Unity’s latest report highlights COVID-19’s impact on gaming

Game development platform Unity has released a report on how COVID-19 has impacted the industry.

The report is based on the world’s largest dataset on COVID-19’s impact on gaming and spans everything from the PC gaming landscape to mobile ad spend.

Ingrid Lestiyo, SVP and General Manager of Operate Solutions at Unity, said:

“In a year where online entertainment content - more than ever -  became the cornerstone of social connections for so many when...

24 February 2021 | Development Tools

Cloud gaming will ‘fundamentally disrupt’ distribution, monetisation, and consumption

A report from GlobalData highlights the big changes that cloud gaming will bring to the industry which requires consideration.

Cloud gaming is still a small industry – representing around one percent of gaming revenue in 2020 – but it is expected to grow quickly as technologies like 5G continue to rollout and/or improve.

Rupantar Guha, Associate Project Director at GlobalData, said:

“In ten years, traditional PC and console games will have been replaced...

23 February 2021 | Cloud

Game developers can have the accessibility of their titles checked by Xbox

Microsoft is launching a new initiative which enables game developers to send their PC and Xbox titles in to be analysed by accessibility experts.

“Where issues are found, they are noted with reproduction steps, screenshots, and other information to help the developer understand what aspect of a given experience may be challenging for certain gamers with disabilities,” explained Brannon Zahand, senior program manager of gaming accessibility at Xbox.

Xbox has been on...

18 February 2021 | Gaming

App Annie: Mobile app demand surging, gaming revenue set to surpass $120B

Research from App Annie reveals the extent of a surge in demand for mobile apps, driven predominately by gaming.

Mobile game revenue is expected to increase 20 percent this year to surpass $120 billion.

A year into a pandemic, it’s of little surprise to hear that consumption of any form of entertainment has increased—but such a year-on-year increase continues to be staggering given the existing size of the industry.

For comparison, global mobile game...

13 January 2021 | App Stores

Cross-platform graphics API Vulkan is now ‘ray-tracing ready’

The Khronos Group has announced that Vulkan’s SDK, tools, and drivers are now “ray-tracing ready” for developers.

Vulkan is an open-source and interoperable alternative to graphics APIs like DirectX, OpenGL, and Metal. Ray-tracing, meanwhile, is touted as the next big advancement in the visual fidelity of graphics, especially for games.

“4A Games was one of the earliest adopters of hardware-level ray-tracing by developing the first real-time raytraced global...

16 December 2020 | API

DirectX creator Engstrom dies aged 55, leaving behind a game-changing legacy

DirectX creator Eric Engstrom has sadly passed away at the age of 55, following a career which helped to shape the gaming industry as we know it.

Engstrom created the DirectX gaming APIs in 1994 – alongside Alex St. John and Craig Eisler – to simplify Windows game development and make it the stellar platform it remains today.

The APIs were originally developed for Windows 95. Game developers at the time were reporting they preferred MS-DOS for its low overhead and...

14 December 2020 | API

Report: The gaming industry has become one of the UK’s top employers

The UK’s gaming industry has mostly shrugged off a wider pandemic-induced slump to become one of the country’s top employers.

Global recruiter Robert Walters and data provider Vacancysoft have published a report called ‘Gaming: Perfect Play for Growth’ which highlights the continued strength of the UK’s video game industry.

The UK is home to some of the most iconic video game studios in the world including the likes of Rare, Codemasters, Rockstar North,...

11 November 2020 | Careers

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 | AI

Employment in the UK’s booming gaming sector is set to triple

The UK’s gaming sector is booming and bringing with it huge economic opportunities, according to an upcoming report.

Recruitment agency Robert Walters is set to release its report – Gaming: the perfect play for growth – next month, but has provided some early findings.

The UK’s gaming sector is currently valued at around £4 billion and ranges from innovative indie developers to renowned studios like Rare, Codemasters, Rockstar North, Criterion, and Creative...

30 September 2020 | Gaming

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