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December 2021 Archive

    1. Riot Games reaches $100m agreement for sexual harassment case
    1. GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year in Numbers 2021
    2. Tesla stops letting motorists play video games while driving
    3. Treyarch releases statement committing to "inclusive working enivronment"
    1. Kixeye Studios to acquire Rise of Firstborn
    2. Twitch viewership grew 45% year-over-year for 2021
    3. California court to block DFEH intervention on Activision settlement
    4. Chinese regulators reapprove Tencent app updates
    5. Ready or Not devs no longer working with publisher Team17
    6. Sea of Thieves sells 5m copies on Steam
    1. Bowser's Fury | Games of the Year
    2. Book of Travels developer lays off most of its staff
    3. Newzoo: Games market to reach $180.3 bn in 2021
    4. Skyrim. No, Rift Apart. No, wait... Skyrim | Games of the Year
    5. 2021: The Year of Living Ridiculously | This Year in Business
    6. EA and Activision Blizzard are biggest Christmas publishers
    7. The complete Game Changers 2021
    8. Bravely Default 2 sells one million units
    9. Rec Room raises $145m, valued at $3.5bn
    10. Embracer Group acquires Perfect World Entertainment, Digic
    11. UK's gaming disorder clinic has treated more than 300 people
    1. Sensor Tower: First-time $1m mobile games in 2021 will make up 43% of Google Play market
    2. Hot Wheels Unleashed sells one million copies worldwide
    3. Game Changers 2021: Part Ten
    4. Aerial Knight's Never Yield | Games of the Year 2021
    5. Games of the Year 2021 | Podcast
    6. Keywords acquires Waste Creative and Wicked Witch
    7. Embracer acquires Dark Horse, Shiver Entertainment and Spotfilm Networx
    8. Report: Departures at Ubisoft named "the great exodus" by staff
    1. The Game Awards 2021 sets record of 85m livestreams
    2. Age of Empires IV design director leaves Relic Entertainment
    3. Keywords Studios forecasts €505m in revenue for 2021
    4. In praise of short AAA games | Games of the Year
    5. Mana raises $7m in seed funding round
    6. Game Changers 2021: Part Nine
    7. Monumental acquires MMO Crowfall
    8. Nintendo Minute YouTube series to end after eight years
    9. Apple seeks dismissal of App Store antitrust case in India
    10. Is there anything we can do about the fanboys? | Opinion
    11. Hades is the first video game ever to win a Hugo Award
    1. FIFA 22 takes Christmas No.1, as Among Us beats GTA Trilogy | UK Boxed Charts
    1. Tencent buys Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock
    2. Roblox shows how digital services can hide exploitation | This Week in Business
    3. Activision Blizzard releases 2021 representation data
    4. Unionisation is set to be one of the biggest stories in 2022 | Opinion
    5. Stalker 2 developer backtracks on NFT plans following criticism
    6. Game Changers 2021: Part Eight
    1. Report: Wildlife Studios investigation reveals "culture of moral harassment"
    2. PUBG: New State reaches 45 million downloads
    3. Aniplex acquires Fate/Grand Order development team
    4. Sensor Tower: Eight different mobile games topped $1bn in spending this year
    5. Square Enix pulls Final Fantasy 14 from sale due to server issues
    6. Games of previous years | Games of the Year
    7. Vertigo Games' After The Fall earned $1.4m in 24 hours
    8. Five games studios receive share of £2.1m UK Global Screen Fund
    9. TinyBuild's complementary acquisition of Versus Evil
    10. Nexon to merge two subsidiary studios
    11. Game Changers 2021: Part Seven
    12. Myth of Empires developer sues Ark studio over stolen code allegations
    13. Games industry pioneer Ian Hetherington dies
    14. Bungie's head of HR steps down in wake of allegations against studio
    15. Minecraft videos hit 1 trillion views on YouTube
    16. CD Projekt settles investors lawsuit for $1.85m
    17. BAFTA names new head of games
    1. Embracer purchases Asmodee for €2.75bn
    2. Vodeo Games staff becomes first unionized game studio in North America
    3. Trends of the Year 2021 | Podcast
    4. Stalker 2 auctioning off rights to an NPC likeness as an NFT
    5. Edge Gaming raises $10 million
    6. Supercell to open new North American studio as it expands beyond mobile
    7. Game Changers 2021: Part Six
    8. Playtika opens new office in Switzerland
    9. Ubisoft staff “don't understand” company's new NFT scheme
    10. Unpacking | Games of the Year 2021
    11. Fragbite acquires hypercasual studio Lucky Kat for €7m
    12. Prime Matter to publish System Shock remake
    13. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Call of Duty dominate November 2021 | UK Monthly Charts
    1. Coffee Talk studio announces Toge Game Fund Initiative recipients
    2. Warframe and the secret of longevity
    3. Game Changers 2021: Part Five
    4. Unpacking sold 100,000 copies in ten days
    5. Spiritfarer surpasses one million copies sold
    6. Australian games industry revenue has doubled to $160.9m since 2016
    7. Tencent's Sumo acquisition continues following US national security investigation
    8. Virginie Haas departs from Ubisoft
    1. People Can Fly acquires Incuvo
    2. Roblox criticized for lack of safeguards for kids, stock-market-like collectibles
    3. November spending down 10% compared to 2020 | US monthly charts
    4. Telling the untold story of a generation in Windrush Tales
    5. Game Changers 2021: Part Four
    6. Google Play Games app coming to Windows in 2022
    7. Video games tax relief supported over £860m spent on development in 2019
    8. Report: Bungie has struggled with sexism, crunch, abusive leaders
    1. Making Games announces final issue
    2. Sony acquires Valkyrie Entertainment
    3. Activision Blizzard asks employees not to sign union cards
    4. PUBG: Battlegrounds going free-to-play
    5. Belka Games opens Lithuanian studio
    6. Ubisoft's NFTs are a new shade of beige | This Week in Business
    7. Game Changers 2021: Part Three
    8. Microsoft rebrands Xbox Game Pass for PC
    9. Telltale veterans form Dramatic Labs, working on Star Trek: Resurgence
    10. Studio led by former BioWare devs unveils debut game
    11. It Takes Two and Forza Horizon 5 triumph at The Game Awards
    12. Sony's VR ambitions go far beyond PlayStation | Opinion
    1. Riot purchases new Seattle office location
    2. India projected to generate $1.5bn in revenue by 2025
    3. Report: Activision Blizzard staff announce strike fund
    4. GameStop losses top $105 million despite sales bump
    5. Riot Games sues job scam ring
    6. BioWare plays the name game | 10 Years Ago This Month
    7. Kickstarter shifting to the blockchain
    8. Nintendo engineer Masayuki Uemura dies aged 78
    9. Unity's social impact division has awarded $4m in grants in the last year
    10. Myth of Empires removed from Steam following stolen source code allegations
    11. Game Changers 2021: Part Two
    12. BAFTA Breakthrough 2021 participants revealed
    13. CD Projekt enters settlement talks with investors in Cyberpunk 2077 lawsuit
    1. Lawyer for Blizzard employee calls for victim compensation fund over $100m
    2. Deadline for Apple to change anti-steering policy postponed
    3. App Annie: Spending on mobile games reached $90bn this year
    4. ISFE launches parental controls awareness campaign
    5. Game Changers 2021: Part One
    6. GamesIndustry.biz kicks off our 2021 Game Changers today
    7. Sensor Tower: Mobile games spending to reach just shy of $90bn in 2021
    8. Indie developer accuses weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov of stealing gun design
    9. What games companies need to know about the Age Appropriate Design Code
    10. Gary Bowser changes plea to guilty in Team Xecuter piracy case
    1. Tencent launches Level Infinite
    2. More Activision Blizzard staff join walkout
    3. Pokémon Unite surpasses 50 million downloads
    4. Ubisoft adding NFTs to Ghost Recon
    5. Limbo | Why I Love
    6. MyGames invests $2m into two new studios
    7. Over half of UK industry has "little to no understanding" of apprenticeships
    8. Xbox is the games publisher of 2021 | Opinion
    9. Game Workers Unite Australia relaunching as official union
    1. Nintendo loses case over eShop pre-order cancellations
    2. Ubisoft HR head: "People lost trust" in reporting process
    3. Raven Software staff to protest layoffs of QA workers
    4. Halo Infinite | Critical Consensus
    5. First Games Industry Africa Awards winners announced
    6. Blizzard Versailles employees continue to fight studio's closure
    7. "The next frontier for AR": Why Niantic is sharing its tech with Lightship
    8. Tiplay Series A funding values studio at $25m
    9. Geoff Keighley says Activision Blizzard 'will not be part' of The Game Awards
    10. FIFA returns to No.1 after Black Friday shake-up | UK boxed charts
    11. Lockwood responds to allegations of unlawful layoffs
    12. Activision lays off a third of QA team at Raven Software
    13. PlayStation VP fired after being caught by paedophilia sting operation
    14. Krafton leads $11m funding round in Tamatem Games
    1. IWGB union says Lockwood Publishing layoffs are illegal
    2. Report: Sony overhauling PlayStation Plus with new tiers and streaming
    3. Hazelight drops It Takes Two trademark after Take-Two takes interest
    4. Does the gaming press of old hold up today? | This Week in Business
    5. Ustwo's Alba charity initiative reaches 1m trees planted
    6. Oculus Quest to rebrand as Meta Quest in 2022
    7. 100 Thieves raises $60m in Series C funding round
    8. Shortages amid record sales: Consumers face a frustrating Christmas | Opinion
    9. Federal Trade Commission sues to block Nvidia's Arm takeover
    10. Resolution Games acquires Zero Index
    1. Battlefield revamp puts Vince Zampella in charge
    2. Valve says it will not allow exclusive titles for Steam Deck
    3. Simulation and accessibility neck-and-neck for racing studio Milestone
    4. Growing leaps and bounds: Polyarc on the trajectory of VR and Moss
    5. New SPAC outfit UTA Acquisition launches, led by Reggie Fils-Aimé
    6. Qualcomm unveils handheld dev kit powered by first dedicated gaming chip
    7. US politicians unveil new bill to clamp down on scalping
    8. Among Us and League of Legends: Wild Rift named in 2021 App Store Awards
    1. Wildlife to open new studio in Sweden
    2. Six state treasurers leaning on Activision Blizzard
    3. Respawn pulls Titanfall from sale
    4. World Makers secures $3m investment from Makers Fund
    5. Talewind raises $3.4m in funding round
    6. Sneaky Panda raises $6m in seed funding round
    7. Niantic acquires Lowkey
    8. How to pitch your hypercasual game to a publisher
    9. Cudo closes $250,000 pre-seed funding round
    10. Nintendo Switch had its best week ever in the UK over Black Friday
    11. Unity acquires SyncSketch