6 years in, Warframe nears 50 million lifetime players The free-to-play game Warframe has nearly clocked 50 million registered players across PC, Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

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  Apple announces its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade Apple says the service aims to level the playing field between free and premium mobile games.

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1 GDC celebrates record-breaking attendance and locks in 2020 dates! After a record-breaking 29,000 attendees enjoyed GDC last week, organizers are excited to confirm the show will return March 16-20 of next year, with the call for submissions opening this summer!

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  PUBG Corp and NetEase settle Battlegrounds lawsuit PUBG Corp. first took NetEase to court back in April 2018, and accused the Chinese company of replicating "audio and visual elements" from Battlegrounds in two of its mobile games.

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  Sony is pulling digital PS4 games from sale at GameStop, other retailers Moving forward, PlayStation 4 owners will have to purchase their digital games from the PlayStation Store rather than retailers like GameStop.

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  Blog: How games software and hardware could top $200 billion by 2023 Digi-Capital's Games Report forecasts that games industry software/hardware combined could drive well over $200 billion revenue by 2023, despite some short-term concerns.

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  Knocking down design pillars was key to making Destiny 2's Gambit mode really shine "We realized that the answer to our problem had been hidden in the game all along and we just hadn’t played with it enough."

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  Dead Cells has passed 1 million sales, and Switch leads the way on consoles Acclaimed roguelike-metroidvania Dead Cells has surpassed 1 million sales, according to developer Motion Twin.

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  Report: Nintendo to release two new Switch models in 2019 Rumors of an updated Nintendo Switch are circulating again, but this time The Wall Street Journal claims Nintendo is working on not one, but two, new Switch consoles.

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  Blog: A design examination of Toejam and Earl Back in the Groove My thoughts on the new Toejam and Earl game and how well the design holds up, with design breakdown video.

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  Deep Dive: Flexiscope, the play-time aware dungeon generator in Book of Demons The basic idea behind 'Flexiscope' is very simple -- it lets players divide the game into sessions of any size to fit their playing schedule. Here's how we developed that idea in Book of Demons.

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  Video Game Deep Cuts: The Game Developers Conference Aftermath The weekly update rounding up the best longread & standout articles & videos about games tackles GDC 2019, from Google announcements to session highlights & beyond.

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  Game source code is a teaching tool, not a trade secret, argues VGHF founder “The industry sees source material as a trade secret,” Video Game History Foundation founder Frank Cifaldi said at GDC today. “We think it’s an educational tool."

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  Crash meetings, keep a lore bible, and other narrative design tips learned at King "If everyone is thinking about narrative design, no one will forget it," argues King's Tracey John during a talk about how to handle narrative design in tight projects.

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2 Labor organizers share insight and tips on unionizing the game industry “I don't think it’s much to ask, in an industry that’s three times the size of Hollywood, to get a meaningful return on the risk you’re taking and the opportunity you’re creating."

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22 Sweeney commits to human moderators & quality filters for Epic's Games Store "So we're not going to see asset flips," the Epic founder told Gamasutra at GDC this week. "And we're going to explicitly say no to porn games or other intentionally controversial games."

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  Microsoft unveils new indie game showcase called [email protected] Game Pass Microsoft has announced a new games showcase called [email protected] Game Pass hours after Sony lifted the lid on its fledgling PlayStation showcase, State of Play.

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  Retail veteran George Sherman has been named GameStop CEO Sherman brings a wealth of experience to the table, having most recently served as the CEO of Victra, the largest exclusive authorized retailer for Verizon Wireless products and services.

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  Sony's new State of Play series will bring PlayStation reveals all year round Sony has unveiled a new video series called State of Play that will keep fans in the loop with "updates and announcements from the world of PlayStation."

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  Devil May Cry 5 has sold 2 million copies in first two weeks Capcom's stylish action effort Devil May Cry 5 has sold 2 million copies in two weeks, according to game director Hideaki Itsuno.

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Sega removing actor from Western version of Judgment after drug scandal Sega will change the voice and character model for Kyohei Hamura in the western release of Judgment, after the character's actor Pierre Taki was arrested for illegal drug use.

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2 Boyfriend Dungeon dev examines why game fashion sucks, and what to do about it “I’m not here to talk about what good fashion is,” said Kitfox Games' Victoria Tran at GDC today. “I want to talk more about how we’ve ignored it as a serious mechanic."

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1 Overwatch saw 40% less disruptive behavior with the endorsement system Research developer at Blizzard Natasha Miller shared how the studio implemented social features into Overwatch to promote positive behavior among players.  

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Opinion: After Christchurch - What we owe our game communities Katherine Cross takes a look at the recent white supremacist terrorist attack in New Zealand, and unpacks what game developers must do to keep extremist views from taking hold in their games' communities.

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1 Valve is pushing new social features for Steam later this year Valve's Tom Giardino outlined a handful of new and upgraded features coming to Steam in the future during GDC 2019 this afternoon.

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