capcom, which came in second with 323.1 points.
French game publisher Nacon made a bunch of game announcements, including a standalone expansion to RoboCop: Rogue City. Its upcoming horror adventure game Hell Is Us also has a release date.
Op-Eds
We played a few hours of the upcoming Western-made Japanese-style role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which made quite a splash with its debut trailer last year. Needless to say, we were impressed.
To celebrate International Women's Day, we talk about our favourite female fighting game characters in history.
Games Out This Week
Carmen Sandiego is a new entry in the long-running educational game series, now made and published by Gameloft. Adorn Carmen's signature red hat and play as the vigilante herself to navigate a world of espionage, utilise high-tech gadgets, and ultimately capture VILE. Out for PC, consoles, and mobile phones.
Split Fiction is the new co-op game from EA and Hazelight Studios. It stars two fiction writers who have to escape a virtual reality world that's a mashup between sci-fi and fantasy. Out for PC and consoles.
Knights in Tight Spaces is a turn-based tactical game that also features deckbuilding, alongside a stylish appearance. Control your environment, gather your party, and build your best knight deck to deal with outlaws and spooky foes. Out on PC via Steam.
Two Point Museum is an isometric simulation where you build the museum of your dreams. Find relics to display, educate and enlighten your visitors, and send your curators on expeditions to bring back more artefacts for display.
Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is the re-release of the PlayStation 1 classic Japanese role-playing games Suikoden and Suikoden II from Konami, where you gather 108 heroes to build your army and save the world. Out for PC and major consoles.
Recommended Viewing
While not completely game-focused, this video on how and why technology is getting worse sheds some light on why businesses associated with these innovations are still thriving.
This sizzle reel of the Game Developers Conference 2025 celebrates the games of its annual award show and the Independent Game Festival award ceremony, putting both big triple-A titles and small/solo indie projects in the same spotlight. It's a small comfort from this year's industry climate, to say the least.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Digital Trends
3 hours ago
- Digital Trends
Is Battlefield 6 cross-platform?
Every online multiplayer shooter these days needs to have cross-platform support to stand a chance, but Battlefield 6 might as well be dead on arrival without this functionality. This is because, unlike games like Borderlands 4 or Gears of War: Reloaded, multiplayer matches in Battlefield 6 will feature 64-player warzones. That's a huge lobby to fill if the game is only matching you with other players on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, or PC. Before you pick your class and prepare to experience the destructive multiplayer waiting in Battlefield 6, I'll give you the sitrep on its cross-platform support. Is Battlefield 6 cross-platform? First reported by Eurogamer, it is confirmed that Battlefield 6 will feature full crossplay support on all platforms. Unlike the last entry, Battlefield 2042, this game will not be available on last-gen systems. That means crossplay will let you squad up with friends across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. For those who wish to only play with others on their specific platform, the option to disable crossplay will be available. Sadly, it was also confirmed that Battlefield 6 won't be coming to the Switch 2. Recommended Videos As far as why Battlefield 6 will be skipping the Switch 2, Vince Zampella stated that the core Battlefield fanbase is on PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Battlefield 6 will also have full cross-progression support. This means players will be able to take all their progress, including skins, ranks, guns, levels, and more, from one platform to another. You will still need to purchase the game on additional platforms, but at least you won't have to start the grind over if you do want to play on two platforms. With nine maps at launch and a return to the classic class-based structure, cross-platform support was the last missing piece Battlefield 6 needed to set itself up for success when it launches on October 10, but you can get a taste of the action early by playing the beta test in August if it isn't too late.
Tom's Guide
11 hours ago
- Tom's Guide
Nvidia Remix is bringing my favorite PC classics back to life — 5 games I can't wait to play
We're well into an age of remasters, remakes and remake-quels, some worth waiting for (Silent Hill 2 comes to mind), some not so much (GTA: The Trilogy still hurts). But there are still many classic games stuck in limbo that are awaiting the proper touch-up they deserve, and Nvidia Remix is here to try and fill that void. Nvidia's modding platform is now out in the wild, allowing modders to use Team Green's RTX technology to remaster classic PC games using DirectX 8 and 9. Basically, those old titles that struck a chord that we'd love to return to, now with a visual overhaul fitting for modern graphics. Now, it's not as simple as pushing a button in RTX Remix to add ray tracing, DLSS 4 and hyper-realistic graphics, as there's still a lot of work that goes into giving older PC games a glow-up. But it does make the process of building a remaster for a bunch of favorites easier. We've already seen the Half-Life 2 RTX demo in action (and what a haunting visual upgrade that delivers), but what else is in store? Well, I wanted to put this RTX 5080-equipped Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming PC to work, and started hunting for RTX Remix games over on Steam — but you won't find many there. Instead, modders have been showing off their glorious RTX Remix remasters over on ModDB, letting gamers test out their work on some of my favorite classics: Star Wars: Republic Commando, Max Payne, Bioshock and plenty more. These aren't full-fledged releases, and it may be a while before we see any of these titles come to be easily downloadable on Steam, even if they are just demos. But after seeing what RTX Remix can do firsthand, I can't wait to see these titles gain a second life. Head over to ModDB to find RTX Remix games currently available to try out, which are part of an RTX Remix Mod Contest. But be warned: these require you to download and extract files in PC games you own, and they won't always work. Through trial and tribulation, I only managed to try out one game, despite following installation instructions from modders. These are still a work in progress, but are continuously updated. If you're used to putting mods in games, try these out! This is the one (and only) game I was able to get running, but I was glad to play it all the same. Star Wars: Republic Commandos unbelievably just hit its 20th anniversary, and despite its short length, it's still my favorite Star Wars game, well, ever (it helps that I'm an FPS diehard). Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. From creator Chaos007, this RTX Remix mod for Star Wars: Republic Commando started out as a quick experiment to see what the tactical first-person shooter would look like under all those RTX enhancements. But the demo is catching steam, and it really brings out the shine that I remember the game having when it first launched. Right from the opening cinematic, I could clearly see the fully ray-traced lighting shining off the clones' helmets and armor, only to be further impressed by the updated droid models I was shooting down with the DC 17 Rifle, blasting beams of light. The landscape of the first level also received texture upgrades, making it look far brighter and losing that dull, unsaturated "brownness" we got a lot of back when it was booming in many 2000s games. It's not perfect, nor is it meant to be, since it's a project still being worked on. There were patches of light that didn't add up, and some of the visually old-looking explosions from droids didn't mesh too well with the rest of the upgraded textures. Plus, it only works with the Tactical Visor Mode turned on, so no usual helmet view here. But seeing the potential RTX visual overhaul Star Wars: Republic Commandos can get, it would happily return to lead my team of weapons — I mean, commandos. Replaying Max Payne is almost like a tradition to me (even going through that dastardly Nightmare Maze). Falling in slow motion with its iconic Bullet Time and firing off rounds while wielding dual handguns never gets old. So, getting a glimpse of its RTX enhancements just makes me more excited for my near-annual replays. This Max Payne RTX remaster comes from creator Noodle, with the mod being in full show during the game's opening act. Along with RTX lighting giving the game a more modern shine, there are updated hand-crafted PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) materials, essentially physically accurate objects, along with a newly modeled and textured train. But bringing path-traced lighting into the fold gives Max Payne a more realistic glint. It does raise the overall brightness of levels, especially the train station, which may seem at odds with the game's overall "dark noir" vibe. But actually, it deepens the immersion, making those lifeless, illuminating lights throughout the train station seem more dreary rather than upbeat. It continues to be worked on, with more PBR materials and the like planned to arrive. The work being done on this Need For Speed: Underground RTX mod is quite simply incredible. I mean, it's the game as I remember it being, even though the original has none of the highly polished textures, natural-looking reflections beaming off the cars as they rev through a night-lit city and overall visual smoothness. Even though it's over 20 years old (it was released in 2003), creator alessandro893 has made it into a modern PC title that I would be impressed by in today's standards (not quite the level of Forza Horizon, but you catch my drift). The ray-traced visuals bring a further element of realism to the game, and racing through the streets is the modern-day nostalgia trip I crave. So far, you'll find a completely overhauled Chinatown to drive through, over 500 new PBR textures and 30 new highly textured 3D models, like buildings and trees. I consider Portal 2 to be the perfect game, and even today, I'm still impressed by the visuals it offers despite it coming out in 2011. But I'm all for updated textures and ray tracing, and that's what this Portal 2 RTX remaster from creator skurtyyskirts aims to achieve. Everything gets the full RTX treatment here, with complete path-traced lighting for physically accurate lighting and shadows throughout all the deadly Aperture Science testing labs. Virtually every asset gets a PBR material overhaul and objects are completely remastered with hand-crafted (virtually crafted?) with AI upscaling. There's even high-fidelity, redesigned portal walls to get excited about. I suppose what I'm most excited about, though, is seeing a highly textured GLaDOS imbued potato at the end of my portal gun. That opening shot of Rapture in Bioshock is iconic, and the same creator of the Portal 2 RTX remaster, skurtyyskirts, along with watbulb, looks to give that same level of awe with this Bioshock RTX remaster. But it also wants to make a more stable-performing game on PCs overall. It's still in the early stages, and there isn't much to check out, but the duo aims to provide the same full real-time path tracing with a complete PBR asset overhaul by utilizing RTX Remix. So, instead of using an AI upscaler, the mod will use recreated assets to provide a more modern take on the game. So far, that includes the "grand halls of the Kashmir Restaurant to the smallest pieces of debris on the ocean floor." Impressively, the mod also makes performance improvements, unlocking the game's Havok physics engine, which has been locked at 15 FPS, and pushes it up to 90 FPS. Plus, as stated by the creators, the frame rates have been pushed further in areas of the demo, which reach up to 350 FPS on an RTX 5080 at 1080p resolution. If these RTX Remix-enhanced PC games break cover and see a full release on Steam, I'll be all over them. If you can, try them out and give them some attention, and hopefully, we'll see even more titles get the RTX Remix treatment. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
Monster Hunter Wilds players now have 8 fan-made weapon designs to vote on, and if the shattered mirror Great Sword doesn't win, what are we even doing here folks?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Capcom is giving Monster Hunter Wilds players the option to vote on fan-made designs for gear. The latest entry in the series has some great weapon designs of its own, but Capcom clearly isn't too fussed about accuracy as the fans have come up with some truly sick weapons – and I'm now bummed out we can't have all eight of the finalists. You can check them out on the Monster Hunter website. Among the top eight entries is a Hammer titled the "Singularity Divider," which features a black hole inside of it that expands as you charge your swing; this feels in-line with the Hammer buffs as of late. Then, the Khu'Azarax, Edge of Oblivion also sports the black hole motif, and with a name like that, you know it's a Long Sword – truly the most edgelord weapon. It's not all gloomy though, as there's an unnamed Charge Blade concept among the top eight entries that is frankly adorable – it's a scaled-up version of the Spiral Heart Moon Rod from Sailor Moon in Axe form, with the shield being a big heart. But I think the most inspired weapon design comes from the sole Insect Glaive, which features a lantern motif with a melted candle blade and replaces the Kinsect with a little bedsheet ghost that has its own candle. I'm in love with this design, but given it's for the Insect Glaive, I don't see it winning, sadly. Finally, there's my personal favourite design, for my personal favourite weapon: the Shatterseal Greatsword takes the form of a shattered, full-length mirror on a stick, and as the hunter charges it up, the shattered pieces form a full mirror. The concept design also features a unique hit animation that has the area surrounding the attack apply a shattered glass effect. It's by far the coolest design in there if you ask me, and one I'd love to see take the throne… but something tells me the Long Sword is winning no matter what. Capcom admits Monster Hunter Wilds sales are "soft" as PC issues persist, but really they've plummeted – barely beating 2021's Monster Hunter Rise and losing to 8 other old games including Devil May Cry 5.
