Last week, NetEase held a conference call with various financial analysts following its quarterly financial call where they announced their performance for the 4th quarter of 2018 and the year ending 2018. Only 1 analyst, Alex Poon from Morgan Stanley,…
ArenaNet – Guild Wars 2 studio confirms staff layoff and cancels secret project
According to various sources, Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet is preparing to layoff staff soon. This is due to parent company, Korean gaming giant NCsoft restructuring as well, which is affecting all subsidiaries. An unannounced game project…
Nintendo – America subsidiary taken over by Bowser as new president
Reggie Fils-Aime, the long-time president of Nintendo America, announced earlier today that he is retiring this April. The face of Nintendo in the western market at game events throughout the years, he will certainly be missed. It is time for…
Epic Seven – Smilegate becomes major shareholder of mobile RPG developer
Since launching worldwide, Epic Seven has enjoyed tremendous success such as breaking into the top 10 grossing charts on both Google Play and App Store. These countries include North America, Singapore, Taiwan, and more. Today, it was announced that publisher…
Com2uS – Mobile games giant acquires majority stake in story games studio
Korean mobile gaming giant Com2uS recently announced it has acquired a 51.9% majority stake in local developer Day7 in an effort to expand its business portfolio. Day7 has over 30 published mobile games, mostly targeting female audiences and casual gamers.…
Nexon – No new PC games planned for 2019 outside of South Korea
Yesterday, big Korean game companies such as NCsoft and Nexon announced their financial reports for the 4th quarter of 2018 and also for the year. In Nexon’s latest presentation slides to shareholders, it was revealed that there are no PC…
Activision Blizzard – Game giant confirms around 800 jobs are being cut
With rumors having started about a massive layoff started a few days back, today Activision Blizzard confirmed that it is cutting away around 8% of its global workforce, around 800 headcount. This news came despite Activision Blizzard announcing the financial…
NCsoft – Mobile gaming is key as sales occupy 66% of quarterly total
For the 4th quarter of 2018 (October to December), sales from NCsoft’s mobile games contributed a massive 66% of the company’s total sales. You might be surprised, given that NCsoft doesn’t really have that many mobile games with just 4…
Netmarble – Mobile gaming giant announces its bid to control Nexon
Following Kakao’s announcement, Netmarble has also revealed its takeover plans for rival Nexon. While both companies have had some bad blood in the past, it eventually all boils down to the numbers. Interestingly, Chinese internet giant Tencent, another potential bidder…
Digital Extremes – Warframe developer nabs Meitu as new China investor
Meitu is well-known overseas for its slew of selfie apps such as MakeupPlus (美图秀秀) with over 50 million downloads, while in the domestic market of China it also makes several smartphone models. Recently, Meitu announced it was looking into expand its…
Kakao – Korean internet giant looking at Nexon takeover possibilities
As you might have read previously, Nexon is in discussions internally about selling itself to the highest bidder. This is mostly due to the biggest shareholder possibly looking to cash out and leave the company. While China tech giants such…
Tencent – New regional gaming headquarters confirmed for Hainan Island
Just when you thought that Tencent is already a household games brand in its native China and has already covered the whole country, the mega internet giant announced it is going to build a new headquarters in Sanya to oversee…
League of Legends – New company formed to oversee and expand esports business in China
Yesterday, Tencent and Riot Games announced they have formed a new company in China to oversee all esports related operations and businesses for League of Legends in the country. Known as TJ Sports (腾竞体育) and registered on 4 Jan 2019,…
Blizzard Entertainment – Former president Mike Morhaime set to leave company April 2019
[Source] At BlizzCon 2018, former Blizzard Entertainment president and one of the company’s founders (known as Silicon & Synapse back then) Mike Morhaime announced he is stepping down from his role and will remain as a Strategic Advisor. This move was rumored…