Gaming
Mobile gaming is a behemoth in terms of annual revenue, and our gaming news coverage includes iOS, Android, mobile web and more, including companies like Netflix trying to get a foot in the door. We also report on the AAA gaming studios, which are increasingly a target for acquisitive giants like Microsoft and Sony.
A new games-focused VC in Turkey shows the industry there continues to gain steam
Turkey has gained a well-earned reputation as being a veritable cauldron of mobile games startups, leading to the rise of VCs dedicated to the sector. The latest to join this…
Activision investigating password-stealing malware targeting game players
Video game giant Activision is investigating a hacking campaign that’s targeting players with the goal of stealing their credentials, TechCrunch has learned. At this point, the hackers’ specific goals —…
Apple’s Vision Pro is here: These are some of the most exciting indie apps and games
With the Vision Pro finally available, many consumers are curious about Apple’s AR/VR headset and the apps that come with it. While some are from companies you recognize — Disney+,…
The Department of Justice and 17 state attorneys general filed a massive lawsuit against Apple on Thursday morning, accusing the company of monopolistic smartphone practices. Meanwhile, Fortnite maker Epic Games…
On Sunday, the world of video games was shaken by a hacking and cheating scandal. During a competitive esports tournament of Apex Legends, a free-to-play shooter video game played by…
On Sunday, two competitive esports players appeared to get hacked during a live-streamed game, prompting the organizers to postpone the tournament. Players were competing in the Apex Legends Global Series,…
LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned social platform, has made a name for itself primarily as a platform for people looking to network and pick up knowledge for professional purposes, and for recruitment…
Google DeepMind trains a video game-playing AI to be your co-op companion
AI models that play games go back decades, but they generally specialize in one game and always play to win. Google DeepMind researchers have a different goal with their latest…
Google Play will show AI-powered FAQs and recent YouTube videos for games
Google announced a number of new features for Google Play listings for games, including AI-powered FAQs, displaying the latest YouTube videos, new immersive ad formats and support for native PC…
Ready Player One creator debuts ‘Open,’ a metaverse battle royale experience
Earlier this year, Readyverse Studios — co-founded by blockchain tech company Futureverse and Ernest Cline, the mind behind the sci-fi franchise Ready Player One — announced “The Readyverse,” an interactive…
Sea’s Garena has yet to launch its popular mobile title Free Fire in India, more than six months after announcing plans to do so, a prolonged delay that has raised…
NYT Games debuts redesigned app to boost discovery and simplify navigation
The NYT Games app is debuting a new redesign to help users discover games and track their progress more easily. The redesign comes nearly a year after the New York…
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NFT fantasy sports startup Sorare lays off 13% of staff as web3 gaming continues to sputter
Web3-enabled fantasy sports platform Sorare laid off 22 employees based in its New York office in February. The move comes as the startup wants certain teams to be concentrated at the company’s Paris headquarters to improve communication and efficiency, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. “As we plan…
Sling TV now lets customers play free arcade games while watching live TV content
DISH-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today the launch of its new gaming platform called “Arcade,” featuring classic arcade games like Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Sweet Sugar, Solitaire Clash, Poker…
k-ID launches a solution that helps game developers comply with ever-changing child safety regulations
Making a video game successful is already hard. Doing so while complying with the growing number of child safety laws and regulations around the world is an almost insurmountable task.…
The much-teased and oft-leaked Nothing Phone (2a) is now officially official, just under a week after it made its limited debut at the company’s MWC after party. Nothing’s third phone…
Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney calls out Apple’s ‘bitter griping’ after its EU fine over anticompetitive practices
“Denial is a river that flows through Cupertino!,” said Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, a notorious Apple critic who also sued the tech giant for anticompetitive practices, in a post…
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HTC Vive became an enterprise product while you weren’t looking
A lot has changed at HTC in the decade since a small team broke off to form its mixed reality division. In fact, it’s a fundamentally different business in several meaningful ways. For one thing, you can’t call HTC a phone company any longer. Contrary to popular perception, the Taiwanese…
Sony is laying off around 900 employees in its PlayStation division, the company announced on Tuesday. The cuts will impact 8% of the division’s global workforce, as Sony becomes the…
Hardware is difficult, to paraphrase a famous adage. First-generation products from new startups are notoriously so, regardless of how much money and excitement you’ve managed to drum up. Given all…
Sony’s PS VR2 is getting compatibility, possibly by end of year
PlayStation VR often gets overlooked in conversations about mixed reality. These days, it seems all anyone wants to talk about is Apple Vision Pro versus Meta Quest. But Sony has…
As VCs slow gaming investments, Frost Giant turns to community for fresh capital
The company’s decision to test the waters for an equity crowdfunding round comes after it sold several million dollars worth of goodies to its fanbase on Kickstarter earlier this year.
Honor of Kings, Tencent’s massively popular mobile game, has its eye set on the international market in 2024. Starting on February 21, the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game will…
OpenAI’s new — and first! — video-generating model, Sora, can pull off some genuinely impressive cinematographic feats. But the model’s even more capable than OpenAI initially made it out to…
Before the world became fixated on artificial intelligence, thanks to generative AI’s advances, cryptocurrency was the darling of many investors. So when some venture capital firms started swiftly switching their…
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With Disney’s magic, Fortnite is poised to win the metaverse
We may not be using the M word much these days, but the race to build an interconnected avatar-driven virtual world didn’t take the last year off. The metaverse, a tech buzzword sandwiched in between the hype eras of NFTs and AI, is still being built, regardless of what we’re…
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Here are my favorite Vision Pro apps (so far)
Since Apple launched the Vision Pro last Friday, I’ve been hammering home the importance of immersive content. This isn’t a radical suggestion by any means. At this point we’re all keenly aware that hardware platforms live and die by content offerings. Remember all the way back, for a moment, to…
Disney takes a $1.5B stake in Epic Games to build an ‘entertainment universe’ with Fortnite
Lego Fortnite is only two months old, but Epic Games is already out with an even bigger collaboration. Epic and Disney announced today that the companies will partner on an…
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Immersive gaming and fitness apps are the key to Vision Pro’s consumer appeal
The foundational vocabulary of any new medium is inherited from that of its predecessor. Take, for instance, the early days of television, when so many shows were effectively radio programs caught on film. The new medium’s success is dependent on the development of its own vocabulary, distinguishing itself from earlier…
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Apple Vision Pro review: The infinite desktop
In 2000, Paradox Press published “Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form.” The book was Scott McCloud’s follow-up to his seminal 1993 work, “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art.” Where the earlier title explored the history and visual language of sequential art, the second volume finds the…
