video games – Tech News

Sony closes Concord studio and permanently shuts down the game

Sony is closing Firewalk Studios, the studio behind its PlayStation Concord game that it took offline last month after a disastrous launch. In a message to PlayStation staff, Hermen Hulst, CEO of the PlayStation studio business group, says Firewalk Studios will close alongside Neon Koi, a mobile game studio. The shutdowns will affect about 210 jobs, Bloomberg reports. “We have spent considerable time these past few months exploring all our options,” says Hulst. “After much thought, we have determined the best path forward is to permanently sunset the game and close the studio. I want to thank all of Firewalk for their craftsmanship, creative spirit and dedication.”
https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/29/24282900/sony-shutting-down-concord-firewalk-studios

Flappy Bird’s creator disavows ‘official’ new version of the game

A decade after the wildly popular game Flappy Bird disappeared, an organization calling itself the Flappy Bird Foundation announced plans to “re-hatch the official Flappy Bird® game.” But this morning, the game’s creator, Dong Nguyen, posted a characteristically terse comment stating that he has nothing to do with the revival and that he “did not sell anything.” He added, “I also don’t support crypto.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/15/flappy-birds-creator-disavows-official-new-version-of-the-game/

Concord: Sony pulls shooter from sale two weeks after release

Sony has announced that it is pulling online shooter Concord from sale just two weeks after its launch. The multiplayer title was released exclusively for PlayStation 5 and PC on August 23rd, but has reportedly struggled to attract players.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y3zw5w7l3o

Uber Planning to Add Mini Games to iPhone App to Play During a Ride

image via macrumors.com

MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris discovered several references to the ability to load games in the latest version of the Uber app, released on Monday. One line of code says that the gaming feature will require an internet connection. It is unclear when Uber will make the mini games available to the public, and there is no guarantee that the feature will launch.
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/04/uber-planning-mini-games-in-iphone-app/

LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform

TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that LinkedIn is working on a new games experience. It will be doing so by tapping into the same wave of puzzle-mania that helped simple games like Wordle find viral success and millions of players. Three early efforts are games called “Queens”, “Inference” and “Crossclimb.”
https://techcrunch.com/2024/03/16/linkedin-wants-to-add-gaming-to-its-platform/

‘Palworld’ Is Tearing the Internet Apart

Palworld is a new video game where players can capture knockoff Pokémon and put them to work in a factory manufacturing AR-15s. It sold 5 million copies in 3 days. Die hard Pokémon fans are angry online because they see Palworld as a cheap asset flip and they believe, without evidence, that Pocketpair used AI to create it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3m5nw/palworld-pokemon-game-ai-controversy

Tetris: How a US teenager achieved the ‘impossible’ and what his feat tells us about human capabilities

In the dying days of 2023, US teenager Willis Gibson – online handle "Blue Scuti" – "beat" the Nintendo Entertainment System version of the video game Tetris, which was first released in 1989.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240103-tetris-how-a-us-teenager-achieved-the-impossible