Sony is readying to shut down PlayStation Vita production in Japan The company has posted a warning on the Japanese website for the two remaining PlayStation Vita models that cautions "shipments are scheduled to end soon."

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  See how Ubisoft tested The Division with automated players at GDC 2019! The folks at Ubisoft know something about testing big open-world games, and at GDC 2019 next month they're presenting a cool talk all about improving game testing through automation.

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  Blog: Creating a sustainable PR program for your mobile game Here's a brief explainer on how to create a sustainable PR program around a mobile game's development, broken out in 3 phases.

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  Nitro Games begins layoff talks, could cut workforce in half Finnish mobile studio Nitro Games could lay off over half of its workforce in an attempt to reduce operating costs.

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  Revenue and profit up as Paradox experiences best year to date "Continuous updates and expansions give our games a long life, both in terms of number of players and recurring revenue."

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1 Blog: What is a meta-game? A question I hear pretty often is, "What is a meta-game?". There are two pretty similar but also quite distinct and different answers which we're going to talk about.

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1 Breaking down categories of action in strategy games Brandon "wayward" Casteel offers a theory of how players' actions operate in the context of strategy games.

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Designing new, exciting places to clean up gore in Viscera Cleanup Detail's new DLC The developers behind Viscera Cleanup Detail -- in which players clean up the gory remnants of violent sci-fi encounters -- talk about the design of the recent DLC, The Vulcan Affair.

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  Wizards of the Coast shares community-building tips at GDC 2019! Come to GDC 2019 and learn how to more effectively build communities for your games and market your brand on a variety of platforms, direct from the Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons people!

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  Road to the IGF: Zachtronics' Opus Magnum Opus Magnum has players creating machines for developing potions and poisons, tinkering with parts and mechanisms to refine perfect alchemical devices.

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  Blog: Pitching your game to prospective investors Rebekah Saltsman is the co-founder of indie developer-publisher Finii, and she's going to run through some pitching tips that might help you when meeting prospective investors.

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  Respawn has already banned over 16,000 cheaters from Apex Legends Community manager Jay Frechette broke the news on Reddit, and told players the studio is keen on the idea of a dedicated reporting tool.

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2 Razer Game Store shutting down after 10 months Razer didn't specify exactly why it has decided to turn its back on the storefront, simply explaining the decision is part of its wider "realignment plans."

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  Blog: How is our small video game blog managing on Patreon? If you were ever interested in the behind the scene numbers of a small gaming blog's Patreon, then I'm going to open up my wallet and show you everything that's in it.

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  Video Game Deep Cuts: A Romance Crackdown, Wu-Tang Style This week's highlights include a piece on Chinese romance games for women, new titles from Crackdown 3 through Metro Exodus to Anthem, and the weird history that led to the Wu-Tang fighting game.

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  Watch System Era's Brendan Wilson break down the making of Astroneer System Era co-founder Brendan Wilson dropped by the GDC Twitch channel to discuss the making of Astroneer.

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  Employees at Blizzard's France location unsure if their jobs are safe Due to French labor laws, an estimated 400 employees at Blizzard's Versailles, France location could be left waiting for months to see if they've lost their jobs or not. 

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1 Report: Tencent wants to distribute Apex Legends in China Tencent is reportedly in talks with Electronic Arts to bring Apex Legends to China.

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  Report: Early adopters of the Nintendo Switch weren't in target demographic Video game research outfit EEDAR published a report earlier this week showing the results from a survey among US players to determine genre trends of 2018. 

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  Get a job: Nintendo, Wizards of the Coast, and more are hiring now! Here are just some of the companies looking to fill positions in programming, marketing, and more on the Gamasutra Job Board.

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  Oxford study finds no link between violent video games and teen aggression The study looked at data surrounding British teens and notes that, unlike previous research into the potential link, the hypothesis, methods, and analysis technique were publicly registered ahead of the actual research.

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55 Don't Miss: Looking back at Metro: Last Light to explain how tricky 'immersion' can be Adrian Chmielarz (Bulletstorm) takes a tour through Metro: Last Light to expose a common way developers try to foster a sense of immersion -- and why they miss the mark.

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  Road to the IGF: Khan, Meekel, Flusk, and Meekel's after HOURS after HOURS has players sharing a tiny space with Lilith, a young woman suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder due to childhood molestation.

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13 US labor organization AFL-CIO urges game developers to unionize in open letter “This is a moment for change. It won't come from CEOs. It won't come from corporate boards. And, it won't come from any one person," says the AFL-CIO's Liz Shuler.

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  Peek under the hood of Ubisoft's AI assistant for players at GDC 2019 Ubisoft has designed its own AI-driven assistant specifically for video game players, and you can get a firsthand look at how it works when you come to GDC 2019 in San Francisco next month!

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