Freeplay, an independent game festival running in Australia since 2004, is "likely looking at its last year of operation for the foreseeable future" after failing to secure government funding.
Riot Games has entered a multi-year partnership as the official mental health partner of the League of Legends EMEA Championship, the Valorant Champions Tour, and Game Changers EMEA to "embed mental health wellbeing into the EMEA esports ecosystem."
The boss of peripheral specialist Razer, Min-Liang Tan, has said consumers do not want "generative AI slop" but do want tools that help studios make good games.
The developer of Palworld, Pocketpair, has said that the success of its pocket monster-themed hit has meant that it can give indie developers better publishing deals than they might otherwise receive.
Guy Ulmer leads platform partnerships at Plarium, which is part of the Modern Times Group. Plarium develops and publishes mobile, browser, and PC games such as Raid: Shadow Legends and Stormfall: Saga of Survival.
London-based law firm Harbottle & Lewis is hosting a new mentorship programme, the Indie Games Collective, designed to educate companies that are early in their careers.
Elder Scrolls Online developer Zenimax Online Studios has disputed that its recent pivot to smaller "season" expansions or chapters is related to Microsoft's layoffs and a smaller team.
Update: 15:40, 19/1: A Rockstar representative has confirmed that its Edinburgh studio is "open and operational" after the fire brigade was called to its offices this morning.
Adrian Chmielarz co-founded the Warsaw-based studio People Can Fly back in 2002, working on titles like Painkiller, Bulletstorm, and Gears of War: Judgment. Then in 2012 he co-founded The Astronauts, which went on to release The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in 2014.
Mark Darrah, a BioWare veteran who worked at the studio for 24 years, has defended the developer's decision to move into multiplayer games with Anthem.
PC giant Valve has amended its AI disclosure policy on Steam, now requiring developers to only say if they are using the technology in certain instances.
Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercat (AGCM), the Italian Competition Authority, has launched an investigation into Activision Blizzard over how the company has monetised both Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile.